🐛 fix double-logging data catalog searches

[ikesau]

Fixes #4316

Context

The data catalog was logging searches to google analytics twice. You can see this on prod by going to https://ourworldindata.org/data, entering a query, and then opening the dev console and typing dataLayer.at(-1) and dataLayer.at(-2)

Problem

The data catalog ran all of its business logic through a single useEffect, which meant it called anytime any of its dependencies changed. Analytics was one of the last things I added and I didn't stop to think that this callback would fire anytime any of the dependencies updated, including updates to the cache or even no-op calls to update the state.

The fix

Extracts the analytics logic into an independent effect, which only runs when stateAsUrl changes (which always corresponds to a search running, even when the results are restored from the cache)

How to test

Add a console.log to logDataCatalogSearch and run some searches locally, noting that a log call only happens when a new query is run.

logDataCatalogSearch(state: DataCatalogState) {
        console.log("logging search", state);
        this.logToGA({
            event: EventCategory.DataCatalogSearch,
            eventAction: "search",
            eventContext: JSON.stringify({
                ...state,
                topics: Array.from(state.topics),
                selectedCountryNames: Array.from(state.selectedCountryNames),
            }),
        })
    }

[owidbot]

Quick links (staging server):

Site Dev	Site Preview	Admin	Wizard	Docs

Login: ssh owid@staging-site-double-counting-data-catalog

• Site-screenshots: https://github.com/owid/site-screenshots/compare/double-counting-data-catalog-events
• SVG tester: https://github.com/owid/owid-grapher-svgs/compare/double-counting-data-catalog-events

SVG tester:

Number of differences (default views): 0 ✅
Number of differences (all views): 0 ✅

Edited: 2025-02-11 23:05:46 UTC
Execution time: 1.18 seconds

[rakyi]

LGTM! Thanks for the very clear description!