[Pro] Simple tracking of file downloads

Ernie_Simpson · February 2, 2013, 3:19am

I’m just looking for a simple way to track file downloads, then reflect that back in the same page as the download link… like “downloaded 137 times”. ???

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waltd · February 2, 2013, 3:41am

I don’t know about simple. You’re going to need a database of one sort or another – even just a text file will do the trick – but you have to store the clicks somewhere. How badly do you want this? How many different files are you tracking?

Walter

On Feb 1, 2013, at 10:19 PM, The Big Erns wrote:

I’m just looking for a simple way to track file downloads, then reflect that back in the same page as the download link… like “downloaded 137 times”. ???

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Todd1 · February 2, 2013, 3:48am

TBE, is this for your Wordpress site? If so isn’t there a plugin or something?

Todd
http://xiiro.com

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Ernie_Simpson · February 2, 2013, 4:22am

It is for my little Freeway contributions - so there’s not a lot of files
to track really. Simple, as in I’d like to display each of my little
projects as a number of downloads vs contributions - at least at some
future point.

I think displaying these kind of stats will help everyone - myself included

understand their relative value. For example, those css shadows I made,
that were so well admired, netted me a whopping $15.

So, I’m not really desperate - just kicking around, thinking out loud, I
suppose. Todd, I’ll look at WP plugins - Walter, I’ll google some flat-file
click-counter scripts. Thanks guys for letting me bounce the idea.

Best, always…

–
Ernie Simpson

On Fri, Feb 1, 2013 at 10:48 PM, Todd email@hidden wrote:

TBE, is this for your Wordpress site? If so isn’t there a plugin or
something?

Todd
http://xiiro.com

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Tim3 · February 2, 2013, 3:22pm

Hi Ernie,
I’ve had a donate button the Freeway Actions site for over a decade and I’ve possibly made about $35-$40 from people adding to the tip jar. It certainly isn’t a way to make money but does help to keep the server on.
Regards,
Tim.

On 2 Feb 2013, at 04:22, Ernie Simpson wrote:

I think displaying these kind of stats will help everyone - myself included

understand their relative value. For example, those css shadows I made,
that were so well admired, netted me a whopping $15.

FreewayActions.com - Freeware and commercial Actions for Freeway Express & Pro - http://www.freewayactions.com

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waltd · February 2, 2013, 4:24pm

I went down a rabbit hole trying to solve this in a much too complex manner last night, and this morning in the clear light of a good night’s sleep, I wrote this:

gist.github.com

https://gist.github.com/walterdavis/4698086

gistfile1.php

<?php
//moved everything to "Before HTML" to reduce the chance of header errors
ini_set('display_errors', 1);
error_reporting(E_ALL);
$message = $meta = '';
//basic security: only files in this folder may be downloaded
//set this to the relative path to the downloads folder
$safe_files = scandir(realpath('./downloads'));
foreach($safe_files as $key => $val){
  if(substr($val, 0, 1) == '.'){

This file has been truncated. show original

I looks like this when run: Click Me!

Walter

On Feb 2, 2013, at 10:22 AM, Tim Plumb wrote:

Hi Ernie,
I’ve had a donate button the Freeway Actions site for over a decade and I’ve possibly made about $35-$40 from people adding to the tip jar. It certainly isn’t a way to make money but does help to keep the server on.
Regards,
Tim.

On 2 Feb 2013, at 04:22, Ernie Simpson wrote:

I think displaying these kind of stats will help everyone - myself included

understand their relative value. For example, those css shadows I made,
that were so well admired, netted me a whopping $15.

FreewayActions.com - Freeware and commercial Actions for Freeway Express & Pro - http://www.freewayactions.com

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Ernie_Simpson · February 2, 2013, 4:26pm

Tim, thanks for the transparency. I should be tipping more, as I know that
I’ve used and benefitted from your work and ideas for many years.

I’m not suggesting a business model, but I believe the current support
model for Freewayers is not sustainable. The Actionsforge drive from last
year opened my eyes to this and should, I think, have been a big wake-up
call for everybody.

I’d just like to have some sort of metric to help everyone - especially
myself - understand the practical limitations of this support model so that
when I’m no longer able to keep my server running, or posting cool and
interesting or educational things, that it comes as no mystery to anyone
what happened. A la, Dan Jasker.

–
Ernie Simpson

On Sat, Feb 2, 2013 at 10:22 AM, Tim Plumb email@hidden wrote:

Hi Ernie,
I’ve had a donate button the Freeway Actions site for over a decade and
I’ve possibly made about $35-$40 from people adding to the tip jar. It
certainly isn’t a way to make money but does help to keep the server on.
Regards,
Tim.

On 2 Feb 2013, at 04:22, Ernie Simpson wrote:

I think displaying these kind of stats will help everyone - myself
included

understand their relative value. For example, those css shadows I made,
that were so well admired, netted me a whopping $15.

FreewayActions.com - Freeware and commercial Actions for Freeway Express &
Pro - http://www.freewayactions.com

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waltd · February 2, 2013, 4:55pm

I realized as I was getting my second cup of coffee that I had left a glaring security hole in the first iteration, and that I hadn’t described how the download part would work. That’s been resolved in the original Gist: gist:4698086 · GitHub

Walter

On Feb 2, 2013, at 11:24 AM, Walter Lee Davis wrote:

this morning in the clear light of a good night’s sleep, I wrote this:

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Tim3 · February 2, 2013, 5:04pm

Hi Ernie,
The tip jar is just that - if the Actions you find are helpful and save you some time or trouble then hopefully a few dollars will keep them coming. A lot of my Freeway related work (Freeway Actions, Freeway Style etc) are labours of love as the money that comes in certainly doesn’t pay for the time I spend researching, creating, and supporting my efforts. That’s not to say that it isn’t fun and I’ve learnt a hell of a lot along the way.

I’m not going to share any real figures here but below is a small screen shot of part of the backend sales system that I created many moons ago and runs on the Freeway Actions server;
http://d.pr/i/aQ8B

I found that I could look at sales figures all day long without seeing any real trends until I struck on the idea of plotting the figures using Google’s charting API;

It may be worth showing the download to income ratio in a similar fashion although you can do this quite easily in a column form without the charts API just by massaging the numbers you are working with and setting some div widths accordingly.
Regards,
Tim.

On 2 Feb 2013, at 16:26, Ernie Simpson wrote:

I’m not suggesting a business model, but I believe the current support
model for Freewayers is not sustainable. The Actionsforge drive from last
year opened my eyes to this and should, I think, have been a big wake-up
call for everybody.

FreewayActions.com - Freeware and commercial Actions for Freeway Express & Pro - http://www.freewayactions.com

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Tim3 · February 2, 2013, 5:11pm

This is great Walter. I must admit I love the beauty of simple solutions like this.

I was thinking when I first saw this thread that you may be able to do all of this using Google tools; a Google Docs spreadsheet to store the data and the charts API to display it back on the page. If it worked then you’d be able to bypass the initial setup and any permissions issues.

I’ll add it to the end of my rainy day list. Plenty of those this time of year here in the UK.
Regards,
Tim.

On 2 Feb 2013, at 16:24, Walter Lee Davis wrote:

I looks like this when run: Click Me!

Experienced Freeway designer for hire - http://www.freewayactions.com

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Ernie_Simpson · February 2, 2013, 5:54pm

Walter, thanks for this! I didn’t expect you to work up a solution, but
that is so like you.

Gracias.

–
Ernie Simpson

On Sat, Feb 2, 2013 at 11:55 AM, Walter Lee Davis email@hiddenwrote:

I realized as I was getting my second cup of coffee that I had left a
glaring security hole in the first iteration, and that I hadn’t described
how the download part would work. That’s been resolved in the original
Gist: gist:4698086 · GitHub

Walter

On Feb 2, 2013, at 11:24 AM, Walter Lee Davis wrote:

this morning in the clear light of a good night’s sleep, I wrote this:

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Ernie_Simpson · February 2, 2013, 6:09pm

Tim, thanks so much for sharing these tools. I think this could be very
helpful to shaping the overall conversation and perhaps inspiring a more
active support dynamic.

–
Ernie Simpson

On Sat, Feb 2, 2013 at 12:04 PM, Tim Plumb email@hidden wrote:

Hi Ernie,
The tip jar is just that - if the Actions you find are helpful and save
you some time or trouble then hopefully a few dollars will keep them
coming. A lot of my Freeway related work (Freeway Actions, Freeway Style
etc) are labours of love as the money that comes in certainly doesn’t pay
for the time I spend researching, creating, and supporting my efforts.
That’s not to say that it isn’t fun and I’ve learnt a hell of a lot along
the way.

I’m not going to share any real figures here but below is a small screen
shot of part of the backend sales system that I created many moons ago and
runs on the Freeway Actions server;
http://d.pr/i/aQ8B

I found that I could look at sales figures all day long without seeing any
real trends until I struck on the idea of plotting the figures using
Google’s charting API;
Charts | Google for Developers

It may be worth showing the download to income ratio in a similar fashion
although you can do this quite easily in a column form without the charts
API just by massaging the numbers you are working with and setting some div
widths accordingly.
Regards,
Tim.

On 2 Feb 2013, at 16:26, Ernie Simpson wrote:

I’m not suggesting a business model, but I believe the current support
model for Freewayers is not sustainable. The Actionsforge drive from last
year opened my eyes to this and should, I think, have been a big wake-up
call for everybody.

FreewayActions.com - Freeware and commercial Actions for Freeway Express &
Pro - http://www.freewayactions.com

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