Counting clicks to external links with rails - ruby-on-rails

I have Entry model with url field, which contains link to external site.
In view I list these links, and now I'd like to start counting when someone clicks it, and keep this info in database. What's the best way of doing it?

You can easily use google analytics to track outbound links: http://support.google.com/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1136920
If that is not an option you will need to add some javascript to your links make an ajax request to the server to increment the count before transferring the user to the new url. Something similar to this jquery code:
$('a').click(function(){
var stored_ulr = $(this).attr('href');
$.ajax({
url: #your server url to increment count,
data: #data you need to send,
success: function() { window.location = stored_url; },
});
return false;
});
The above code is just a general outline. You will have to fill in the blanks and make it work for your needs.

Related

Rails Frontend Trying to save autogenerated data to database without form

I'm new to ruby on rails. I'm trying to save data that is generated by itself to the database. i have looked into and found I was meant to use ajax, however all the videos/forums i have seen are example of ajax that use form and not refreshing page. i want to save data automatically without pressing submit.
Assume that the project is fresh project with postgresql as the database. I have created a database that can hold geo points by using postgis. i have created another page where it has map implemented where i can manully pin location. I want to save the manuuly pinned location to the database.
function onMapClick(e) {
alert("You clicked the map at " + e.latlng);
}
mymap.on('click', onMapClick);
var popup = L.popup();
function onMapClick(e) {
popup
.setLatLng(e.latlng)
.setContent("You clicked the map at " + e.latlng.toString())
.openOn(mymap);
}
mymap.on('click', onMapClick);
The e.latlng holds the geopoint, but i dont know how to save it the database if the user clicks anywhere on the map.
You don't need submit form to use ajax.
Basically what you want is add event listener to the map, and when user click then send ajax request to the controller.
For example, let's say that your map is inside div with id my-map.
If you use jQuery you can write something like this:
$('#my-map').on('click', function() {
# add your logic here
$.ajax({
url: 'your-url',
type: 'POST',
dataType: 'json',
contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
data: JSON.stringify({
'let': data you want to send to backend
})
}
Hope it works!
EDIT:
After I looked your code I found that you can not have jQuery in your project so you can not use jQuery ajax. You need use vanilla javascript. So instead this snippet above, you can write this.
var xhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
const params = { saving_location: { geoPoints: e.latlng } }
xhttp.onreadystatechange = function() {//Call a function when the state changes.
if(xhttp.readyState == 4 && xhttp.status == 200) {
alert(http.responseText);
}
}
xhttp.open("POST", "/saving_locations", true);
xhttp.setRequestHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json', 'Accept', 'application/json');
xhttp.send(JSON.stringify(params));
Also add protect_from_forgery with: :null_session in your application controller and skip_before_action :verify_authenticity_token in your Saving Location controller.(under before_action).
Here is good blog post why you need this https://blog.nvisium.com/understanding-protectfromforgery
Please notice that you wan't save your database, because your geoPoints type in database is type of point and you send string to rails controller. I never work with points in rails so I can not help you here.(You can always add two columns in db, one for longitude and one for latitude and then store numbers instead point)

Setting initial value for select2 with ajax data source

I use select2 for specifying recipients for the website's inner messaging system. There are users and they can send messages to each other. They can search other users by the user name.
I use the following config:
this.$select2.select2({
multiple: true,
ajax: {
url: "/userSearch",
dataType: "json",
},
templateResult: function(data) {
var user = new SomeComplexUserModel(data);
var $div = $(<div></div>");
$div.append("<img src='"+user.image.readPaths().crop+"'>");
$div.append("<span>"+user.fullName()+"</span>");
return $div;
},
templateSelection: ..the same as templateResult..
Now I want to set initial value for this. How to do that? I have the list of ids of the users that have to be selected on page load. I make the separate request to /userSearch and receive the data. Then I'm trying to push this data to the select2 somehow.
I can't create native var opt = new Option(text,value); select.append(opt) because this case templateSelection gets only id and text from the option, it can't construct the user model based on this data only. It does not show users with avatars.
I tried to trigger select2:select event with {originalEvent:null,data:$.extend(ajaxResult,{selected:true,disabled:false,element:null},_type:"select")}, but it seems it does not work this direction. It emits events but is not subscribed for them.
I also tried to set this.$select2.val(ajaxData); this.$select2.trigger('change'), after select2 initialization, but it does not work either.

Catch and pass hangout url to my rails app

I have a button to start a google hangout, everything works great, now I need to get the url using the
gapi.hangout.getHangoutUrl();
but I since this is a JS on my server, I know is possible to pass this to my app. But I don't know how (AJAX or anything else). I need this, because other user could join to this hangout.
Any suggestion with code would be appreciate
Within your hangout script....
Include jQuery - it's useful for X-browser support.
<script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
Get the Hangout URL:
var hoUrl = gapi.hangout.getHangoutUrl();
Get/Post the hangout URL to your server:
var uri = encodeURI(server + '?hoUrl=' + hoUrl);
$.ajax(uri,
{
async: true,
beforeSend: function(request) {
// Any beforesend code goes here, e.g. adding headers.
},
data: data,
error: function(jqhr, status, error){
// Error handling goes here.
},
type: verb,
success: callback
});
Handle the AJAX GET request and do your magic with the hoUrl parameter.
To clarify further:
A URL is formed before the AJAX get request to include a GET parameter, hoUrl, that has the hangout URL in it. Your server just needs to use whatever CGI/parameter parser to retrieve the 'hoUrl' parameter and then do whatever backend magic you want to do with it. Hope that helps to clarify.

jquery mobile 1.4 not updating content on page transition

From the index page, a user clicks a navigation link, the data attribute is passed via ajax, the data is retrieved from the server but the content is not being updated on the new page.
Been stuck for hours, really appreciate any help!
js
$('a.navLink').on('click', function() {
var cat = $(this).data("cat");
console.log(cat);
$.ajax({
url: 'scripts/categoryGet.php',
type: 'POST',
dataType: "json",
data: {'cat': cat},
success: function(data) {
var title = data[0][0],
description = data[0][1];
console.log(title);
$('#categoryTitle').html(title);
$('#categoryTitle').trigger("refresh");
$('#categoryDescription').html(description);
$('#categoryDescription').trigger("refresh");
}
});
});
Im getting the correct responses back on both console logs, so I know the works, but neither divs categoryTitle or categoryDescription are being updated. I've tried .trigger('refresh'), .trigger('updatelayout') but no luck!
This was not intended to be an answer (but I can't comment yet.. (weird SO rules)
You should specify in the question description that the above code IS working, that your problem occurs WHEN your playing back and forth on that page/code aka, using the JQM ajax navigation.
From what I understood in the above comment, you're probably "stacking" the ajax function every time you return to the page, thus getting weird results, if nothing at all.
Is your example code wrapped into something ? If not, (assuming you use JQM v1.4) you should consider wrapping it into $( 'body' ).on( 'pagecontainercreate', function( event, ui ) {... which I'm trying to figure out myself how to best play with..
Simple solution to prevent stacking the ajax definition would be to create/use a control var, here is a way to do so:
var navLinkCatchClick = {
loaded: false,
launchAjax: function(){
if ( !this.loaded ){
this.ajaxCall();
}
},
ajaxCall: function(){
// paste you example code here..
this.loaded = true;
}
}
navLinkCatchClick.launchAjax();

Combine 2 urls into 1

I would like to combine 2 urls into 1 clickable link. The first link is a link that sets a cookie and the second is a query.
1st link: http://www.homeaway.com/?CID=a_cj_7123410&utm_source=cj&utm_medium=affiliates&utm_content=7123410&utm_campaign=10938928
2nd: http://www.homeaway.com/search/keywords:boston
Thanks
Marc
You can't 'combine' the two URLs, but you can make a request to both of them using Javascript.
Unfortunately, because the URL is on another domain you can't simply make an AJAX request. However you can use a web service like Yahoo's YQL to do this for you.
This approach is explained here: (see accepted answer).
Cross-domain requests with JQuery using YQL
HTML:
Linky
Javascript:
// User clicks your link:
$('.my_link').click(function(){
// The link to fire silently before redirecting:
var first_url = "http://www.homeaway.com/?CID=a_cj_7123410&utm_source=cj&utm_medium=affiliates&utm_content=7123410&utm_campaign=10938928";
// YQL query:
var yql_url = "http://query.yahooapis.com/v1/public/yql?"+
"q=select%20*%20from%20html%20where%20url%3D%22"+
encodeURIComponent(first_url)+
"%22&format=xml'&callback=?";
// Fetch YQL URL before returning true:
return $.getJSON(yqlUrl2Use, function(data){
return true; // Goto the homeaway.com address.
});
});

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