0

I want to develop a PHP website feature where users sign up, get a javascript snippet code that display an image on their site, and let's me track the number of visitors, unique hits, clicks and average visitor duration on their page. Is that something that should be done with some open source analytic software such as http://piwik.org/ or it's pretty doable on your own?

If I had to do it myself from scratch, I would use image/pixel as a way to track the visit, drop a cookie with javascript snippet to track uniques, track clicks based on image click and redirect, and not sure about the bounce rate.

Any thoughts or opinions are welcome.

CodeCrack
  • 5,253
  • 11
  • 44
  • 72
  • so just like google analytics. –  Dec 12 '12 at 03:28
  • Yes I need a similar system but more basic as one of my features of the site. Should I be using an open source one or is it pretty easy to make something like that on your own? – CodeCrack Dec 12 '12 at 03:29
  • not suer why any one would use yours when google analytics is 'better' however if piwik works for you then sure use that. –  Dec 12 '12 at 03:32
  • I am not trying to rebuild google analytics. I do need a feature that shows members of my site other members website's analytics and I am not sure the best way to do that. – CodeCrack Dec 12 '12 at 03:41

1 Answers1

0

To record the traffic is very simple. BUT, and that's a big but for a few things to keep in mind:

  • Creating reports based on your traffic log will be a lot more complicated in comparison
  • Your server needs to be very fast and can keep up with the traffic otherwise the websites you are tracking will appear to load slower and the owners will not be very happy
  • Depending on how many and how busy the websites you are tracking, you may need a server or a cluster of servers with quite big storage and processing power

If you are thinking about doing this for commercial purpose, there's already a few pretty big players in this space so do some research before making big commitments.

sn00k4h
  • 443
  • 4
  • 10
  • I just need to show all my users how much traffic each one of their websites is getting. Let's say there are two clothes stores that joined my site. I want them to see side by side comparison of visitors, uniques, etc. Is that something I should use a 3rd party open source for then? – CodeCrack Dec 12 '12 at 04:07
  • If I was to do that I would just write my own, for flexibility sake. Especially considering it's not something that complex to write. But if you just want to get something up and running quickly to sort of "test the water" the open source option doesn't sound that bad either. It's more of a business decision rather than a technical one I think. – sn00k4h Dec 12 '12 at 06:00