Utilities for searching, navigation, and monitoring site activityTWikiSiteTools include utilities for navigating, searching and keeping up with site activity. Preferences can be configured by web or site-wide. You are currently in the TWiki web. In particular, TWiki provides two highly configurable, automated site monitoring tools, WebNotify, to email alerts when topics are edited, and WebStats, to generate detailed activity reports.
WebNotify Recent Changes Alert
Each TWiki web has an automatic email alert service that sends a list of recent changes on a preset schedule, like once a day. Users can subscribe and unsubscribe using WebNotify in each web. The Perl script mailnotify is called by a background process at regular intervals. The script sends an automated email to subscribed users if topics were changed in a web since the script was last run.
The first entry is the default form, the notification gets sent to the e-mail address specified in the user's home page. The second entry lists an alternative e-mail address. The third entry specifies a group, the notification gets sent to each member of the group.
You can also use %MAINWEB% instead of Main, but this is not necessary even if you have renamed the main web by configuring $mainWebname in TWiki.cfg.
Configuring Outgoing Mail
TWiki will use the Net::SMTP module if it is installed on your system. Set this with the SMTPMAILHOST variable in TWikiPreferences.
The notify e-mail uses the default changes.tmpl template, or a skin if activated in the TWikiPreferences.
mailnotify also relies on two hidden files in each TWiki/data/[web] directory: .changes and .mailnotify. Make sure both are writable by your web server process. .changes contains a list of changes; go ahead and make this empty. .mailnotify contains a timestamp of the last time notification was done.
You can use an external mail program, like sendmail, if the Net::SMTP module is not installed. Set the program path in $mailProgram in TWiki.cfg.
Net::SMTP can be easily disabled (ex: if there is an installation error) by setting SMTPMAILHOST in TWikiPreferences to an empty value.
You can set a separate SMTPSENDERHOST variable to define the mail sender host (some SMTP installations require this).
Setting the Automatic Email Schedule
For Unix platforms: Edit the cron table so that mailnotify is called in an interval of your choice. Please consult man crontab of how to modify the table that schedules program execution at certain intervals. Example:
The above line will run mailnotify nightly at 02:00. The -q switch suppresses all normal output.
For ISP installations: Many ISPs don't allow hosted accounts direct cron access, as it's often used for things that can heavily load the server. Workaround scripts are available.
On Windows NT/2000: You can use a scheduled task if you have administrative privileges.
Note: AT on an NT machine is pretty limited.
Microsoft lists several third-party
replacements. TWiki:Codev/CronTabWin is a free scheduler for Windows.
WebStatistics Site Usage Log
You can generate a listing manually, or on an automated schedule, of visits to individual pages, on a per web basis. Compiled as a running total on a monthly basis. Includes totals for Topic Views, Topic Saves, Attachment Uploads, Most Popular Topics with number of views, and Top Contributors showing total of saves and attachment uploads. Previous months are saved.
You can automatically generate usage statistics for all webs. To enable this:
Make sure variable $doLogTopicView, $doLogTopicSave and $doLogTopicUpload in TWiki.cfg are set. This will generate log file entries (see below).
The WebStatistics topic must be present in all webs where you want to have statistics. You can use the topic in the Main web as a template.
Call the twiki/bin/statistics script from a cron job, once a day is recommended. This will update the WebStatistics topics in all webs.
Attention: The script must run as the same user as the CGI scripts are running, which is user nobody on many systems. Example crontab entry: 0 0 * * * (cd /path/to/TWiki/bin; ./statistics >/dev/null 2>&1)
There is a workaround in case you can't run the script as user nobody : Run the utility twiki/bin/geturl in your cron job and specify the URL of the twiki/bin/statistics script as a parameter. Example: 0 0 * * * (cd /path/to/TWiki/bin; ./geturl mydomain.com /urlpath/to/TWiki/bin/statistics >/dev/null 2>&1)
Generating Statistics Manually by URL
The twiki/bin/statistics script can also be executed as a CGI script, just enter the URL in your browser. Examples:
Update current month for all webs: http://mydomain.com/twiki/bin/statistics
Update current month for Main web only: http://mydomain.com/twiki/bin/statistics/Main
Update January 2000 for Main web: http://mydomain.com/twiki/bin/statistics/Main?logdate=200001
Log File Details
TWiki generates monthly log files which are used by the statistics
The log directory is defined by the $logDir variable in TWiki.cfg
when viewing attach screen of previous uploaded attachment: filename
changes
changes
edit
edit
when editing non-existing topic: (not exist)
register
register
E-mail address
save
save
when replacing existing revision: repRev 1.3 when user checks the minor changes box: dontNotify
search
search
search string
rdiff
rdiff
1.4 1.3
rename
rename
when moving topic: moved to Newweb.NewTopic
rename
move
when moving attachment: Attachment filename moved to Newweb.NewTopic
upload
upload
filename
view
view
when viewing non-existing topic: (not exist) when viewing previous topic revision: r1.3
WebSearch
WebSearch is an extremely fast and flexible search facility, part of the core TWiki feature set. Options include:
topic title or full-text search
regular expressions
search within web or site-wide
index-style A-Z alphabetical listing sorted topic title
many more
See also: TWikiVariables for including hard-coded searches in text.
WebChanges
To check for the most recently edited topics while on-site, use the WebChanges link, usually located on the upper toolbar. It lists the most recently modified topics, newest first, along with the first couple of lines of the page content.
This is simply a preset SEARCH. The number of topics listed by the limit parameter.: