Unlocking Community Insights: A Guide to Our Engagement Analytics API

Building an online community is just the first step. A truly thriving community is one that is active, growing, and healthy. But how do you measure "health"? Clicks, member counts, and post numbers only tell part of the story. To truly understand your community's pulse, you need to dive deeper into engagement analytics.

Traditional community dashboards can be rigid, offering a one-size-fits-all view that doesn't connect with your unique business goals. At forum.services.do, we believe in a "Community as Code" philosophy. Your community data shouldn't be trapped in a silo; it should be an integrated, queryable part of your application stack.

This is where our Engagement Analytics API comes in. It's a powerful tool designed to transform raw community interactions into actionable, strategic insights, all through simple API calls.

Beyond the Dashboard: Why Programmatic Analytics?

Moving your analytics from a static dashboard to a flexible API unlocks a new level of control and automation. Here’s why it’s a game-changer for any modern user engagement platform:

• Total Flexibility: Pull the exact data you need, when you need it. Build custom dashboards in your internal admin panel, pipe data into BI tools like Tableau or Looker, or create unique data visualizations for your community members. You are never limited by a predefined interface.
• Powerful Automation: Go beyond passive monitoring. Create automated workflows based on engagement metrics. For example, you could automatically trigger a re-engagement email if a user's activity drops, or notify your product team via Slack when a feature request thread becomes a "hot topic."
• Deep Integration: The real power comes from combining community data with your other business metrics. By correlating forum activity with product usage, subscription tiers, or customer support tickets, you can build a true 360-degree view of your user. Are your most active community members also your most loyal customers? With our community management API, you can finally get the answer.

Core Metrics You Can Track with the API

Our Engagement Analytics API provides granular endpoints to measure activity at every level of your community. Let's explore some key use cases.

Use Case 1: Identify and Reward Your Power Users

Your most passionate users are your biggest asset. They answer questions, provide valuable feedback, and set a positive tone for the entire community. Our API makes it easy to find them.

You can programmatically fetch a list of users sorted by a composite engagement score, which factors in posts, replies, likes received, and solutions provided.

import { Forum } from '@do/sdk';

const forum = new Forum({ apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY' });

// Fetch the top 5 most engaged users this quarter
const powerUsers = await forum.analytics.getTopUsers({
  period: '90d',
  limit: 5,
  sortBy: 'engagementScore'
});

console.log('Quarterly Power Users:', powerUsers);

/*
[
  { userId: 'u-789-emily', engagementScore: 98.5, posts: 50, solutions: 15 },
  { userId: 'u-210-david', engagementScore: 95.2, posts: 45, solutions: 12 },
  ...
]
*/

What to do with this data:

• Invite them to an exclusive beta program.
• Send them company swag as a thank you.
• Grant them special badges or moderation permissions.
• Feature them in a community spotlight or newsletter.

Use Case 2: Surface Trending Topics in Real-Time

Keep your community dynamic by showing members what's happening right now. A "Trending Topics" widget can significantly increase engagement by directing users to active and interesting conversations.

Use the API to fetch threads with high velocity (a measure of recent replies and views).

import { Forum } from '@do/sdk';

const forum = new Forum({ apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY' });

// Get the top 3 hottest threads from the last 24 hours
const trendingThreads = await forum.analytics.getTrendingThreads({
  period: '24h',
  limit: 3
});

console.log('🔥 Hot Threads Right Now:', trendingThreads);

/*
[
  { threadId: 't-abc-launch', title: 'Exciting New Feature Launch!', velocity: 85 },
  { threadId: 't-def-bug', title: 'Critical Bug in v2.5.1', velocity: 72 },
  { threadId: 't-ghi-idea', title: 'Idea: Dark Mode for Dashboard', velocity: 68 }
]
*/

What to do with this data:

• Display these threads on your forum's homepage.
• Send a daily digest email of popular conversations.
• Alert your support team to high-velocity bug report threads.

Use Case 3: Automate Community Health Monitoring

As a community as a service platform, we believe in automating repetitive tasks. You can set up scheduled jobs (e.g., cron jobs) to monitor key health metrics and alert you only when human intervention is needed.

import { Forum } from '@do/sdk';

const forum = new Forum({ apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY' });

// This function could run once a day
async function checkCommunityHealth() {
  const healthSummary = await forum.analytics.getHealthSummary({ period: '7d' });

  // A healthy community has more replies than new threads
  const replyRatio = healthSummary.totalReplies / healthSummary.totalThreads;

  if (replyRatio < 1.5) {
    // Send an alert to the community manager's Slack
    sendAlert(
      `Warning: Weekly reply ratio is low (${replyRatio.toFixed(2)}).`
    );
  }
}

What to do with this data:

• Get proactive alerts for dips in user sign-ups, post creation, or answer rates.
• Track the growth of your community week-over-week.
• Measure the effectiveness of community-building campaigns.

Analytics and AI Moderation: A Powerful Combination

Your analytics data can even supercharge your content moderation. While our automated moderation AI is excellent at catching spam and policy violations, analytics can add a crucial layer of context.

For instance, a thread with extremely high velocity and a sharply negative sentiment score might be a brewing PR crisis. You can set up a workflow to flag such threads for immediate human review, allowing your team to get ahead of problems before they escalate.

Turn Your Community Data into Your Biggest Asset

Stop guessing what makes your community tick. With the forum.services.do Engagement Analytics API, you have the tools to measure what matters, automate your workflows, and build a truly data-driven community strategy. You can finally integrate your community into the heart of your business operations.

Ready to unlock the insights hiding in your community? Explore our API documentation and get your API key to start building today