Open smalers opened 1 year ago
I enabled the code. Monitor during development. Close this issue.
I did not think this one all the way through. A simple GET
is not enough because the Javascript in the HTML file needs to be run in the client software. I don't see a way to do that in Java but maybe there is a GA4 API that could be used. I'll have to spend more time on this technical issue later but the privacy concerns probably need to be addressed more explicitly (what if someone in Europe downloaded the software?).
I did post an article on Stack Overflow and got a long response pointing out things about privacy. I understand the points made and tried to explain valid reasons for tracking in a comment.
I have commented out the tracking for now until more time can be spent on it. The reasons for tracking TSTool use are:
Perhaps what should be done is to get some "Terms of Use" language on the CDSS/OpenCDSS websites or maybe for specific applications to explain how software are used. This goes beyond the software license. If tracking were done, the terms of use could say something like "Data are collected to tracking usage in order to help software developers plan for updates and to help justify government funding of the software. No personal information is collected."
Google Analytics 4 is used to track documentation page views. It can also be used to track TSTool usage by doing a GET on a OpenCDSS page. Implement this to evaluate tracking usage.