=== Author Metrics by Eslam ===
Contributors: eslamsalah2025
Tags: author analytics, author dashboard, analytics, author statistics, publishing
Requires at least: 6.2
Tested up to: 7.1
Requires PHP: 8.0
Stable tag: 2.1.6
License: GPLv2 or later
License URI: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html
Plugin URI: https://authormetrics.eslamgaming.com/
Author: Eslam Salah
Author URI: https://eslamgaming.com/

Author analytics for WordPress: track views, articles, traffic sources, devices, countries, and live traffic from one dashboard.

== Description ==

Author Metrics by Eslam is focused on author-view analytics for publishers, blogs, magazines, news sites, and editorial teams.

Authors can use the dashboard to view:
* Valid and invalid view statistics
* Unique visitor and visit-behavior metrics
* Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, and all-time views
* Article counts and article performance
* Country, device, and traffic-source statistics
* Live traffic and current visitors
* Monthly performance and top-viewed articles
* Author achievements that are based on analytics activity

Administrators can configure:
* Author analytics and tracking settings
* Tracking-data retention
* GeoIP country detection preferences
* Author registration and basic WordPress author management
* Security logs and system health checks
* Arabic and English interfaces

The plugin supports Arabic and English interfaces and bundles its required interface assets locally.

== Features ==

* Author view analytics dashboard
* Valid and invalid view classification
* Unique visitor and visit-behavior analytics
* Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, and all-time reporting
* Article counts and performance statistics
* Country, device, and traffic-source analytics
* Live traffic view
* Monthly performance and top-article statistics
* Author analytics-based achievements
* Tracking-data retention controls
* GeoIP country detection settings
* Security logs and system health checks
* Arabic and English support

== External Services ==

Author Metrics by Eslam can optionally use external GeoIP services to determine a visitor's country for country-level analytics. The site administrator controls all external GeoIP lookups from the plugin settings. When enabled and a local country signal is unavailable, the plugin sends the visitor IP address to the first available GeoIP provider in the fallback chain. No account, article, or analytics data is intentionally sent to these providers.

**ipwho.is**

ipwho.is: https://ipwho.is/
ipwho.is documentation: https://ipwho.is/documentation/
ipwho.is terms: https://ipwhois.io/terms
ipwho.is privacy policy: https://ipwhois.io/privacy

**ip-api**

ip-api: http://ip-api.com/
ip-api documentation: https://ip-api.com/docs/api:json
ip-api terms and policies: https://members.ip-api.com/legal
ip-api privacy policy: https://members.ip-api.com/privacy-policy

The plugin uses the public free ip-api endpoint only as a country-lookup fallback. According to ip-api's current service information, the free endpoint is limited to 45 requests per minute, does not provide HTTPS/SSL, and is intended for non-commercial use. Site administrators should review ip-api's current terms before enabling this provider and may disable all external GeoIP services from the plugin settings at any time.

No remote JavaScript or CSS libraries are required for the plugin interface. Required interface assets are bundled locally.

== Privacy ==

Author Metrics by Eslam may store author/user IDs, article IDs, visit timestamps, IP addresses, referrers, user-agent information, country information, and security events needed to provide the analytics and administration features. Site administrators should configure an appropriate tracking-retention period and provide their own privacy disclosures as required by applicable laws.

Visitor analytics runs according to the site administrator’s tracking settings. Visits are classified according to the configured traffic-protection rules. Privacy-related signals such as Do Not Track (DNT) and Global Privacy Control (GPC) can be classified as invalid traffic when the corresponding protection option is enabled.

When external GeoIP is enabled by the site administrator, visitor IP addresses may be sent to ipwho.is or ip-api for country lookup as described in the External Services section. The plugin also provides WordPress personal-data export and erasure callbacks for plugin-owned user data.

== Installation ==

1. Upload the Author Metrics by Eslam ZIP file through Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin, or install it from the WordPress plugin directory.
2. Activate the plugin.
3. Open Author Metrics by Eslam in the WordPress administration area.
4. Configure analytics, tracking-retention, GeoIP, and other available settings.

== Frequently Asked Questions ==

= What does Author Metrics by Eslam provide? =
Author Metrics by Eslam focuses on author-view analytics, including valid and invalid views, unique visitors, article performance, country, device, traffic-source, and live-traffic statistics.

= Can authors publish articles normally? =
Yes. Authors use the normal WordPress publishing workflow with the permissions assigned by the site administrator.

= Is GeoIP lookup required? =
No. Country analytics can use locally available country signals first. External GeoIP lookup is optional and controlled by the site administrator.

= How long is tracking data stored? =
The administrator can configure the tracking-data retention period from the plugin settings.

== Support ==

For documentation and support, visit:
https://authormetrics.eslamgaming.com/

== Changelog ==

= 2.1.6 =
* Modification 4: added ip-api as the secondary external GeoIP fallback in the free edition and connected it to the all-external-services setting.
* Modification 2: improved dark-mode lighting for the completed Onboarding Checklist state.
* Carries forward Modification 1, the successful achievements migration and immediate-evaluation fix, as the required baseline for this release.
* Added featured-image thumbnails to Author Statistics > Most viewed articles with responsive images and hover effects.
* Added featured-image thumbnails beside post titles on the native WordPress Posts screen with hover effects.
* Bumped the plugin package version to 2.1.6; legacy migration version remains unchanged.

= 2.1.5 =
* Fixed a critical-error risk during legacy prefix migration by processing old option, usermeta, and postmeta data in small resumable batches instead of loading all matching rows into PHP memory at once.
* Added migration progress state and a safe WP-Cron continuation path, with a bounded admin fallback when WP-Cron is disabled.
* Fixed Author Achievements so administrators can view the page without being evaluated as tracked authors.
* Preserved achievement evaluation, author ranking, dashboard notifications, and email notifications for author and contributor accounts.
* Bumped the plugin version and legacy migration version to 2.1.5.

= 2.1.4 =
* Hardened database migrations and maintenance SQL with WordPress identifier placeholders.
* Tightened late output escaping for generated admin markup and dynamic author labels.
* Updated the minimum WordPress version to 6.2 for identifier-placeholder support.

= 2.1.3 =
* Security, escaping, request validation, asset loading, and WordPress.org compliance improvements.
* Improved compatibility for existing Author Metrics data during internal prefix migration.

= 2.1.0 =
* Focused the WordPress.org edition on author analytics.
* Updated readme metadata and feature descriptions for the WordPress.org edition.
* Updated WordPress compatibility information for WordPress 7.1.

= 2.0.0 =
* Complete author analytics system.
* Multilingual support.
* Author registration and administration tools.
