Open discussion: adding telemetry to Babylon.js engine

[GameMonetize]

Hey team!

 

I would love to get all your feedback here:

https://github.com/BabylonJS/Babylon.js/issues/4999

[Pryme8]

shouldn't that be an extension?

Cause how much extra is that gonna add to the mimifed lib in file size, we are already at like 3mb's I think.  If its only few KB's more then sure, but I think it should be disabled by default on the constructor.

[Guest]

It will be 0 as it will only send call a xhr to a remote server.

 

If I turned it off by default then that will be no use as I need to measure the usage

[Guest]

On a parallel topic (For size related question), we also have the workloads that help reduce the size drastically: http://doc.babylonjs.com/how_to/workloads

[Pryme8]

Man you have thought of everything...

[Guest]

That's why I'm here

[Guest]

The code that I would to add looks like:

(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
})(window,document,'script','https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');

ga('create', 'UA-XXXXX-Y', 'auto');
ga('send', 'pageview');

[Pryme8]

I see this doing nothing but saving time in most situations, so my vote is a yes.

[DylanD]

would there be a way to turn this off, that way it doesn't impact production? As in, I don't want this on all of my client side stuff. 

@Pryme8 how would this save time?

[sharp]

Something like a heatmap for camera would be interesting !

tracker("heatmap", BABYLON.Engine.LastCreatedScene.activeCamera) 

 

[Pryme8]

49 minutes ago, DylanD said:

would there be a way to turn this off, that way it doesn't impact production? As in, I don't want this on all of my client side stuff. 

@Pryme8 how would this save time?

Cause you would just include your api key I think from what delta is saying, you would not have to place any of the code... which I mean its just copy an pasting and you still need to get your access key sooo maybe not really... It was early and I had not had coffee yet...

[Guest]

There is a way to turned it off obviously: https://github.com/BabylonJS/Babylon.js/commit/ca9d6a65b62761763cf9a11d3040766c63a440ac#diff-5cfd2dbd4cc0413d481b9de3eae1cd44R80

The goal for us is to get as much data (everything is anonymous obviously) as we can:

- This will help when users ask: "Is babylon.js popular?". So far we have no way to say: Yes it's being used by 10000000 websites already

- This will help to get a list of references (Most of the time users do not think about letting us know here about how they use Babylon.js and where). Look Sony or Microsoft use it, it is cool

So far we only measure success through NPM downloads but it is only a portion of our user base

So @DylanD: The best way to help Babylon.js would be to let the tracker on so we can get pretty big numbers

[DylanD]

16 minutes ago, Deltakosh said:

There is a way to turned it off obviously: https://github.com/BabylonJS/Babylon.js/commit/ca9d6a65b62761763cf9a11d3040766c63a440ac#diff-5cfd2dbd4cc0413d481b9de3eae1cd44R80

The goal for us is to get as much data (everything is anonymous obviously) as we can:

- This will help when users ask: "Is babylon.js popular?". So far we have no way to say: Yes it's being used by 10000000 websites already

- This will help to get a list of references (Most of the time users do not think about letting us know here about how they use Babylon.js and where). Look Sony or Microsoft use it, it is cool

So far we only measure success through NPM downloads but it is only a portion of our user base

So @DylanD: The best way to help Babylon.js would be to let the tracker on so we can get pretty big numbers

I don't know, it seems like a gateway drug to too much information... ? 

What other kind of data would you be collecting?  

Im very curious, but as long as I can disable it, then do it.  

Otherwise I would be against it.   

 

 

Also just because Sony and Microsoft does it, does not mean I would be more ok with it.  

Ps. I cannot wait to show everyone what I have been working on all summer.

[Guest]

It is Google analytics so we are not directly  collecting anything. It is more a delegation to Google:)

And anyway if the community is against the idea I'll remove it

[DylanD]

How would one go about turning it off if it becomes a thing?

Something like engine.turnOffAnalytics(true);

or would it be something else?

[sharp]

1 hour ago, Deltakosh said:

The goal for us is to get as much data (everything is anonymous obviously) as we can:

- This will help when users ask: "Is babylon.js popular?". So far we have no way to say: Yes it's being used by 10000000 websites already

- This will help to get a list of references (Most of the time users do not think about letting us know here about how they use Babylon.js and where). Look Sony or Microsoft use it, it is cool

Ohh ok a global tracker, not an API for BABYLON's developper ? 

+1 would be great to say look Sony, Microsoft, etc. use it !

[Guest]

@DylanD see the code here: https://github.com/BabylonJS/Babylon.js/commit/ca9d6a65b62761763cf9a11d3040766c63a440ac#diff-5cfd2dbd4cc0413d481b9de3eae1cd44R80

[Guest]

Once again this is just a discussion nothing is added to the engine

[babbleon]

How will the collected data be used?

What about GDPR in Europe?

I don't personally care about usage data being collected but customers may do.

[Guest]

I'm not an expert but you clearly found a good point here. GDPR is definitely a no go

 

At least the problem was quickly solved ! I'm gonna close the issue on the repo

This will leave me with my question unanswered: How can I know how many apps/websites use babylonjs?

[babbleon]

Perhaps have a form where people can add their domain and a checkbox indicating if that can be made public or not.

For what its worth, I use BJS - so you have at least one (very happy) user. ?

[V!nc3r]

Maybe a basic anonymous web request could be enough and GDPR-approved? Something like an update-checker which say in the console if BJS is up to date, and with that you can track websites folders which use BJS? Don't know .

Or outside Babylon itself, use the website, with why not a permanent survey?

[V!nc3r]

Or, as you're in Microsoft, ask for a custom Bing bot to detect:

src="*babylon.*.js

in all the Internet ?

[Guest]

haha this will miss ()% of the target unfortunately. The engine is almost always bundled into a minified vendor.js file

[The Leftover]

DeltaKosh,
1) Do you want to know how many websites use it?  Or users?  Or usages?
2) Have you used Google Analytics before and are you sure you want to put the answers in there?