Application that runs on the server, it serves to keep track of the "hits" of an article or website, through a little code snippet.
To install: http://documentcloud.github.com/pixel-ping/
You must insert the following tag in the website that you want to track
<img src="/pixel.gif?key=[KEY]" alt="" />
It's indicated in the source that a javascript that inserts the tag automatically must be included, avoiding some problems (http://www.propublica.org/nerds/item/pixel-ping-a-nodejs-stats-tracker).
*To do: Specify which files must be included in the framework.
Every once in a configurable time interval, the application sends a JSON to the specified URL.
This has the following form:
{
"/pages/about.html": 276,
"/articles/policy.html": 324
}
The first string indicates the website "key" and the following one the number of hits.
However, the following problem exists: When an external website acquires the pixel-ping snippet, you cannot distinguish between a hit on the article on the site itself and one on the external site. The proposed solution is that when a subject wants to get the snippet, a dialog box will ask for an identification of the source (the URL maybe) and create a snippet with a "key", made of the "original key item" + "identifier of the other site".
The result will be:
{
"poderopedia.org|/pages/about.html": 100,
"latercera.cl|/pages/about.html": 176,
"poderopedia.org|/articles/policy.html": 324
}
That's a parseable compound "key" and the explicit data.
https://github.com/documentcloud/pixel-ping
http://documentcloud.github.com/pixel-ping/
http://www.propublica.org/nerds/item/pixel-ping-a-nodejs-stats-tracker
Used in: http://www.propublica.org/about/pixelping
http://www.propublica.org/article/who-polices-prosecutors-who-abuse-their-authority-usually-nobody/single#republish
The operation works based on 3 files:
- config.json,
- index.php,
- database.php,
- A mysql database, whose structure is defined in the file: script_pixel_ping_db.sql
The table described in the sql file must exist at the execution time.
It must be located in a directory of the server, not accesible through the web (DO NOT PLACE AT /var/www/ ...)
The pixel-ping configuration file config.json must be correctly configurated.
Example:
{
"host": "localhost",
"port": "9187",
"interval": 5,
"endpoint": "http://localhost/pixel_local_test/index.php"
}
It's important to modify the index.php variables to made them compatible with the database. The file must be located in a place where can be executed by the server (example /var/www/pixel/index.php)
It must be located in the same folder as index.php. Nothing must be modified.
####Execution process Pixel-ping must be executed on the server, through the pixel-ping command with the location of the file config.json
/home/user/node-v0.10.3/node_modules/pixel-ping/bin/pixel-ping /home/user/pixel/config.json
Finally, each time that a request is made to the gif file, served by pixel-ping,
(Example, in the browser
http://localhost:9187/pixel.gif?key=sitio.com/restodelkey )
pixel-ping will store the data and will send it to index.php in the next flush.
The file index.php receives the flush through a POST as a JSON that describes the hits and stores them
in the database table.
"Upstart" will be used for the app instalation as a service. A sample file called "pixel-ping-svc.conf" is included in the repository. This file contains the script that mantains the service running. It must be edited to modify the pixel-ping exe command with the correct routes.
Once modified, to add pixel-ping as a service, the file "pixel-ping-svc.conf" must be copied to the
server directory /etc/init/.
At this moment, the service it's not running due that the event that starts its execution (described in
the "pixel-ping-svc.conf" file) hasn't been generated.
To manually start it, you must enter the following command in the terminal:
sudo start pixel-ping-svc
This executes the script and pixel-ping runs as a service.