Web Analytics & Stats

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+1 Q:

Web Analytics & Stats

Hi Guys,

We want to add tracking statistics to a web application we are building but are pretty unsure of how to go about it. (i.e. clicks, pageviews, unique visits etc)

Does anyone have any articles on the best way to go about incorporating tracking data into an application ? i.e. javascript tracking or IIS etc ?

We want to add tracking in as a ASP.NET MVC module - but we are unsure as to the best way to actually get the data and essentially 'track' this information ?

If anyone could help out - much appreciated.

Edit: just to be clear, we want to do this in-house and present the stats to our users as an additional fee module?

Google analytics is a popular service. You just insert a bit of javascript on every page that contains your sites name and Google tracks the data and provides all the report on a handy web based dashboard.

It's not an ASP.net MVC module like what you mentioned, but it will certain track stats for you and will be a lot simpler to set up than trying to code or integrate anything yourselves.

I'd look at analytics to begin with and only branch out to something more complex if it doesn't meet your requirements.

Simon P Stevens 2009-09-21 13:23:58

hi thx for the response - we are wanting to do this in house - not use an external service etc.

2009-09-21 13:25:31

Ahh, I see. Sorry then, I don't know what else to suggest. I would consider google unless you have a really good reason for not using an external service. It's going to give you what you want far faster than building it yourself, and it will reduce load on your server compared to using a asp.net module.

Simon P Stevens 2009-09-21 13:32:20

hey thanks a lot simon - yeah we considered that but we are looking at adding tracking as additional module that can be purchased - so this is reason asking what is the best way to add tracking

2009-09-21 13:33:21

Google also purchased a product called Urchin which provides web statistical analysis in house. You might look at integrating that into your application. No matter how you look at it, the best way to add tracking is going to be through a third party tool that specializes in tracking analysis.

pdavis 2009-09-21 13:40:48

we thought as much - but we are quite keen to see if we can integrate our own even at a basic level. it seems that javascript or pixel tracking is also a popular method of doing things - not sure about the differences between IIS logs and JS/Pixel ?

2009-09-21 13:47:01

+2 A:

You can turn on the logging for IIS and then use the SQL Server Report Server Pack for IIS. It comes with many canned reports for your sites stats and then you could take it from there with your own custom reports.

You could also just use log parser to get the stats into a SQL Server DB and then you could use SQL from their to analyse and roll your own app.

Either way, you could modularize this and sell it as an add-on to your customer base.

klabranche 2009-09-21 13:34:02

hey thanks a lot - so you are suggesting that IIS log analysis is the best way to measure stats ? not using some sort of javascript or pixel tracker ? we were sure of the diff v benefits of using IIS vs javascript or pixel tracking

2009-09-21 13:36:11

That's a good question and I personally don't know the answer to it. We have tracked our stat's for years with the IIS logs and have been happy. Perhaps the JS way etc... has some advantages... Not sure myself.

klabranche 2009-09-21 13:42:19

You get IIS log analytics for free. To do anything better than that, you'd need to think of what business questions you're trying to answer with logging. Are you looking for slow pages? Unused features? To see if anyone is still using MSIE 6? Count of simultaneous users in a time frame for load planning?

MatthewMartin 2009-09-21 13:55:31

thx for the post - we are quite keen to see if we can integrate our own even at a basic level. it seems that javascript or pixel tracking is also a popular method of doing things - not sure about the differences between IIS logs and JS/Pixel ?

2009-09-21 14:08:47

+1 A:

You could use Piwik, you just need PHP version 5.1.3 or greater and MySQL version 4.1 or greater. As they say in their website, "Piwik aims to be an open source alternative to Google Analytics."

They have a demo on the official website so you can see if it's what you're looking for.

GmonC 2009-09-21 13:49:26

yeah thanks - we found this also. but it seems its written in PHP and we are looking for something in ASP.NET MVC :(

2009-09-21 13:52:08

Usually is easy to use php in these setups, that's why I gave this answer even when you said specifically "asp.net". Well, good luck with the solution proposed by klabranche!

GmonC 2009-09-21 14:39:36

ansaurus

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