2012-02-14, 12:29
Hi,
I've always been curious how much users actually use my addons. So I've created script, that sends ping to google analytics every time, when user "uses" my addon. Usage tracking is running since jan 2011, I find it still experimental.
I'd like to share this idea with you, get suggestions.
How it works?
script.usage.tracker has 3 main functions
1. any addon "A" can register within usage.tracker - I usually do that when (audio/video) addon run in its root. Usage tracker then asks user, whether he s interested to send usage. Further registration calls are ignored. "A" can also pass a string it, that makes sending terms more clear to user (when and what is being reported) (for example, my addons report when user plays or downloads a movie using addon)
2. any addon "A" can send usage using usage.tracker. Currently I've implemented only Google Analytics, but there is space for more. "A" passes all required params to send usage to GA account.
3. User can run usage.tracker and he finds list of all addons integrated with it. He can additionally enable/disable tracking for particular addon, read terms of sending usage
Important things:
addon "A" cannot send usage data against users mind
tracking has almost no performance impact to "A" (RunPlugin is async)
Stats of my repo is http://jezzovo.net/xbmc-doplnky/stats.php, you can take a look, whether you find it interesting.
My repo with all plugins including usage.tracker : https://github.com/lzoubek/xbmc-doplnky
My plan:
* gather suggestions, inputs, patches from you
* improve, document
* move usage.tracker to separate git repo and push it to official repo
* implement and release simple stats php scripts
I've always been curious how much users actually use my addons. So I've created script, that sends ping to google analytics every time, when user "uses" my addon. Usage tracking is running since jan 2011, I find it still experimental.
I'd like to share this idea with you, get suggestions.
How it works?
script.usage.tracker has 3 main functions
1. any addon "A" can register within usage.tracker - I usually do that when (audio/video) addon run in its root. Usage tracker then asks user, whether he s interested to send usage. Further registration calls are ignored. "A" can also pass a string it, that makes sending terms more clear to user (when and what is being reported) (for example, my addons report when user plays or downloads a movie using addon)
2. any addon "A" can send usage using usage.tracker. Currently I've implemented only Google Analytics, but there is space for more. "A" passes all required params to send usage to GA account.
3. User can run usage.tracker and he finds list of all addons integrated with it. He can additionally enable/disable tracking for particular addon, read terms of sending usage
Important things:
addon "A" cannot send usage data against users mind
tracking has almost no performance impact to "A" (RunPlugin is async)
Stats of my repo is http://jezzovo.net/xbmc-doplnky/stats.php, you can take a look, whether you find it interesting.
My repo with all plugins including usage.tracker : https://github.com/lzoubek/xbmc-doplnky
My plan:
* gather suggestions, inputs, patches from you
* improve, document
* move usage.tracker to separate git repo and push it to official repo
* implement and release simple stats php scripts