What does heap analytics' script code do?

Question

So Heap Analytics tells me to paste this code in order to use their product -

<script type="text/javascript">
  window.heap=window.heap||[];heap.load=function(a){window._heapid=a;var b=document.createElement("script");b.type="text/javascript",b.async=!0,b.src=("https:"===document.location.protocol?"https:":"http:")+"//cdn.heapanalytics.com/js/heap.js";var c=document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];c.parentNode.insertBefore(b,c);var d=function(a){return function(){heap.push([a].concat(Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments,0)))}},e=["identify","track"];for(var f=0;f<e.length;f++)heap[e[f]]=d(e[f])};
  heap.load("YOUR_APP_ID");
</script>

What does this code do? (barring all the app id stuff).

I found something similar in the open source analytics.js

<script type="text/javascript">
window.analytics||(window.analytics=[]),window.analytics.methods=["identify","track","trackLink","trackForm","trackClick","trackSubmit","page","pageview","ab","alias","ready","group","on","once","off"],window.analytics.factory=function(t){return function(){var a=Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments);return a.unshift(t),window.analytics.push(a),window.analytics}};for(var i=0;i<window.analytics.methods.length;i++){var method=window.analytics.methods[i];window.analytics[method]=window.analytics.factory(method)}window.analytics.load=function(t){var a=document.createElement("script");a.type="text/javascript",a.async=!0,a.src=("https:"===document.location.protocol?"https://":"http://")+"d2dq2ahtl5zl1z.cloudfront.net/analytics.js/v1/"+t+"/analytics.min.js";var n=document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];n.parentNode.insertBefore(a,n)},window.analytics.SNIPPET_VERSION="2.0.8",
window.analytics.load("YOUR_WRITE_KEY");
window.analytics.page();
</script>

Is that doing something similar? (at a glance it looks like it)

A tool like http://jsbeautifier.org/ can help clear up some mysteries like this. — Scott Sauyet, Mar 27 '14 at 21:11

score 10 · Accepted Answer · edited May 12 '21 at 19:18

Here's the snippet as of May 2021:

window.heap = window.heap || [], heap.load = function (e, t) {
  window.heap.appid = e, window.heap.config = t = t || {};
  var r = document.createElement("script");
  r.type = "text/javascript", r.async = true, r.src = "https://cdn.heapanalytics.com/js/heap-" + e + ".js";
  var a = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];
  a.parentNode.insertBefore(r, a);
  for (var n = function (e) {
    return function () {
      heap.push([e].concat(Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments, 0)));
    };
  }, p = ["addEventProperties", "addUserProperties", "clearEventProperties", "identify", "resetIdentity", "removeEventProperty", "setEventProperties", "track", "unsetEventProperty"], o = 0; o < p.length; o++) heap[p[o]] = n(p[o]);
};

heap.load("YOUR_APP_ID");

First, it defines a global heap object.

Then it defines a heap.load method. heap.load first sets your app id e and options t to the window.heap object for future use.

Next, it creates a new script element to load the heap.js tracking script. heap.js sends event data to Heap.

After heap.js starts loading, heap.load stubs out the following methods so that they can be called before heap.js finishes loading:

heap.addEventProperties
heap.addUserProperties
heap.clearEventProperties
heap.identify
heap.resetIdentity
heap.removeEventProperty
heap.setEventProperties
heap.track
heap.unsetEventProperty

Lastly, the script calls the previously-defined heap.load with your app id. :)

You can read more on Heap's developer documentation.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 27 '14 at 20:57

1

It is printing an inline Javascript call to the page that references, loads, and initializes the off-site analytics tracking script from it with parameters specific to your website (like tracking options and ID).

answered Mar 27 '14 at 20:57

Ennui

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ahh ok - so is that what the second script is also doing? Or is that actually adding event handlers? – praks5432 Mar 27 '14 at 20:58
It looks to me like it's defining custom events to be tracked, or at least initializing them. It's worth noting that injecting script this way (rather than just referencing the external script in the usual fashion) allows it to be loaded asynchrononously and is protocol independent (so you don't have to worry about `http` vs `https`) – Ennui Mar 27 '14 at 21:01

What does heap analytics' script code do?

2 Answers2