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What is download logging?
Allen Hopkins, 24 Nov 2004
Last updated: 24 Nov 2004
A downloadable file, such as an attachment to a forum article,
may be flagged so that any time someone downloads that file,
an entry as added to a log showing the time of the download,
the name of the file, and the name, email address, and
organizational affiliation of the person downloading the file.
If the person is logged on to the website, the information
is taken from the user database, and logging will be invisible
to the user. If the user is not logged in, s/he will be
presented a form and asked to provide the information
explicitly before the file is transmitted.
Forum attachments
The download logging feature is turned on or off for a
forum attachment by the workgroup administrator, who simply
edits the forum article and checks or un-checks a box next
to the name of the attachment.
Other files
A downloadable file doesn't need to be a forum attachment
to be logged. The URL one would normally use in a hyperlink
to download a file can be modified to enable logging. The
modifications are these:
- Prepend "/download" to the beginning of the URL.
- Append "?package_name=whatever" to the end of the URL.
For example, if some software package can be downloaded by clicking
a hyperlink that looks like this:
<a href="/mygroup/blah/greatNewThing.tar.gz">Click here</a>
To log downloads of this file, change the link to look like this:
<a href="/download/mygroup/blah/greatNewThing.tar.gz?package_name=great_new_thing_1.0">Click here</a>
The name used in "?package_name=great_new_thing_1.0" will be
the name used to identify the download in the log.
If you include the fully qualified URL,
http://www.gigascale.org/mygroup/blah/greatNewThing.tar.gz
(which is usually not recommended), then add
"/download" just after the server name,
"www.gigascale.org".
Where is the log?
The download log is viewable by administrative staff,
that is, by members of the workgroup gsrcadmin
from a link on the
gsrcadmin home page. | |
