Extension:HitCounters

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	Download extension Git [?]: Download Git master browse repository (Phabricator · GitHub) commit history repository contributors (GitHub) code review
Parameters $wgDisableCounters $wgHitcounterUpdateFreq $wgEnableAddPageId $wgEnableAddTextLength
Added rights hitcounter-exempt
Hooks used AbuseFilter-builder AbuseFilter-computeVariable AbuseFilter-deprecatedVariables AbuseFilter-generateTitleVars LoadExtensionSchemaUpdates MagicWordwgVariableIDs PageViewUpdates ParserFirstCallInit ParserGetVariableValueSwitch SkinAddFooterLinks SpecialStatsAddExtra
Quarterly downloads	141 (Ranked 44th)
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

Benefits

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 Phabricator P6481.

Differences from core MediaWiki implementation

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?

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

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

• 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.
•  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

• $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

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

• REL1_38-v0.5.6 is backward compatible with MediaWiki 1.38.0.

See also

• Extension:GoogleAnalyticsMetrics - Provides site-wide metrics for Google Analytics users
• Extension:Analytics - Gives access to traffic and edit analytics for the entire wiki, as well as for specific categories and pages