Filter Automate sessions from Google Analytics

You can exclude the requests that remote browsers send to your site from Google Analytics.

Introduction

As you test public websites on BrowserStack, the remote browsers request your website to run your tests. These requests count towards your pageviews/sessions in Google Analytics (or similar tools).

Currently, you cannot block/exclude Google Analytics script from loading on remote browsers.

Instead, you can use --force-local parameter in Local Testing (to route traffic to remote browsers through your machine) and then exclude traffic from your machine IP from Google Analytics. This article shows you how.

Set up local connection on your machine

Follow the steps below to set up Local Testing on your machine:

Step 1: Download the appropriate binary:

• OS X (10.7 and above)
• Linux 32-bit
• Linux 64-bit
• Windows (XP and above)

The download links are secure. The binaries are digitally signed, identifying the publisher as ‘BrowserStack Ltd.’

Step 2: Navigate to the folder containing the Local Binary.

Step 3: Use the following command to run it from the command-line interface:

./BrowserStackLocal --key YOUR_ACCESS_KEY --force-local

BrowserStackLocal.exe --key YOUR_ACCESS_KEY --force-local

Note: The --force-local parameter routes all traffic to remote browsers through your machine.

Step 4: Once the local connection is established, you can configure your tests so they can run through the connection. To do this, add the following snippet to your test scripts:

caps.setCapability("browserstack.local", "true");

caps['browserstack.local'] = 'true'

desiredCap.SetCapability("browserstack.local", "true");

desired_cap['browserstack.local'] = True

capabilities['browserstack.local'] = true;

Exclude your machine / network IPs from Google Analytics

Once you have set up local connection and configured your tests, you’ll need to exclude requests to your website from your machine / network IPs from Google Analytics.

Now, all Automate sessions you run through this setup will be excluded from Google Analytics.