createAlgoliaInsightsPlugin

The Algolia Insights plugin automatically sends click and conversion events to the Algolia Insights API whenever a user interacts with the autocomplete.

Starting from version 1.9.2 of Autocomplete, you no longer need to use this plugin directly. Instead, use the insights option of the autocomplete function.

Using the insights option

This option is available starting from v1.9.2.

Instead of using this plugin, you can set up events using the insights option of the autocomplete function.

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import { autocomplete } from '@algolia/autocomplete-js';

autocomplete({
  container: '#autocomplete',
  insights: true,
});

// or with options

autocomplete({
  container: '#autocomplete',
  insights: {
    // ...
  },
});

If you don’t pass an insightsClient, it will be automatically detected from the window object, or downloaded from the jsDelivr CDN.

If you are using the insights option, you don’t need to follow the rest of this guide.

Installation

First, you need to install the plugin.

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yarn add @algolia/autocomplete-plugin-algolia-insights
# or
npm install @algolia/autocomplete-plugin-algolia-insights

Then import it in your project:

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import { createAlgoliaInsightsPlugin } from '@algolia/autocomplete-plugin-algolia-insights';

If you don’t use a package manager, you can use the HTML script element:

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<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@algolia/autocomplete-plugin-algolia-insights"></script>
<script>
  const { createAlgoliaInsightsPlugin } = window[
    '@algolia/autocomplete-plugin-algolia-insights'
  ];
</script>

If you don't pass an `insightsClient`, it will be automatically detected from the `window` object, or downloaded from the [jsDelivr CDN](https://www.jsdelivr.com/).
{:.alert.alert-info}

## Examples

This example uses the plugin within [`autocomplete-js`](/doc/ui-libraries/autocomplete/api-reference/autocomplete-js/autocomplete/), along with the [`algoliasearch`](https://www.npmjs.com/package/algoliasearch) API client and [Search Insights](https://www.npmjs.com/package/search-insights) library.

If you don't pass an `insightsClient`, it will be automatically detected from the `window` object, or downloaded from the [jsDelivr CDN](https://www.jsdelivr.com/).

```js
import algoliasearch from 'algoliasearch/lite';
import { autocomplete } from '@algolia/autocomplete-js';
import { createAlgoliaInsightsPlugin } from '@algolia/autocomplete-plugin-algolia-insights';
import insightsClient from 'search-insights';

const appId = 'latency';
const apiKey = '6be0576ff61c053d5f9a3225e2a90f76';
const searchClient = algoliasearch(appId, apiKey);
insightsClient('init', { appId, apiKey });

const algoliaInsightsPlugin = createAlgoliaInsightsPlugin({ insightsClient });

autocomplete({
  container: '#autocomplete',
  plugins: [algoliaInsightsPlugin],
});

To identify users consistently, it’s best if you set your own userToken with setUserToken—for example, for authenticated users. The search-insights library can create anonymous user tokens and store them in cookie. To use cookie-based anonymous tokens, initialize the library with useCookie set to true:

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insightsClient('init', { appId, apiKey });
insightsClient('setUserToken', yourUserToken);

// or

insightsClient('init', { appId, apiKey, useCookie: true });

In older versions of the search-insights library (earlier than version 2.0), cookie-based anonymous tokens are on by default.

The plugin exposes hooks to let you inject custom logic in the lifecycle: onItemsChange, onSelect, and onActive. You can use them to either customize the events sent to Algolia, or plug additional behavior.

For example, if you have several search experiences on your site, you can customize the event name to identify where the events came from:

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const algoliaInsightsPlugin = createAlgoliaInsightsPlugin({
  insightsClient,
  onItemsChange({ insights, insightsEvents }) {
    const events = insightsEvents.map((insightsEvent) => ({
      ...insightsEvent,
      eventName: 'Product Viewed from Autocomplete',
    }));
    insights.viewedObjectIDs(...events);
  },
  onSelect({ insights, insightsEvents }) {
    const events = insightsEvents.map((insightsEvent) => ({
      ...insightsEvent,
      eventName: 'Product Selected from Autocomplete',
    }));
    insights.clickedObjectIDsAfterSearch(...events);
  },
});

If you’re using another analytics provider along with Algolia Insights, you can leverage these hooks to send them events as well. For example, you can send Segment events:

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const algoliaInsightsPlugin = createAlgoliaInsightsPlugin({
  insightsClient,
  onActive({ insights, insightsEvents }) {
    insightsEvents.forEach((insightsEvent) => {
      // Assuming you've initialized the Segment script
      // and identified the current user already
      analytics.track('Product Browsed from Autocomplete', insightsEvent);
    });
  },
});

If you send events to other analytics providers, it might make sense to create a dedicated plugin.

Parameters

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type OnItemsChangeParams = {
  insights: InsightsApi;
  insightsEvents: ViewedObjectIDsParams[];
  state: AutocompleteState<any>;
};

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type OnSelectParams = {
  insights: InsightsApi;
  insightsEvents: ClickedObjectIDsAfterSearchParams[];
  item: AlgoliaInsightsHit;
  state: AutocompleteState<any>;
  event: any;
};

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type OnActiveParams = {
  insights: InsightsApi;
  insightsEvents: ClickedObjectIDsAfterSearchParams[];
  item: AlgoliaInsightsHit;
  state: AutocompleteState<any>;
  event: any;
};