[gatsby-plugin-google-analytics] trackingId is required in development after upgrading to 3.0.0

[talohana]

Description

Using gatsby-plugin-google-analytics, it is noted in the docs that:

Note that this plugin is disabled while running gatsby develop. This way, actions are not tracked while you are still developing your project. Once you run gatsby build the plugin is enabled. Test it with gatsby serve.

Personally I keep my GA tracking id in netlify environment variable so it's only available at build time.
After upgrading to version 3.0.0 I get the following error message in development

ERROR #11331 PLUGIN

Invalid plugin options for "gatsby-plugin-google-analytics":

• "trackingId" is required

Steps to reproduce

• Install gatsby-plugin-google-analytics version 3.0.0
• Start development process with npm start

Expected result

The plugin should allow empty / undefined trackingId in development.

Actual result

Error is thrown and development process is stopped.

Environment

System:
OS: Windows 10 10.0.19042
CPU: (8) x64 Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8550U CPU @ 1.80GHz
Binaries:
Node: 14.15.1 - C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.EXE
npm: 6.14.8 - C:\Program Files\nodejs\npm.CMD
Browsers:
Edge: Spartan (44.19041.423.0), Chromium (88.0.705.81)
npmPackages:
gatsby: ^3.0.0 => 3.0.0
gatsby-plugin-google-analytics: ^3.0.0 => 3.0.0
gatsby-plugin-image: ^1.0.0 => 1.0.0
gatsby-plugin-manifest: ^3.0.0 => 3.0.0
gatsby-plugin-mdx: ^2.0.0 => 2.0.0
gatsby-plugin-netlify: ^3.0.0 => 3.0.0
gatsby-plugin-offline: ^4.0.0 => 4.0.0
gatsby-plugin-react-helmet: ^4.0.0 => 4.0.0
gatsby-plugin-robots-txt: ^1.5.5 => 1.5.5
gatsby-plugin-sharp: ^3.0.0 => 3.0.0
gatsby-plugin-sitemap: ^3.0.0 => 3.0.0
gatsby-plugin-styled-components: ^4.0.0 => 4.0.0
gatsby-remark-autolink-headers: ^3.0.0 => 3.0.0
gatsby-remark-copy-linked-files: ^3.0.0 => 3.0.0
gatsby-remark-embedder: ^4.1.0 => 4.1.0
gatsby-remark-images: ^4.0.0 => 4.0.0
gatsby-remark-prismjs: ^4.0.0 => 4.0.0
gatsby-source-filesystem: ^3.0.0 => 3.0.0
gatsby-transformer-sharp: ^3.0.0 => 3.0.0

I would like to submit a PR if needed (with maybe a little help of getting around) 🚀

[vladar]

I think this was intentional for the major bump: https://github.com/gatsbyjs/gatsby/pull/29413/files#diff-618b4bd7e0c4df7c7818d36a3f92517c9ceb898b635b72da933dc09ab7d4b9f8

But I don't have enough context on it. CC @wardpeet @laurieontech

[laurieontech]

Yes, this was intentional as part of the major release to ensure users don't miss this part of the configuration step.

[wardpeet]

You can use this pattern

const dynamicPlugins = [];
if (process.env.GA) {
  dynamicPlugins.push({
    resolve: 'gatsby-plugin-analytics',
    options: {
      trackingId: process.env.GA
    }
  })
}

module.exports = {
  // config
  plugins: [
    ...dynamicPlugins
  ]
}

[talohana]

@laurieontech can it use less aggressive test, maybe something like - reject undefined but accept empty string
@wardpeet thank you!

[github-actions]

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[github-actions]

Hey again!

It’s been 60 days since anything happened on this issue, so our friendly neighborhood robot (that’s me!) is going to close it.
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As a friendly reminder: the best way to see this issue, or any other, fixed is to open a Pull Request. Check out gatsby.dev/contribute for more information about opening PRs, triaging issues, and contributing!

Thanks again for being part of the Gatsby community! 💪💜