altimac

Hi, Daan. Just checking on those two things for which I can’t seem to find an answer, one being whether I should be using my PA CE host’s domain in the “Settings > Community Edition > Plausible Community Edition > Domain Name” field, or the client’s domain if I am proxying the stats via a Cloudflare worker, and the second being, if using the Plausible WordPress plugin adds any features for Plausible CE that are not available vis the code snippet.

Well, what I’m asking is, does the WordPress plugin add additional options beyond what the code snippet method of installation does? Or to put it another way, is the ONLY difference between simply adding the code snippet to the site header vs. using the WordPress plugin simply that it’s more convenient? I’d rather make it simple and use the code snippet, but I don’t want to miss out on any additional features that the plugin adds.

OK, apologies for the length of this message, but as far as I can tell, I have configured the proxy script according to the Plausible CE docs. These are the routes I set up at Cloudways:

workers.dev. bbh-socrates-proxy.altim.workers.dev
Preview URLs -bbh-socrates-proxy.altim.workers.dev
Route bbhistory.org/js/
Route bbhistory.org/api/*
Route .bbhistory.org/js/
Route .bbhistory.org/api/

and this is the worker script:

/*
 * Plausible Analytics Proxy - Cloudflare Worker
 * 
 * This worker proxies Plausible Analytics requests through the client's domain
 * to bypass ad blockers and maintain first-party analytics.
 * 
 * Setup Instructions:
 * 1. Update the PLAUSIBLE_HOST constant below with your Plausible server
 * 2. Optionally customize SCRIPT_PATH and API_PATH for extra ad-blocker evasion
 * 3. Deploy this worker to the client's Cloudflare account
 * 4. Add a route: clientdomain.com/js/* and clientdomain.com/api/*
 *    (or use your custom paths if you changed them)
 */

// ============================================
// CONFIGURATION - UPDATE THESE FOR EACH CLIENT
// ============================================

// Your Plausible Analytics server hostname
const PLAUSIBLE_HOST = 'socrates.altimac.com';

// Optional: Customize these paths for extra ad-blocker evasion
// Standard paths work fine, but you can use alternatives like:
// '/assets/analytics.js' or '/static/tracker.js' instead of '/js/script.js'
// '/track' or '/collect' instead of '/api/event'
const SCRIPT_PATH = '/js/script.js';
const API_PATH = '/api/event';

// Optional: Add any additional script extensions you use
// e.g., 'script.outbound-links.js', 'script.hash.js', etc.
const ADDITIONAL_SCRIPTS = [
  '/js/script.outbound-links.js',
  '/js/script.hash.js',
  '/js/script.file-downloads.js',
  '/js/script.tagged-events.js',
  '/js/script.pageview-props.js',
  // Add more as needed
];

// ============================================
// WORKER CODE - NO NEED TO MODIFY BELOW
// ============================================

addEventListener('fetch', event => {
  event.respondWith(handleRequest(event.request))
})

async function handleRequest(request) {
  const url = new URL(request.url);
  const path = url.pathname;

  // This part needs to work with the header code added by the Plausible WordPress plugin
  // Which means our JavaScript is named "plausible.outbound-links.file-downloads.pageview-props.js"
  // instead of just "script.js." So our path statements need to include not only the default
  // path.startsWith('/js/script')
  // but also
  // path.startsWith('/js/plausible')
  // And lastly, to allow for embedding the analytics in the WordPress admin dashboard, we add
  // path.startsWith('/js/embed')
 if ((path.startsWith('/js/script') || path.startsWith('/js/plausible') || path.startsWith('/js/embed')) && path.endsWith('.js')) {
  return proxyScript(request, path);
}

  // Check if this is a request for additional scripts
  if (ADDITIONAL_SCRIPTS.includes(path)) {
    return proxyScript(request, path);
  }

  // Check if this is an analytics event
  if (path === API_PATH) {
    return proxyEvent(request);
  }

  // Not an analytics request - return 404
  return new Response('Not Found', { status: 404 });
}

/**
 * Proxy the analytics script from Plausible server
 */
async function proxyScript(request, scriptPath) {
  try {
    const plausibleUrl = https://${PLAUSIBLE_HOST}${scriptPath};
    
    const response = await fetch(plausibleUrl, {
      method: 'GET',
      headers: {
        'User-Agent': request.headers.get('User-Agent') || '',
      },
    });

    // Create new response with CORS headers
    const newResponse = new Response(response.body, response);
    
    // Set appropriate headers
    newResponse.headers.set('Access-Control-Allow-Origin', '*');
    newResponse.headers.set('Content-Type', 'application/javascript');
    
    // Cache the script for 1 hour
    newResponse.headers.set('Cache-Control', 'public, max-age=3600');

    return newResponse;
    
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Error proxying script:', error);
    return new Response('Error loading analytics script', { status: 500 });
  }
}

/**
 * Proxy analytics events to Plausible server
 */
async function proxyEvent(request) {
  try {
    const plausibleUrl = https://${PLAUSIBLE_HOST}${API_PATH};

    // Clone the request but change the URL
    const modifiedRequest = new Request(plausibleUrl, {
      method: request.method,
      headers: request.headers,
      body: request.body,
    });

    const response = await fetch(modifiedRequest);

    // Create new response with CORS headers
    const newResponse = new Response(response.body, response);
    
    // Set CORS headers for POST requests
    newResponse.headers.set('Access-Control-Allow-Origin', '*');
    newResponse.headers.set('Access-Control-Allow-Methods', 'POST, OPTIONS');
    newResponse.headers.set('Access-Control-Allow-Headers', 'Content-Type');

    return newResponse;
    
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Error proxying event:', error);
    return new Response('Error sending analytics event', { status: 500 });
  }
}

/**
 * Handle CORS preflight requests
 */
function handleOptions(request) {
  return new Response(null, {
    headers: {
      'Access-Control-Allow-Origin': '*',
      'Access-Control-Allow-Methods': 'GET, POST, OPTIONS',
      'Access-Control-Allow-Headers': 'Content-Type',
      'Access-Control-Max-Age': '86400',
    },
  });
}

Is there anything about that that seems like it would not work as intended? Again, this was working with 2.5.0.

Great, thank you. I’l do some experimenting and report back shortly. Appreciate your willingness to assist with this even though it seems as if it might be half proxy setup issue and half WordPress plugin issue ;-(

Sorry, one more thing, I updated Plausible CE to v. 3.2.0 and then updated one of my sites to the 2.5.6 version of the plugin. I also updated the plugin token, and the stats are working fine. BUT, I had set up a proxy on Cloudflare for this domain (bbhistory.org) so previously I was able to enter that domain in the Community Edition settings under Domain Name. But now the stats won’t register unless I use socrates.altimac.com (the host running Plausible) in that field, which I think is defeating the proxy? I completely understand if this level of assistance is above and beyond this support forum, but just figured I’d throw it out there. Thank you for all your help so far.

Thanks so much for the quick response, Daan. Just curious, why does 2.5.0 still work but 2.5.6 does not?

OK, great. Standing by…