Support for Drupal 7 is ending on 5 January 2025—it’s time to migrate to Drupal 10! Learn about the many benefits of Drupal 10 and find migration tools in our resource center.The Statistics module is useful for small and medium sites. There is a need, on some sites, to add extra data. I could easily add a hook to statistics_exit to extend the data recorded in the access log and it could be a problem if someone coded their module the wrong way. Adding a post insert hook, containing the insert id, lets people extend the statistics recording in any way they like without damaging the original database row insert.
The enclosed patch lets other modules use the statistics insert id for their purposes. I am converting some modules to use this arrangement.
The alternatives include submitting this type of patch to other modules, including the Visitors module, or writing a Statistics access log module to record the statistics.
| Comment | File | Size | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| statistics.hook_statistics_insert_id.patch | 1021 bytes | peterx | |
Comments
Comment #1
peterx CreditAttribution: peterx commentedI ended up also adding hook_statistics_insert_fields to add the data direct to the insert because I could not stand the though of several inserts where we only need one. I am adding content type and the premium setting from Node option premium, if anyone wants the code.
Comment #2
timmillwoodI am not sure I understand the need for this, or the use case.
My preference would be to remove the whole access_log from the statistics module, keeping just the node_counter.
Also I don't think the patch needs the addition of:
/**
* 2012-03-16 PeterMoulding.com Allow additions to the log.
*/
Comment #3
peterx CreditAttribution: peterx commented@timmillwood, you are right about a patch not needing that line. The original code needs some documentation about the source. When a patch is part of an issue, placing a link to the issue in the patch would be good documentation.
Re the use case. For some sites the Statistics module records 90% of what is needed but not all that is needed. The hook would let other modules add data without having to add an extra table and an extra database insert.
One of the problems with the statistics module is the lack of expansion. When someone wants to add one extra column, they have to replace the Statistics module with a duplicate. There is a lot of duplicate development we could avoid with one extra hook.
Comment #4
timmillwoodI would like to see the access_log part of the statistics module removed. Alternatives would be using the API of a third-party service such as Google Analytics. I feel any expansion on the features offered by the statistics module should be done via a third-party service.
Comment #5
peterx CreditAttribution: peterx commentedOk, timmillwood, I understand your feeling. External services work for big sites where people have time to learn a completely different system. You could submit a feature request for that.
This issue is for people who use the Statistics module and hate having to install a whole new module to duplicate Statistics just to record one extra item, for people who hate having to log into several different systems to find out what is happening on their site.
Without Statistics or equivalent, you have to copy inaccurate statistics from Google into your Drupal based billing and reporting systems.
Comment #6
timmillwoodMaybe this should be moved out to contrib along with the access_log part of statistics.module?
Comment #7
iamEAP CreditAttribution: iamEAP commentedThis is actually the exact use-case covered by Better Statistics.
Edit: And since accesslog support is looking unlikely in D8 and this use-case is covered in contrib for D7, this can probably be closed.