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.

[Danny Diamond]

I have looked everywhere. How do you change it from this.............

Total members that have visited the forum in the last 24 hours: 57 ) Total guests that have visited the forum in the last 24 hours: 123 The most guests online over 24 hours was 123, Today at 07:36 PM.
Visitors (51), Yahoo! Slurp Spiders (69), AskJeeves Spiders (1), Google AdSense Spiders (1), Google Spiders (1)



To this...........................(where the guests show right after the members)

Users active in the past 24 hours: 118 (58 members and 60 guests) -



Many thanks for anyone that can help

[cyberws]

Cool mod. We really need something like this as the spiders visit often and wanted a way to track the information from within VBulletin instead of web log files.

Good job!

[SSG.D]

Installed: on 3.6.7 However the usergroup permissions did not seem to install Need some advise I really want this to work. :

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.

Thanks to anyone that can help

[mmmender]

I tried to install this on 3.6.8 but during the product install the screen just freezes at "Rebuilding Spider Cache"

Any ideas?

[Paul M]

Originally Posted by SSG.D

Installed: on 3.6.7 However the usergroup permissions did not seem to install Need some advise I really want this to work. :

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.

Thanks to anyone that can help

Did you upload the bitfields file to the correct place, before you imported the product ?

Originally Posted by mmmender

I tried to install this on 3.6.8 but during the product install the screen just freezes at "Rebuilding Spider Cache"

Any ideas?

Nope, no idea.

[DePhauEll]

Hello,
where do I import the German XML-file, which hurik postet here? I used to know that, but I'm getting old.

[Paul M]

The file only contains phrases - so I would assume you cut/paste them over the top of the english phrases in the main xml.

[SSG.D]

Thanks Paul !! got it, works great now!

[DianaDiana]

Hi! I am new to the Vbul world!
I love it but some times I have a hard time getting things lol
I have this mod installed and added. It's showing up in my acp already.
It's just not showing up on the main index page. This is what I have.

What's Going On?
Currently Active Users: 2 (2 members and 0 guests)
View Who's Online
Most users ever online was 3, 20 Hours Ago at 09:42 AM.

Total members that have visited the forum today: 2

The most members online in one day was 4, 1 Hour Ago.

Statistics
Threads: 0, Posts: 0, Members: 4
Welcome to our newest member,
Upcoming Events for the Next 60 Day(s)
Calendar

I set my permissions so that unregistered could see the main index page. That is all they are able to see.

Please help me! I love this mod!

[needaltuna]

Fantastic, greatly useful mod.

Installed!