Title: Tracking SmartNews Content
Author: staff
Published: August 1, 2022
Last modified: November 26, 2025

---

 1. [Installation resources](https://docs.parse.ly/installation-resources/)
 2. [Add-on Features](https://docs.parse.ly/installation-resources/add-on-features/)
 3. Tracking SmartNews Content

#  Tracking SmartNews Content

Parse.ly supports tracking web, AMP, and native content within the [SmartNews](https://www.smartnews.com/en/)
app. Because SmartNews offers publishers several options for serving their content,
the specific steps to integrate Parse.ly tracking will depend on the method chosen.

If your SmartNews headlines link to a web view, no additional integration is necessary,
because events will automatically be tracked by your existing Parse.ly [website](https://docs.parse.ly/parsely-integration/)
and/or [AMP](https://docs.parse.ly/google-amp/) integration. These events will appear
in the Parse.ly dashboard with `smartnews.com` as the referrer.

However, if you provide content to SmartNews via a SmartFormat feed, that content
will be natively hosted in the app, and requires adding an additional analytics 
tag to each `<item>` (RSS) or `<element>` (Atom) tag in your feed.

## Adding Parse.ly Tracking to SmartFormat Feeds

_(The following instructions are for version 2.1 of the [SmartFormat specification](https://publishers.smartnews.com/hc/en-us/articles/360036526213-SmartFormat-Specification-Version-2-1-).)_

The [`<snf:analytics>` tag](https://publishers.smartnews.com/hc/en-us/articles/360036526213-SmartFormat-Specification-Version-2-1-#lt-snf-analytics-gt)
for Parse.ly tracking should look like this (replacing `######` with your Parse.
ly site id, e.g. `mysite.com`, and replacing `XXXXXX` with the same url specified
in the `<link>` sibling tag):

    ```lang-js
    <snf:analytics><![CDATA[
        <script>
            PARSELY = {
                autotrack: false,
                onload: function() {
                    PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({
                        url: 'XXXXXX',
                        urlref: 'http://www.smartnews.com/'
                    });
                }
            }
        </script>
        <script id="parsely-cfg" src="//cdn.parsely.com/keys/######/p.js"></script>
    ]]>
    </snf:analytics>
    ```

These tips from the [SmartFormat documentation](https://publishers.smartnews.com/hc/en-us/articles/360036526213-SmartFormat-Specification-Version-2-1-#lt-item-gt)
are worth repeating:

 * Be careful with double-escaping when using CDATA (make sure to use `<script>`,
   not `&lt;script&gt;`, for example).
 * If an article is redirected, use the redirected, canonical URL.

**Note**

Each <item> or <entry> tag can only contain a single <snf:analytics> tag. To track
the same item in both Parse.ly and Google Analytics, the code for both should be
placed in the same <snf:analytics> tag (see samples below).

### Sample (RSS 2.0)

_(In this sample, the Parse.ly site ID is `example.com`.)_

    ```lang-php
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <rss version="2.0" xmlns_content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns_dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns_media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" xmlns_snf="http://www.smartnews.be/snf">
     <channel>
      <title>The Smart Times</title>
      <link>http://times.smartnews.com/</link>
      <description>News for all</description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 01 Oct 2014 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <language>en</language>
      <copyright>SmartNews, Inc.</copyright>
      <ttl>15</ttl>
      <snf:logo><url>http://times.smartnews.co.jp/snlogo.png</url></snf:logo>
      <image>
        ...
      </image>
      <item>
        <title>SmartNews Launches</title>
        <link>http://times.smartnews.com/2014/10/01/smartnews-launches</link>
        <guid>http://times.smartnews.com/2014/10/01/smartnews-launches</guid>
        <description>
          ...
        </description>
        <pubDate>Wed, 01 Oct 2014 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
        <content:encoded>
          ...
        </content:encoded>
        <category>mobile,news,app</category>
        <dc:creator>Rich Jaroslovsky</dc:creator>
        <dc:language>en</dc:language>
        <media:thumbnail url="http://times.smartnews.com/2014/10/01/smartnews.png" />
        <snf:advertisement>
        <snf:sponsoredLink link="http://times.smartnews.com/sponsored/article1.html" thumbnail="http://times.smartnews.com/sponsored/image1.jpg" title="桜丘に新スイーツ店が誕生！" advertiser="桜丘スイーツ"/>
        <snf:sponsoredLink link="http://times.smartnews.com/sponsored/article2.html" thumbnail="http://times.smartnews.com/sponsored/image2.jpg" title="sponsored link 2" advertiser="Example Company"/>
        <snf:adcontent>
          ...
        </snf:adcontent>
        </snf:advertisement>
        <snf:analytics><![CDATA[
          <script>
          (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
          (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
          m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
          })(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');

          ga('create', 'UA-xxx-2', 'examplecom');
          ga('require', 'displayfeatures');
          ga('set', 'referrer', 'http://www.smartnews.com/');
          ga('send', 'pageview', '/260984/upsee/');
          </script>

          <script>
            PARSELY = {
              autotrack: false,
              onload: function() {
                PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({
                  url: 'http://times.smartnews.com/2014/10/01/smartnews-launches',
                  urlref: 'http://www.smartnews.com/'
                });
              }
            }
          </script>
          <script id="parsely-cfg" src="//cdn.parsely.com/keys/#######/p.js"></script>
        ]]>
        </snf:analytics>
      </item>
      <item>
        ...
      </item>
      <item>
        ...
      </item>
    </channel>
    </rss>
    ```

### Sample (Atom)

_(In this sample, the Parse.ly site ID is `example.com`.)_

    ```lang-php
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <feed xml_lang="en" xmlns_dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns_media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" xmlns_snf="http://www.smartnews.be/snf">
     <title>The Smart Times</title>
     <link type="text/html" href="http://times.smartnews.co.jp/" rel="alternate"/>
     <subtitle>News for all</subtitle>
     <updated>2014-05-16T06:00:00+0000</updated>
     <rights>(c) SmartNews, Inc.</rights>
     <logo>http://times.smartnews.com/logo.png</logo>
     <snf:logo><url>http://times.smartnews.co.jp/snlogo.png</url></snf:logo>
     <entry>
      <title>SmartNews Launches</title>
      <link type="text/html" href="http://times.smartnews.co.jp/2014/06/16/sakuragaoka" rel="alternate"/>
      <id>http://times.smartnews.com/2014/10/01/smartnews-launches</id>
      <updated>2014-05-16T06:00:00+0000</updated>
      <content>
        ...
      </content>
      <category>mobile,news,app</category>
      <author>Rich Jaroslovsky</author>
      <dc:language>en</dc:language>
      <media:thumbnail url="http://times.smartnews.com/2014/10/01/smartnews-launches/img.png" />
      <snf:advertisement>
       <snf:adcontent>
        ...
       </snf:adcontent>
      </snf:advertisement>
      <snf:analytics><![CDATA[
        <script>
        (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
        (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
        m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
        })(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');

        ga('create', 'UA-xxx-2', 'examplecom');
        ga('require', 'displayfeatures');
        ga('set', 'referrer', 'http://www.smartnews.com/');
        ga('send', 'pageview', '/260984/upsee/');
        </script>

        <script>
          PARSELY = {
            autotrack: false,
            onload: function() {
              PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({
                url: 'http://times.smartnews.co.jp/2014/06/16/sakuragaoka',
                urlref: 'http://www.smartnews.com/'
              });
            }
          }
        </script>
        <script id="parsely-cfg" src="//cdn.parsely.com/keys/######/p.js"></script>
        ]]>
        </snf:analytics>
     </entry>
     <entry>
      ...
     </entry>
    </feed>
    ```

## Limitations

Tracking video plays from SmartFormat feeds is not currently supported.

Last updated: November 26, 2025