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

[Club3G]

Mysql version is 3.23.58, PHP version is 4.3.11 running on Linux.

(Not sure what you mean by which DB, though).

Edit: Thanks for the quick reply though. Looks like a killer hack, and I can't wait to get it working.

Also, I'm not sure if it matters, but there was no spiders.php at all in my forums root.

[mikelbeck]

Originally Posted by Club3G

Mysql version is 3.23.58, PHP version is 4.3.11 running on Linux.

(Not sure what you mean by which DB, though).

I meant "MySQL", you answered the question. ;-)

I'll have to check if MySQL 3 supports transactions, I have a feeling by the error you've gotten that it doesn't.

Also, I'm not sure if it matters, but there was no spiders.php at all in my forums root.

You have to put it there manually (ftp it to the directory).

[Club3G]

Aah, awrighty.

[high]* Club3G anxiously overs over the Install button![/high]

[mikelbeck]

Originally Posted by Club3G

Aah, awrighty.

[high]* Club3G anxiously overs over the Install button![/high]

You may want to find something else to do for a while, I'm not going to be able to have a look at it until later tonight or tomorrow. ;-)

[NexDog]

Originally Posted by mikelbeck

NexDog: I'm able to view your spiders page as a guest, so I'm going to assume that your code isn't working properly.

Club3G: What database & version are you using?

But no-one else apart from admins can see the link on the left column.

[Club3G]

/me is still poised over the install button, anxiously hoping that his DB error goes away

[mikelbeck]

Originally Posted by Club3G

[high]* Club3G is still poised over the install button, anxiously hoping that his DB error goes away[/high]

Soon... Some things have come up in my life recently that require my full attention, this is going to have to be on hold for a little while. But I promise I will get back to it soon and will have something that will work for you.

[docvader]

Mikelbeck, I just installed this, and it's great. Within minutes, the Yahoo slurp spidered my site.

Yahoo! Slurp 20 Hours Ago
-20:18

It's now 2023 hrs. And I installed it ten minutes ago.
Something wrong with the "hours" code, as was mentioned before. Hope this helps. Good luck with the "life issues" man, I know how that goes.

Thanks!
rich

[Zia]

just curious who got howmay hit & which spider?

[Club3G]

Originally Posted by mikelbeck

Soon... Some things have come up in my life recently that require my full attention, this is going to have to be on hold for a little while. But I promise I will get back to it soon and will have something that will work for you.

No problem at all bro, I appreciate the effort. Take care of yourself.