nuxt-ab-segment

NuxtJS module for A/B testing with Segment Analytics

Table of contents

• Main features
• Dependencies
• Setup
• Options
• Usage
• Credits
• License

Main features

• Run multiple experiments simultaneously
• TypeScript support
• Cookies to persist variants across users
• Force a specific variant via url or param. E.g. url?abs_experiment-x=1 or this.$abtest('experiment-x', true, true, 1);
• Prevent automatic reporting of a/b test analytics. E.g. this.$abtest('experiment-x', true, false);
• Avoid activating the a/b test anywhere. E.g. this.$abtest('experiment-x', false);
• Disable all a/b tests by cookie (abs_disabled=1), which is useful for E2E tests in CI/CD pipelines

Dependencies

• nuxt-segment
• Or any other alternative to inject Segment Analytics

Setup

1. Add nuxt-ab-segment dependency to your project:

npm install nuxt-ab-segment

2. Add nuxt-ab-segment module and configuration to nuxt.config.js:

export default {
  // ...other config options
  modules: ["nuxt-ab-segment"];
  abSegment: {
    event: "AB Test", // optional
    experiments: '~/experiments.js', // optional
    debug: process.env.NODE_ENV !== 'production', // optional
  }
}

3. Create the experiments.js in project's root with an array of your experiments. An example:

/**
 * {
 *  name: string; A name to identify the experiment on this.$abtest('NAME_HERE')
 *  maxAgeDays: number; Number of days to persist the cookie of user's active variant
 *  variants: number[] | Experiment[]; An array of variant weights or an array of nested experiments.
 * }
 */
module.exports = [
  {
    name: "experiment-x",
    maxAgeDays: 15,
    variants: [50, 50],
  },
  {
    name: "experiment-y", // Weights will be automatically calculated [50, 50]
    maxAgeDays: 15,
    variants: [
      {
        name: "parent-1", // Weights will be automatically calculated [34, 33, 33]
        maxAgeDays: 15,
        variants: [
          {
            name: "children-1",
            maxAgeDays: 15,
            variants: [50, 50],
          },
          {
            name: "children-2",
            maxAgeDays: 15,
            variants: [50, 50],
          },
          {
            name: "children-3",
            maxAgeDays: 15,
            variants: [50, 50],
          },
        ],
      },
      {
        name: "parent-2",
        maxAgeDays: 15,
        variants: [50, 50],
      }, 
    ],
  },
];

4. (Optional) TypeScript support. Add nuxt-ab-segment to the types section of tsconfig.json:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "types": ["nuxt-ab-segment"]
  }
}

Options

event

• Type: String
• Default: AB Test

Event name reported to Segment.

experiments

• Type: String
• Default: ~/experiments.js

File path for your experiments definition.

debug

• Type: Boolean
• Default:
  • Development: true
  • Production: false

Enables or disables printing Segment reports to the console.

Usage

It can be used inside components like:

{
  data: () => ({
    payBtnLabel: null as string | null,
  }),
  mounted() {
    // Scenario: Determine an experiment variant and display a label accordingly.
    const expA = this.$abtest('experiment-a');
    if (expA === 0) {
      this.payBtnLabel = 'Place order';
    } else {
      this.payBtnLabel = 'Pay now!';
    }

    // Scenario: Force a specific variant programmatically.
    const expB = this.$abtest('experiment-b', { forceVariant: 1 });
    console.log('Variant for expB is always 1');

    // Scenario: Assign a variant and report it for analytics.
    const expC = this.$abtest('experiment-c', { reportVariant: true });
    console.log(`Variant for expC is ${expC}, and it was reported.`);

    // Scenario: Avoid activating an A/B test at a specific step.
    // (No variant assignment or reporting is done.)
    const expD = this.$abtest('experiment-d', { assignVariant: false });
    console.log('Variant for expD is always 0');

    // Scenario: Report analytics and append specific properties.
    // (experiment, but additional data is sent.)
    const expE = this.$abtest('experiment-e', { reportVariant: true, segment: { properties: { device: 'mobile' } } });
    console.log(`Variant for expE is ${expE}, and will include the properties: { experiment: 'experiment-e', variant: ${expE}, device: 'mobile' }`);

  }
}

An example of event properties reported to Segment:

{
  experiment: 'experiment-x',
  variant: 1
}

Credits

• Brandon Mills for weightedRandom()

License

See the LICENSE file for license rights and limitations (MIT).