Check if analytics.js is loaded

Question

I have to use a local analytics.js that I serve from my server. I just want to use the local version if necessary - so is there a solution for checking if the call for analy

Answer 1

A particularly elegant solution would be to use RequireJS and leverage its support for fallback paths. I do this on my site to load a stub version of analytics.js if loading GA fails because the visitor uses a privacy tool blocking the request:

http://veithen.github.io/2015/02/14/requirejs-google-analytics.html

Your use case is similar, except that you want to fallback to a complete local copy. You also probably don't want to change all calls to GA as described in that article. If that's the case then you could use a hybrid approach where you only use RequireJS to load analytics.js (Google's version or the local copy), without changing any other code.

Setting this up would involve the following steps:

• Add RequireJS to your site and configure it as follows:

  require.config({
      paths: {
          "ga": [
              "//www.google-analytics.com/analytics",
              "local-copy-of-analytics"
          ]
      }
  });
  

• Use the alternative version of the tracking code, but replace with the following JavaScript code:

  require(["ga"]);