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Aaron Collier edited this page Mar 10, 2026 · 5 revisions

Research questions

Tooltips

Research question

Which tooltips are being clicked and how often?

Event

The tooltip clicked event is recorded in tooltips_controller.js whenever the user clicks a tooltip.

Recording this event is enabled by the ahoy.tooltip setting.

Querying

Which tooltips have been clicked?

> Ahoy::Event.where_event("tooltip clicked").group_prop(:tooltip).count
=> {"Link for sharing"=>3}

How many visitors have been clicking tooltips?

> Ahoy::Event.where_event("tooltip clicked").joins(:visit).group('visit.visitor_token').count
=> {"aa3d213d-89e8-4186-ac30-7f323b6d396a"=>3}

Validation errors

Research question

What validation errors do users encounter?

Event

The invalid work submitted event is recorded in WorksController when validation fails.

Querying

What are the most common validation errors?

> Ahoy::Event.where_event('invalid work submitted').pluck(:properties).inject(Hash.new(0)) do |counter, properties|
   properties['errors'].each do |error|
     counter[error] +=1
   end
   counter
end.sort_by {|k,v| -v}
=>
[["Contributor last_name: must provide a last name", 2],
 ["Work content: must have at least one file", 1],
 ["Work work_type: blank", 1],
 ["Contributor first_name: must provide a first name", 1],
 ["Keyword text: blank", 1]]

Abandoned forms

Research question

How many forms for a new work are abandoned after a user has uploaded a file or interacted with the form?

Events (Regular Deposit)

  • The work form started event is recorded when a new work form is displayed for the user.
  • The work form completed event is recorded when the user has submitted a valid form for saving or depositing.
  • The form changed event is recorded when the user makes a change to the form.
  • The files uploaded event is recorded when the user uploads files.

Recording form changed and files uploaded is enabled by the ahoy.form_changes setting.

Querying

> started_forms = Ahoy::Event.where_event('work form started').map {|event| event.properties['form_id']}
> started_forms.count
=> 5

> changed_forms = Ahoy::Event.where_event('form changed').map {|event| event.properties['form_id']}.uniq
> changed_forms.count
=> 2

> forms_with_uploads = Ahoy::Event.where_event('files uploaded').map {|event| event.properties['form_id']}.uniq
> forms_with_uploads.count
=> 1

> completed_forms = Ahoy::Event.where_event('work form completed').map {|event| event.properties['form_id']}
> completed_forms.count
=> 1

# forms that have been started and changed / files uploaded but not completed
> abandoned_forms = (started_forms.to_set & (changed_forms + forms_with_uploads).to_set) - completed_forms
> abandoned_forms.count
=> 2

Events (Article/Easy Deposit)

  • The article form started event is recorded when a new article form is displayed for the user.
  • The article form completed event is recorded when the user has submitted a valid article form for saving or depositing.

Querying

> started_forms = Ahoy::Event.where_event('article form started').map {|event| event.properties['form_id']}
> started_forms.count
=> 5

> completed_forms = Ahoy::Event.where_event('article form completed').map {|event| event.properties['form_id']}
> completed_forms.count
=> 1

Time to complete work form

Research question

How long does it take a user to complete a new work form?

Events

  • The work form started event is recorded when a new work form is displayed for the user.
  • The work form completed event is recorded when the user has submitted a valid form for saving or depositing.

Querying

> completed_events = Ahoy::Event.where_event('work form completed')
> completion_durations = completed_events.map do |completed_event|
  started_event = Ahoy::Event.where_event('work form started', form_id: completed_event.properties['form_id']).first
  completed_event.time - started_event.time
end

# average completion time (seconds)
> completion_durations.sum.to_f / completion_durations.length
=> 92.01933633333334

# median
> completion_durations.sort[completion_durations.length / 2]
=> 77.909358

Help links

Research question

How often are help links clicked?

Events

The $click event is recorded when a help link is clicked. Links to be recorded are indicated by having a data-ahoy-track attribute. This is added automatically by the link_to_new_tab helper.

Querying

> Ahoy::Event.where_event('$click').group_prop(:href).count.sort_by {|key, value| -value }.to_h
=>
{"https://sdr.library.stanford.edu/documentation/license-options"=>3,
 "https://sdr.library.stanford.edu/documentation"=>2,
 "https://sdr.library.stanford.edu/documentation/purls-dois-and-orcid-ids"=>2,
 "https://sdr.library.stanford.edu/news/spring-pilot-new-self-deposit-application"=>1}

Shares

Research question

Are shares being used? Which types? By who?

Querying

> Share.count
 => 42

> Share.group(:permission).count
 => {"view" => 5, "edit" => 1, "deposit" => 36}

> Share.joins(work: [:collection]).joins(:user).pluck('work.title', 'collection.title', :email_address, :permission)
 =>
[["Testing file replacement and title", "Amy's Test Collection", "estanfor@stanford.edu", "view"],
 ["Making Sense of a Nonsensical World",
  "Stanford University, Department of Art & Art History",
  "kingl@stanford.edu",
  "deposit"],
 ["This is a test object for the demo video at the end of work cycle 3.",
  "Amy's Test Collection",
  "hfrost@stanford.edu",
  "deposit"],
  ...

Globus deposits

Research question

How is the globus service besing used?

Reporting

Creating a full CSV report is available as a rake task:

bundle exec rake reports:globus

Report output:

druid,version,sunetid,deposit_started,deposit_completed,size,file_count
druid:fp872dt2114,1,mjgiarlo,2026-02-09 23:50:28 UTC,2026-02-09 23:54:09 UTC,9071,1
druid:yj266dg8563,1,mjgiarlo,2026-02-10 00:56:22 UTC,2026-02-10 00:59:51 UTC,9071,1
druid:yd923xb0225,1,amcollie,2026-02-24 21:35:17 UTC 
druid:xs263tf2860,1,petucket,2026-03-03 17:40:18 UTC,2026-03-03 17:42:01 UTC,9071,1
druid:hk657bn9293,1,mjgiarlo,2026-03-04 18:51:06 UTC
druid:rx402yb3951,1,mjgiarlo,2026-03-04 19:15:29 UTC,2026-03-04 19:19:01 UTC,9071,1
druid:wk036ty9779,1,mjgiarlo,2026-03-04 19:45:56 UTC,2026-03-04 19:49:22 UTC,9071,1
druid:dn141fp9240,1,suntzu,2026-03-10 07:41:44 UTC,2026-03-10 07:45:35 UTC,9071,1
druid:vf289xz0528,1,suntzu,2026-03-10 08:27:23 UTC,2026-03-10 08:30:51 UTC,9071,1
druid:fy714zm2100,1,amcollie,2026-03-10 17:08:25 UTC,2026-03-10 17:12:03 UTC,9071,1

Querying

Use Globus to transfer files - clicked

Ahoy::Event.where_event('globus created')

Returns basic event data like:

 <Ahoy::Event:0x00007f344d60d5c8
  id: 52588,
  visit_id: 56243,
  user_id: nil,
  name: "globus created",
  properties: {"druid" => "druid:pn205cj4887", "sunetid" => "awan005", "version" => 2, "work_id" => 7487},
  time: "2026-02-24 03:00:19.642584000 +0000">

Globus transfer completed - clicked

Ahoy::Event.where_event('globus staged')

Returns basic event data like:

  <Ahoy::Event:0x00007f344d60d5c8
  id: 52588,
  visit_id: 56243,
  user_id: nil,
  name: "globus created",
  properties: {"druid" => "druid:pn205cj4887", "sunetid" => "awan005", "version" => 2, "work_id" => 7487, "file_count" => 8, "total_size" => 15616450580},
  time: "2026-02-24 03:00:19.642584000 +0000">

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