I've written a RESTful node.js service as a backend for http://www.cross-copy.net and would like to not only track usage of the web-client but also other clients (like commandline or Apps) which use the service for inter-device copy/paste. Is it possible to embed the Google Analytics JavaScript API into a node.js application and do server-side tracking?
You won't be able to just drop ga.js into your Node project. It has to be loaded in a browser to function correctly.
I don't believe there is anything out there for Node yet (correct me if I'm wrong!), but you should be able to easily adapt the existing PHP classes for doing logging server-side:
https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/other/mobileWebsites
You can see how the URL to request the tracking GIF is constructed within ga.php. Translate ga.php to JS and you're set.
$utmGifLocation = "http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif";
// Construct the gif hit url.
$utmUrl = $utmGifLocation . "?" .
"utmwv=" . VERSION .
"&utmn=" . getRandomNumber() .
"&utmhn=" . urlencode($domainName) .
"&utmr=" . urlencode($documentReferer) .
"&utmp=" . urlencode($documentPath) .
"&utmac=" . $account .
"&utmcc=__utma%3D999.999.999.999.999.1%3B" .
"&utmvid=" . $visitorId .
"&utmip=" . getIP($_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"]);
As Brad rightfully sad, there was nothing for Node... So I wrote a nodejs module tailored for this these last few days and just published it on NPM: node-ga
The module is still really new (barely trying it in production on a pet project), so don't hesitate to give your input :)