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

[mikelbeck]

Originally Posted by Traxdata

Yes, just with "New Posts" functions but now I tested this hack on vB 3.5.4 - works like charm!
Thank you very much !

Well, good to hear it's working for you!

[Robbed]

found it n/m

[MoveOver.cc]

I am getting the following error -

You have an error in your SQL syntax near 'START TRANSACTION' at line 1
Error Number : 1064

This happens when I type in the link /spiders.php.

Can anyone advise.

thanks

[DementedMindz]

is there a way to make it update the spider.php page? i added new spiders in the list but it would be nice if they werent on bottom no more and would refresh and go to the top... or do i have to clean the sql out???? maybe you can add a feature this way we can clean the list easier??? or update the list ....

[Brandon Sheley]

a option to clear list would be great

I like the new grouping

[DementedMindz]

any word??

[mikelbeck]

Sorry, I've been tied up lately and haven't had a change to reply.

MoveOver.cc: Open up spiders.php, search for this line:

PHP Code:

$cleanup_data = $db->query_first("START TRANSACTION"); 


and change it to:

PHP Code:

$cleanup_data = $db->query_first("BEGIN"); 


DementedMindz: Not at this time. Perhaps I'll add that to the next version.

Loco.M: I'll add something to the next version to allow you to empty your data.

[cudaxtreme]

Originally Posted by Loco.M

a option to clear list would be great

I like the new grouping

I uninstall and reinstall the plugin to clear the list.

[nicedreams]

I got this error overnight:

Database error in vBulletin 3.5.4:

Invalid SQL:
INSERT INTO spider_watcher (nice_bot, bot, ip_address, page, type, info, timestamp) VALUES ('Unknown Spider','<script>window.open('http://www.medchecker.com/side.htm','_search')</script> (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)','1119861065','online','','', NOW());

MySQL Error : You have an error in your SQL syntax. Check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'http://www.medchecker.com/side.htm','_search')</script> ( Error Number : 1064

Jim

[mcncyo]

Originally Posted by nicedreams

I got this error overnight:

Database error in vBulletin 3.5.4:

Invalid SQL:
INSERT INTO spider_watcher (nice_bot, bot, ip_address, page, type, info, timestamp) VALUES ('Unknown Spider','<script>window.open('http://www.medchecker.com/side.htm','_search')</script> (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)','1119861065','online','','', NOW());

MySQL Error : You have an error in your SQL syntax. Check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'http://www.medchecker.com/side.htm','_search')</script> ( Error Number : 1064

Jim

I also got this error a couple of days ago.