First of all pardon me for my poor english.

On your website, go to the folder  where you put your gallery. There is index.html. Open it and add your Google Analytics code right after BODY tag! Thats all. For example look in my source code here: http://www.iafoto.ru/240807/

Last edited by antonivano (2008-04-17 21:14:31)

This is a very important feature that should be able to be included.
If your creating galleries for clients and uploading via lightroom you shouldn't have to then modify the index page off of the server just to get the stats working.

Could we get some attention on this?

It was a fairly simple addition to the XML code provided in the package. It felt a little adventurous because i have never edited this type of code, nor do i know what it does. Thank goodness for all the great examples in the code already.

in the galleryMaker.xml file I duplicated a previous piece of code and altered the id, value, and text to suit the new addition.

we will start from the top of the file and work our way down.

somewhere near the top of the file is this:

        <mx:Model id="metadata">
            <siteInfo>
                <galleryTitle>Gallery title</galleryTitle>
                <galleryDescription>Gallery description</galleryDescription>
                <albumTitle>Album title</albumTitle>
                <albumDescription>Album description</albumDescription>
            </siteInfo>
        </mx:Model>

right under the line:
                <albumDescription>Album description</albumDescription>

add this:
                <trackingCode>Paste tracking script code here</trackingCode>

to make everything look like this:
        <mx:Model id="metadata">
            <siteInfo>
                <galleryTitle>Gallery title</galleryTitle>
                <galleryDescription>Gallery description</galleryDescription>
                <albumTitle>Album title</albumTitle>
                <albumDescription>Album description</albumDescription>
                <trackingCode>Paste tracking script code here</trackingCode>
            </siteInfo>
        </mx:Model>


next go looking for this code:

                    <mx:HBox>
                        <mx:Label text="Album Description" />
                        <ag:mruPopup value="albumDescription" />
                    </mx:HBox>
                    <mx:TextInput ag:maximumLength="3000" ag:resizeToFitTextHeight="true"
                            ag:layout="text_color=AgPanel.bright_text_color," id="albumDescription" />

and copy it and paste it underneath to change it accordingly.
What was added underneath:

                    <mx:HBox>
                        <mx:Label text="Album Description" />
                        <ag:mruPopup value="albumDescription" />
                    </mx:HBox>
                    <mx:TextInput ag:maximumLength="3000" ag:resizeToFitTextHeight="true"
                            ag:layout="text_color=AgPanel.bright_text_color," id="albumDescription" />
                    <mx:HBox>
                        <mx:Label text="Site Tracking Code (Cut and Paste Code Below)" />
                        <ag:mruPopup value="trackingCode" />
                    </mx:HBox>
                    <mx:TextInput ag:maximumLength="3000" ag:resizeToFitTextHeight="true"
                            ag:layout="text_color=AgPanel.bright_text_color," id="trackingCode" />


I dont know how all this code is going to show up on this forum. anywho, on we go

somewhere in the same file 'galleryMaker.xml' near the bottom I copied this code:

        <mx:Binding destination="metadata.siteInfo.albumDescription" source="albumDescription.text" />
        <mx:Binding destination="albumDescription.text" source="metadata.siteInfo.albumDescription" />


and made it into this code (note the duplicate but changes made):

        <mx:Binding destination="metadata.siteInfo.albumDescription" source="albumDescription.text" />
        <mx:Binding destination="albumDescription.text" source="metadata.siteInfo.albumDescription" />
       
        <mx:Binding destination="metadata.siteInfo.trackingCode" source="trackingCode.text" />
        <mx:Binding destination="trackingCode.text" source="metadata.siteInfo.trackingCode" />

and now the only other thing left to edit is the index.html

as most tracking codes go, they are right before the </body> tag in the HTML

so I just pasted this one line above the </body> tag

%metadata.siteInfo.trackingCode%


and that was about it..

now when i go into the web module and use the most amazing web slideshow program available I have a new text box to paste my tracking code into. The new text box is in the 'Site Info' panel at the bottom under, you guessed it, the 'Album Description'

Hope this helps someone.

all the best
Ryan Rowell
http://www.rowellphoto.ca

Last edited by rowellphoto (2008-06-13 18:39:10)

Hi Rowellphoto,
Thats great! but I cant get it to render on the index.html page

%metadata.siteInfo.trackingCode% does seem to do anything?

Hi Ryan,

Your suggestions in this thread seem like exactly what I'm looking for, but I'm having some basic trouble that I was hoping  you or someone on the forum could help me with:

I'm using SSP for LR also, but I don't have any files generated called galleryMaker.xml.  Thinking maybe it was renamed somewhere I searched for the mx tag you write about and I can't find it in any of the files generated by SSP for LR.  Am I missing something obvious?

Regards,
mark

PS Your wedding photos are great!

Thanks for pointing that out Tim.  That was pretty easy.

After waiting 24 hours for Google Analytics to update, it seems to be "sort of" working.  I don't have the 100% bounce rate anymore, but I'm not getting a listing of the albums visited under pages viewed in the content overview in GA.  That's what I was expecting to see to be able to track which albums were viewed.  Is that what should happen?  Any thoughts on what could be missing?

Thanks,
mark

bluffmedia wrote:

Wow i am kind of shocked about the response to add some sort of google analytics tracker. Sure there are some other tracking systems out there but to not find a way to incorporate one of the largest most used. After hours of building a new gallery system using SSP I know have to scrap the whole thing and not use your product because there is no way to sell advertising on a product when you cant prove how many views its getting.

If not google analytics at least something that could be tracked vid director would be very helpful.

Well, this is trivial if you use your own HTML file.  That's why we won't support it.

If you are looking for tracking information, I'd consider you a "power user".  I'd also expect that you would create your own HTML.  That HTML can include any kind of tracker you want.

In my opinion, the settings are confusing enough.  90% of people who are using the exported 'index.html' don't know what trackers are or how to implement the JavaScript.

Just my 2 cents.

I'm truly sorry you were offended; I certainly meant no disrespect.  I'm not a web developer, and perhaps that's where my misunderstanding stemmed from.

No request is "brushed off."  Todd reads this forum.  He's aware of the requests placed by the users.  That's why I commented "Just my 2 cents."  As technical support, I was offering my unqualified opinion (I don't really have a say in what features are implemented).

Again, I apologize for any offence.

-Tim

Seriously, this is a HUGE feature.  I am getting requests from my clients to better understand what galleries AND images are most popular in there galleries.  It helps my clients understand what people are looking at and would help guide their decisions on what types of images to continue or discontinue producing.

I use SSP Director with the embed function to implement smart galleries on their sites.

It is very frustrating that I have to tell them that I can't quantify the popularity of their galleries or images for them.

This form of analytical or measurements do not have to be fancy or integrated with Google analytics or anything.  I would just be happy with some way to see how many hits, views or clicks a particular image or gallery was receiving over a period of time.

Overall, I am VERY happy with this product and have implemented it into just about every appropriate project that I work on.

This lack of availability of this feature is a HUGE miss, and this would really set this tool apart.

Thanks