Document how to hide piwik server URL in the Javascript

[mattab]

Few users are tracking all their websites (hundreds or even thousands) with Piwik. One problem is that all the JS codes have the URL of the Piwik server in it. It is then possible to search in a search engine, or using custom bot, all websites that are use this Piwik instance and guess all websites that belong to one user.

SEE FAQ that explains how to do this

[mattab]

I have a beta version going now. See attached file.

Instructions:

0. Make sure your server runs at least PHP 5 as this trick requires PHP5

1. In the attached piwik.php file, put your "secret" piwik URL and your Super user token_auth

The token_auth is required so that the visitor IP can be overwritten (otherwise the IP would be set to the IP of your example.org server doing the request)

2. Upload the piwik.php file in http://example.org/ and all your other websites

3. Then modify the top part of the Piwik JS snippet to the following

    <script type="text/javascript">
    var pkBaseURL = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://example.org/" : "http://example.org/");
    document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + pkBaseURL + "piwik.php' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
    </script><script type="text/javascript">
    try {
    var piwikTracker = Piwik.getTracker(pkBaseURL + "piwik.php", 1);
    [...]

Notice the absence of piwik.js, since the attached piwik.php will do a proxy to both the static JS file piwik.js, as well as redirect all tracking requests to the "secret" piwik.php

You will have to update the JS snippet on all your websites to point to the "proxy" piwik.php on this local website, that you just uploaded.

PLease test (I have done very small testing...) and report here. When all is working good, I will put up a FAQ or doc page on piwik.org

[mattab]

Attachment: piwik.php proxy file to put on each tracked website
piwik.php

[mattab]

any feedback, is it working as expected? I got only one report that it is working so far. thx

[mattab]

Apparently this is working good! I think, that we can put this in core somehow... and document it in a FAQ?

[anonymous-matomo-user]

I followed these directions, but it does not seem to be working...

For the Piwiik JS replacement code, I should replace example.org with the URL of the website I placed the piwik.php script on? Also, the original tracking code has:

<noscript><p><img src="http://myserver.com/piwik/piwik.php?idsite=1" style="border:0" alt="" /></p></noscript>

Can I remove that line since it has the URL of the Piwiki server I am trying to hide.

[anonymous-matomo-user]

Tried on another website and still not working.

[robocoder]

In php.ini, you need:

allow_url_fopen = On

[mattab]

SupraTT followed up in the forum and it is working

[anonymous-matomo-user]

Add local cache for .js file.
Why download it for each new user from piwik stats server.

And when there is timeout save visit info to temp file to send later?

[mattab]

(In [5049]) Fixes #2019

• Added better doc in the script itself
• added FAQ How to to point to this script

[mattab]

See FAQ at: http://piwik.org/faq/how-to/#faq_132

[anonymous-matomo-user]

This is currently broken in 1.11.1 and the upstream GitHub version that was suppose to fix this problem does not solve the issue.

More details can be found in the thread I started initially. http://forum.piwik.org/read.php?2,102949

The errors I am seeing and I saw no change in the amount of errors after changing to the "updated" version

2013/04/13 15:51:54 [error] 2802#0: *9 FastCGI sent in stderr: "PHP message: PHP Warning:  sprintf(): Too few arguments in /my/site/piwik.php on line 69" while reading response header from upstream, client: 174.114.17.166, server: , request: "GET /piwik.php?action_name=My%20Website%20Title!&idsite=978&rec=1&r=371635&h=11&m=51&s=52&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mysite.com%2Fo%2Fgfg%2Fheater%2F1%2F&_id=b0686e49aa174610&_idts=1364004010&_idvc=23&_idn=0&_refts=1365868313&_viewts=1365860923&_ref=http%3A%2F%2Ffleshbot.com%2F&cookie=1&res=1280x800 HTTP/1.1", upstream: "fastcgi://127.0.0.1:9000", host: "mywebsite.com", referrer: "http://www.mywebsite.com/w/gfg/heater/1/"

All the errors currently are all very similar to the one listed above

Thanks and hopefully this is something that is an easy fix, I can post anything else you guys need for this as well.

[mattab]

In 37c6494: Fixes #2019 thanks for the report, fixing the regression

[anonymous-matomo-user]

It got rid of the error but tracking goals is still hit and miss, it only triggered 5 times when I hit the goal 40 times. So there is still something going on I feel. Not sure where to look for info as to whats keeping the goals from triggering now.

Thanks.

[anonymous-matomo-user]

Here was some errors that started up a little bit after trying new github version

2013/04/16 21:13:43 [error] 8125#0: *426 FastCGI sent in stderr: "PHP message: PHP Warning:  file_get_contents(http://my.intermal.i.p/piwik.php?cip=end.user.i.p&token_auth=1234dc5cxdff61e70e76d7b8deb9cef65&action_name=My+Site+Title%21&idsite=1056&rec=1&r=878845&h=2&m=12&s=33&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mysite.com%2F&_id=a42d0858ed9c82ea&_idts=1366146814&_idvc=1&_idn=1&_refts=0&_viewts=1366146814&pdf=1&qt=0&realp=0&wma=0&dir=0&fla=1&java=0&gears=0&ag=0&cookie=1&res=1024x768&): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed!  in /my/site/location/piwik.php on line 73" while reading response header from upstream, client: end.user.i.p, server: , request: "GET /piwik.php?action_name=My%20Site%20Title&idsite=1056&rec=1&r=878845&h=2&m=12&s=33&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mysite.com%2F&_id=a42d0858ed9c82ea&_idts=1366146814&_idvc=1&_idn=1&_refts=0&_viewts=1366146814&pdf=1&qt=0&realp=0&wma=0&dir=0&fla=1&java=0&gears=0&ag=0&cookie=1&res=1024x768 HTTP/1.1", upstream: "fastcgi://127.0.0.1:9000", host: "mysite.com", referrer: "http://www.mysite.com/"

thanks

[mattab]

please ask in the forums with the bug description and steps to reproduce.

Note: make sure you wait 1-2 seconds before each goal conversion (max 1 per second)

[anonymous-matomo-user]

its already in the forums

[mattab]

For your error, I have a feeling it may be caused by mod_security, make sure it's disabled and it might work. Otherwise see suggestions in the forum thread

[206siva]

where to place the piwik tracking code in php websites.