Spider Tracker?

Is there a hack/mod to track search engine spider visits?

Can you be more specific? What exactly are you wanting to track that you can't already with your server tools that come with almost all hosting accounts?

Can you be more specific? What exactly are you wanting to track that you can't already with your server tools that come with almost all hosting accounts?

When I was running my site on phpBB I had a hack that would show which spiders visited the site, how many pages they viewed, etc. I was looking for something like that for vBulletin.

You can get all that in awstats IIRC.

But, I think the info is in the sessions table for a vB hack to draw statistics from. However, I have no idea if one exists and what info is in the sessions table to draw on.

You can get all that in awstats IIRC.

But, I think the info is in the sessions table for a vB hack to draw statistics from. However, I have no idea if one exists and what info is in the sessions table to draw on.

Ok, thanks. I guess I'll just have to write my own. ;-)

Ok, thanks. I guess I'll just have to write my own. ;-)

Cool deal. Let us know how ya do.

Gettin there... Still needs quite a bit of work.

http://www.happyhourpub.com/spiders.php

Pretty good start.

Hook Location : global_start

(from vb.org)

That'll run on every page load?

As you may have guessed I'm looking for a place to stick the spider tracking code... It checks to see if the user is a guest, and if it is it logs it, using 1 SQL call. So there won't be much overhead there.

(from vb.org)

That'll run on every page load?

As you may have guessed I'm looking for a place to stick the spider tracking code... It checks to see if the user is a guest, and if it is it logs it, using 1 SQL call. So there won't be much overhead there.

Yep, if it's a vB page, that hook will preprocess your code before doing the other vB stuff. It replaces the old include_php_start template.

Yep, if it's a vB page, that hook will preprocess your code before doing the other vB stuff. It replaces the old include_php_start template.

Ah, I was wondering what happened to that. ;-)

One more thing... If it processes that first, how can I determine what the page is that's going to be displayed? There's a variable that's set by each page (THIS_SCRIPT or something like that) that I was going to use to determine where it was... Will that be available at that point?

It sure will. THIS_SCRIPT is defined before global.php is called in all the php files.

It sure will. THIS_SCRIPT is defined before global.php is called in all the php files.

Yep, that works just fine. Thanks!

It's getting there... Tracking a whole load of 'bots:

http://www.happyhourpub.com/spiders.php

Should I pack this up and release it as a mod? Is anybody aside from myself interested in this?

Any suggestions as to what else I should add to it?

mikel is it only for 3.5 or is there a version for 3.0.x? if there is one for 3.0.x then I am definately interested in this.

mikel is it only for 3.5 or is there a version for 3.0.x? if there is one for 3.0.x then I am definately interested in this.

The one I'm working on is for 3.5.2, I don't have a 3.0.x version installed to mess with.

I would think that the only thing you'd have to change between the 3.5.2 and the 3.0.x version is where the tracker code is installed. In 3.5.2 it's in the global_start hook, that doesn't exist in 3.0.x, you'd have to put it in include_php_start instead.

The one I'm working on is for 3.5.2, I don't have a 3.0.x version installed to mess with.

I would think that the only thing you'd have to change between the 3.5.2 and the 3.0.x version is where the tracker code is installed. In 3.5.2 it's in the global_start hook, that doesn't exist in 3.0.x, you'd have to put it in include_php_start instead.

So planning to release this?

So planning to release this?
Soon.

I finally got around to releasing this... It's up on vbulletin.org:

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=104582