Mixpanel people tracking on my PHP CodeIgniter Application

Question

I have this application running on PHP's CodeIgniter framework. I'm trying to setup people tracking with Mixpanel library. So I can know users who logged in and when they did it.

I've installed this library's files on my application/libraries folder, and then called it on my controller login.php like this:

public function __construct(){
    parent::__construct();
    $this->load->model('login_model');
    $this->load->library('form_validation');
    // Mixpanel Config
    $this->load->library('Mixpanel');
    $this->Mixpanel->mp = Mixpanel::getInstance("9966a1a78b347f556a7cc0c9f298502b", array("use_ssl" => false));

}

After that, in this same controller (index function), added this:

// Sends login information to Mixpanel
            $this->Mixpanel->mp->people->identify($aluno[0]->aluno_id, array(
        '$first_name'       => $aluno[0]->aluno_primeiro_nome,
        '$last_name'        => $aluno[0]->aluno_sobrenome,
        '$email'            => $aluno[0]->aluno_email,
            ));

The whole function is this:

public function index(){
    $this->form_validation->set_error_delimiters('<p class="default_error">', '</p>');
    $this->form_validation->set_rules('user_email', 'E-mail', 'trim|required|valid_email|xss_clean');
    $this->form_validation->set_rules('user_password', 'Senha', 'trim|required|xss_clean');
    $this->form_validation->set_message('required', 'Campo de preenchimento obrigatório');
    $this->form_validation->set_message('valid_email', 'Por favor, digite um e-mail válido');
    if ($this->form_validation->run()){
        if($this->login_model->authenticate($this->input->post('user_email'), $this->input->post('user_password'))){
            $this->load->model('aluno_model');
            $aluno = $this->aluno_model->getStudentbyEmail($this->input->post('user_email'));
            if(!empty($aluno[0]->aluno_thumb_img)) :
            $login = array(
                        'id' => $aluno[0]->aluno_id, 
                        'primeiro_nome' => $aluno[0]->aluno_primeiro_nome, 
                        'sobrenome' => $aluno[0]->aluno_sobrenome,
                        'senha' => $aluno[0]->aluno_senha, 
                        'email' => $aluno[0]->aluno_email, 
                        'thumb' => base_url('student_images/'.$aluno[0]->aluno_thumb_img),
                        'large' => base_url('student_images/'.$aluno[0]->aluno_large_img),
                        'status' => $aluno[0]->aluno_status
                        );
            else :
            $login = array(
                        'id' => $aluno[0]->aluno_id, 
                        'primeiro_nome' => $aluno[0]->aluno_primeiro_nome, 
                        'sobrenome' => $aluno[0]->aluno_sobrenome,
                        'senha' => $aluno[0]->aluno_senha, 
                        'email' => $aluno[0]->aluno_email, 
                        'thumb' => base_url('student_images/'.$aluno[0]->aluno_large_img),
                        'large' => base_url('student_images/'.$aluno[0]->aluno_large_img),
                        'status' => $aluno[0]->aluno_status
                        );
            endif;

            // Sends login information to Mixpanel
            $this->Mixpanel->mp->people->identify($aluno[0]->aluno_id, array(
        '$first_name'       => $aluno[0]->aluno_primeiro_nome,
        '$last_name'        => $aluno[0]->aluno_sobrenome,
        '$email'            => $aluno[0]->aluno_email,
            ));

            $this->session->set_userdata('user', $login);

            if($this->input->post('url_checkout')){
                $this->set_flashdata('loginSuccess', 'loginSuccess', $this->input->post('url_checkout'));
            }else{
                $this->set_flashdata('loginSuccess', 'loginSuccess', base_url('aluno'));
            }
        }else{
            $this->set_flashdata('loginFailed', 'loginFailed', $this->input->post('url'));
        }
    }else{
        $errors = array('user_email'=>form_error('user_email'), 'user_password'=>form_error('user_password'));
        $this->set_flashdata('loginError', $errors, $this->input->post('url'));
    }

}

Mixpanel is receiving the login information (because I can see it in the dashboard), but my application is returning a few errors:

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: Missing argument 1 for Mixpanel::__construct(), called in /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/descola-rep/system/core/Loader.php on line 1099 and defined

Filename: libraries/Mixpanel.php

Line Number: 138

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Notice

Message: Undefined variable: token

Filename: libraries/Mixpanel.php

Line Number: 140

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Notice

Message: Undefined variable: token

Filename: libraries/Mixpanel.php

Line Number: 141

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: Creating default object from empty value

Filename: controllers/login.php

Line Number: 11

I would be very glad if someone could give me some hint of where am I am going wrong. I'm still learning back end development, I can't figure this one.

Cheers

Answer 1

So, with a big help from Mixpanels guys (btw they are awesome), I could get to this solution. For those who will ever face this same problem, here's the thing:

1) Install the library's files on application/libraries/mixpanel_lib

2) Create a new php file in application/libraries called Mixpanel_wrapper.php. There you'll recquire your library path, set your token and create some functions. The file below already has some functions as track_something, people_set and indentify. For further information, just add the functions here.

<?php if ( ! defined('BASEPATH')) exit('No direct script access allowed'); 
require 'application/libraries/mixpanel_lib/Mixpanel.php';

class Mixpanel_wrapper {

private $mixpanel = false;

public function __construct(){
  $mp = $this->getMixpanel();
    $mp = Mixpanel::getInstance("PLACE_YOUR_TOKEN_HERE");
    $this->setMixpanel($mp);
}

public function getMixpanel(){ return $this->mixpanel; }
public function setMixpanel($obj){ $this->mixpanel =  $obj; }

public function track_something($event = '', $properties = array()){
    $mp = $this->getMixpanel();

    $mp->track($event, $properties);

}// track_something function ends

public function people_set($distinct_id = '', $properties = array()){

    $mp = $this->getMixpanel();

    $mp->people->set($distinct_id, $properties);

}// people_set function ends

 public function identify($distinct_id){

  $mp = $this->getMixpanel();

  $mp->identify($distinct_id);

 }// identify function ends

}/* End of file mixpanel_wrapper.php */

3) Load the library wherever you'll need to use it. Like this example on my login.php controller:

public function __construct(){
    parent::__construct();
    $this->load->model('login_model');
    $this->load->library('form_validation');
    $this->load->library('mixpanel_wrapper');
}

4) Track something!

// Sends login information to mixpanel
            $this->mixpanel_wrapper->people_set($student[0]->student_id, array(
            '$first_name'       => $student[0]->student_first_name,
            '$last_name'        => $student[0]->student_last_name,
            '$email'            => $student[0]->student_email,
            ));
            $this->mixpanel_wrapper->identify($student[0]->student_id);
            $this->mixpanel_wrapper->track_something('Logged in');
            // ends mixpanel

I think that's it. :)

Answer 2

as it seems, there is an issue with your library integration in CodeIgniter. Maybe this link will help: https://github.com/bpartridge83/codeigniter-bootstrap/blob/master/application/libraries/Mixpanel.php