How to configure ContentMetrics
ContentMetrics is added to a web site by configuring a ContentMetrics (CM) server, registering the source web site that will communicate with the CM server, and configuring pages from the source web site to communicate to the CM server.
- ContentMetrics (CM) server - a server that records visits and voting for any number of source web sites
- Source web site - a web site that will send metrics to a single CM server
Contents
Configuring the ContentMetrics server
A ContentMetrics server (%CM-SERVER%) can be hosted on any web server that has MySQL 5+ and PHP 5+. Current available servers are:
The source web site must be registered with a user profile name (%PROFILE-NAME%) and host name (%HOST-NAME%). The %PROFILE-NAME% is an arbitrary and unique name that identifies the owner of one or more source web sites being tracked by ContentMetrics. The %HOST-NAME% is the actual hostname of the source web site with prefixes and suffixes (such as www. or .com) removed.
Configuring the source web site
The following style sheet and two JavaScript files must be added to the <head> section of any page that will communication with a CM server:
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen"
href="%CM-SERVER%/style/cm.css" />
<script type="text/javascript"
src="%CM-SERVER%/javascript/prototype-1.6.0/prototype.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="%CM-SERVER%/javascript/cm.js"></script>
With these entries added, any number of regions can be added to the page. Each region will track metrics for that region alone and will display configurable results. The results will display wherever the script is placed on the page. Here is the basic format of the region script:
<script type="text/javascript"
src="%CM-SERVER%/region_create.php?id=%PROFILE-NAME%®ion=%REGION-ID%&votes=%VOTES%&actions=%ACTIONS%&metrics=%METRICS%">
</script>
Any number of individual regions can be added to a single page.
The following values are required:
-
%CM-SERVER%and%PROFILE-NAME%- The CM server that will track the data under the profile registered on that server -
%REGION-ID%- A unique value within the registered%HOST-NAME% -
%VOTES%- A comma-delimited pair of maximum up- and down-votes:
| Value (position) | Description |
|---|---|
| N,0 | (default: 1) Maximum positive vote value. If 1, then an up-arrow is displayed. If >1, then N number of right-pointing carets are displayed. |
| 0,N | (default: -1) Maximum negative vote value. If -1, then an down-arrow is displayed. If <-1, then N number of left-pointing carets are displayed. |
-
%ACTIONS%- A bit mask of allowable actions for this view of the reigon:
| Value (position) | Description |
|---|---|
| User actions: | |
| 100,00 | Record each visit. Turn off to use the region only for displaying metrics and voting on the content. |
| 010,00 | Allow visitors to up vote |
| 001,00 | Allow visitors to down vote |
| Display links: | |
| 000,10 | Display link to allow visitors to view reports |
| 000,01 | Display link to allow visitors to view ContentMetrics |
-
%METRICS%- A bit mask of what recorded metrics should be displayed. A comma is used to divide these into differnt sections.
| Value (position) | Description |
|---|---|
| Visitors: | |
| 100,00000,0000 | Display total visits |
| 010,00000,0000 | Display total unique visitors |
| 001,00000,0000 | Display total visits for the current visitor |
| Votes: | |
| 000,10000,0000 | Display total vote value (up votes - down votes) |
| 000,01000,0000 | Display average vote value (only useful when allowing muti-value votes) |
| 000,00100,0000 | Display total up votes |
| 000,00010,0000 | Display total down votes (as negative) |
| 000,00001,0000 | Display vote value for the current visitor |
| Dates: | |
| 000,00000,1000 | Display date and time of the first visit |
| 000,00000,0100 | Display date and time of the most recent visit |
| 000,00000,0010 | Display date and time of the first visit for the current visitor |
| 000,00000,0001 | Display date and time of the most recent visit for the current visitor |
Any character that is not a zero or a one will be deleted before being interpreted by the CM server. The comma will be used in these example for convention, but any other character could be used (e.g. +, :, or X) Similarly, if not all bit value are specified, those missing will default to zero (off).
Examples
Here are some examples of region scripts. These assume that the containing web page resides on a %HOST-NAME% registered under etheradmin on the CM server www.scottdstrader.com:
Exclude visit count and current visitor
http://www.scottdstrader.com/cm/region_create.php?id=etheradmin®ion=article-id-1024&actions=011&metrics=110,10110,1100
This tracks metrics for the region article-id-1024. Names are unique identifiers on the host name and can be referenced across any number of pages or even multiple times within a page. For a blog, you may want to include a region script for an article in multiple places: the main page, the category page, and the article's permalink page.
The actions 011 enable voting but do not record a unique visit when the page is displayed. This allows you to display metrics in a summary listing page without recording the viewing of those metrics as an actual visit. The actual page would contain the actions 111 in order to both record the visit and allow voting.
The metrics 110,10110 (looking at the first two groups) will display all visitor and vote metrics except the average vote and metrics for the current visitor. The date/time metrics 1100 (the last group) will display the date of the first and most recent visits but excluding those for the current visitor.
