Forum Home Enhancements - Track Guest Visits

This modification is no longer available or supported.

Something that has been repeatedly asked in the "Members who visited today" modifications (all versions) is a similar way to track the number of guests that have visited a forum each day. This isn't possible in stock vbulletin as no record is kept of guest visits, they are a 'realtime' display only. I've therefore finally got round to looking at the issue and produced this modification.

This will add (another) section to the "What's Going On" area. The data is kept in a new table so it should be possible for other uses to be made of it (or display it in other ways). A screenshot of the current display is attached.

Options / Features ;

* The ability to turn it on/off.
* The ability to turn just the display on/off.
* The ability to allow (or prevent) certain usergroups viewing the display.
* The ability to run the display code on all pages (not just forumhome).
* The ability to switch between 'Today' and Rolling 24 Hours display (default).
* The list of guests can be set to be always collapsed on initial view.

* The script that the Guest is running is logged (e.g. showthread, usercp etc).
* The request variables in use are logged (e.g. threadid, userid etc).
* The guest table can be cleaned of old records to help control it's size.
* Controls for the displays automatic template update.
* The datastore read (for spider detection) will read from the File/APC/Memcache/Xcache datastore [if used].

Version 1.19+

* Guest Views data collection - tracking each guests viewing of the forum index page, forums and threads.
* Guest Views data collection can be separately disabled.
* Multiple guest visits to the same page are logged separately.
* Clicking on a Guest type in the main display will list all recent visits by guests of that type.
* Clicking on the option in the guest listing will show that guests viewing data (if enabled).
* Usergroup permissions are now done with the standard vbulleten usergroup permissions system.

Four new usergroup permissions are provided in the usergroup manager.

* Can View the Guests Visited Display - Members can view the guests visited display on Forumhome.
* Can View Guest IP Addresses - Members can see the ip addresses of visiting guests.
* Can View Guest Visits List - Members can view the list of guest visits page.
* Can View Guest Tracking Data - Members can view the individual guest visit tracking page.


Version 1.22+

The option to keep a record of [and display] the most ever guests has been added - this used to be provided by a seperate add-on product.


* All (non usergroup) modification settings are in vBulletin Options > Guest Tracking.

To install ;

• Unzip the XML files.
• Upload the bitfields file to your ../includes/xml folder.
• Import the product into vB using the ACP Product Manager.
• Set your required permissions in the usergroup manager.

Note that by default no permissions are given, you must set them.

You can get an improved Spiders Definition file, that recognises many more spiders, from this post.

Note: For Spider detection to work you must set Enable Spider Display to 'Yes' in vBulletin Options > Who's Online Options.

A German translation has been provided by hurik in post #769 - (for Version 1.22).


History:

v1.00 : Internal dev version.
v1.01 : Initial vb 3.6 beta release.
v1.02 : Phrasing added, final beta version.
v1.03 : Initial full version, some new options added.
v1.04 : Fix potential variable name clash with WVT Mod.
v1.05 : More options added, script and request variable logging added.
v1.06 : Minor internal code changes, phrasing altered slightly.
v1.07 : Datastore call changed to standard fetch function.
v1.08 : Moved Datastore call due to oddities, and fixed small bug.
v1.09 : Simplified always collapsed code.
v1.10 : Datastore call moved and reverted back to db_fetch.
v1.11 : Added Spider Cache Refresh on install (limited release).
v1.12 : Unique Guest id changed from standard vb id to internally created id.
v1.13 : Changed the SQL to force MySQL to use the index on forumhome.
v1.14 : Changed install code to delete old spider cache before rebuilding it.
v1.15 : Added check to try and detect a broken spider cache and fix it.
v1.16 : Number formatting added to individual totals in display list.
v1.17 : New usergroup display options added, datastore read updated.
v1.18 : Beta for new display options - listing guests and tracking guest views.
v1.19 : First release with the new permissions and display options.
v1.20 : Minor changes to install code only.
v1.21 : Internal development version, not released.
v1.22 : Added the "Most ever guests" option.

[PoetJA-1975]

Using 3.5.6 after editing the modification v.103
It's supposed to be:


But shows:


Any ideas? - If no - can you please reupload the v102 file
Thanx,

Jacquii.

[empservices]

I have a problem with the mod. I can see the SQL table updating with visitors but there is nothing displayed on my front page.

I have the 'What's going on" section, but the whole piece for visitors is missing.

My Settings:
Enable - Yes
Spiders - Yes
Collapse - No
Tracking - No
Groups - 0

I'm using the standard vbulleting template with no theme changes.

[Canis Firebrand]

Works perfect.

The only thing I need to see if I can change or if you can offer a place to look.

I have your flashchat users script installed as well. I think both place their own block automatically below the members online section.

I'd like to have the guest show up under the members, then the flashchat.

Would it be simple enough to change the order of execution for those two plugins, make the guests one execute before the flashchat one?

**EDIT**

Got it.. Changed execution order for Guest Tracking plugin using the forumhome_start hook. Now the Guest block shows up before the FlashChat Users block.

Thanks again for all your great hacks. They really give you a lot of information in the What's Going On section.

[AzzidReign]

Originally Posted by Spiffware

worked great for me thanks just 1 note
it would be kool to be able to click on the guest or the bot to see where they been or where they where when they were on the board.likesome sort of caching.

Get google analytics and that can show you what your top entrances and exits are

[Canis Firebrand]

Paul, you have your two hacks

1) Most ever visitors, posters, chatters and
2) Split the most ever members and guests

I think the code is there is the second one.

But I don't know enough to try and combine it into one or make it on my own.

I'd love the ability in the new Total Number of Guests that have visited today section to have a line that reads the most guests ever.

Like in the first hack.

I think this was mentioned as a request already, but when I went reading through the thread I didn't see it.

It isn't a major function that is needed, just would look nice to have it like the other blocks your hacks provide.

[Paul M]

Originally Posted by empservices

I have a problem with the mod. I can see the SQL table updating with visitors but there is nothing displayed on my front page.

I have the 'What's going on" section, but the whole piece for visitors is missing.

My Settings:
Enable - Yes
Spiders - Yes
Collapse - No
Tracking - No
Groups - 0

I'm using the standard vbulleting template with no theme changes.

Works fine for me with those settings, so something must be intefering with it. BTW, you don't have this marked as installed.

[Paul M]

Originally Posted by PoetJA-1975

Using 3.5.6 after editing the modification v.103
It's supposed to be:

But shows:

Any ideas? - If no - can you please reupload the v102 file
Thanx,

Jacquii.

Sorry, I would never re-upload on old version.

I can't think of a way to reproduce that problem, but there was a potential clash of variable names between the two, which I have eliminated in v1.04 (now uploaded).

[MeMySelfNi]

working just fine for me

[Shazz]

/me updates again

[PoetJA-1975]

Originally Posted by Paul M

I can't think of a way to reproduce that problem, but there was a potential clash of variable names between the two, which I have eliminated in v1.04 (now uploaded).

EXCELLENT - Thanx a bunch PAUL.
For anyone who's interested - 3.5.x version uploaded

Jacquii.