98 replies to this topic

[1dmf]

:: glad you cleared that up, I was begining to wonder!

[1dmf]

I am pleased to anounce the release of the new Fusion Charts Flash graph engine in version 1.3 beta of the Perl Google Rank Extractor.

That's right folks, now you get to see all your ranking data shown not only as tabular data but as cool little flash graphs

I've also updated the date range tool to be more user friendly as well as added aditional hyperlink functions to the tabular results.

This enables you to quickly check the google version and phrase used by your visitors as well as easily view your own landing pages.

You can download the new version via my signature link.

Here are the official release notes of improvements.

Version : Perl v1.3 Beta
October 26, 2009
- Updated date range selector tool.
- Added hyperlinks -> landing page & google phrase checker (Table View Only).
- Added FusionCharts (vFree.1.2) flash graph engine.
- Added Report -> Google Version
- Added Report -> Landing Page
- Added Report -> Search Phrase
- Added Report -> Ranking Position
- Added Report -> Visit Date

For those already running the tool, to upgrade simply upload all the files again except the 'gre_config.pl' file, so as to not overwrite your current settings.

And for those of you who are wondering what the Perl v1.3 beta GRE Tool is all about, you can try it out here - http://dance-music.org/gre_admin

As always your feedback is appreciated.

Regards,
1DMF.

[cryffmoon]

What does it actually do in Layman's term?

Any downsides to downloading it onto your browser?

Thanks.

[Randy]

It's not for your browser. It's an application one would install on their site.

What is does is pretty simple really. It looks for hits that show a referral from Google.com and use a new, special string of data Google has been sending from some of their data centers for the last several months. These special url strings just happen to contain the ranking position of the phrase the user typed in at the time the user searched.

GRE simply recognizes these hits, extracts the ranking data, keyword search data and a couple of other things and saves it to a database for your later review.

In essence, it allows you to track the ranking positions of the phrases people are using to find you site. Doing it all completely in the background, without you having to know the phrases in advance or ever having to send a query to Google yourself.

[1dmf]

Any downsides to downloading it onto your browser?

As Randy says it's an application you load onto your website to track your visitors from Google.

If you look at it from a visitors point of view then there is some code executed by their browser to enable the tracking, however, it is perfectly harmless code and has little to no overhead in terms of your page loads as it uses AJAX and so runs asyncronously in the background.

It also in no way identifies your visitor or collects any personal data, it merley keeps visitor counts and google stats. So from a visitor point of view there are no downsides to you running this tool.

From a website owners point of view, there are only upsides

[1dmf]

Never being one to rest on my laurels, I have made further improvements and additions which are now available as Perl v1.4 beta.

The major significant change is there are now 25 reports which you can run to produce a wide variety of graphs. You can choose to run simple single series graphs or multi-series and stacked graphs via the cross reference 'by' option. This can be a very powerful tool when visualising your data.

To compliment this I've included a new filter 'Ignore Zero Rank' and a new option 'Ignore Localisation', plus tweaked the 'Google Version' & 'Landing Page' filters to allow multiple selection for performing comparisons.

I've update the 'Date Range' selector to now default to a 7 day snap shot, which can easily be altered, cleared altogether or reset back to the default 7 day snap shot. I've even made the 'Sort By' option more user friendly.

Detailed descriptions of all the new features can be found in the accompaning REAME.txt file.

Here are the official version history notes.

Version : Perl v1.4 Beta
October 30, 2009
- Updated 'date range' selector tool.
- Updated 'sort by' tool.
- Added 'ignore zero rank' option.
- Added 'ignore localisation' option.
- Added multiple select functionality for 'landing page' and 'google version'.
- Added cross reference 'by' function.
- Added FusionCharts (vFree.1.2) stacked and multi-series graphs.
- Added 'colours' to config file.
- Added Report -> Google Version (cross reference option)
- Added Report -> Landing Page (cross reference option)
- Added Report -> Search Phrase (cross reference option)
- Added Report -> Ranking Position (cross reference option)
- Added Report -> Visit Date (cross reference option)

You can take it for a spin via http://dance-music.org/gre_admin or download the entire application via my signature link.

I hope you like the new features and as always welcome all feedback, suggestions and bug reports.

1DMF

Edited by 1dmf, 29 October 2009 - 08:01 PM.

[1dmf]

I was bored cat sitting and there was one thing the GRE lacked... an easy way to customise the admin tool and graphs to blend in with the users website colour scheme, as well add company branding.

So I've released Perl v1.5 Beta

You can now add a company logo, adjust the main admin template colour scheme as well as alter the graph colour scheme including fonts, all from the main config.pl file.

This eliminates the need of having to alter any of the base code or templates, making customisation a doddle.

As always you can take it for a spin here http://dance-music.org/gre_admin

I have styled it similar to my main site and added a logo all by simply altering the config.pl file & uploading the image

Here are the version history notes.

Version : Perl v1.5 Beta
October 31, 2009
- Added company logo options.
- Added template colour scheme options.
- Added graph colour scheme options.

Don't forget if you change the graph background colours make sure you remove the colour from the graph plotting colour range, otherwise you won't see your graphs or legends.

Usage details in README.txt file.

Have fun!

Edited by 1dmf, 30 October 2009 - 04:56 PM.

[1dmf]

I noticed a few errors in my CSS and README.txt , so have updated, but not released as new version.

If you have downloaded prior to this update, I recommend downloading the newer edition, as I've slightly altered the code with a minor screen resolution enhancement.

This displays the admin tool and results / graphs based on your screen resolution. Something I noticed needed doing when looking with my ancient laptop last night which is only windows ME and 800x600 resolution

I've also taken the CSS out of the perl code and placed in a template, so there is an additional file to upload 'gre_css.tp'. I was breaking my own rule of code separation, so took the time to do it properly and added a few extra options at the same time

This also means that if you don't want to worry about using the config.pl to manage your skin design, simply create your own gre_css.tp file using valid CSS code. This way for those who don't understand or don't want to learn CSS you can use the config.pl file, or those who are comfortable with CSS can simply edit the gre_css.tp template, which gives you total control over the GRE tool design.

NOTE: If you do replace the gre_css.tp template ensure you keep the table width settings as this is dynamic based on screen resolution. There are relevant comments in the CSS template to guide you!

Edited by 1dmf, 31 October 2009 - 01:56 PM.

[1dmf]

Glad you like it.

Just a note, I have removed all readme files from these posts as there is now an official GRE Perl webpage where you can download the tool and get access to all required resources such as the readme and this forum.

http://dance-music.o...actor-tool.html

The latest version is avaialble and I can also confirm that I have tested this new version with MS SQL & mySQL and both are functioning correctly.

So unless anyone reports any bugs, this is the final releases of v1.5 beta, if you have any other versions prior to the date of this post, I recommend downloading again to ensure you have the fully tested cross platform version.

I hope you enjoy the tool and find it useful

[madams]

Your links are broken 1DMF

[1dmf]

Really? what links, can you eloborate please. Do you mean on the forum or in the application?

I've tested both and they seem fine. Any direction you can give would be appreciated.

Edited by 1dmf, 02 November 2009 - 02:10 PM.

[madams]

Seems ok now 1dmf.

I tied you sig Free Dance Music and got a not found error.

Must of been a glitch my end.

[1dmf]

, you had me worried for a minute.

My hosting does on the very odd occasion, 'freeze' or go down, after all it's only $100 per year! but i have to say on the whole and for all the features you get, I've been rather impressed.

The amount of times I keep going back to UK hosting only to get burned and have an awful service, if there is one thing the yanks do well and cheap, that's web hosting

[Jill]

I'm sure this is a stupid question, but I'm getting around to trying to install Randy's version of the Rank Extractor. While I can create a database on my server, I'm not sure how to do this step:

Run the SQL commands included in the file named gre_db_setup.sql to set up your database.

Randy? (I'm used to stuff like WordPress that magically installs itself!)

[1dmf]

Well for my hosting, I log into cPanel and create a DB for use and the user credentials for the DB with password.

Then open phpMyAdmin go to import and then use the browse to point to the SQL file.

But to be honest there are only 7 columns in the table including the AUTO ID (record number), it's just as easy to create the columns manually via phpMyAdmin.