You can do this, in fact Spectra does some of this. Spectra uses text logs
because of the overhead involved with using databases to hold all of the
information.
You can log anything a user does, provided you're prepared to capture that.
I use this particular technique during debugging and for the initial
launch of a site. Helps a *lot* to see what kind of data people are
submitting and being able to replicate errors. But you could also use it
to track what people are searching for most often (to reorganize the site)
etc.
My current code looks something like this:
<!--- in the application.cfm --->
<cfset formList = "">
<cfif IsDefined("FORM.fieldnames")>
<cfloop list="#FORM.fieldnames#" index="i">
<cfset formList = formList & "/#i#: #evaluate("FORM.#i#")#">
</cfloop>
</cfif>
<cfset logText = "#DateFormat(Now(), "m/d/yyyy")# #timeformat(now(), "h:mm
tt")# - #SESSION.UserName# - #CGI.script_name# - #formList#">
<cffile action="APPEND" addnewline="Yes"
file="C:\inetpub\myWebSite\logs\log.txt" output="#LogText#">
Because this text file would get *very* big *very* fast, I also have a
script that runs nightly to save to daily log files and start a new one. I
hope this give you some ideas!
Sharon DiOrio
Mindseye Technology
www.mindseye.com
At 03:24 PM 6/22/2000 -0400, Gina Shillitani wrote:
>We're looking at about 86,000 hits per day on the reporting server, which is
>where I need to collect this information. I'm trying to figure out if there
>is a way I can track a single user through each visit to the site and record
>the entire session to one record in the table. Example, the user with token
>XYZ requested a.cfm, b.cfm?var=keyword, c.cfm?var=keyword&var2=5, on
>6/25/2000 at 8:56 AM and spent 15 minutes total on the site. This would be
>preferable to recording single page hits and I do need to record any
>variables that are passed to individual pages.
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Zachary Bedell [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
>> Sent: Thursday, June 22, 2000 2:03 PM
>> To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'
>> Subject: RE: Tracking users through a site
>>
>>
>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>> Hash: SHA1
>>
>> > yes, to a degree the logging tools would be useful, but this
>> > particular set
>> > of information would be used as an audit trail... so it would
>> > have to be
>> > permanently stored in a database, and searchable as well.
>>
>> You *could* periodically analyze the logfiles & stuff the results
>> into a DB. That's probably a better solution if you're expecting a
>> huge number of visitors. For an 'average' load (whatever THAT
>> means...), you should be able to get away with a database approach in
>> the application.cfm.
>>
>> Just for reference, our site runs about 1.5 millions hits per month,
>> runs on CF 4.0.1 on a dual P2 450MHz, 512MB, mirrored drives & MSSQL
>> 7. It's VERY database heavy (even our page headers & footers are
>> data-driven). We don't have any problem with overloading the server.
>>
>> I don't want to scare you off from the databased method, but just
>> consider that if you're looking at a 'microsoft.com' level of
>> traffic, it might not be the safest solution...
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Zac Bedell
>>
>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
>> Version: PGPfreeware 6.5.2 for non-commercial use <http://www.pgp.com>
>> Comment: Please use PGP!!!
>>
>> iQA/AwUBOVJU4wraVoMWBwRBEQJfkQCgwIbnCT7JUi4GP9HjhJvolYJkEsoAnR+p
>> sMT7UJqoSGLTx+x2IUTGtIci
>> =UCaL
>> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
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