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Extension:HitCounters

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MediaWiki extensions manual
HitCounters
Release status: stable
Implementation Database , Data extraction, MyWiki
Description Provides a page views functionality
Author(s) Mark A. Hershberger (MarkAHershbergertalk)
Latest version 0.4
MediaWiki >= 1.36.0
PHP 7.3.19+
Database changes Yes
Composer mediawiki/hit-counters
Tables hit_counter
hit_counter_extension
License GNU General Public License 3.0 or later
Download
  • $wgDisableCounters
  • $wgHitcounterUpdateFreq
  • $wgEnableAddPageId
  • $wgEnableAddTextLength
hitcounter-exempt
Quarterly downloads 127 (Ranked 46th)
Translate the HitCounters extension if it is available at translatewiki.net
Vagrant role hitcounters
Issues Open tasks · Report a bug

The HitCounters extension displays the view count in the page footer and the most viewed pages on a special page called PopularPages. The extension provides page views statistics that were removed in MediaWiki 1.25 .

About

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Benefits

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This extension provides feedback in the form of audience measurement to editors. Knowing the rough size of one's audience as an editor allows editors to identify and improve popular articles. HitCounters' special page PopularPages also allows editors to focus on improving those articles with the highest traffic and helps readers discover a project's most curated content.

HitCounters extension enables determining the wikiFactor, a rough measure of a wiki website's popularity.

HitCounters extension is minimally intrusive concerning data security and privacy concerns. The extension handles metrics on the server side, so aggregated data stays within the site's security boundary. The extension does not inject JavaScript to be executed by the client and does not ask a client to download additional un-audited code from a third party, like GoogleAnalyticsMetrics .

The extension does not track users who visit a page. As such, there's no need for special handling of "Do Not Track" browser requests or Global Privacy Control settings. The extension also does not use third-party services like the GoogleAnalyticsMetrics extension.

The extension has no dependencies that can cause conflicts. Other extensions, like GoogleAnalyticsMetrics, can cause problems during a Composer update. Also see P6481.

Differences from former core MediaWiki implementation

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Before MediaWiki 1.25, the page views counting functionality was in core MediaWiki. This extension is based on that same code but was deliberately made lighter to speed up processing time. Many lines of superfluous code were removed. Also, the old MediaWiki core code performed numerous database queries on every page hit; these have all been removed. This change may lead to some inaccuracies in the data.

The core differences that wiki administrators need to know are:

  • The hit counts are stored in the cache.
  • The visible hit count at the bottom of each page is updated only once daily. (Pages with a hit count of less than 100 are updated once per minute.)
  • That hit is ignored if you refresh your browser on a wiki page.

What counts as view?

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According to tests conducted by several MediaWiki operators, a view is counted if a page is accessed (action=view), as well as action=render and when accessing a page revision.

A view is not counted with the other actions, such as action=raw, action=edit, and action=info.

Migration

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If you are migrating from a version of MediaWiki 1.25 and earlier to a newer version, you must ensure to follow the advice and documentation outlined in this version of the documentation.

Installation

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  • Download and move the extracted HitCounters folder to your extensions/ directory.
    Developers and code contributors should install the extension from Git instead, using:cd extensions/
    git clone https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/mediawiki/extensions/HitCounters
  • Add the following code at the bottom of your LocalSettings.php file:
    wfLoadExtension( 'HitCounters' );
    
  • Run the update script which will automatically create the necessary database tables that this extension needs.
  • Configure as required.
  • Yes Done – Navigate to Special:Version on your wiki to verify that the extension is successfully installed.


Vagrant installation:

  • If using Vagrant , install with vagrant roles enable hitcounters --provision
You can also use Composer to install this extension.

Configuration

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  • $wgDisableCounters
    When set to true, it disables the notice in the pages footer saying "This page has been accessed 256 times." as well as the special page "PopularPages". The default value is false.
  • $wgHitcounterUpdateFreq
    Sets how often page counters should be updated. The default value is 1.
  • $wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['hitcounter-exempt'] = true;
    Exclude user group page views from counting.
  • $wgEnableAddPageId
    When set to true, it adds the PageId to the special page "PopularPages". The default value is false.
  • $wgEnableAddTextLength
    When set to true, it adds the TextLength to the special page "PopularPages". The default value is false.

Fork

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There is a fork of this extension that offers custom settings to the user:

See also

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