There are many different traffic analysis tools, ranging from simple counters to complete traffic analyzers. Although there are some free ones, most of them come with a price tag. Why not do it yourself? With PHP, you can easily create a log file within minutes. In this article I will show you how!
Getting the information
The most important part is getting the information from your visitor. Thankfully, this is extremely easy to do in PHP (or any other scripting language for that matter). PHP has a special global variable called $_SERVER which contains several environment variables, including information about your visitor. To get all the information you want, simply use the following code:
// Getting the information
$ipaddress = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
$page = "http://{$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']}{$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']}";
$page .= iif(!empty($_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']), "?{$_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']}", "");
$referrer = $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'];
$datetime = mktime();
$useragent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'];
$remotehost = @getHostByAddr($ipaddress);
As you can see the majority of information comes from the $_SERVER variable. The mktime() (http://nl2.php.net/mktime) and getHostByAddr() (http://nl2.php.net/mktime) functions are used to get additional information about the visitor.
Note: I used a function in the above example called iif(). You can get this function at http://nl2.php.net/mktime.
Logging the information
Now that you have all the information you need, it must be written to a log file so you can later look at it, and create useful graphs and charts. To do this you need a few simple PHP function, like fopen (http://nl2.php.net/mktime) and fwrite (http://nl2.php.net/mktime).
The below code will first create a complete line out of all the information. Then it will open the log file in "Append" mode, and if it doesn't exist yet, create it.
If no errors have occurred, it will write the new logline to the log file, at the bottom, and finally close the log file again.
// Create log line
$logline = $ipaddress . '|' . $referrer . '|' . $datetime . '|' . $useragent . '|' . $remotehost . '|' . $page . " ";
// Write to log file:
$logfile = '/some/path/to/your/logfile.txt';
// Open the log file in "Append" mode
if (!$handle = fopen($logfile, 'a+')) {
die("Failed to open log file");
}
// Write $logline to our logfile.
if (fwrite($handle, $logline) === FALSE) {
die("Failed to write to log file");
}
fclose($handle);
Now you've got a fully function logging module. To start tracking visitors on your website simply include the logging module into your pages with the include() function (http://nl2.php.net/mktime):
include ('log.php');
Okay, now I want to view my log file
After a while you'll probably want to view your log file. You can easily do so by simply using a standard text editor (like Notepad on Windows) to open the log file, but this is far from desired, because it's in a hard-to-read format.
Let's use PHP to generate useful overviews for is. The first thing that needs to be done is get the contents from the log file in a variable, like so:
// Open log file
$logfile = "/some/path/to/your/logfile.txt";
if (file_exists($logfile)) {
$handle = fopen($logfile, "r");
$log = fread($handle, filesize($logfile));
fclose($handle);
} else {
die ("The log file doesn't exist!");
}
Now that the log file is in a variable, it's best if each logline is in a separate variable. We can do this using the explode() function (http://nl2.php.net/mktime), like so:
// Seperate each logline
$log = explode(" ", trim($log));
After that it may be useful to get each part of each logline in a separate variable. This can be done by looping through each logline, and using explode again:
// Seperate each part in each logline
for ($i = 0; $i < count($log); $i++) {
$log[$i] = trim($log[$i]);
$log[$i] = explode('|', $log[$i]);
}
Now the complete log file has been parsed, and we're ready to start generating some interesting stuff.
The first thing that is very easy to do is getting the number of pageviews. Simply use count() (http://nl2.php.net/mktime) on the $log array, and there you have it;
echo count($log) . " people have visited this website.";
You can also generate a complete overview of your log file, using a simple foreach loop and tables. For example:
// Show a table of the logfile
echo '';
echo 'IP Address';
echo 'Referrer';
echo 'Date';
echo 'Useragent';
echo 'Remote Host';
foreach ($log as $logline) {
echo '
echo '
echo '
echo '
echo '
echo '
echo '
}
echo '';
You can also use custom functions to filter out search engines and crawlers. Or create graphs using PHP/SWF Charts (http://nl2.php.net/mktime). The possibilities are endless, and you can do all kinds of things!
In Conclusion...
In this article I have shown you have to create a logging module for your own PHP website, using nothing more than PHP and its built-in functions. To view the log file you need to parse it using PHP, and then display it in whatever way you like. It is up to you to create a kick-ass traffic analyzer.
If you still prefer to use a pre-built traffic analyzer, have a look at http://nl2.php.net/mktime.
About The Author
Dennis Pallett is a young tech writer, with much experience in ASP, PHP and other web technologies. He enjoys writing, and has written several articles and tutorials. To find more of his work, look at his websites at http://nl2.php.net/mktime, http://nl2.php.net/mktime and http://nl2.php.net/mktime.
green cleaning service Park Ridge ..Understanding and using web analytics.In recent years, website marketers were... Read More
What is SQL? SQL stands for Structured Query Language and... Read More
There are many different traffic analysis tools, ranging from simple... Read More
You want to give your site's visitors a way to... Read More
Making money with your web site is the dream and... Read More
Creating and maintaining an effective presence on the Web has... Read More
How do you decide on the content, products and or... Read More
Keywords in Search Engine Optimizing and Search Engine Marketing are... Read More
Everyone wants one.Everyone wishes they knew how to make one.SOME... Read More
Everyday thousands of new businesses make the leap and take... Read More
So your prospect, Mary, is sitting at the computer reading... Read More
People like to get immediate responses to requests. Autoresponders are... Read More
To the starting internet entrepreneur, there is nothing more discouraging... Read More
A company must earn and keep trust or sales don't... Read More
When you take a look at the most visited sites... Read More
In 1995 a new era of accessibility for disabled people... Read More
Many millions of dollars are being wasted on promoting and... Read More
While it may seem like a "quick and easy" task,... Read More
"What's in it for me?" you ask. "Why should I... Read More
Building a website and getting it online is easy. Driving... Read More
No matter the size of your business, having a web... Read More
A lot of people these days are interested in getting... Read More
Your site is fast and getting traffic, but conversion rates... Read More
Like any area of business your website needs some effort... Read More
If you are developing your website on a host that... Read More
emergency cleaning services Morton Grove ..When you started reading this sentence you assumed lo acabar?a... Read More
If you've been developing websites on Mars for the past... Read More
Mini Websites are the most powerful and cost effective solution... Read More
Most interactive websites nowadays require data to be presented dynamically... Read More
What to put your the website if you are an... Read More
The growth in Internet usage around the world is astounding... Read More
One of the things that Internet excels is disseminating information... Read More
Your website conversion rate should concern you. This simply refers... Read More
Today it seems everyone is jumping on the entrepreneur bandwagon,... Read More
"I don't sell anything online, I don't advertise online, in... Read More
I still remember it very clear ... It was almost... Read More
Building a new website can be a lengthy task. From... Read More
After years of working with entrepreneurs who developed their first... Read More
I'm one of those people that always wanted a website,... Read More
Some left shoes are in isle 5, while the right... Read More
How do you decide on the content, products and or... Read More
Web accessibility has so many benefits that I really do... Read More
When people think about the Internet, they think about technology.... Read More
Thinking about starting up a business? The web is the... Read More
1. Upload robots.txt file in to your root directory and... Read More
Through the explosive growth of the Web, companies have realized... Read More
Failure, just like success, is measured differently by each and... Read More
What to do if you are an artist after you... Read More
--------------------------------Why Should You Create a website?--------------------------------A. What do you want... Read More
With all of the factors involved in designing and building... Read More
Web Development |