This is how we use Google Analytics with Turbolinks. I put this in a analytics.js.coffee file and require it after turbolinks. That's it. Works on browsers that support Turbolinks and those that don't. Also works with parts of your app that may not use Turbolinks. If you need to record pageviews manually for any reason, just call GoogleAnalytics…

gistfile1.coffee

class @GoogleAnalytics

  @load: ->
    # Google Analytics depends on a global _gaq array. window is the global scope.
    window._gaq = []
    window._gaq.push ["_setAccount", GoogleAnalytics.analyticsId()]

    # Create a script element and insert it in the DOM
    ga = document.createElement("script")
    ga.type = "text/javascript"
    ga.async = true
    ga.src = ((if "https:" is document.location.protocol then "https://ssl" else "http://www")) + ".google-analytics.com/ga.js"
    firstScript = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]
    firstScript.parentNode.insertBefore ga, firstScript

    # If Turbolinks is supported, set up a callback to track pageviews on page:change.
    # If it isn't supported, just track the pageview now.
    if typeof Turbolinks isnt 'undefined' and Turbolinks.supported
      document.addEventListener "page:change", (->
        GoogleAnalytics.trackPageview()
      ), true
    else
      GoogleAnalytics.trackPageview()

  @trackPageview: (url) ->
    unless GoogleAnalytics.isLocalRequest()
      if url
        window._gaq.push ["_trackPageview", url]
      else
        window._gaq.push ["_trackPageview"]
      window._gaq.push ["_trackPageLoadTime"]

  @isLocalRequest: ->
    GoogleAnalytics.documentDomainIncludes "local"

  @documentDomainIncludes: (str) ->
    document.domain.indexOf(str) isnt -1

  @analyticsId: ->
    # your google analytics ID(s) here...

GoogleAnalytics.load()

The description at the top is hard to read, so here it is again:

This is how we use Google Analytics with Turbolinks. I put this in a analytics.js.coffee file and require it after turbolinks. That's it.

Works on browsers that support Turbolinks and those that don't. Also works with parts of your app that may not use Turbolinks.

If you need to record pageviews manually for any reason, just call GoogleAnalytics.trackPageview(url).

This snippet also does not track pageviews on local requests (change isLocalRequest() to match part of your local hostname).

Also supports multiple google analytics account IDs via the analyticsID() method. This is useful if you have a site that runs on multiple domains. Just documentDomainIncludes() to decide which analytics ID to return.

What changes would be required in order to support Universal Analytics tracking codes?