About Statistics for GS Websites

[Felix]

Hi,

What Statistics are you using for your GS Websites ?

Google ? Piwik ? Matomo ? AWStats ? Crazystats ? Firestats ? Infosniper ?
Clickheat ? Tracewatch ? OWA ? BBClone ?

I like bbclone. It stays in the same spirit as GS because
it is hardcore, fast and does not need a mysql database.

It is pretty detailed and well documented.

https://www.bbclone.de/

There is even a nightly build that is prepared for php 7.x
You can find downloads here: http://download.bbclone.org/

==================================

Of course bbclone is not a full blown stats that you can use
for improving the SEO for a website. For that I use inspectlet.
https://www.inspectlet.com/

Inspectlet has everything in the house for seriously improving
the SEO of a website. It even has a free plan !
(I am not affiliated with inspectlet)

F.

[Felix]

Hi,

Normally we would need to put the bbclone code at the bottom of every page template:

Code:

define("_BBC_PAGE_NAME", "Home");
define("_BBCLONE_DIR", "bbclone/");
define("COUNTER", _BBCLONE_DIR."mark_page.php");
if (is_readable(COUNTER)) include_once(COUNTER);

But since both GS and BBClone are very php friendly this is not necessary.
We can make use of the GS api and simply replace "Page name" with return_page_title()

Now we can put the bbclone code simply at the bottom of the footer.inc.php template file
like this:

Code:

define("_BBC_PAGE_NAME", return_page_title());
define("_BBCLONE_DIR", "bbclone/");
define("COUNTER", _BBCLONE_DIR."mark_page.php");
if (is_readable(COUNTER)) include_once(COUNTER);

Doing so bbclone will easy keep statistics of all visited pages.

[Felix]

Hi,

If you make use of article parent pages with article child pages to output articles (or block contents)
with getPageContent('article');
bbclone will count these also as visited pages and will show up as "Oops! Page not found!"
in the bbclone statistics.

But of course these are unwanted in the bbclone statistics because they are not really
visited pages, just GS system used pages. To avoid this having added to the bbclone statistics
we have to add 2 more lines to our bbclone code like this:

Code:

if (return_page_title()=='Oops! Page not found!') {
  ; // do nothing
}
else {
define("_BBC_PAGE_NAME", return_page_title());
define("_BBCLONE_DIR", "bbclone/");
define("COUNTER", _BBCLONE_DIR."mark_page.php");
if (is_readable(COUNTER)) include_once(COUNTER);
}

Now our bbclone code is more complete and will no longer add GS system used pages to the statistics.
Anyone feel free to improve on this code.

[tuxy]

Hello,

Searching for a simple 'Statistics' tool.

At the moment i use Matomo and Piratepx

Thank to this topic, find bbclone statisitics and want to try it, but is it a dead-project? Is it compatible with php8.x?

Someone have experience with bbclone and php8.x ? Or are there simple alternatives for bbclone build with php?

Searching for a selfhosted simple analitics-tool similar like bbclone.

[Felix]

Hi,
I use bbclone all the time as it serves enough information for most needs.
I downloaded the whole bbclone project just in case it might disappear one day.
No idea if bbclone works on php8.x never tried that.

=> If you need a more powerful analytics use this one:   (opensource and real good)
https://www.openwebanalytics.com/
https://www.openwebanalytics.com/about/

[tuxy]

Hi,
I use bbclone all the time as it serves enough information for most needs.
I downloaded the whole bbclone project just in case it might disappear one day.
No idea if bbclone works on php8.x never tried that.

=> If you need a more powerful analytics use this one:   (opensource and real good)
https://www.openwebanalytics.com/
https://www.openwebanalytics.com/about/

Hi Felix,

I like bbclone there is no database needed, but i'm afraid is is not really active anymore.
Looking to OWA, this is a good tip, i will try it.

[Felix]

... there is no database needed ...

Statistics using a flatfile database are hard to find these days.
But I found an alternative to bbclone, here you go:

https://en.christosoft.de/CrazyStat/Features
http://documentation.crazystat.de/faq_en.html
https://en.christosoft.de/CrazyStat

[tuxy]

... there is no database needed ...

Statistics using a flatfile database are hard to find these days.
But I found an alternative to bbclone, here you go:

https://en.christosoft.de/CrazyStat/Features
http://documentation.crazystat.de/faq_en.html
https://en.christosoft.de/CrazyStat

Hi Felix,

Thanks for all the info and links!
I trying  these analytics tools, but there are outdated, doesn't work with php8.x

- OWA = php 7.4 or older
- Crazystat = php 7.4 or older

At the moment i'm testing BBCLONE , this works perfect with php 8.x :-)

[Felix]

- OWA = php 7.4 or older

Can you show me your owa php error message about this ?

https://github.com/Open-Web-Analytics/Op...quirements
PHP 7.2 or later is supported. OWA v1.7.3 requires a minimum of PHP 7.2.

On github owa is updated to php8.x by the founder of owa p. adams:
=>Various PHP 8 compatibilities by p. adams
=>Added Mysql error mode compatibility for PHP 8.1 by p. adams

Also, a lot of owa forks exist out there.

[Felix]

Looks like Matomo is fully compatible with php8.x

Matomo has a free version that you must install on your own host
https://matomo.org/what-is-on-premise/

[tuxy]

- OWA = php 7.4 or older

Can you show me your owa php error message about this ?

https://github.com/Open-Web-Analytics/Op...quirements
PHP 7.2 or later is supported. OWA v1.7.3 requires a minimum of PHP 7.2.

On github owa is updated to php8.x by the founder of owa p. adams:
=>Various PHP 8 compatibilities by p. adams
=>Added Mysql error mode compatibility for PHP 8.1 by p. adams

Also, a lot of owa forks exist out there.

Oh, okay.

I removed OWA for the php version issue.
I rember it was a ERROR 500

I re-install OWA in the next days for testing if it works with php 8.x

I used also Matomo

And this is a super simple and cute analytics tool: piratepx.com

[tuxy]

Felix,

I'm looking in the application explorer (Installatron) on my shared hosting and there i can only install OWA 1.7.7 or 1.7.8

Before i installed found also that other users have the same issue:
https://github.com/Open-Web-Analytics/Op...issues/871

[Felix]

Or roll your own ...

https://www.webdevsplanet.com/post/build...ytics-tool

Down the page, copy the ready code and php include in your website

[tuxy]

Or roll your own ...

https://www.webdevsplanet.com/post/build...ytics-tool

Down the page, copy the ready code and php include in your website

This is awesome!

maybe i will try this build my own Analytics-tool in the future. Really useful for underrstand how it all works.

Thanks a lot Felix :-)

[tuxy]

My experience with BBCLONE after a day:
It doens't work correct with php 8.x, so go back to 7.4 and works good now.

Learn and found an advantage using BBCLONE vs the other web analytics-tools that use Javascript-trackers: when a user disable JS or block trackers in the browser, BBCLONE works always. Reason is the tracker build in php.

[Felix]

Learn and found an advantage using BBCLONE vs the other web analytics-tools that use Javascript-trackers: when a user disable JS or block trackers in the browser, BBCLONE works always. Reason is the tracker build in php.

Thanks for sharing your experience. Maybe bbclone does not have too many deprecateds in php8 that could be adapted.

[tuxy]

Learn and found an advantage using BBCLONE vs the other web analytics-tools that use Javascript-trackers: when a user disable JS or block trackers in the browser, BBCLONE works always. Reason is the tracker build in php.

Thanks for sharing your experience. Maybe bbclone does not have too many deprecateds in php8 that could be adapted.

Hi Felix,

No problem and apologise, it works also NOT correctly for me, i mean yesterday test BBCLONE a few hours and works the most of the time perfect, but now, it doesn't recognizes the hits anymore. I don't know what i'm doing wrong. Tested with my smartphone (data plan) incognito-mode, different browsers,... nothing works :-(

https://bbclone.gewoonsimpel.be/

I think going back to Matomo and AWStats.

UPDATE:
There was an error: Error bbc_msg; item: counter2.inc / state: o

Reinstall BBCLONE again. now it works, hope it works good now

@felix, have you any idea how install the geoip-plugin in bbclone? There are now tutorial or docs how install this plugin, also looking on the BBCLONE-forum, there are two topic, but not really clear how install, i mean, can't find the files *.dat and *.inc on the Maxmind website.

[Felix]

i mean, can't find the files *.dat and *.inc on the Maxmind website.

That is correct. In the past the Maxmind geo-ip files .dat and .inc were freely available.
But Maxmind took those files away and made their geo-ip commercial and online only. (payed api or something like that)
I still have those offline files .dat and .inc and want to happily share them with you.
However I don't remember anymore on what harddisk I have stored them.
Let you know in the weekend.
Grts F.

[mvlcek]

FYI: there is also http://get-simple.info/extend/plugin/hitcount/91/ which is fully integrated into the GS administration.

For more details see:

• http://mvlcek.bplaced.net/get-simple/hitcount
  
• http://get-simple.info/forums/showthread.php?tid=1325
  

It works with php8.

It does NOT store the IP address to not come into conflict with privacy laws.

[tuxy]

FYI: there is also http://get-simple.info/extend/plugin/hitcount/91/ which is fully integrated into the GS administration.

For more details see:

• http://mvlcek.bplaced.net/get-simple/hitcount
  
• http://get-simple.info/forums/showthread.php?tid=1325
  

It works with php8.

It does NOT store the IP address to not come into conflict with privacy laws.

Hi mvleck,
Thanks for your tip! Installed this plugin, works very good, very handy it is embed in GS. Awesome work!

[Felix]

... It works with php8 ...

Hi Mvlcek,
Thanks for stepping in, your plugin does it already.
Sometimes we need a slap to wake up ...
F.

[tuxy]

After testing with bbclone, i improve the bbclone analitics-code from @Felix with custom titles for my search.php- and tags.php pages.

First filter the search and tag terms from the url (i used the I18N Search-plugin)

search.php template:

Code:

<?php if (@$_REQUEST['words']) { // show search term(s) ?>
                  <h1 class="page-title">Zoekresultaten voor: <span>
                    <?php
                    // filter the SEARCH WORD from the url:
                    // YOUR_SITE.COM/search/?words=SEARCH_WORD&search=Zoeken
                    $search_word = htmlspecialchars($_REQUEST['words']); ?>
                    <?php echo $search_word; ?></span>
                </h1>
                <?php } ?>

tags.php template:

Code:

<?php if (@$_REQUEST['tags']) { // show tag ?>
                  <h1 class="page-title">Tag: <span>
                  <?php
                    // filter the TAG from the url:
                    // YOUR_SITE.COM/tags/?tags=TAG_NAME
                    $tag_name = htmlspecialchars($_REQUEST['tags']); ?>
                    <?php echo $tag_name; ?></span>
                </h1>
                <?php } ?>

Put the improved bbclone-code in the footer.inc.php:

Code:

<?php
  // BBCLONE Analytics
  $analytics_title = return_page_title(); // default title

  if ($template_file == 'tags.php') {
    // $tag_name = available at tags.php
    $analytics_title = "Tag: ".$tag_name;
  }
  else if ($template_file == 'search.php') {
    // $search_word = available at search.php
    $analytics_title = "Zoekresultaten voor: ".$search_word;
  }

  if (return_page_title()=='Oops! Page not found!') {
    // do nothing
  } else { // activate bbclone analytics script
  define("_BBC_PAGE_NAME", $analytics_title);
  define("_BBCLONE_DIR", "bbclone/");
  define("COUNTER", _BBCLONE_DIR."mark_page.php");
  if (is_readable(COUNTER)) include_once(COUNTER);
  }
?>

Without this code and using search- or tag results it shows only the page title: Search or Tags without the terms.
With this code it shows Search results for: SEARCH_WORD or Tag: TAG

If you wish test and see, go to my website and the statistics page , and click on a tag or using a search term.

Also thanks to @Felix for his code snippet ;-)


- USING VIEWS/HITS on a single page:
On a post-page you can also see the views per single page.

Adding this code-snippet in your_template.php-template:

Code:

<?php
                        //-------Display single page visits -----------
                        require("bbclone/var/access.php");
                        // number of hits by title
                        $single_page_hits = $access["page"][return_page_title()]["count"];
                        if (empty($single_page_hits)) {
                          // needed instead shows nothing
                          $single_page_hits = 0;
                        }
                        ?>

Show the views/hits on your page:

Code:

<?php echo $single_page_hits; ?>

Extra tip:
bbclone using the title as page-id.
If the title > 60 characters then it doesn't show the hits on your single post page correctly.
You can increase the characters in bbclone/conf/config.php, so you can see the hits on your single page correctly (for my needs a changed to 80:

Code:

// The max. number of characters for the page name.
// Longer page names will be stripped-down at the front, leading with "..."
// IMPORTED NOTE: This option changes how page names are recorded,
//                so you may need to reset the stats.
// Syntax:
// $BBC_MAX_PAGENAME = 60; => 60 characters (default)
$BBC_MAX_PAGENAME = 80;

Voila, thats my experience with bbclone until now :-)
Feel free using and customize all this code-snippets for your needs.

Hope can help someone improve his bbclone statistics.

[Felix]

Thanks for giving bbclone improved output. I will install a fresh new GS and try to reproduce your bbclone improvements.

[tuxy]

Thanks for giving bbclone improved output. I will install a fresh new GS and try to reproduce your bbclone improvements.

No problem Felix,

It also thank you for give me inspiration and give this tool a try using bbclone. 
Hope it is useful for you.
What i did is only customized the titles, put it in a variable and embed this variable in the bbclone tracking-code.