StatPress Community Help

ť We're entering a new world in which data may be more important than software. Tim O'Reilly

ť You can have data without information, but you cannot have information without data. Daniel Keys Moran

ť Errors using inadequate data are much less than those using no data at all. Charles Babbage

Graphics view: Visual Traffic View
The Visual Traffic View can be accessed clicking the StatPress main

In a single view, you will appreciate the current day traffic, categorized by Visitors, PageViews, Spiders and Feeds. Over the graphic bar, you will have a briefing about today's traffic, yesterday's traffic and several calculations and consolidated data.

Tip: hover the mouse on each graphic bar to see specific values of visitors, pageviews ,spiders and feeds.
Tip 2: hover the mouse over the IP to spy information about current user. See Instant Spy

Above the graphics you have several reports on the current traffic:

Last hits: Report about the 20 last visitors, including time, page they went, OS, and browser.
New in v1.6.90: StatComm is able to track error pages and other errors, highlighting the rows.

Improved last hits overview (since 1.6.3)

New on StatComm 1.6.3:

OS, Browser/Engines and spider icons added
Hovering on links provides more information
Links on Pages, OS and Browser/Engines
Browser/Engine version (when is possible)
Hovering the links will show complete link information

New on StatComm 1.6.60:

When GeoLocation enabled, the Last Hits provide more info about country (hover flag to see the country name), the region and the city.
Important: columns Flag, Region & City only visible if you download and enabled the Maxmind database. See Plugin Options

Last search terms: shows what were the last terms that users were looking for before reach your site. Very useful for SEO purposes. (Improved on StatComm 1.6.3, with icons, links, hovering information and more)
Improved Last Search in 1.6.4
Last referrers: shows where are the incoming users going. (improved on StatComm 1.6.3)
Last agents: show what were the last agents (browsers or different programs navigating on your site) who reached the site.(Improved on StatComm 1.6.3, with icons, links, hovering information and more)
Last pages: show the last pages visited for the visitors (Improved on StatComm 1.6.3, with icons, links, hovering information and more)
Last spiders: show the last spider (search engines) which visited the site. (Improved on StatComm 1.6.3, with icons, links, hovering information and more)

In the bottom of the page there is also some valuable information to be noted:

Current table size/number of records: Give an idea about records stored.
Current time
Ohter details: RSS2, ATOM, RSS, and RSS2 and ATOM comments

2. Details

The Details menu provides a different statistical view of the data stored. This view summarizes the information based on all current records to display trending information and categorizes in different areas, as Top 5 days, OS, Browser, Feeds Totals, Search Engines, Top Search Items, Countries, Spiders, etc.

3. Spy feature: who's there?

The Spy feature is used to understand and follow the single activity of particular users, allowing track down the pages visited, time, procedence and IP.
This view will group the user activity by ip giving an overview of his/her current navigation trends on the site.

3.1 Instant Spy Tool: Who are you?

From Statcomm 1.6.70 Statcomm provides an extra tool to provide instant insight information from the current traffic. Since version 1.6.90 it also includes Google Maps to provide a view from latitude/longitude.

This tool provides an easy way to see an user activity just hovering the mouse over the IP. A tooltip will appear providing all information relative to the current record selected.
The following information is provided:

Record Id Number
Nation Flag, Country Name, Continent, City and Region
Latitude/Longitude
Browser and Operative System (if applies) . If it is a RSS reader will provide the best info possible.
Pages visited by user . You can specify how many days go back to inspect and also how many max. records to retrieve (configurable from the Options Panel)
Searched text if apply.
New in v1.6.90: browseable Google Maps.

4. Global Search

The Global Search allows find information from the data tables.The search will include all the records currently stored to retrieve results.

5. Export Feature

The export data allows saving your traffic data to text or CSV files for further analysis. You can even import this information to other tables for further analysis. Currently it supports date ranges.

6. Control & Filter &Customize data view: Options

The Options Panel allows to change different settings and even alter the normal plugin behavior to your convenience.
After new improvements in version 1.6.40 with using the Settings API provided for Wordpress, version 1.6.50 continues with the expansion adding features for automatic data updates.
v1.6.60 added Maxmind Gelocation service.

The component checking panel

The upper panel provides the following information:

Checking if ZipArchive class is available: when it's time to download the User Agent String data, this info comes zipped. StatComm uses ZipArchive to unpackage the data. If this component isn't present, the plugin will be unable of unpackaging the data.

What if this class isn't available in your system? The only drawback will be that you cannot be capable of getting any updates. In this case we recommend find a way of installing this class on the host or disable the download service.

Checking if folder def is writable: StatComm needs this folder be writeable in order to download updates.

What if your def folder is non writeable?: You won't get any UAS db updates. You can continue working with the current local UAS database.
I want to make def folder read-only: please disable the download service to avoid getting any updates.

Current User Agent String DB Download Service is (Enabled/Disabled): indicates if the service is running, you can change it with the options below.
Current User Agent String DB Version: every UAS db has its own version coded YYYYMMDD-XX (year-month-day-version number) . It will say also when it was downloaded.
StatComm will update User Agent String DB in: countdown to show when is the next check

Here you will see the most common options:

Also collect data about logged users: By default, StatComm does not collect traffic generated by logged users. If this option is enabled, all activity would be logged (even admin activity). This option is useful when the site has specific purpose (like for example, a community with membership)
Do not collect spiders visits: The spiders are automatic programs browsing your site to collect data for indexing. They are not users, but they act like one. Unless exceptional cases, the data collected from the spiders activity tends to be big and useless. This option disable spiders recording and saves an important space in the records table.
Automatically delete visits older than...: StatComm captures visitor information until eventually the maximum database capacity or hardware capacity, which ever runs out first. The excesive amount of data would cause a performance loss on the plugin, specially evident when summarizing data to display graphic statistics. Depending on your traffic, it would be wise to clear the data records from time to time. The available options are (Never delete (which is default), 1,3,6 or 12 months).
Automatically delete spiders visits older than: For the reasons above mentioned, the traffic generated by spiders are normally not worth it. It is possible to schedule its deletion to keep the records clean , so the plugin will perform faster. Options are 1 day, 1 week, 1 month or 1 year. It would be clever to activate this option for deleting undesired data stored and keep user information.
Days in Overview graph: You can change the amount of columns in the Overview Graphic Bar from here. Options are 7, 10, 20, 30 and 50 days.
Minimum Capability to view stats: Usually the statistics are allowed only for admin users, but in case you need to allow view statistics to user with less privileges, you can change this feature to an appropiate level. Fixed in v1.6.5: the user only can set privileges from its user level and above.
User Agent String Database: This automattic settings detect if there is a new UAS database available and it will allow you to update if you want.
Check to enable User-Agent-String Db download service: This settings allows disable the service if you are absolutely freak about security concern. Note that if you disable the service, the plugin will continue running normally with the current database. You will need to be sure that the ini files are in place (see StatComm advanced features)
Check to enable Maxmind Geolocation service: this new characteristics will enable to get see more information about incoming users, like country, region and city and also another information. This featyure will be used in following versions to expand the plugin. CAUTION: to enable this feature, you would need to download the Maxmind database. Please follow the link to download the databse. The download is auttomatic and it should be smooth.
How many days to spy back: it is possible to set how many days (from today) to inspect back and find possible previous visit from current visitor. You can go as far as one year. We recommend to set no more than 1 month.(more time means more time to get the calculation done).
How many days in the spy list: You can control how many result to display in Spy tool (Instant Spy and also Spy tool page) from 5 (default) to 20 results.

7. Unknown User Agents

StatComm attempt to understand the incoming traffic and separate users from spiders. This decision is based on identifiers provided by the browser signatuer (User Agent String). When it fails to recognize it, the Agent is listed on this Category. Due the changing nature of Internet and browsers, the Agent string is always growing, requiring that StatComm update its internal Agent database from time to time.

4. StatComm Advanced Features

Although StatComm provides a great deal of information, it has many other features which improves its functionality.
Since StatComm 1.6.3, all information about spiders, user agents (spiders and browsers) and operative systems is handled using a new API (see FAQ in this document for more information)
Some of these characteristics will be expanded for easier maintenance. Perhaps one of the most interesting and not-so-known features are their custom definition table (.dat tables) and also their user agent data (.ini tables) to store . All those definition tables are stored on the plugin location, under the def folder, and those tables play a key rol on StatComm configuration.

Ban IP feature: the banips.dat file keeps a list of ip to be rejected. When a user try to get your blog through any IP listed on this table definition, it will automatically banned (the plugin does not track activity for this ip).
New in StatComm 1.6.3: the plugin uses a new engine to keep track of incoming users/spiders, relying on three different files:

uasdata.ini: Contains all information about browsers, operative systems and spiders.
cache.ini: temporal file used by the engine to mark version and when check for updates.
searchterm.ini: track search engines and extract searched terms from the referrer.

Files browser.dat,os.dat,searchengines.dat and spider.dat becomes obsolete from StatComm 1.6.3. If you install this plugin manually, you can safely remove it.
Since 1.6.50 we remade the plugin to get updates from the User Agent String database (UAS DB) using a more reliable service.
Since version 1.6.60 the plugin uses the Maxmind geolocation database to provide enhanced information from the incoming traffic.

Extensibility

Since version 1.6.90 Statcomm provides a way to extend and handle the data stored on its internal database table.
the action statcomm_info fires after a visitor enters you site,
In version 1.7.00 we introduce the filter statcomm_preinsert where you can control/filter and modify the information before Statcomm save it to the databse.
Since these features are very advanced, we suggest go to Expanding StatComm: statcomm_info action for extra documentation and some basic examples.

5. Language features and considerations

StatComm support currently many languages including English, Italian, Spanish, French, German, Russian, Norwegian, Dutch, Brazilian (Portugues), Turkish and Swedish. More languages will be supported in the newer versions.

The language will switch automatically depending on the Wordpress WPLANG value. This can be defined on the wp-config.php Wordpress file.
Example:

define('WPLANG', 'es_ES'); //switching Wordpress to Spanish, will automatically set StatComm to Spanish.

6. Widgets

7. Services used by StatComm

Statcomm relies on Internet services to keep it running. In normal circunstances you won't even know that, but is good to know what services are used with StatComm to give them the credit they deserves:

~~hostip API~~ : provides geolocalization and also flags icons. Note: since v1.6.70 this feature is provided by Maxmind database.
Project Honeypot: this service for spam analysis is used in the Unknown User Agents menu to validate and inspect potential dangerous ip.
User Agent String info: this site provides an API to access to the information about user agents around the Internet, with a database frequently updated. StatComm includes a class to handle the complexity of retrieving information and automatically download the user agent database. Update: 1.6.4 currently has user agent database running but the download is disabled. We detect that potential users could be banned from getting database from the original site so, what it was solved in version 1.6.5
User Agent String Database Repository (UAS db Repository): since v1.6.5 StatComm updates the UAS using a custom service in more stable way. The updates runs automatically . We recommend updates every 2 weeks, this can be changed from the settings from 1 week or to a month, since the info is not critical.
Maxmind Geolocation database: Since version 1.6.60 is possible to use geolocation. Go to Options download the geolocation database and activate using the checkbox. The plugin automatically checks if the database is available to provide additional information in the reports.

8. Migration

StatComm 1.7.00 is the first version providing a tool for migrating data from unsupported Statpress-statistics-like plugins.
We've been working on the subject and we'll publish our findings shortly. Part of our research includes this Migration tool that will explain here.

The Migration Tool has some aspects to be noticed:

It is oriented to migrate data from statpress plugins. The Migration Tool expect to find a statpress table on your database. If none is found the Migration Tool won't work.
The Migration Tool is capable of migration from many different plugins.
The tool provides two simple but powerful options to filter information:

Suppress spiders: this option will discard all the spider information, keeping the user traffic alone. It is recommended.
Supress records before...: this option only keeps traffic date from one date and ahead. Useful if you have a huge table or you decide to discard some information.When we say huge we are talking tables with 500k records or more.

Before start, the tool estimate the table size and number of record to migrate. (in green)
You will need to save the options first (clicking Save settings) and then press the START MIGRATION button.

Be aware of the following limitations:

The migration is slow. In our tests, it took 29 minutes to migrate 120k records in an average-to-worst-scenario(68 rec/sec). In a regular server you can expect around 100 rec/sec. The reason behind that speed is because the plugin normalizes all the incoming data to get a properly standarized information. The speed can be improved filtering spiders.
We tested also other ways to data migration . Due our findings are interesting but long enough, please see Migrating from Statpress plugins to StatComm: a how-to guide

9. FAQ

Is there any special considerations about installation?

Since version 1.6.3, StatComm uses a new API to retrieve information about user agents. Therefore, it will need the def folder under the plugin installation folder to be writable (777) in order to download the user agent database and perform updates to the cache.
After that the user agent database requires no manual maintenance. It is handled automatically.
Since version 1.6.5 you can control the service, setting the refresh update and also enabling/disabling the service. The settings were introduced if you want to tighten your WP installation and you want to leave def folder read only and stop refreshing UAS db.

Does Statcomm needs to communicate to another services?

Sure it does. See Services used by StatComm for an overview about different services needed.

The plugin becomes slow when I have so much data!

Although this version is not focused to performance yet, there are few improvements you can do to make the plugin works quite fine :

Check the footer on overview page. You will see the table size and how many records you are currently handling. We recommend for the current version to stay below 100.000 records. Future version are targetted for performance so stay tuned.
Drop information you consider useless. Usually spider information tend to be as high as 60% (or more) of the total information stored. If you desire to delete spiders information, there is an option to Not collect spiders visits. You can also delete older information about spiders, there is also an option to do that. Set to an appropiate value.
If your traffic is high (above 5000 daily) You can also want to delete older visits
Issues about performance problems will solved on the iterations StatComm 1.7.10 and ahead.

What is the User Agent String Database?

The User Agent String Database (UAS DB) is group of .ini files who provides detailed information about browsers, spiders, and operative systems from your traffic. This database is provided by sites like User-Agent-String.info . This plugin provides a way to handle this information and download updates.

Why using UAS db against using older .dat files?: the .dat files is a hardcoded format with no updates. Therefore, most current version of Statpress and previous version of StatComm relies in data which is becoming quickly obsolete. The UAS db provides a straightforward solution to stay updated and get the most accurate information from your traffic.
Where is the Maxmind database stored? It is stored in the def folder, with the name GeoLiteCity.dat.
I can't download the database from Maxmind: With slow connections, the database could be difficult to download. Also, if you try to download it many times in a short period, your ip could be banned from some time. Try later. In any case you can download the database, decompress it and put it on the plugin def folder. The plugin will detect the file and you can proceed normally.
Something isn't working in the way it should!

I have a suggestion to make!

Great! Please use the links above to contact us.

10. Credits

StatComm is a complete and much improved rewrite of StatPress, another stats plugin. It will provide on the following versions a truly way to update from many unsupported or outdated StatPress plugins variations. A detailed milestone is under way in the main site. StatComm is currently under development, providing support and appreciating the feedback from its starting community.

This project is based on the develop of thousands of contributors along the web & time. Without them, this work would be unfeasible. The StatComm Project will bring to the present those efforts, project it to the future and build the best and most advanced stats plugin conceivable.

"The best software is not about brilliant coding. It's about careful listening".

Changes/Features/Improvement	What is in it for you?
Migration tool	Provides a way to migrate data from unsupported Statpress plugins.
Filter: statcomm_preinsert	For advanced users, you can control/filter precisely what you will save to StatComm database.
Language detection	Detects default language for the browser useful to know in advance visitor language.
Beyond Statcomm: action statcomm_info added	This feature allows you to interact with the plugin, extending it with your ideas. Some examples will be included in the blog and forum shortly
Improved: Improved custom action: it doesn't need Maxmind database activated anymore Fixed problem with characters in main view Fix: database tables update should need activation deactivation procedure.	More on this feature in http://wpgetready.com/2012/05/expanding-statcomm-statcomm_info-action/ Foreign languages using special characters should see text correctly now.

Changes/Features/Improvement

What is in it for you?

Introduction

1. What is StatPress Comunity?

2. How does it works?

3. StatComm Main Features

Graphics view: Visual Traffic View