Segment.io and mixpanel implementation config file for production and non-production environments?

Question

Any ideas on how to implement Mixpanel analytics through segment.io, that can track for all production and non-production environments.

Right now I have created 3 different projects (dev, staging and production) on both mixpanel & segment.io. And traking them. But when I'm changing dev code and pushing to staging and prouction, it overwrites analytics main code.

I am not using ruby....I'm using javascript. Any suggestions? Will a config file that substitutes token work?

Answer 1

Thanks. I did some research. I do have a simpler way of implementing this if someone is not familiar with config files or not having access to those files.

I can have a if condition that I can use when initializing segment i/o.

    var apikey;
    if (window.location.host === "dev.xyz.com") {
        apikey = <api_key>;
    } else if (window.location.host === "staging.xyz.com") {
        apikey = <api_key>;
    } else if (window.location.host === "prod.com") {
        apikey = <api_key>;
    } 

    analytics.load(apikey);

Replace with respective api_keys from segment I/o . This works well.

Answer 2

A config file that substitutes tokens is the perfect solution.

You'll want to do something like this in the javascript snippet:

analytics.load("<%= config.segmentio.apiKey %>");

Where config is your dev settings on your dev machine, and staging/prod settings on staging and prod.

Answer 3

I would suggest that as part of your build step, you bake in a configuration variable that identifies the environment which your code is running inside - e.g. ['Dev', 'Staging', 'Production'].

You would then do something similar to what @monical has suggested except without using URL's in the mix:

var token;

switch(environment) {
   case 'Staging':
      token = 'TOKEN_STAGE';
      break;
   case 'Production':
      token = 'TOKEN_PROD';
      break;
   default:
      token = 'TOKEN_DEV';
}

analytics.load(token);