SimpleStats

Track page views, referrers and devices on your Kirby 3 website.
This plugin provides a simple solution for self-hosted, minimal and non-intrusive visitor analytics.

• It tracks referrer URLs to keep track of who links to your website, categorised as either search, social or website.
• It tracks device information (device types, browser engine, OS family; all version-less) for keeping track of how your website is visited.
• It tracks page visits, counting 1 hit per page per unique user per language, every 24H.
• The collected data is stored in a .sqlite database (raw data) which you could query for custom purposes. The Stats class also exposes most collected data.
• A panel area visualises the data in charts.

How it works

• Tracking happens when the page is served by Kirby.
• A crypted user-unique fingerprint is stored in order to track unique page views.
  The formula is more or less sha1( base64_encode( mix( anonimize(IP, 0.0.0.x) + trunc(UserAgent) + Salt)) ).
  It’s stored together with a list of visited pages, the device category (bot/mobile/desktop/tablet/other), the browser’s engine (Gecko/Webkit/Blink/Other) and OS Family.
  This data is kept for a very short amount of time to ensure only counting unique hits.
• After 24H, the collected data is processed and any user identifying data is deleted :
  • The visited pages’ hit counts are incremented, globally and per language.
  • Device, Engine and OS Family are separately incremented.
• Referrers are processed immediately and are not bound to any user-related identifier.
• All data is summed up on a monthly basis by default. You can easily change this “timeframe” to weekly or even provide your own custom timeframe utility.

Current state

Consider this plugin beta. Any feedback or bug reports are welcome. It’s been successfully running on multiple production websites for about a year. The tracking part is almost done, when the panel interface will be more polished, I’ll consider a first release.
Please note that the database structure might evolve over time, until a more stable release is available (for which you’ll be able upgrade your old databases; the upgrade meccanism already works).

Contributing

I guess a lot of options could be added to suit the plugin for a wider variety of website setups. The panel interface could also be improved and translated.
Any contributions (discussions, reports, feedback and pull requests) are welcome, as long as the collected stats stay minimal and reasonably non-intrusive.
You may also have a look at the open issues.

Setup

Requirements

• A recent Kirby installation (currently tested with 3.9+) and support for SQLite3.
• There’s an automatic requirements checker in the Information tab of the plugin’s panel view.

Installation

• Option 1 : Download
  Download and copy this repository to /site/plugins/simplestats.

• Option 2 : Git submodule

  git submodule add https://github.com/daandelange/kirby3-simplestats.git site/plugins/simplestats

  Eventually add --depth 1 to discard the repo commit history. (saves disk space)

• Option 3 : Composer (update the command to match the latest version)
  composer require daandelange/simplestats:~0.6.2-beta (update with composer update)
  Note: While SimpleStats is still alpha, there is no stable channel for composer, so you need to specify the unstable version.
  Note: I don’t make a release for every small change. If you want to use the latest version with composer, you can manually enter a commit :
  composer require daandelange/simplestats:dev-master#dbdb4a2 --with-dependencies.

Configuration

Stats blueprint section

If you wish to display page stats in a section, you may add a pagestats panel section to your page’s blueprint.

sections:
  pagestats:
    type: pagestats
    label: TestHeadline
    size: small
    showTotals: true
    showTimeline: true
    showLanguages: true
    showFullInfo: false

Language setup

Multi-language websites are supported. For each page, there’s a global counter, with an optional counter for each language.
Warning: Do not add or remove languages to your Kirby installation without resetting your database file !
Also, the panel view has not (yet?) been translated.
Note: During the alpha phase, I’m working with a multi-language context. While I try to test single language setups from time to time, SimpleStats might break occasionally in these setups.

Database Configuration

The database file is a simple .sqlite file that holds all tracking data. You can view it from the dedicated panel area, or by including smaller widget sections in the panel page editor. The popular Sqlite format allows you to easily grab the data and visualise it your way, or import it in other software.
It’s recommended to occasionally backup your stats database file.

Tracking Resolution and Kirby Languages (Important !)

Please note that the database is tightly bound to the tracking resolution option (daandelange.simplestats.tracking.timeFrameUtility) and can not be changed afterwards. Changing the resolution while keeping the same database file results in unefined behaviour.
The same goes for Kirby’s Language setup: if you change your multilanguage settings, you need to create a new database file (however, manually editing the previous database file, you might be able to preserve your data).
This could be automated with update scripts.

Generating Stats

If you’d like to populate the database with some fake stats (useful for testing or developing SimpleStats), you can use the panel interface to generate some in the “Information” tab.

Legal configuration

Depending on your local laws, you might need to sit down and define how personal visitor data is handled.
You might want to inspect the source code to know what’s going on in details.
As the license states, there’s no guarantee whatsoever.

Integrating to your page

If you want to use the default onLoad tracking method, no further action is required, the plugin automatically hooks to Kirby route events. If you choose any other tracking method, you’ll need to integrate the method in your code.

Possible Tracking Methods: (Config value: tracking.method)

• SimpleStatsTrackingMode::OnLoad : Uses kirby’s route hooks to track content when it’s served.
  Pros: Ensures that every request is tracked.
  Cons: Slows down the page serve time.
  Setup steps: None.
• SimpleStatsTrackingMode::OnImage : Generate a simple image tag within your HTML.
  Pros: Doesn’t slow down page serve time.
  Cons: You trust the user to load the image.
  Setup steps: You need to call $page->simpleStatsImage() in your template code. You probably want to do this once in site/snippets/footer.php for example.
• SimpleStatsTrackingMode::Disabled : Disables tracking, no further action is needed. (now much tested yet)
  Setup steps: None.
• SimpleStatsTrackingMode::Manual : Manually call the tracking function.
  Pros: Very flexible, might solve edge-case-usage.
  Setup steps: You have to call SimpleStats::track() manually. Additionally, you need to populate the http headers argument accrdingly to track referers and device information.

Options

Like any Kirby plugin, options can be set in your site/config/config.php.
All available options are listed and explained in src/config/options.php.

Example :

// site/config/config.php
// The custom variable types (SimpleStatsTimeFrameUtility, SimplestatsTrackingMode) are namespaced, you can shorten their invocations with the line below:
// use daandelange\SimpleStats\SimpleStatsTrackingMode;
require_once(__DIR__ . '/../plugins/simplestats/src/models/SimpleStatsTimeFrameUtility.php');
return [
  // [...] your options ...
  // Simplestats
  'daandelange.simplestats.panel.enable' => false, // Disable the panel view completely
  'daandelange.simplestats.tracking.enableReferers' => false, // Disable referer tracking
  'daandelange.simplestats.tracking.timeFrameUtility' => new \daandelange\SimpleStats\SimpleStatsTimeFrameUtilityWeekly(), // Here you can put your custom inherited class from SimpleStatsTimeFrameUtility
  'daandelange.simplestats.tracking.timeFrameUtility' => 'weekly', // Alternative
  'daandelange.simplestats.tracking.method' => \daandelange\SimpleStats\SimpleStatsTrackingMode::OnImage,
];

Here’s a list with options that have been tested. (the daandelange.simplestats part has been stripped)
You might also find some more detailed information in the comments of options.php.

• : Note - You have to choose the timeFrameUtility setting before the initialisation. If you’d like to change it afterwards, you’ll not be able to import the previously collected data. Changing timeFrameUtility, you need to replace the database file with a new one (or manage to convert it).

Updating

Before updating, make sure to backup your database file. If something goes wrong, you’ll be able to retrieve your stats by replacing the database file later.

Depending on the installation method you used, proceed to the logical steps to update.

After updating:

• Review new options and configure as wished.
• Sometimes, a database upgrade is needed. If so, head to the panel’s Information tab and follow instructions in the upgrade section.
• It’s also a good idea to check the log file for any errors.

API

Singletons

• SimpleStats::safeTrack($id)
  Throw-safe alternative of track(). $id is a $page->id() to be tracked.
• SimpleStats::track($id)
  Function called to track user data. $id is a $page->id() to be tracked.

Page Methods

• $page->simpleStatsImage()
  HTML code for the tracking image, when using OnImage tracking method.
• $page->getPageStats()
  Returns an array with useful tracking information about the page.

User Methods

• $user->hasSimpleStatsPanelAccess($forSpecialAdminAccess=false)
  Returns true if the user is authorized to access the SimpleStats Panel, with or without special admin rights.

Panel Interface

Charts

Charts are interactive, you can hover them to have details, and click labels to toggle filtering. You can even download timelines as PNGs.

Tables

Tables are interactive and paginated. You can search data within and sort them by clicking on the column headers.

Development

Development was started from a standard Kirby PluginKit, see their plugin guide for more details on using it.
These steps are optional, for building development versions.

• Npm requirements (optional) : npm install -g parcel-bundler
• Setup : cd /path/to/website/site/plugins/simplestats && npm install
• While developing : npm run dev
• Compile a production build : npm run build
• Update dependencies : npm update

Powered by

• noUi-slider : A slider interface [ MIT ]
• Chart.js for displaying interactive charts. [ MIT ]
• Package managers and packers : NPM, Parcel, Composer, Yarn.
• Kirby CMS : Providing the plugin interface [licensed software]
• WhichBrowser/Parser-PHP : an accurate and performant php user-agent parser. [MIT]
• Snowplow/php-referer-parser : a performant php refer(r)er parser. [MIT]

Alternatives / Similar

• DistantNative/retour-for-kirby : Manage redirects and track 404s right from the Panel.
• Bnomei/Pagecounter : Count page hits and last visited date on your Kirby pages.
• SylvainJulé/kirby-matomo : A Matomo wrapper for Kirby 3.
• FabianSperrle/kirby-stats : Simple stats for Kirby 2.
• Arnoson/kirby-stats : (even more) Simple stats for Kirby 3.

License

• MIT - Free to use, free to improve.

• Copyright 2020-2021 Daan de Lange