Question

if i like to track and get all the possible info about users that downloading my application without forcing them to register
what is the best php script for this ? or the best method to mange downloads?

Answer 1

This is a perfect use-case for Google Analytics Event Tracking. It’s fairly easy to implement, though you’ll need an Analytics account (obviously). Here’s some sample code in jQuery.

$(function() {
    $('#myDownloadLink').click(function() {
        var tracker = _gat._getTracker('UA-xxxxxx-x'),  // get the analytics tracker - your UA code
            href = this.href,  // get the href - the file downloaded
            page = location.pathname.toLowerCase();

        tracker._trackEvent(page, 'download', href); // tracks the event
    });
});

Using GA allows you to access your analytics from everywhere, and gives you a decent set of filtering tools as well. Actually, if you wanted more detailed information, you could track it as a pageview instead of (or as well as) an event:

tracker._trackPageview('/download/' + href); // tracks as a page view

You could even prepend the current page to that, in order to tell where the download came from. You’ll get information about browser, operating system, screen resolution, country of origin, and more.