MODX EXTRA
Big Brother
Google Analytics dashboard
Creator: Stephane
Boulard (lossendae)
Updated By: markh
Screenshots
About Big Brother
A Google Analytics dashboard for MODX, brought to you by modmore. Originally developed in 2011 by Stephane Boulard (lossendae), rebuild completely in 2021 for Google Analytics 4
Big Brother v2 and v3 only support Google Analytics 4. To use Big Brother with Google Analytics 3 ("Universal Analytics"), you need to install Big Brother v1.5 instead.
Learn about the difference between Google Analytics v3 ("Universal Analytics") and v4.
Version summary:
- v1.5 uses Universal Analytics. It is deprecated, and end-of-life on July 1st, 2023, when Universal Analytics shuts down. It will no longer be possible to authenticate new sites after February 1st, 2023.
- v2.x is an upgrade with support for Google Analytics 4. It is deprecated, and will be end-of-life on February 1st, 2023.
- v3.x is an upgrade to v2.x, supporting Google Analytics 4. It includes a new authentication flow that's necessary due to Google deprecating the previously used authentication scheme.
Big Brother gives you a quick overview of the most important metrics from Google Analytics, directly on the MODX dashboard.
The following data is provided:
- Line-chart showing your daily visitors in the last 4 weeks, compared against the previous period
- Number of sessions, page views, unique visitors, average engagement rate, and average time on site over the past 4 weeks
- Acquisition sources
- Most popular pages by page views
- Top countries by unique users
- Top referring domains
Authorization with your Google account is easy and secure; just follow the steps when prompted to authorize. The information to access information for an authorized profile never leaves your site. It's also possible to configure custom credentials.
Have issues authenticating your Google Analytics account on a site that used v1.3.2 or earlier, or 2.1.0 or earlier versions? Remove the bigbrother.native_app_client_id and `bigbrother.native_app_client_secret` system settings from your site, and reinstall Big Brother.
Information
Instructions
Installation
- Download & install via the MODX Package Manager. Note that if you want to use v1.5, you need to use the modmore package provider.
- In System > Dashboards, add the Google Analytics dashboard widget to a dashboard. As MODX 2 overwrites the default dashboards on upgrade, use a custom dashboard and in System > Access Control Lists > edit user group select the appropriate dashboard widget.
- Navigate to the dashboard
- Follow the instructions to authorize access to your Google Analytics account.
The source code and issue tracker for bugs and feature requests can be found on GitHub
New in Big Brother 3.0.0-rc1
Big Brother v3 is an upgrade to v2 with a new authentication flow. Learn more about this release
Big Brother v2 is a complete rewrite for use with Google Analytics v4. If your property uses Google Analytics v3 ("Universal Analytics"), downgrade to v1.5 instead.
Big Brother 3.0.0-rc1
Released on 2022-08-27
In light of Google's deprecation of Out-Of-Band (OOB) authorizations, we've implemented a proxy to keep authorizations smooth and quick. Existing authorizations will remain valid after this update.
IMPORTANT: Custom OAuth credentials are no longer supported for new authorizations!
Other changes:
- Remove some more legacy settings on update (account, account_name, total_account)