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gristgal



Joined: 05 Jan 2006
Posts: 209
Location: Mississippi

PostPosted: Sat Nov 11, 2006 7:46 pm    Post subject: Post IDs Reply with quote

When I look at the Transfer Usage stats (and sometimes elsewhere, IIRC), it shows the numerical ID of posts. At present, AFAIK, the only way I can know which posts are getting the action is to open them.

I would like very much to be able to have the post IDs listed/linked to the internal files in my account so that I can see which posts they are without artificially inflating my stats. Surely there is some way that could be listed in the post manager, or some place.

How about it, John?
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john
Site Admin


Joined: 16 Mar 2004
Posts: 3434

PostPosted: Sat Nov 11, 2006 11:14 pm    Post subject: Re: Post IDs Reply with quote

The Transfer Usage area was added to the Site Stats section to show you information about which files which are using transfer, items like downloadable files which may not editable in the admin control panel, which is why they are linked to their URL so that you can easily see which image or file is being referenced. So we're only displaying the filename, which would just be a post ID for an article.

Other items which are visible in the control panel are best reviewed elsewhere in the Site Stats area. If you want insight into your articles, check the Most Popular Articles section for example, where we do link to the control panel page for the article.
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gristgal



Joined: 05 Jan 2006
Posts: 209
Location: Mississippi

PostPosted: Sun Nov 12, 2006 5:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The file name is a post ID, but there is no place that I know about inside my account where I can find what ID is assigned to a post when it goes up. The only way (at present) I can find out what they've looked at is to open it - which distorts the stats. And that's where this thread started, I believe.

Where it says "index" or "blog", I know what those are, but when it says "2453209" (as the most recent report does), I haven't the foggiest notion which post that is, nor can I find out except by clicking on it, which then, as I said before, inflates my stats.

And since one of my most popular posts is from last spring - it goes in cycles; every few weeks there will be another rash of people searching for a product WalMart discontinued. When they do, they wind up at my blog. And some of the search engines are returning one of my weekly Barbaro posts - never the most recent, alas - when people search for news on him.
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john
Site Admin


Joined: 16 Mar 2004
Posts: 3434

PostPosted: Sun Nov 12, 2006 1:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, I understand your question here and I don't have any answer for you. The only thing I can say is that the Transfer Usage area was created to allow you to track transfer usage for your files, information which can not be found anywhere else in the Site Stats area. If you are looking for information about accesses to your articles, then the Most Popular Articles area is the best place to get that information.
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gristgal



Joined: 05 Jan 2006
Posts: 209
Location: Mississippi

PostPosted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 12:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The only problem is that there is nothing that helps me correlate the information in "Most Popular" with the information in "Transfer Usage". There are three items in the latter for the 10th - index.xml, blog, and 245xxxx.html. There are eight pages of posts listed in "Most Popular", and the post with the most views only got 7. I have inspected the first five items on the list, and none of them is the one ID'd in "Transfer Usage".

If there's a way to correlate the contents of the two tables, it's not in any stats math I ever heard of. Now, if I mouse over each post listed, I can see the post ID, in the link at the bottom of the browser frame. The only way I can have the information at present is for me to go down the list, inspecting the links, looking for the number? The software that produces the two tables holds both the ID# and the post title. Why can't we have an additional column on one of the pages that displays the ID? I'd even be willing to accept a listing of post IDs on the Post Manager page - although it would be much harder to use that way. But at least that way, I could use the browser's "find in page" to locate a post ID.

At the moment, I have 329 published posts. At least a third of them (but perhaps a half, or more. I didn't start a blog so I could blather, even though I do sometimes; I'm human) are serious discussions of important issues. Among those which get periodic attention are several series I posted more than a year ago. Now and again, somebody new discovers them, and a handful of people referred to them actually read them. I realize this isn't an issue with every blogger, but it's certainly an issue for me. Hunting through that many isn't done all that easily by just looking down a list, even if the list were available (and it's not). And it isn't always posts that either of us would necessarily think significant.

If I click on a post in "Most Popular", it opens in the Blogware editor, and my stats aren't affected. What I'd like, with "Transfer Usage", is either to be able to ID the posts so that if I wish to look back at the post people are reading, or have it link to the editor, in the same way posts do in "Most Popular", so I can use the Blogware editor, rather than viewing it as a visitor would. That reduces stats inflation.

If I thought I was asking for something difficult, I'd be more reticent, believe me. But there is nothing I can see that makes me believe that it would be that hard. Am I wrong? Are you telling me that providing such a list of IDs is too difficult?
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john
Site Admin


Joined: 16 Mar 2004
Posts: 3434

PostPosted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 10:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The only problem is that there is nothing that helps me correlate the information in "Most Popular" with the information in "Transfer Usage".

Understood, but as I have noted already the Transfer Usage section exists primarily to provide you with transfer information about files and not articles, as it is the only place in the Site Stats area to get information about access to your files..

The software that produces the two tables holds both the ID# and the post title. Why can't we have an additional column on one of the pages that displays the ID?... If I click on a post in "Most Popular", it opens in the Blogware editor, and my stats aren't affected. What I'd like, with "Transfer Usage", is either to be able to ID the posts so that if I wish to look back at the post people are reading, or have it link to the editor, in the same way posts do in "Most Popular", so I can use the Blogware editor, rather than viewing it as a visitor would. That reduces stats inflation.

The Transfer Usage page is generated by reviewing the Apache web server log files, as that is the only place where access information about file system objects is logged. There is no information about post IDs or titles within those logs, to query the database for that information on each and every line in every Apache log file to see if it is an object in the database would require a many millions of database queries or more a day, making it impractical to consider matching the items in the Transfer Usage area with a link to a control panel edit article page. (Aside - The programmers in the audience would likely chime in with Use a regex instead! Possibly, but that is not likely to be as accurate.)

If I thought I was asking for something difficult, I'd be more reticent, believe me. But there is nothing I can see that makes me believe that it would be that hard. Am I wrong?

Regarding linking the posts in the Transfer Usage page to the edit page if the item is an article, yes, it is much more difficult that you perceive.

Is it difficult to retrieve a list of post IDs? While our system does not provide that information within in the control panel, it actually is possible to retrieve this information via our API. Our system supports the Movable Type and MetaWeblog blogging APIs; that's how blogging clients are able to post to our system and edit existing articles. If you send me your username and password I will run a script which will query our API to retrieve this information, I can then send you a list of post IDs and their corresponding page titles.
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gristgal



Joined: 05 Jan 2006
Posts: 209
Location: Mississippi

PostPosted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 6:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for explaining. If I hadn't asked, I wouldn't have known. From this perspective (and without knowledge of how your administrative software works), it was impossible to tell.

For clarification purposes: I'm assuming that your providing me with the list is a one-time service, and from there it's my responsibility to add new posts and IDs to it. Is that correct? As much as I'd like the hand-holding, you can't take this on as an ongoing added duty, I'm sure. If you weren't operating at the limit of individual duties per person, you would have had the stats for last Saturday up before now.

It will be cumbersome to coordinate the list, but at least I'll have the data in an organized form. Even though it will require consulting a separate dataset, if I set it up with the IDs as the key field*, it will be easy enough to search.

Thanks again,
gristgal

*key field in a database, or first field in a spreadsheet, for any who may be contemplating the same problem & solution. A blogger who posts irregularly probably doesn't need to worry about it, but a blog (whether one-person or group) with many posts, who also follows their stats as I do, will want to pursue a similar solution, sooner or later.
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john
Site Admin


Joined: 16 Mar 2004
Posts: 3434

PostPosted: Fri Nov 17, 2006 8:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

For clarification purposes: I'm assuming that your providing me with the list is a one-time service, and from there it's my responsibility to add new posts and IDs to it. Is that correct?

We can do it again for you, we'll be sure to let you know if it becomes a trouble. Wink
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