I would like to gather some metrics about usage for an Electron-based cross-platform desktop app. This would consist of basic information on the user's environment (OS, screen size, etc) as well as the ability to track usage, for example track how many times the app is opened or specific actions within the app.
These metrics should be sent to an analytics server, so they can be viewed in aggregate. Ideally I could host the server-side component myself, but would certainly consider a solution hosted by a third party.
There are various analytics solutions for the web (Google Analytics, Piwik), and for mobile apps, as well as solutions for Node.js server-side apps. Is it feasible to adapt one of these solutions for desktop Electron-based apps? How? Or are there any good analytics solutions specifically designed for use with desktop apps which work with Electron / javascript?
Unlike a typical webpage, the user might be using the app offline, so offline actions should be recorded, queued, and sent later when the user comes online. A desktop app is typically loading pages from the file system, not HTTP, so the solution needs to be able to cope with that.
Unlike a Node.js server-side application, there could be a large number of clients rather than just a single (or a few) server instances. Analytics for a desktop app would be user-centric, whereas a server-side Node.js app might not be.
Ease of setup is also a big factor - an ideal solution would just have a few lines of configuration to gather basic metrics, then could be extended as necessary with custom actions/events.
The easiest thing will be to use Google Analytics or a similar offering.
For most you'll have two major issues to solve over hosting on a website:
file: urls so that they only get hits from the internetUse an existing library and most of these issues will already be solved for you.