To understand how people use GameVault better, we could track anonymous data both in the backend and on the frontend. This means we can collect information to see what parts of the software needs improving and which features users like the most.
The Microsoft Store gives us some basic numbers, but they're not very detailed.
We'll make sure users can choose to turn off this tracking if they want to.
Here are some examples of the information we could collect:
When and for how long people are using GameVault actively. (This could help us decide when to release updates.)
How many games users have, what types they are, and which platforms they're on. (This could help us make GameVault run better.)
Popular preferences like whether users use SQLITE or Postgres, or if they have Auto-Extract turned on. (This could help us make default settings easier to understand.)
Which parts of our user interface are used a lot and which ones aren't. (This could help us focus on adding new features, removing unused ones, and improving the ones that work well.)
Hardware Stats ( For example for Performance Optimization )
We currently use swetrix.com for website analytics. I believe we can also use their API to track data in these services.
[x] Implement Settings Toggle (Default On): "Send anonymous usage reports to Phalcode to help us improve your experience."
[ ] Toggle should disable any analytics
[x] Get IP Address of user on app startup: (string pubIp = new System.Net.WebClient().DownloadString("https://api.ipify.org");)
Heartbeat
[ ] The GameVault App sends a Heartbeat every 30 Seconds
Request:
POST https://analytics.platform.phalco.de/log/hb
{"pid":"N2kuL4i8qmOQ"}
Headers:
User-Agent: Gamevault/13.0.0 (like everywhere else)
X-Client-IP-Address: Ip Adress of the user.
[x] Fire and forget. Ignore response.
Log Page Views
[ ] The App should log a page-view event on every visual view it opens. (e.g. GameView, LibraryView, GameSettings)
Request:
POST https://analytics.platform.phalco.de/log
{
"pid":"N2kuL4i8qmOQ",
"tz": "Europe/Berlin", //Timezone of the user, as IANA Time Zone Database identifier like (Europe/Berlin) (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones)
"pg": "/library", //Imaginary page structure the User is on / is the root (e.g. /library, /game, /settings, /settings/data, /community/user-settings/, etc.)
"prev": "/library", // Previous page the user was on. When switching from /library to /game this is /library
"lc": "en-US", // Locale of the user (IETF language tag standard)
}
Headers:
User-Agent: Gamevault/13.0.0 (like everywhere else)
X-Client-IP-Address: Ip Adress of the user.
[ ] Fire and forget. Ignore response.
Log Button Clicks
[ ] The App should track all button click events by using a global eventlistener and some sort of id like automation ID
Request:
POST https://analytics.platform.phalco.de/log/custom
{
"pid":"N2kuL4i8qmOQ",
"ev": "click_Window.MainGrid.MainPanel.SubmitButton" // Visualtreepath of the button.
"tz": "Europe/Berlin", //Timezone of the user, as IANA Time Zone Database identifier like (Europe/Berlin) (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones)
"pg": "/library", //Imaginary page structure the User is on / is the root (e.g. /library, /game, /settings, /settings/data, /community/user-settings/, etc.)
"lc": "en-US", // Locale of the user (IETF language tag standard)
}
Headers:
User-Agent: Gamevault/13.0.0 (like everywhere else)
X-Client-IP-Address: Ip Adress of the user.
[ ] Fire and forget. Ignore response.
Log Custom Events
[ ] The App should track specific custom events with some metadata that are useful to our work. for example:
Request:
POST https://analytics.platform.phalco.de/log/custom
{
"pid":"N2kuL4i8qmOQ",
"ev": "game_download" // custom event name
"tz": "Europe/Berlin", //Timezone of the user, as IANA Time Zone Database identifier like (Europe/Berlin) (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones)
"pg": "/library", //Imaginary page structure the User is on / is the root (e.g. /library, /game, /settings, /settings/data, /community/user-settings/, etc.)
"lc": "en-US", // Locale of the user (IETF language tag standard)
"meta": {size: "21252521", game_type: "PORTABLE_WIN"} // js object with anything we need. ONLY STRING VALUES ALLOWED!
}
Headers:
User-Agent: Gamevault/13.0.0 (like everywhere else)
X-Client-IP-Address: Ip Adress of the user.
[ ] Fire and forget. Ignore response.
Events we need
Implemented
Event
Tracking Name
Metadata to track
No
Start App
APP_INITIALIZED
App Settings, Hardware Info.
No
Load Installed Games
INSTALLED_GAMES_LOADED
Count of Installed games, Row Count
No
Load Server Games
SERVER_GAMES_LOADED
Count of total server games
No
Filter Games
SEARCH_FILTERS_CHANGED
All Filters Used
No
Start Download
GAME_DOWNLOAD_STARTED
Game Size, Game Type
No
Abort Download
GAME_DOWNLOAD_ABORTED
Game Size, Game Type, Download Progress
No
Pause Download
GAME_DOWNLOAD_PAUSED
Game Size, Game Type, Download Progress
No
Resume Download
GAME_DOWNLOAD_RESUMED
Game Size, Game Type, Download Progress
No
Finish Download
GAME_DOWNLOAD_COMPLETED
Game Size, Game Type
No
Start Extraction
GAME_EXTRACTION_STARTED
Game Size, Game Type
No
Abort Extraction
GAME_EXTRACTION_ABORTED
Game Size, Game Type, Extraction Progress
No
Finish Extraction
GAME_EXTRACTION_COMPLETED
Game Size, Game Type
No
Start Installation
GAME_INSTALLATION_STARTED
Game Size, Game Type
No
Finish Installation
GAME_INSTALLATION_COMPLETED
Game Size, Game Type
No
Start Uninstallation
GAME_UNINSTALLATION_STARTED
Game Size, Game Type
No
Finish Uninstallation
GAME_UNINSTALLATION_COMPLETED
Game Size, Game Type
No
Set A Games Progress (for you or somebody else)
PROGRESS_CHANGED
State
No
Switch Community Profile
COMMUNITY_PROFILE_VIEWED
Opened Users Id
No
Change Community Sorting
COMMUNITY_SORTING_CHANGED
Sorting Option
No
Load Metadata Providers
METADATA_PROVIDERS_LOADED
List of used Providers and their priorities
No
Search Metadata Provider for Remap
METADATA_SEARCHED
Provider Slug
No
Map Metadata
METADATA_MAPPED
Provider Slug
No
Unmap Metadata
METADATA_UNMAPPED
Provider Slug
No
Change Provider Priority
METADATA_PRIORITY_CHANGED
Provider Slug, Priority
Track Errors
Swetrix also supports Error tracking!
[ ] Clarify together whether we replace or extend the current Phalcode Discord Webhook Error Handler
[ ] If Analytics Setting is enabled or Send Crashlog is on, send all unhandled client exceptions to:
Request:
POST https://analytics.platform.phalco.de/error
{
"pid": "N2kuL4i8qmOQ",
"lc": "en-US", // Locale of the user (IETF language tag standard)
"tz": "Europe/Berlin", //Timezone of the user, as IANA Time Zone Database identifier like (Europe/Berlin) (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones)
"filename": new System.Diagnostics.StackTrace(ex, true).GetFrame(0)?.GetFileName() ?? "unknown",
"lineno": new System.Diagnostics.StackTrace(ex, true).GetFrame(0)?.GetFileLineNumber() ?? 0,
"name": ex.GetType().Name,
"message": ex.Message
}
Headers:
User-Agent: Gamevault/13.0.0 (like everywhere else)
X-Client-IP-Address: Ip Adress of the user.
To understand how people use GameVault better, we could track anonymous data both in the backend and on the frontend. This means we can collect information to see what parts of the software needs improving and which features users like the most.
The Microsoft Store gives us some basic numbers, but they're not very detailed.
We'll make sure users can choose to turn off this tracking if they want to.
Here are some examples of the information we could collect:
We currently use swetrix.com for website analytics. I believe we can also use their API to track data in these services.
Backend: https://github.com/Swetrix/swetrix-node Client: https://docs.swetrix.com/events-api
To-Do:
Settings
string pubIp = new System.Net.WebClient().DownloadString("https://api.ipify.org");)Heartbeat
https://analytics.platform.phalco.de/log/hbLog Page Views
https://analytics.platform.phalco.de/logLog Button Clicks
https://analytics.platform.phalco.de/log/customLog Custom Events
https://analytics.platform.phalco.de/log/customEvents we need
Track Errors
Swetrix also supports Error tracking!
https://analytics.platform.phalco.de/error