@@ -1,13 +1,51 @@ UserEventLogger =============== -THIS CODE IS NOT YET READY FOR USE +This plugin is extracted from several applications where I had similar problems: +tracking various things that users did within the application. For example, I've +used this to be able to log outgoing clicks without hooking up an analytics package, +to count the number of times an ad was displayed, or to keep track of how often +a particular page was visited. +To use the plugin, you must first create the table that it uses: + +./script/generate user_event_logger add_event_table +rake db:migrate + +After that, you can add information to the table from either your controllers or +your views: + +log_user_event "In controller", "http://example.com", "27" +<%= log_user_event "In view", "http://example.com", "27" %> + +The first argument is the event name, which is required. The second is the +destination URL, which is optional. The third is arbitrary extra data, which is +optional. The extra data is stored in a text column, so you can add as much +as you want here. + +Reporting is left as an exercise for the user. The events table has these columns: + +create_table :events do |t| + t.column :source_url, :string + t.column :destination_url, :string + t.column :remote_ip, :string + t.column :logged_at, :datetime + t.column :extra_data, :text + t.column :event_type, :string +end Example ======= -Example goes here. +To do outgoing link tracking, you can set up a controller method similar to this one: + +def send_to + @advertiser = Advertiser.find(params[:id]) + destination_url = @advertiser.website.sub(/^www/, "http://www") + log_user_event "Clicked through", destination_url, params[:id] + redirect_to destination_url +end + Copyright (c) 2008 Michael A. Gunderloy, released under the MIT license README @@ -5,6 +5,6 @@ Example: ./script/generate user_event_logger add_event_table This will create: - db/migrate/TIMESTAMP_create_user_event_logger + db/migrate/TIMESTAMP_add_event_table You will then need to run rake db:migrate to add the table to the database generators/user_event_logger/USAGE @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -class CreateEventsTable < ActiveRecord::Migration +class <%= class_name %> < ActiveRecord::Migration def self.up create_table :events do |t| t.column :source_url, :string generators/user_event_logger/templates/migration.rb @@ -1,9 +1,7 @@ class UserEventLoggerGenerator < Rails::Generator::NamedBase def manifest record do |m| - # m.directory "lib" - # m.template 'README', "README" - m.migration_template 'migration.rb', 'db/migrate' + m.migration_template 'migration.rb', 'db/migrate', :migration_file_name => name end end end generators/user_event_logger/user_event_logger_generator.rb @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@ require "view_helpers" -ActionView::Base.send :include, UserEventLoggerViewHelper - -ActionController::Base.send :include, UserEventLoggerMixin +require "user_event_logger" +ActionView::Base.send :include, UserEventLogger::UserEventLoggerViewHelper +ActionController::Base.send :include, UserEventLogger::UserEventLoggerMixin path = File.join(directory, 'lib', 'models') $LOAD_PATH << path init.rb @@ -1,10 +1,12 @@ -module UserEventLoggerMixin - def log_user_event(name, extra_data) - event = Event.create(:source_url => request.path, - :remote_ip => request.remote_ip, - :logged_at => Time.now, - :extra_data => extra_data, - :event_type => name +module UserEventLogger + module UserEventLoggerMixin + def log_user_event(name, destination_url = nil, extra_data = nil) + event = Event.create(:source_url => request.path, + :destination_url => destination_url, + :remote_ip => request.remote_ip, + :logged_at => Time.now, + :extra_data => extra_data, + :event_type => name) + end end end - lib/user_event_logger.rb @@ -1,12 +1,15 @@ -module UserEventLoggerViewHelper - def log_user_event(name, extra_data) - returning "" do |result| - event = Event.create(:source_url => request.path, - :remote_ip => request.remote_ip, - :logged_at => Time.now, - :extra_data => extra_data, - :event_type => name - ) +module UserEventLogger + module UserEventLoggerViewHelper + def log_user_event(name, destination_url = nil, extra_data = nil) + returning "" do |result| + event = Event.create(:source_url => request.path, + :destination_url => destination_url, + :remote_ip => request.remote_ip, + :logged_at => Time.now, + :extra_data => extra_data, + :event_type => name + ) + end end end end \ No newline at end of file lib/view_helpers.rb 11b3f378795a6961f83e0071affb64eb74d004ad Mike Gunderloy MikeG1@larkfarm.com http://github.com/ffmike/user_event_logger/commit/4cfaaa389dac1ce5999efed187d116a5d0e31c2d 4cfaaa389dac1ce5999efed187d116a5d0e31c2d 2008-07-27T05:49:14-07:00 2008-07-27T05:49:14-07:00 Reasonably working code. Still needs tests. Bad developer, no biscuit. 74a5bf4b4b2e72b74e3f2145ad4df040c05897f2 Mike Gunderloy MikeG1@larkfarm.com