AI, LLM, agent, bot analytics with Express.js and PlainSignal

Features

Express.js <> PlainSignal analytics integration

• Step#1: Get your DomainID and DomainApiKey from PlainSignal

  If you already added your website to PlainSignal for tracking, then follow the sub-steps below (Learn how to create your first website analytics in PlainSignal if you haven't done before):

  • Go to https://app.plainsignal.com/s/<your domain>/settings
  • In the Configuration panel you will see your DomainID
  • In the same Configuration panel, to get your DomainApiKey visible click on the ***** link

  At the end of this step you should have 2 values:

  • DomainID
  • DomainApiKey

• Step#2: Add tracker to Express.js App

  In your app.js, add the tracker as middleware:

  const express = require('express')
  const app = express()
  
  // Bot regex patterns
  const plainSignalBotPatterns = /(GPTBot|ChatGPT-User|OAI-SearchBot|Amazonbot|Applebot-Extended|Applebot|archive\.org_bot|adidxbot|MicrosoftPreview|bingbot|Bytespider|ClaudeBot|Claude-User|Claude-SearchBot|DuckAssistBot|DuckDuckBot|Googlebot-Image|Googlebot-Video|Googlebot-News|Googlebot|Storebot-Google|Google-InspectionTool|GoogleOther-Image|GoogleOther-Video|GoogleOther|GoogleCloud-VertexBot|Google-Extended|APIs-Google|AdsBot-Google-Mobile|AdsBot-Google|Mediapartners-Google|Google-Safety|FeedFetcher-Google|GoogleProducer|Google-Read-Aloud|Google-Site-Verification|facebookexternalhit|facebookcatalog|meta-externalagent|meta-externalfetcher|MistralAI-User|PerplexityBot|Perplexity-User|PetalBot|ProRateInc|Timpibot|YandexBot|CCBot|LinkedInBot|Yahoo!\sSlurp)/i;
  
  // PlainSignal domain configuration
  // Replace {YourDomainID} and {YourDomainApiKey} with your actual values from the first step
  const domainID = '{YourDomainID}';
  const domainApiKey = '{YourDomainApiKey}';
  const plainSignalAPIEndpoint = 'http://eu.plainsignal.com/s/' + domainID + '/19';
  
  /**
   * Express.js middleware to track bot traffic using PlainSignal.
   * @param {object} req - The Express request object.
   * @param {object} res - The Express response object.
   * @param {function} next - The next middleware function in the stack.
   */
  const trackBotTraffic = function (req, res, next) {
    const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
  
    if (plainSignalBotPatterns.test(userAgent)) {
      const referrer = req.headers['referer']; // No typo here, 'referer' is correct for HTTP header
      let rd = '';
      let rp = '';
  
      try {
        if (referrer) {
          const refUrl = new URL(referrer);
          rd = refUrl.hostname;
          rp = refUrl.pathname;
        }
      } catch (error) {
        console.error('Error parsing referrer URL:', error);
        // Continue without referrer data if parsing fails
      }
  
      const payload = {
        b: {
          d: {
            a: userAgent
          },
          l: {},
          s: {
            us: req.query.utm_source || req.query.source,
            um: req.query.utm_medium,
            uc: req.query.utm_campaign,
            ut: req.query.utm_term,
            uo: req.query.utm_content,
            ur: req.query.ref,
            rd: rd,
            rp: rp
          },
          p: {
            p: req.path, // Use req.path for the current URL pathname
          },
          ci: (req.ip || req.headers['x-forwarded-for'] || '') + userAgent + (req.headers['sec-ch-ua'] || '')
        }
      };
  
      fetch(plainSignalAPIEndpoint, {
        method: 'POST',
        headers: {
          'Content-Type': 'application/json',
          'x-api-key': domainApiKey
        },
        body: JSON.stringify(payload),
      }).catch(error => {
        console.error('Error calling PlainSignal tracker:', error);
      });
    }
  
    // Pass control to the next middleware
    next();
  }
  
  app.use(trackBotTraffic)

  Ref: https://expressjs.com/en/guide/using-middleware.html#using-middleware

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