Talking Drupal #461 - Distributions

Today we are talking about The Benefits of Distributions, If they
have drawbacks, and what the future of distributions looks like
with guest Rajab Natshah and Mohammed Razem. We’ll also cover
Google Analytics Reports as our module of the week.


For show notes visit:
www.talkingDrupal.com/461
Topics

What is a distribution

How does this differ from profiles

What does Varbase provide

What types of users is Varbase geared towards

Paragraphs or Layout Builder

Vardoc

How do you overcome fear of lock-in

What do you think the future of distributions look like
considering recipes

Any plans to move Varbase to recipes

Starshot

Resources

Varbase Distribution

Vardoc

Google analytics counter

United nations refugee agency

George washington university

City of Detroit

Bootstrap Layout Builder

Bootstrap Styles

Visual Distribution Operator

Profile inheritance issue

Starshot work tracks

Linux from Scratch

Guests

Rajab Natshah - rajab-natshah
Mohammed Razem - mohammed-j-razem
Hosts

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi
Josh Miller - joshmiller
MOTW Correspondent

Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu


Brief description:

Have you ever wanted to display Google Analytics charts
directly within your Drupal website? There’s a module for
that.



Module name/project name:

Google Analytics Reports



Brief history

Created in Apr 2011 by raspberryman, but recent releases
are by today’s guest Rajab Natshah

Versions available include 7.x-3.2, 8.x-3.2, and 4.0.0,
that last two of which support Drupal 10 and 11



Maintainership

Actively maintained, recent releases were less than a
month ago

Security coverage

A documentation guide for older versions, and a README
with detailed instructions to get it set up

Number of open issues: 76 open issues, 9 of which are
bugs against the current branch



Usage stats:

4,272 sites



Module features and usage

To set up this module, you first need to set up the API
connection in the Google Developers Console, and download the
client secret JSON

You’ll then upload that into the Google Analytics Report
API submodule along with the property ID to enable the
connection

Next, you need to install the Charts module, and either
the Google Charts or Highcharts sub-module to see graphical
reports

You will now have a new Google Analytics Summary in your
site’s reports menu, and new "Google Analytics Reports
Summary Block" and "Google Analytics Reports Page Block"
blocks available

I haven’t had a chance to try the 4.0 version of this
module yet, but I have used older versions with a variety of
dashboard solutions, including Moderation Dashboard and
Homebox

One of the many benefits of using a powerful, open source
framework like Drupal to build your site is its ability to
act as the “glass” for a variety of other systems, and this
module is a perfect demonstration of that