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.

[Paul M]

Yes, looking at your site, it's an issue with your custom style.

Go into the modification settings, you will see a setting for the comment searched for in the forumhome template ;

Change yours to <!-- end what's going on box -->

[BadgerDog]

Hi Paul ...

I've been running v1.17 without any problems....

I've just upgraded to v1.19 and I no longer see the guest display at the bottom as previously under v1.17. I checked the AdminCP options and it is ON and I never touched any of the defaults that were there from v1.17.

The install went fine (overwrite with no errors) and it is active, as is all of the plugins for it .....

Any idea why it would stop working?

Thanks

Regards,
Badger

[Paul M]

Did you follow the install instructions ?

[BadgerDog]

Originally Posted by Paul M

Did you follow the install instructions ?

Well, as I said, I've been running v1.1.7 just fine...

I downloaded the Zip file ...
I unzipped the zip file which contained two XML's.
I uploaded the bitfields file to my ../includes/xml folder.
I imported the product XML (using overwrote) into vB using the ACP Product Manager.

I missed this one ... "check permissions in the usergroup manager".....

Running now... thanks for the enhancements.... :up:

Regards,
Badger

[KURTZ]

updated!

[wizardan]

Updated.
Flawless.

[Makc666]

Originally Posted by BadgerDog

Hi Paul ...

I've been running v1.17 without any problems....

I've just upgraded to v1.19 and I no longer see the guest display at the bottom as previously under v1.17. I checked the AdminCP options and it is ON and I never touched any of the defaults that were there from v1.17.

The install went fine (overwrite with no errors) and it is active, as is all of the plugins for it .....

Any idea why it would stop working?

Thanks

Regards,
Badger

Originally Posted by Paul M

Did you follow the install instructions ?

I also didn't see guest display after I have updated from 1.16 to 1.20.
To fix this one I had to go to "Usergroup Manager" and to resave information of the needed gropus. I didn't touch "Can View the Guests Visited Display". Just resaved.

A little note fot the next version.

I think we didn't need dot(s) after these phrases:

trg_display
Can View the Guests Visited Display.

trg_list
View Guest Visits List.

trg_permissions
Tracking Permissions

trg_track
Can View Guest Tracking Data.

trg_viewip
Can View Guest IP Addresses.

And a liittle question:
What does it meen:

Viewing Who Posted in <a href='showthread.php?t={1}'>{2}</a>

Where does that "Who Posted" situated? Can you give an example URL?

Thanks
Maxim

[Paul M]

Originally Posted by Makc666

To fix this one I had to go to "Usergroup Manager" and to resave information of the needed gropus. I didn't touch "Can View the Guests Visited Display". Just resaved.

Yep, that seems to be a vb issue, it doesn't pick up the permissions properly until you edit one. For the next release, no permissions will be set on install, forcing you to set some.

Originally Posted by Makc666

I think we didn't need dot(s) after these phrases

Well you're free to edit them if you want, I see no real issue with full stops.

Originally Posted by Makc666

What does it meen:

Viewing Who Posted in <a href='showthread.php?t={1}'>{2}</a>

Where does that "Who Posted" situated? Can you give an example URL?

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/misc.php?...osted&t=131314

[GateKeper]

Originally Posted by GateKeper

Well no errors, since the hack has been disabled, did it this way to make sure it was not something else. (something I might have done )

I will now enable once again tonight and see if errors come back if so, I will be confident its the hack ?, not saying anything bad about the hack, just that it is giving us errors, and I am not sure why, will need to investigate further.

Paul M you mention dropping the tables manually,,,,,how do I do this ? please advise if possible, still learning, and trying....

thanks for the time...
:up:

Well it crapped out our site, so I disabled it, not going to run it anymore, also if I try to remove it, I get other errors, so for now it will stay installed but not enabled.

I wish I could figure out why I have the issues, but I am not that great with the VB stuff so for now it will remain n the background, and disabled

Thanks

[Paul M]

Clearly you have some issue local to you. Without appropriate access I cannot help you further.