track pdf download

blackhorse

<a href="http://www.example.com/files/map.pdf" onClick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/downloads/map'); ">click</a>

I can use the above google codes to track the pdf download.

But I want to have the track data insert into my own database.

This is the regular link

<a href="http://www.example.com/files/map.pdf" target="_blank">click</a>

Could I add some script to above codes that would act like one click go to two links?

One link open new window with the view of pdf. One link working in the background, send data to php script to track the download of this pdf.

There are some javascripts for this one click two links. But I am building this for a mobile site, so I want be conservative in the javascript usage.

Another approach is that I can take two steps.

1) <a href="download_map.php" target="_blank">click</a>
2) and in download_map.php, I record the download stats, and then redirect the browser to http://www.example.com/files/map.pdf.

But due to it is for mobile site, I want to keep everything clean and simple.

Any advices?

Thanks!

dagon

this is what i would do:

<a href="http://www.example.com/tracker.php?url=files/map.pdf" target="_blank">click</a>

tracker.php does the count then just use header() location to forward to the url (pdf)

Aden_Fraser

Here's what I'd do:

Setup your links in the following structure (or similiar):
<a href="tracker.php?url=files/map.pdf" target="_blank">Download Map.pdf</a>
As was already outlined above.

Setup tracker.php similiar to this:

<?php
/* Database Connection */
include('db-connect.php');

/* GET the PDF url */
$fileurl = $_GET['url'];
/* Create a Filename */
$filename = str_replace("files/map.pdf", "", $fileurl);

/* Have a Table Called Files        */
/* Inside this have three columns   */
/* |  ID   |  FILENAME  |  COUNT  | */

/* ID should be set to auto-increment and will be an INTEGER */
/* FILENAME set to VARCHAR */
/* COUNT will be an INTEGER */

/* Lookup if the $filename exists in the Database */
/* You'll want something like this: */

$filenamequery = "SELECT * FROM files WHERE filename='$filename'";
$filenameresult = mysql_query($filenamequery) or header("location:" . $fileurl);
/* This will skip the database query if it is unsuccessful and just redirect the user to the file */
/* If it is successful (It should be) we'll start updating the Database */
if($numofrows==1){
	/* Filename Exists in Database */
	/* Take the value for COUNT and add 1 */
} else {
	/* Filename Doesn't Exist in Database */
	/* Add a new row to the database with COUNT = 1 */
}

/* Redirect to File URL */
header("location:" . $fileurl); 
?>

Of course that's just the way I'd do it off the top of my head and its not a functioning example - more just outlining the method.

Hope it helps 🙂

blackhorse

Thanks!

robinjackman

It just superb information sharing and thanks for that.