Spider Watcher

Spider Watcher
Author: Mikel Beck (mikel.beck@elite-computing.net)

This hack keeps track of the spiders (Search Engine robots) that visit your fourm. Every time a guest visits a page, the guest's IP address, user agent and the page they visited are logged to the database.

When somebody views the spider statistics page, this data is "rolled up", meaning the raw data is collated, the spider's name is determined by comparing the user agent to data contained in the spiders_bulletin.xml file, and the number of pages and visits is summarized and writted back to the database. In addition, and data from non-bots is removed.

The data is then displayed in a easy to read format for your viewing pleasure.

If the user viewing the report has permissions to view IP addresses, these are displayed as well.

A live version of the report from one of my sites can be seen here: http://www.happyhourpub.com/spiders.php

Also see the attached screenshot for an exmaple.


Revision History:
1.0.0 Beta 1 - 01/05/2006
- Initial Release

1.0.0 Beta 2 - 01/06/2006
- Included templates for spiders.php
- Removed text from templates, added them as phrases

1.0.0 Beta 3 - 01/07/2006
- Split up the display of "known" and "unknown" spiders

1.0.0 Beta 4 - 01/25/2006
- Corrected potentional SQL injection issue in plug-in
- Reduced the number of SQL queries required to display statistics
- Corrected date/time display issue

1.0.0 Beta 5 - 02/01/2006
- Reduced the number of SQL queries required to display statistics

1.0.0 Beta 6 - 02/08/2006
- No release

1.0.0 Beta 7 - 02/11/2006
- Corrected issue with "unknown" spiders not being displayed properly.
- Added tracking of the type of spider (searchspider, link checker, etc)

1.0.0 Beta 8 - 02/19/2006
- Change the display of IP addresses to be a pop-up so they're all not displayed on the main page.
- Combined the spiders that have the same name but different user agents.

1.0.0 Beta 9 - 03/10/2006
- Changed the display to group similar spiders together (search spiders, http check spiders, etc)

1.0.0 Beta 10 - 08/08/2006
- Changed how the rollup functions. Instead of rolling up every time somebody views the spider page, it rolls up once per hour.
- Corrected a few bugs here and there, mostly related to removing entries from the database.

Installation Instructions
1. Upload spiders.php to the root of your forum.
2. Upload spiders_rollup.php to the includes/cron directory.
3. Import the file product-spiderwatcher.xml using the Manage Products module.
4. Add a link to spiders.php on your navbar or footer.
5. Add a cron job with the following information:
Title: Spider Watcher Rollup
Day of the Week: *
Day of the Month: *
Hour: *
Minute: 0 - - -
Log entries: Yes
Filename: ./includes/cron/spiders_rollup.php

Upgrade Instructions
1. Upload (and overwrite) spiders to the root of your forum.
2. Upload spiders_rollup.php to the includes/cron directory.
3. Import the file product-spiderwatcher.xml using the Manage Products module. Make sure the "Allow Overwrite" option is set to "Yes".
4. Add a link to spiders.php on your navbar or footer.
5. Add a cron job with the following information:
Title: Spider Watcher Rollup
Day of the Week: *
Day of the Month: *
Hour: *
Minute: 0 - - -
Log entries: Yes
Filename: ./includes/cron/spiders_rollup.php

***UPGRADE NOTE***
When you upgrade from version 1.0.0 Beta 7 to 1.0.0 Beta 8 your existing spider data will be lost!

To make sure that you can decode the maximum amount of spiders, you should grab the latest spiderlist.xml and replace the spiders_vbulletin.xml file in your forumhome/includes/xml/ directory with the one from this thread: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=76662

[maranello]

Alright, I did what you said, still no change.

[maranello]

Also, is there an easy way to test this to see it works? It sometimes takes days for new stuff to appear in that page.

[mikelbeck]

Originally Posted by maranello

Also, is there an easy way to test this to see it works? It sometimes takes days for new stuff to appear in that page.

No, not really. Just gets lots of spiders to your pages. ;-)

As for the problems you're having, the only thing I can think of is that something is up with your spiders_vbulletin.xml file. You say you pulled down that latest file, but did you rename it to spiders_vbulletin.xml and place it in your includes/xml directory? Also, check the permissions on the file, it should be 644. If it's not chmod it to that.

[Snake]

Actually mikel, I am also having the exact, same problem. I've got many unknown spiders on my forums. Here have a look...

http://www.bonethugsforums.com/spiders.html

Do you have any idea what's wrong?

[maranello]

mike, i did what you said, still nothing, chmod is 644, and i renamed the file and its in correct location.

[mikelbeck]

Originally Posted by Lil Ripsta

Actually mikel, I am also having the exact, same problem. I've got many unknown spiders on my forums. Here have a look...

http://www.bonethugsforums.com/spiders.html

Do you have any idea what's wrong?

Yours is normal, the "unknown spiders" are ones that are identified as spiders but are not listed in the spiders_vbulletin.xml file.

[Zia]

we need a massive update of spiderlist.xml..

mikelbeck..the spiders.php page execute a HUGE SQL query..in our page its 416 query..:S ..do u have any idea to reduce sql query in next release???

[maranello]

someone needs to update the spiders.xml file.

[mikelbeck]

Originally Posted by Zia

we need a massive update of spiderlist.xml..

mikelbeck..the spiders.php page execute a HUGE SQL query..in our page its 416 query..:S ..do u have any idea to reduce sql query in next release???

Yes, I have a couple of ideas. But I'm not going to be able to get to them for a little while...

[Zia]

Originally Posted by mikelbeck

Yes, I have a couple of ideas. But I'm not going to be able to get to them for a little while...

thnx man...hope u will impliment those idea to reduced sql query as earlier as possible..


TIA.