Chartbeat

Configuration Variables

Configuration variables are set on the _sf_async_config object, and should be set between the CONFIGURATION START and CONFIGURATION END comments in the code.

path

Many sites use query parameters for various tracking purposes, such as seeing if people came from an email newsletter. To override the path that is reported to Chartbeat, one can set the path variable. This could be used in the case where query parameters are used for other tracking purposes, so the same article could be accessed using any of these URLs:

  • http://domain.com/some/path
  • http://domain.com/some/path?_xrf=google.com
  • http://domain.com/some/path?_xrf=yahoo.com

Chartbeat uses the raw path, if not specified otherwise. This means that the same article will show up as three different "pages" in the Chartbeat dashboard. To "merge" these into one page in Chartbeat, one can use the path variable and set: 

        _sf_async_config.path = "/some/path";

The path must start with "/" (forward slash). It is also highly recommended that you use a real path that can be used to browse to this page; some parts of Chartbeat's systems depend on it. The easiest way to get it right is to just use the useCanonical variable instead of setting the path explicitly.

The value should naturally be generated by your CMS, so the same piece of code can be used in all page templates generically, or one could set it to window.location.pathname if applicable.

Note: We highly recommend spending some time making sure the paths are cleaned, as it increase the usefulness of Chartbeat a great deal.

title

The title used for a page in Chartbeat can be overriden by setting the title variable. For example, this is useful in the case where all documents have a common prefix, like Springfield News: Krusty is back. Here one can set the title like this: 

        _sf_async_config.title = "Krusty is back";

domain

This is the domain (without www.) that Chartbeat is installed on.

For handling subdomains, please see Troubleshooting.

uid

This is your user id, and should never be changed.

Please login to see your user id.

useCanonical

If your site defines <link rel='canonical' .../>, you can set this value to true to make Chartbeat use the canonical path instead of the actual URL: 

_sf_async_config.useCanonical = true;

This is a good way to ensure consistent and clean URLs across tracking tools. See also the path variable. Google have a good introduction to canonical links here.

Note: Off-site canonical links, i.e. links pointing to other domains than the page is on, is not supported at the moment.

sections and authors — (For Chartbeat Publishing only)

For Chartbeat Publishing only, you can filter your content by which section it is in, or who is the author. To be able to do this the sections and authors variables need to be set properly.
So if a page is written by Bob Johnson in the section US Politics, you would set: 

_sf_async_config.sections = "US Politics";
_sf_async_config.authors = "Bob Johnson";

A page can both be in multiple sections and/or have multiple authors, so each variable takes a comma separated list of values. So if a page is co-written by Megan Summers and Kevin Smith in the sections Fashion and Fashion News: 

_sf_async_config.sections = "Fashion,Fashion News";
_sf_async_config.authors = "Megan Summers,Kevin Smith";

The sections variable does not need to reflect real sections on the site, but should be thought of as groupings of pages that can be filtered on.

noCookies

Customers who are subject to the EU e-Privacy Directive can set this variable to prevent Chartbeat from using cookies. 

_sf_async_config.noCookies = true;

Note: By using Chartbeat without cookies, you will be unable to see if a user is new or returning.