Site Statistics With Master Form V4
The latest version of Master Form V4 makes it easy to
include environment variables in emails and databases.
(It's a free upgrade for those who already have a license.
/mfv4 has a link to the generator.)
When you have a special campaign or project in place on
your web site, you want as much information about traffic
and click-thrus as you can possibly glean.
Master Form V4 can be used to log generic information about
site visitors in a CSV or other custom formatted plain text
database. Such databases can be imported into office
computer spreadsheet or database programs.
Alternately the information can be sent to the webmaster
in one or more emails.
Information You Can Collect
Environment variables are such things as server type,
browser used, cookies, IP address, and referring URL.
Some servers will have certain environment variables
available, others don't. It varies.
To see which environment variables are available when a
browser visits your site, use the "Environment variables"
menu item in the Master Pre-Installation Tester control
panel. Get the tester from /mpits
The environment variable names are all capital letters,
each on a line by itself, followed by a colon character.
The colon character is not part of the variable name.
The value of any environment variable on the list provided
by Master Pre-Installation Tester is available to Master
Form V4. Later on, I'll show you how to put those values
into email and/or databases.
How it Works
JavaScript creates what's referred to as an image object.
This is an area in memory that can contain information
about an image -- which the browser can use if it needs
to display the image.
When JavaScript created the image object, the area in
memory is empty.
JavaScript will call Master Form V4 to provide image
information for the image object.
When Master Form V4 is called to provide the image, it
first updates databases and sends emails according to its
instructions (see below). Only when it's done with those
chores, does it return an image to the calling JavaScript.
(The image Master Form V4 provides for the image object
isn't actually displayed. The image information is just
stored in memory.)
The JavaScript may set a cookie before Master Form V4 is
called. This cookie information can then be available to
Master Form V4 for recording in email or database. (Cookies
are less than ideal, but probably the best method available
for tracking visitors from web page to web page.)
The JavaScript can also send along its own information when
calling the Master Form V4 program. The example below sends
the URL of the current web page.
A count of how many web pages have been viewed in the
browser window, and a number indicating the visitor's time
zone, are examples of other information JavaScript can
collect and sent to Master Form V4.
Master Form V4 can then use the information the JavaScript
provided, in addition to the environment variables, when
generating email and database record.
At the end of its run, Master Form V4 sends an image back
to the JavaScript.
The JavaScript
When Master Form V4 is run, it expects certain information.
At a minimum, it requires the URL of what to display when
it's run ends (an image file, in this case). Other optional
information are email and database template file locations.
Here is example of what can be done:
<script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript">
<!-- Copyright 2005 Bontrager Connection, LLC
function LaunchMasterFormV4() {
// optionally set cookie here.
var info = "URL=" + document.location.href;
info += "&emailtemplate=notifyemail.txt";
info += "&filetemplate=logfiletemplate.txt";
info += "&dbfile=logfile.csv";
info += "&flowto=http://example.com/image.gif";
var holder = new Image();
holder.src = "/cgi-bin/MasterFormV4.cgi?" + info;
}
window.onload = LaunchMasterFormV4;
//-->
</script>
If the JavaScript will set a cookie, it should be done
before Master Form V4 is called.
NOTE: The cookie testing JavaScript code in the "Are
Browser Cookies Enabled?" article found at
/cancookie may be modified
to set a cookie for tracking purposes. For
tracking, it may be most useful to set a cookie
only if none already exists.
The three-part "How to Use Cookies" article series
linked from /archives has more
information about cookies and how to use them.
In the JavaScript example above, the URL of the current
page is sent to Master Form V4. As mentioned earlier,
other information can also be collected and sent.
You'll notice information specifying the email template,
the database file template, the database file name, and
the URL of the custom thankyou page. The name="value" pairs
all correspond to hidden fields normally used in Master
Form V4 forms.
The file locations are exactly the same as they would be
if specified in a form.
The "flowto" value is a little different than normally
found in a form. In this case, the URL of the custom
thankyou page is an http://... URL to an image file.
Before Master Form V4 ends its run, it will send that
image file to the JavaScript to satisfy its request for
information to put into the image object.
Notes About File and Email Templates
The templates in this system use placeholders just like
all templates with by Master Form V4. The placeholder
format is the field name between double square brackets.
Master Form V4 then replaces the placeholders with the
field's value.
Any name="value" pairs the JavaScript sends to Master Form V4
can be used in templates just like form fields can.
For example, the information about the URL of the current
page in the JavaScript example is in a variable named URL.
Thus, the [[URL]] placeholder can be used to insert the
value the JavaScript provided.
Environment variables can be used in templates just like
form fields can.
When you use the "Environment variables" menu item of
Master Pre-Installation Tester (see above), the
environment variable names will be all capital letters
along the left side of the web page. Any or all of these
names can be used in placeholders.
For example, if you want to log or receive an email with
the contents of any cookies the browser might have
available for that page, use placeholder [[HTTP_COOKIE]]
Viewing Tracking Data
From time to time, download the database file and import
it into your spreadsheet or database program. The data can
then be manipulated and analyzed according to the abilities
of your software.
If you rename or delete the database file from the server,
Master Form V4 will create another one when it needs to
log information.
Will Bontrager
©2005 Bontrager Connection, LLC
Please note:
Articles on this website are presented "as is". However -
If you have a question about a CGI script, HTML, CSS, PHP, or JavaScript
Ask one of our Experts and you'll have your answer!
Click here for details.
