Contributor Training: DDEV Analytics with Amplitude

Here’s our October 31, 2023 Contributor Training on exploring DDEV analytics with Amplitude:

Opt-in/Opt-out analytics and the required instrumentation/telemetry have been part of DDEV for years. Before DDEV v1.22.0, they were done only via segment.io (which was sent to Amplitude). From v1.22.0 they have been sent directly to amplitude.

Opt-In is done in ~/.ddev/global_config.yaml or ddev config --instrumentation-opt-in=true (or false). We have no way of knowing how many people opt out. On version upgrades, those who have it turned off are asked if they would be willing to turn it on.

Instrumentation events are cached before being sent, so there is no internet action except after 100 actions have happened, then the events get pushed. You can see instrumentation activities with DDEV_VERBOSE=true ddev start -y 2>&1 | grep AMPLITUDE for example.

Instrumentation events are sanitized to avoid exposing private data. For example, the names of custom commands are removed, as are the names of projects, etc. Although there’s a concept of “user”, there’s no way to tie it to an actual user unless instrumentation_user is set in global_config.yaml.

Amplitude Demo and Exploration:

Visit main DDEV Direct Dashboard
Explore the various contents there
Study ddev debug * by using command path
Experiment with changing queries to learn more
Take a look at segment-based reporting (where pre-v1.22 users are) for example https://app.amplitude.com/analytics/ddev/dashboard/mr0akf9

Resources:

Contributions welcome!

Your suggestions to improve this blog are welcome. You can do a PR to this blog adding your techniques. Info and a training session on how to do a PR to anything in ddev.com is at DDEV Website For Contributors. If you’re a known community member, we’re happy to give you access to Amplitude to explore these details.

Join us for the next DDEV Live Contributor Training. Sign up at DDEV Live Events Meetup.