Installation Guide (Developer)

Background and set-up

• For context, check out the Installation Overview if you haven’t already.
• If you're installing Appcues for someone else, ask them if they created an installation plan.  If they have, then you can use it as a reference for what data you'll send to Appcues from your installation. If they haven't created a plan, you can use the recommended user properties and events. You can also share the installation plan template and ask them to fill it oute. 
• Make sure you have been invited to your team's Appcues account.  In order to go through the step-by-step installation guide, you will need an Appcues account. If you haven't already been invited to your team's account, ask one of your teammates to invite you. 

Add the Appcues code snippets 

Read on for an overview of each step in the installation guide. 

1

Select your front-end stack. 

This allows us to generate copyable snippets tailored to your stack. 

 

2

Insert the Appcues script. 

Make sure to add the script on every page you want to use Appcues. You can copy and paste the script from the script step in the guide. 

3

Re-initialize Appcues upon page changes. 

Appcues relies on page changes to trigger content. You can copy and paste snippet from the page step in the guide.  If your application is single-page, you'll need to call the appcues.page() method. If your application is not single-page, you will want to call the appcues.page() method any time your application changes a large amount of content on a page with JavaScript. 

4

Identify users + send user properties. 

In order to target content to the right users at the right time, you need to identify users and send Appcues data about them. Snippets for the appcues.identify() call are available on the properties and events step in the guide.

• You'll need to identify users with a unique ID and also pass in user properties (i.e. "adjectives" that describe your users, things like email address, first name, last name, etc.). Learn more about user properties. 
• If you're installing for someone else and they filled out an installation plan, you can use it as a reference for what user properties to include. Make sure you include at least the properties included in the user property snippet in the installation guide.

5

Track events. 

Events are optional to start, but we recommend tracking events so you can target Appcues content based on actions people have or have not taken in your application. Snippets for the appcues.track() call are available on the properties and events step in the guide. 

• If you're installing for someone else and they filled out an installation plan, you can use it as a reference for what events to include. 
• If you use an analytics tool like Mixpanel, Google Analytics, Hotjar, or something else, it's a good idea to add an appcues.track()  call anywhere you track data for the analytics tool.

6

Verify that everything is working.

Steps for verifying your installation are available on the  "verify" step of the installation guide. 

• The verification step will list out each domain in your application where Appcues has requested a script. If you want to use Appcues on a domain that you don't see listed there, make sure you have added the script to the appropriate page. 
• To confirm that page tracking is working, open the Appcues debugger by appending ?hey_appcues to the URL of any page where Appcues is installed. Navigate around and confirm Appcues tracks each page change.
• To confirm that user identification is working and that user properties are being sent, confirm the "User identify" section is checked in the Appcues debugger. Expand the section to confirm that all properties are accurate.
• To confirm that events are being tracked, trigger one of the Appcues.track() calls you added and confirm it appears on the events page in Appcues. 

Having issues getting installed? 

Check out this troubleshooting doc, or send us an email at support@appcues.com. We'll help get you installed just right!