I tried out your software for a week and then bought it--it's working great for me. I was wondering, though, if you had any plans to record exit pages as well. I have connections to some affiliate sites, and it would be nice to verify their stats.
Is it when someone click on a link for an external site ?
Personally, I consider the "exit page" the one being the last visited during any given session, so perhaps my undestanding is different than yours.
Also, if a link is leading the user to another site, I would strongly suggest you to open a new window, or use the target="_new" on the link. If the user didn't really want to go to that site and was too fast on the clicker, then he will just close that new browser window and will still be on your site.
If the user is navigating on your site and then simply close his browser. What will be the "exit page" in your approach then ?
Finally, as far as I can tell, MT is tracking the traffic of the site on which it is installed. It will (most of the time) get some info of the site from where the user is coming from, but I believe it will be difficult to track where he will go afterwards, unless he used one of your links and you're tracking the clicks on them.
Anyhow, if you can provide more details about your plans, perhaps I will have a better understanding of the situation, because for the moment being I must admit I'm a bit uncertain of the type of information you want to track or if it would in fact be appropriate to extend the software capabilites to accomodate other indirect needs.
Chad, (and the other members of the forum, naturally!)
Will the "Exit Points" report show the "logical" or "physical" ones ?
To explain the differences in this concept, here's a little example :
PageA.asp has 2 links to popup windows, PagePopB.asp and PagePopC.asp
Logical :
Quite ressembling the chronological situation, in the sense that the last page which issued a request on the server, will be the one considered as the "exit" point. In this case, either PagePopB.asp or PagePopC.asp will be the one if opened, otherwise PageA.asp will be.
Physical :
This would be the page that the user was last on when leaving the site. So even if the user clicked on the PagePopB.asp or PagePopC.asp, the "real" last page the user went to is in fact PageA.asp, which therefore should be considered as the exit point.
I understand that if the user closes the "opener" prior to the popup, this will void the concept.
I was evaluating a parent-child relationship (more likely a parent-opener), which could be used to determine more precisely the "exit points".
Perhaps the concept has no use, or it is simply a silly idea, however I'd like to read some comments regarding it.
Is it when someone click on a link for an external site ?
Personally, I consider the "exit page" the one being the last visited during any given session, so perhaps my undestanding is different than yours.
Also, if a link is leading the user to another site, I would strongly suggest you to open a new window, or use the target="_new" on the link. If the user didn't really want to go to that site and was too fast on the clicker, then he will just close that new browser window and will still be on your site.
If the user is navigating on your site and then simply close his browser. What will be the "exit page" in your approach then ?
Finally, as far as I can tell, MT is tracking the traffic of the site on which it is installed. It will (most of the time) get some info of the site from where the user is coming from, but I believe it will be difficult to track where he will go afterwards, unless he used one of your links and you're tracking the clicks on them.
Anyhow, if you can provide more details about your plans, perhaps I will have a better understanding of the situation, because for the moment being I must admit I'm a bit uncertain of the type of information you want to track or if it would in fact be appropriate to extend the software capabilites to accomodate other indirect needs.
I'm sorry, Daniel, it's late at night and I got mixed up and posted a reply without actually replying.
What I mean is that I am affiliated with several other sites, and I want to know if one of the links are used to go to that site.
I have't been using "_new", I've been using "_blank", but it's similar. I guess what I mean is both the last page the user saw before leaving my site, and the address of where the user went, if that's possible.
Right now, though, I'm having a much bigger problem--all of a sudden, nothing's working at all. The database simply isn't logging. I copied the db.mdb to my hard drive, deleted everything and started from scratch, using the original files I had that had worked fine, but after two days, nothing is working at all.
I'm using the Javascript method, and I have accessed the track.asp file online as suggested in the help file, and this is the message I get:
Microsoft JET Database Engine error '80004005'
Operation must use an updateable query.
/metatraffic/class.asp, line 271
Can anyone out there help me? I also sent an email to support about this.
Just to get the picture of the situation straight, did you upgrade from a previous version to the latest while keeping your previous DB ?
If so, did you ran the "upgrade.asp" page to add/remove the necessary fields ?
As per the line number you provided, I'm assuming you're using version 1.3, right ?
Take a close look at the query's fields on line 247, and make sure that all the fields listed there are in fact present in your DB, table PageLog.
If the tracker worked for a while and stopped working suddendtly, I'm suspecting that the scripts got somehow updated during that period of time or the DB got replaced by another one having a different table structure.
The only thing that could stop the tracker from working when NO changes are applied to the DB nor to the scripts, is when the IIS server administrator changes the Read-Write privileges of the directory in which the DB is stored, so consider verifying with him/her/them if any changes were applied to your site directories access authorities, that might be the source of your problems.
If you're using using a free web hosting service, you will need to verify the settings to ensure that the DB is in fact in a directory allowing updates. Some services will ask you to put the databases in a specific location, and if that location differs from the one expected byt the MT settings, you'll obviously need to adjusts your configuration accordingly.
As far as tracking the last page seen on your site, this information will be accessible only when the session is timing out. So you will need a query that will group the accesses to your site using both the IP address and SessionID, then retrieve the Highest timestamp of each group. That page with the highest timestamp of each group will could then be "roughly" considered as the exit point of the given IpAddress/SessionID pair. I'm saying roughly because of the situations when you will have popups/new windows, the user may browse the new site and come back to your site after his session has time out, therefore IIS will create a new SessionID value, even though the user never really left your site for good.
Keep in mind that what MT is tracking is the traffic on YOUR site, nothing from the external, with the exception of the referer on the entry point.
To track if a link on your site leading to an external site is actually being used by people, you will need something specific for that purpose. Take a close look at the MT's documentation in regards on how to track the downloads. Perhaps by enhancing the logic/code behind that concept you could then be able to track links usage, although I think you will need to create your own reports to show the stats of these.
Perhaps this is an item that was considered in MT Version 2, time will tell.
Recording exit pages
Matty,
What do you precisely mean by "exit page" ?
Is it when someone click on a link for an external site ?
Personally, I consider the "exit page" the one being the last visited during any given session, so perhaps my undestanding is different than yours.
Also, if a link is leading the user to another site, I would strongly suggest you to open a new window, or use the target="_new" on the link. If the user didn't really want to go to that site and was too fast on the clicker, then he will just close that new browser window and will still be on your site.
If the user is navigating on your site and then simply close his browser. What will be the "exit page" in your approach then ?
Finally, as far as I can tell, MT is tracking the traffic of the site on which it is installed. It will (most of the time) get some info of the site from where the user is coming from, but I believe it will be difficult to track where he will go afterwards, unless he used one of your links and you're tracking the clicks on them.
Anyhow, if you can provide more details about your plans, perhaps I will have a better understanding of the situation, because for the moment being I must admit I'm a bit uncertain of the type of information you want to track or if it would in fact be appropriate to extend the software capabilites to accomodate other indirect needs.
Best regards.
Recording exit pages
Hi,
Exit (and Entry) pages are on the feature list for v2. This will be 2 separate reports that show the top first and last pages of a user session.
Regards,
~Chad
Recording exit pages
Chad, (and the other members of the forum, naturally!)
Will the "Exit Points" report show the "logical" or "physical" ones ?
To explain the differences in this concept, here's a little example :
PageA.asp has 2 links to popup windows, PagePopB.asp and PagePopC.asp
Logical :
Quite ressembling the chronological situation, in the sense that the last page which issued a request on the server, will be the one considered as the "exit" point. In this case, either PagePopB.asp or PagePopC.asp will be the one if opened, otherwise PageA.asp will be.
Physical :
This would be the page that the user was last on when leaving the site. So even if the user clicked on the PagePopB.asp or PagePopC.asp, the "real" last page the user went to is in fact PageA.asp, which therefore should be considered as the exit point.
I understand that if the user closes the "opener" prior to the popup, this will void the concept.
I was evaluating a parent-child relationship (more likely a parent-opener), which could be used to determine more precisely the "exit points".
Perhaps the concept has no use, or it is simply a silly idea, however I'd like to read some comments regarding it.
Bye for now.
Recording exit pages
quote:Originally posted by Daniel
Matty,
What do you precisely mean by "exit page" ?
Is it when someone click on a link for an external site ?
Personally, I consider the "exit page" the one being the last visited during any given session, so perhaps my undestanding is different than yours.
Also, if a link is leading the user to another site, I would strongly suggest you to open a new window, or use the target="_new" on the link. If the user didn't really want to go to that site and was too fast on the clicker, then he will just close that new browser window and will still be on your site.
If the user is navigating on your site and then simply close his browser. What will be the "exit page" in your approach then ?
Finally, as far as I can tell, MT is tracking the traffic of the site on which it is installed. It will (most of the time) get some info of the site from where the user is coming from, but I believe it will be difficult to track where he will go afterwards, unless he used one of your links and you're tracking the clicks on them.
Anyhow, if you can provide more details about your plans, perhaps I will have a better understanding of the situation, because for the moment being I must admit I'm a bit uncertain of the type of information you want to track or if it would in fact be appropriate to extend the software capabilites to accomodate other indirect needs.
Best regards.
Recording exit pages
I'm sorry, Daniel, it's late at night and I got mixed up and posted a reply without actually replying.
What I mean is that I am affiliated with several other sites, and I want to know if one of the links are used to go to that site.
I have't been using "_new", I've been using "_blank", but it's similar. I guess what I mean is both the last page the user saw before leaving my site, and the address of where the user went, if that's possible.
Right now, though, I'm having a much bigger problem--all of a sudden, nothing's working at all. The database simply isn't logging. I copied the db.mdb to my hard drive, deleted everything and started from scratch, using the original files I had that had worked fine, but after two days, nothing is working at all.
I'm using the Javascript method, and I have accessed the track.asp file online as suggested in the help file, and this is the message I get:
Microsoft JET Database Engine error '80004005'
Operation must use an updateable query.
/metatraffic/class.asp, line 271
Can anyone out there help me? I also sent an email to support about this.
Thanks,
Matty
Recording exit pages
Sorry for the delay,
Just to get the picture of the situation straight, did you upgrade from a previous version to the latest while keeping your previous DB ?
If so, did you ran the "upgrade.asp" page to add/remove the necessary fields ?
As per the line number you provided, I'm assuming you're using version 1.3, right ?
Take a close look at the query's fields on line 247, and make sure that all the fields listed there are in fact present in your DB, table PageLog.
If the tracker worked for a while and stopped working suddendtly, I'm suspecting that the scripts got somehow updated during that period of time or the DB got replaced by another one having a different table structure.
The only thing that could stop the tracker from working when NO changes are applied to the DB nor to the scripts, is when the IIS server administrator changes the Read-Write privileges of the directory in which the DB is stored, so consider verifying with him/her/them if any changes were applied to your site directories access authorities, that might be the source of your problems.
If you're using using a free web hosting service, you will need to verify the settings to ensure that the DB is in fact in a directory allowing updates. Some services will ask you to put the databases in a specific location, and if that location differs from the one expected byt the MT settings, you'll obviously need to adjusts your configuration accordingly.
As far as tracking the last page seen on your site, this information will be accessible only when the session is timing out. So you will need a query that will group the accesses to your site using both the IP address and SessionID, then retrieve the Highest timestamp of each group. That page with the highest timestamp of each group will could then be "roughly" considered as the exit point of the given IpAddress/SessionID pair. I'm saying roughly because of the situations when you will have popups/new windows, the user may browse the new site and come back to your site after his session has time out, therefore IIS will create a new SessionID value, even though the user never really left your site for good.
Keep in mind that what MT is tracking is the traffic on YOUR site, nothing from the external, with the exception of the referer on the entry point.
To track if a link on your site leading to an external site is actually being used by people, you will need something specific for that purpose. Take a close look at the MT's documentation in regards on how to track the downloads. Perhaps by enhancing the logic/code behind that concept you could then be able to track links usage, although I think you will need to create your own reports to show the stats of these.
Perhaps this is an item that was considered in MT Version 2, time will tell.
Happy tracking.