Shami's Blog

So while I was writing my previous post I realized that Google Analytics was being called from the localhost server. I also had lots of grief with Disqus back when I migrated to Hexo; It filled my account with posts related to localhost. I wonder why Disqus built it this way.

I hard-coded the Disqus URL in my theme (Both Hexo and Hugo) but then realized I can’t do the same for Google Analytics. I needed a way to disable it altogether. The fix turned out to be quite simple.

{{ if ne (printf "%v" $.Site.BaseURL) "http://localhost:1313/" }}
{{ template "_internal/google_analytics_async.html" . }}
{{ end }}

It works for both Google Analytics and Disqus. It should apply to other cases as well.

Another approach also mentioned on the page is to use two configuration files, one for testing and one for production, and make the testing file the default.

// config-release.toml
BaseURL  = "http://mydomain.com/"
PublishDir = "/var/www/mysite"
[params]
   isRelease = true

// config.toml
BaseURL   = http://localhost:1313/

// layout
{{ if .Site.Params.isRelease }}
  some release code, like Google Analytics
{{ else }}
  some dev code, like logging
{{ end }}

And use hugo switches to choose when to write the production files

// to release
hugo --config ./config-release.toml

// to dev
hugo server

The first approach is enough for simple sites, but you might need to use the second approach if you need something more complex.

Update: 1/3/2018 As I am learning more about the ever evolving Hugo, I found I can just use the below in a partial

{{- if in (string .Site.BaseURL) "localhost" -}}
    some dev code, like logging
{{- else -}}
    some release code, like Google Analytics
{{- end -}}