For consistency between all possible clients, we seem to have only two options:  either part of the query, or the X-Analytics header.   The user-agent header is not really an option because it is not available for all types of clients, and we want to have just one way for everyone. Headers other than X-Analytics will need custom handling, whereas we already have plenty of Varnish code to deal with X-Analytics header, split it into parts, and for Hive to parse it. Yes it will be an extra line of code in JS ($.ajax instead of $.get), but I am sure this is not such a big deal if we provide cookie cutter code. Parsing query string in varnish/hive is also some complex extra work, so lets keep X-Analytics. Proposed required values (semicolon separated):

* tool=<name of the tool>

* toolver=<version of the tool>

* contact=<some way of contacting you, e.g. @twitter, email@example.com, +1.212.555.1234, ...>

Bikeshedding ?   See also:  https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/X-Analytics

On Tue, Oct 4, 2016 at 12:45 AM Stas Malyshev <smalyshev@wikimedia.org> wrote:

Hi!

> Using custom HTTP headers would, of course, complicate calls for the
> tool authors (i.e., myself). $.ajax instead of $.get and all that. I
> would be less inclined to change to that.

Yes, if you're using browser, you probably can't change user agent. In
that case I guess we need either X-Analytics or put it in the query. Or
maybe Referer header would be fine then - it is also recorded. If
Referer is distinct enough it can be used then.

--
Stas Malyshev
smalyshev@wikimedia.org

_______________________________________________
Analytics mailing list
Analytics@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/analytics

_______________________________________________
Analytics mailing list
Analytics@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/analytics