Question

I want to implement a simple in-house table that tracks user page views on my website. Without targeting some specific hypothesis, what is useful data to store? Eventually I’ll use it to build graphs or decision trees to better learn about our user base. This is static (no javascript).

Things I can think of:

• URL accessed
• HTTP refer[r]er
• HTTP Accept Language
• Browser-agent
• Session id
• User id (if logged in)
• Time visited

Answer 1

It depends on how public your site is. If your site requires authentication you can have more controlled statistics because you can trace the user (visitors) history. In the case the user does not require authentication you are limited to the information provided by the SERVER VARIABLES: HTTP_USER_AGENT; REMOTE_USER; REMOTE_ADDR; REMOTE_HOST; REMOTE_PORT; HTTP_COOKIE; HTTP_USER_AGENT.

I have implemented something like this for some non-public site each time the user logs on to the site, the information I’m storing looks like:

• User Key
• Remote host IP
• Date Logon
• Last Request Datetime
• Total time connected (minutes)
• Last Request Minutes
• Event/Action performed