1083161 - GA authentication events don't record what we expect

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(developer.mozilla.org Graveyard :: Sign-in, defect)

Description

[Luke Crouch [:groovecoder]]

After https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1052453#c2, :jezdez pointed out that we see 90 GitHub accounts on the back-end, while we only see 55 "Finished sign-in github" in GA.

Possible cause: when users *connect* a GitHub account, they don't see the "Sign Up" page - where the "Finished sign-in github" event fires.

So, these "Finished sign-in github" events might only count the github *registrations*.

Comment 1

[Luke Crouch [:groovecoder]]

:openjck - I added this to our board for this week as our only GitHub follow-up task so far. I'll start digging into it but might ask you for review.

Comment 2

[John Karahalis [:openjck]]

It should be counting the "probable cause" scenario. I will admit, though, that the way we trigger login events is bit of a hack. We're approximating back-end status with some clever JavaScript. Calling a JavaScript function directly based on back-end state would be more reliable, but it comes with the downside of putting JavaScript directly into our templates.

I'll take a look.

Comment 3

[Luke Crouch [:groovecoder]]

Now that we're on Universal Analytics, we could use Measurement Protocol to send GA events directly from backend python code:

https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/protocol/v1/devguide#event

Comment 4

[Jannis Leidel [:jezdez]]

I think we should store the information that we are trying to figure out on JS level currently in a proper way, basically putting the info for GA needed into the session and use it on the next page render (which may be any page given the ability to use the next page GET param).

Comment 5

[John Karahalis [:openjck]]

Did some digging.


Case 1
------
Description: A person signs in with service X.
Result:      We record that the person signed in with service X.


Case 2
------
Description: A person starts signing in with GitHub, notices the message that they already
             have a Persona account with the same email address, and then decides to associate
             that Persona account, completing the login process.
Result:      We record that the person signed in with GitHub.


Case 3
------
Description: A person logs in with Persona, visits their profile page, and from the profile
             page adds GitHub as a login option.
Result:      We do not record a login.


I feel that these results are correct. The Google Analytics action is called "Finished sign-in". A person isn't signing in with Persona when they associate a Persona account (Case 2) and isn't signing in with GitHub when they add it as a login option (Case 3). We correctly track when people sign in to Kuma with the services.

That's not to say we necessarily shouldn't track account associations (Case 2) and login option additions (Case 3), but I don't think it makes sense to call those finished sign-ins.

Comment 6

[Luke Crouch [:groovecoder]]

Thanks for the info, :openjck. With that understanding, I'm happy to call this RESOLVED:WORKSFORME.