CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptjqueryjquery-plugins
Oliver
Oliver

Reputation: 31

How to track my jQuery plugin's usage?

I would like to know if there is a way of tracking who is using my jQuery plugin by using some javascript code inside the plugin itself. My plugin is being used on different sites, so I'd like to know where it is being used and how many times it is being accessed.

Upvotes: 3

Views: 226

Answers (3)

Dustin Poissant
Dustin Poissant

Reputation: 3418

You could easily do a get request to an API on your server. For example just 

$.get("http://youserver.com/api/track/");

And then on your server you could see who was it was that used your plugin using PHPs $_SERVER["REMOTE_HOST"] and incrament a counter.

Upvotes: -1

Josh
Josh

Reputation: 11070

You could just present a registration form for people to fill out before the download the source code, asking them for some basic contact information and the website they'll be using it on. I don't think @SLaks' idea of a 1x1 pixel gif is that bad of an idea, however it does cause additional load on both your server and it's also an additional request for the visitors to all the sites that use your plugin.

Because jQuery plugins are just plain JavaScript code, many people might just remove the part that adds the tracking image, considering it to be an invasion of privacy or just a waste of resources, or for whatever reasons. They may feel like it was trickery or it was "snuck in". Asking for people to register however it a clear demonstration of your motives. It's not sneaky, you're clearly wanting to track usage and I think most developers will understand that.

Even if the registration form is optional it should give you a pretty good feel for who's downloading and using your plugin.

Upvotes: 4

SLaks
SLaks

Reputation: 887657

You could create an <img> element in the plugin that points to a server-side script that increments a counter. (This would work across domains)

However, this could be viewed as spying, especially for intranet sites.
It would probably be very controversial; I wouldn't recommend it.

Upvotes: 2

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