1. 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
   Tip 3 (new in 1.7.10): hover on date to see a resume of visitors, pageviews,spiders and feeds.
   
   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.
• New in v1.7.10: Added error information resume in graphic view (in red)
  
  
  

• 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
  

• 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)
  
  
  
  

• Current table size/number of records.
• Queries executed
• Queries cached. Statcomm currently uses a custom cache system to boost the data visualization.
• Current spent for displaying the entire page
• Ohter details: RSS2, ATOM, RSS, and RSS2 and ATOM comments

2. Details

3. Spy feature: who's there?

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

5.  Export Feature

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.
v1.7.20 added an tabbed Interface, splitting the options in General and Advanced.
v1.7.30 added subplugin Interface.

The General 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 Version: every UAS db has its own version coded YYYYMMDD-XX (year-month-day-version number) . It will say also when it was downloaded.
• (1.7.50): Checking Multibyte String: GeoIP location needs the Multibyte String Module installed on Apache server. See this discussion on the forum explaining the problem. Pay attention the plugin will alert about the problem, but the only way is to delete the maxmind database from the installation.Next version this option can be manually disabled to skip this problem.

Here you will see the most common options in the General Panel:

• 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.
• 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.
• (new in 1.7.10):Display error counter in graphic view (in red): We added a new option to summarize errors on every day. This is optional and by default disabled. You would be suprised how many 404 errors you have in your site everyday. In version 1.7.30 we added the Error Report subplugin to complement this information

The Advanced Panel

The Advanced tab is only available for Administrators in single mode. In multisite, these options are only available for Network administrators under Network Admin Dashboard.

• 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 setting allows installing the Maxmind database, needed for geolocation. You will need to be sure that the ini files are in place (see StatComm advanced features). 
• Also delete Statcomm table when uninstall: check this option if you decide Statcomm table when you uninstall the plugin.
• 1.7.60: This version has included the chance of disabling or enabling both databases in case you have any kind of problems. The reports will change accordinglythose settings.

Notes for multisite use:

• All these settings are available globally for Network Admin in a special page, while it will be disabled for all other users. See Multisite for further instructions.
• These settings are global. If you don't update the Maxmind database , it will affect to all sites on your network.

7. Unknown User Agents

8. Multisite

StatComm 1.7.20 introduces multisite capability, a feature highly requested . The multisite version allows one installation and a network-wide running, installation and global uninstall.
The current Statcomm version adresses the following aspects:

• One-click network wide installation & uninstall
• One page for global administration settings. When you activate Statcomm from Network, you'll have a page to control global settings. These settings are the sam as Advanced Options tab, but controlled globally.

• Optionally delete all the tables when uninstall. This option works in all-or-nothing behavior. As Network administrator you won't go blog by blog deleting tables after uninstall. Also, you can decide to keep the table for a future upgrade.
• All sites will share the same User Agent database and Maxmind database. Is up to the Network Admin to keep these settings updated, a task that maybe you have to do once every 6 months.

Consider these facts when you activate StatComm in a Wordpress network site:

• The current version (1.7.20) was tested using subdomain configuration only. Please read Before You Create a Network to understand what we mean.  
• Be aware the multisite mode using differents paths is currently untested.
• When you activate StatComm network-wide, the advanced settings tab is disabled for all users (including Network Admin). A message will be displayed for every user if he/she tries to access to Advanced Tab. Only a Super Admin (Network Admin) can control these settings from the Network Admin Dashboard.
• Currently, a single Statcomm install create some option settings, and also a table. In multisite environment, it creates one table per site. Consider this last aspect if you have an extended network. If you have 100 sites in the network, it means that Statcomm will create 100 new tables, one per site, which it could delay the startup and stress the site space resources in the long run.
• Current version attempts to upgrade the StatComm table if it is found. Depending on how much data is in the table, it can take some time (as much as one minute in 200k tables for example). In multisite environment and worst case scenario, this time can be multiplied by the number of sites in the network. Next plugin version will try to determine first if the table needs an upgrade skip the process if it doesn't need one.
• Currently there are no concerns about performance. StatComm as it is doesn't consume many resources and the panel is currently optimized to cache most of results.

9. Subplugins

While Statcomm complexity is increasing and more functionality is added on every version. But for many user,  some of these added functionality could bring small or not benefit. That's why we decide to build a custom functionality to get in control of the overall present and future functionalities. Subplugins work much like plugins, but its functionality is circunscribed to Statcomm helpers.
Some principles that applies to subplugins:

• Subplugins are packaged with Statcomm. When you install the plugin, it will include subplugins as  well.
• Subplugins currently has to be activated to be used. Initial state is deactivated
• Subplugins only can be activated/deactivated. They don't uninstall or update independently of Statcomm plugin.
• Subplugins resides on [Statcomm-plugin-folder]/subplugins  folder.
• Subplugins are much like plugins , using the StatComm internal framework to do its task.
• Subplugins uses same header as the plugins.
• Any developer who develop plugins ,can develop a subplugin. After creating a subplugin, drop into subplugin folder to be listed and then activate it.
  

Subplugins & Multisite

    Subplugin are also enabled for multisite. In the current development stage, we've decided for simplification that subplugin activation will be controlled by network administrator and no one else.  Administrators on sites over a Wordpress network won't be able to control activation settings, although they can use the subplugin functionality if it is activated.

        1. Subplugin: Error Report

            The Error Report subplugin adds a custom functionality to Statcomm covering a requested feature. It displays a detailed list of errors (mostly 404 & 403 errors) currently happened in the site.  Follows these steps to activate Error Report:
            1. If you are an administrator (single site) or network administrator, go to the Options page to configure it

        2. After activation, a page will  appear on the bottom of Statcomm page. You will see an ER links under every column in the Statcomm Overview chart. Those links will take you to the Error Report for a specific date in time.

        3. The links goes straight to Error Report where you can see a error resume for every page. Current version doesn't have any icons, but it will be solved to the next version 1.7.50

        1. Subplugin: Shortcodes Subplugin

This subplugin, when enabled allows you insert information about the user like, IP, user browser, operative system and others details.
When activated, a Shortcodes Help will be available on the Statcomm main Menu

Please refer to the Shortcodes Help to understand how to get the most of it. Examples and link pages are also provided.

4. StatComm Advanced Features

5.    Language features and considerations

6.    Widgets

Top Posts Widget

Print widget

StatComm offers two widgets to show relevant information about your traffic stats.
The TopPosts widgets shows the most viewed pages on your site, while the StatComm Custom View widget allows you to present the data in multiple ways depending on your choice.

In version 1.6.2  both widget were updated. The Topposts widget will be also improved in the on the incoming versions.

7. Services used by StatComm

• 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. Data Migration

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 is automatically disabled.
• The Migration Tool is capable of migration from many different plugins described on  Migrating from Statpress plugins to StatComm: a how-to guide
• 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 estimates 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 averages from 100 to 500 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
• (2012-08-06): In some servers the migration can't be done due user restrictions. The migration procedure tries to set adjust set_time_limit variable. If StatComm fails to set this variable properly , an error will be raised . Version 1.7.10 and above is capable of detecting and displaying such condition. In those cases the migration is not possible and it will be disabled. Ask an administrator to help you in this scenario.
• Once the migration is started, keep the page open until it is finished. Closing the page before ending the process will end up in an incomplete migration. You can restart the migration but you cannot continue previous failed migrations.

    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!
• Since version 1.7.10 this problem has been contained.. Our projections indicates that StatComm should handle one million records easily. A new cache system combined with the table database redesign  should be enough to manage many millions of records.We currently consider that Statcomm should work fine with around 1M to 3M records (one to three millions records). We don't have samples of that size (yet) so this is theoretical.
• StatComm records table takes database space. Every 150K records takes about 25 to 30MB database space.We don't recommend go further than 500MB (about 2 million records more or less). That should be enough for middle to big sites, Future releases of Statcomm will deal about consolidation (summarize information to provide historic information) 
• If you want to shrink table database size, there are few improvements you can do :
• 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 1.000.000 records (one million)
• Drop information you consider useless. Usually spider information tend to be as high as 60% (or more) of the total information stored. If you want 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 it to an appropiate value.
• If  your traffic is high (above 10.000 daily) you can also want to delete older visits 
• Why do I bother collecting data.? Better keep it small and forget about everything...
• 'I want it all' or 'keep as small as possible' strategies are valid, but consider this: StatComm will continue improving with the time. In no-so-distant point in the future, we'll include analytics tools to help you understand trends using your historic data(this year for sure(2012)). When the time comes,  you will learn a great deal about your site just looking back your statistics. Try to keep a balance between size and relevant information. If your site is user-oriented, discarding spider information will keep your resources high. But if you site is targetted for example to make analytic studies about  spiders, that might not be a good idea.
  
• 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 earliest StatComm versions relied 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.
• What is the Maxmind database? Maxmind is database used to find out information of users based on the IP. It allows a very good degree of information although it is not perfect. Statcomm is using a free version of this db. You cant get more information on the original site of Maxmind .
• Where is the Maxmind database stored? It is stored in the def folder on the plugin location, 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!
• Contact us in  support site or go to the forums
• I have a suggestion to make!
• Great! Please use the links above to contact us.

10.     Credits