Forum Home Enhancements - Track Guest Visits

As of 24 Nov 2017 this modification has been withdrawn.

This tracks 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. This will add (another) section to the "What's Going On" area.

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].
* 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 done with the standard vbulleten usergroup permissions system.
* The option to keep a record of [and display] the most ever guests can be enabled.

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.

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

To install (or upgrade);

• Unzip the XML files.
• Upload the bitfields file to your ../includes/xml folder.
• If upgrading from a previous version, delete the old bitfield xml file from your ../includes/xml folder.
• Import the product into vBulletin using the ACP Product Manager.
• Set your required permissions in the usergroup manager.

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


You can get an improved Spiders Definition file from this post.

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

Template Hook

Please note that this modification uses the following template hook in the FORUMHOME template ;

forumhome_wgo_pos2

This must be present in any customised template/style you are using, otherwise this modification will not display.


History:

v3.8.001 : Initial vb 3.8 release.
v3.8.002 : Fix install code SQL error.
v3.8.003 : Fix bug in attachment viewing links.

[Paul M]

Only the product xml has changed.

[soundbarrierpro]

Hey Paul, if we get the other spiders definition do we just import that into the product manager as well? Or do we use one or the other? Meaning, yours or theirs or both?

Thank you,

[BirdOPrey5]

I just over-wrote the spiders_vbulletin.xml file in my /forums/includes/xml/ directory and it seems to be working fine... I hope that was the right way to do it...

Paul, I don't believe I've used any of your mods before so I really don't know the answer to this- but when I downloaded this package I noticed there was no documentation (readme file or install instructions) in the ZIP, is that by design or was it maybe an oversight? The install instructions were in the thread so no big deal, just want to be sure.

[soundbarrierpro]

Thank you, I found the info after looking for it in the faq at the site where the spider file is.


This should help your install

To install (or upgrade);

* Unzip the XML files.
* Upload the bitfields file to your ../includes/xml folder.
* If upgrading from a previous version, delete the old bitfield xml file from your ../includes/xml folder.
* Import the product into vBulletin using the ACP Product Manager.
* Set your required permissions in the usergroup manager.

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

[Paul M]

Originally Posted by BirdOPrey5

I just over-wrote the spiders_vbulletin.xml file in my /forums/includes/xml/ directory and it seems to be working fine... I hope that was the right way to do it...

Thats correct.

Originally Posted by BirdOPrey5

Paul, I don't believe I've used any of your mods before so I really don't know the answer to this- but when I downloaded this package I noticed there was no documentation (readme file or install instructions) in the ZIP, is that by design or was it maybe an oversight? The install instructions were in the thread so no big deal, just want to be sure.

Thats also correct, the 3.8 versions only have the instructions in the thread. I believe I added a text file in 4.0.

[BirdOPrey5]

So looking through the visitor logs I now see on occasion a visitor is "Viewing Thread" but the thread is one in a forum visitors don't have access to- can I assume they followed a link somewhere (maybe in someone's email) and simply got a "not logged in" message and didn't see the actual thread, or is this indicating a permissions problem?

[Paul M]

Yes, the attempt will be logged, even if they actually end up on the no permissions page.

[BirdOPrey5]

Thanks...

[MnTom]

Is it possible for this hack to cause Too Many Connections? I have been fighting that error and MySql has gone away and am trying to trouble shoot things. vB says server issue and host says software issue so I am fishing for answers.
Tom

[Paul M]

No, its not possible for it to do that.