Working With External Services

Any web-based service that you can include using an bit of HTML or JavaScript code is easy to add to your site.

You can include such code directly in a content pod, or in a template, but it is usually best to store it in a snippet. Then you can easily refer to it by name, and the code that deals with a specific service is isolated in one place, where you can easily maintain it.

Google Analytics

Your Webvanta site comes with a standard snippet for Google Analytics, as follows:

<script type="text/javascript">
   var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
   document.write("\<script src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'>\<\/script>");
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
   pageTracker._initData();
</script>

This code comes directly from Goggle’s directions for using analytics with any site, with the sole exception of the <w.data > tag that is used to isolate the account ID and make it separately editable.

Using configuration settings for account identifiers

The Google account ID is retrieved by the code:

<w:data name='google_analytics_tracker_id' />

This makes it easy to change the account ID, accessing it via the Settings > Global Settings control panel, while protecting the JavaScript code from accidental changes.

Other Services

We’ll be adding examples of how to integrate other services soon. You should be able to use nearly the same technique as for integrating these services in any web site.

If you have questions about a particular service, please send us a message.