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Woopra is a Web Analytics service currently in open Beta. I signed up for this service about a month ago and finally got my sites approved for the beta tests. For me, this was well worth the wait. I was anxious, eager, and champing at the bit to finally be able to use this highly intriguing software.

So what is it? How does it work?

Woopra is from iFusion Labs and is powered by Sun Java, 3Tera, and Layered Technologies. According to them: “Woopra is the world’s most comprehensive, information rich, easy to use, real-time Web tracking and analysis application.”

That is a very powerful statement, but nothing in there is inaccurate. It is simply brilliant. Once you’ve gone through the registration process and they’ve approved your sites you can download the Woopra Client. The Woopra client is a beautifully designed 4.14mb file for Windows, with Mac OSX and Linux versions available. For this example I am using the Windows client on Windows Vista Ultimate x64, and it’s working without a hitch. It was as easy to install as clicking next a few times.

When they approve your site, you can access an overview of your approved or pending sites on your profile at Woopra.com. Next to each approved site is a Website ID and a Code to help you track it. Here comes the part where you allow Woopra to study your site.If you use Wordpress or vBulletin, Woopra has already developed plugins that allow Woopra to access your site. Since this blog just so happens to be Wordpress I tried the plugin.

Wordpress

The Wordpress plugin is a 1.71kb .zip file so simply extract the contained PHP file to your hard drive and upload it to your plugins folder on your Wordpress server. Now login to your Wordpress admin panel (yourdomain.com/wp-admin) and under plugins activate Woopra. Now right at the main page on your Wordpress admin panel you will see Woopra just to the right of Dashboard. Once in the Woopra plugin I can enter my Website ID choose if I want to Track Admin Pages and choose to Automatically Tag Members and Commentators. I checked both boxes and hit update.

As soon as I did this I visited my site once and then over to the Woopra Client to see the results. Instantly Woopra knew I had visited, that it was me, and that it was by direct request. Beyond this, it told me which article I clicked onto, what browser I was using(Firefox 3), my entry page or “landing page”, and once I clicked off to an outside link it showed my exit. Along the left side of the Woopra Client there are 5 buttons:

• Dashboard which gives an overview of activity
• Live, which shows who’s currently on your site
• Search where you can retrieve specific events and visitors
• Analytics which has 28 different tabs of information you can sort through
• and then finally Manage where you can create Event notifications to keep you up to date on certain activities.

  

Joomla

So great, Woopra is the nicest blog monitoring software I’ve ever seen, but what can it do with a more advanced website? To test this I decided to use the site I just launched 2 days ago: gameinthemaking.com

Gameinthemaking.com(GITM) is a Joomla! website that has a large forum, will have lots of content and we plan to have a very large number of users registered in its database. There currently aren’t any official Joomla! plugins available at Woopra’s site (though Woopra is in development of several more plugins, Joomla! is a likely candidate) but never fear, that’s where the code on your Woopra.com profile comes into play.

From you Members panel click code to get the javascript required by Woopra. Mine looks something like this:

<script type=”text/javascript”>

var woopra_id = ‘gitm’s ID #’;

</script>

<script src=”http://static.woopra.com/js/woopra.js”></script>

Now all you need to do is add that code to every page on your site. This is great for static html sites with only a few pages where this can easily be added to them but I have to admit, this is intimidating for a dynamic website.  What to do with Joomla? All of that fancy framework with template files, dynamic content, and who could forget every component you’ve installed to add functionality to the site.

Okay, maybe I’m over reacting, there has to be a way to integrate this more easily. Let’s think about how the design of Joomla! works to see if there’s an easier route. Well since Joomla uses the same design template for the layout on all pages you have a single file that is used for every page. Let’s just add it there.

Open up /templates/templatename/index.php

And add the code before the </body> tag at the bottom of your index.php file. Well wow, that was easy. And wow, now that I think of it there has to be other solutions for this too. How about a module?

1. Create a new module (choose custom HTML for 1.5)
2. Let’s add some custom HTML below in the WYSIWYG’s HTML view
3. Let’s give it a title and tell it not to show the title.
4. Assign this module to the Debug position
5. Publish/enable the new module.
6. If the WYSIWYG destroyed your code, go to Global Configuration and disable the “WYSIWYG” by selecting “no editor.” Then try again.

Now one of the most amazing benefits of working with Open Source Software is that anyone can easily develop and integrate just about anything into any of these amazing content management systems. A quick search of the Woopra forum returned exactly what I was looking for, an unofficial Woopra plugin for Joomla!. The plugin is for Joomla 1.5 with a mambot available for Joomla! 1.0, both available from this site:

http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/rocketwerx/frs/?action=FrsReleaseBrowse&frs_package_id=3605

From your administrator panel in Joomla go to Extensions –>Install/Uninstall. Then point the browser to the plugin you’ve downloaded and click Upload file & Install. Now from Extensions –> Plugin Manager You will see “System – Woopra.” Set the plugins status to enabled and enter in your website ID. You can also enable the Auto Tagging of Logged in users, which I chose to do. I hit save, now let’s see if Woopra notices me.

A few clicks here and there on GITM and low and behold, Woopra knew exactly what I just did and knew who else was on my site. It’s amazing how well this software works. I recommend that every at least tries it regardless of whether or not you think you’ll end up using it. The interface of their software is very easy to understand and is just plain cool looking. The software has crashed once on me today, but it is still beta after all. It wasn’t a total crash, the application just came to a stand still and started using an excessive amount of memory. But I’ve used it ALL day, in general I consider it to be very stable.

I would rate this application a 9.8 out of 10 for what it is; Website Analysis software.

If you plan to use Woopra to help with SEO there are several things about it that you will find very helpful such as visitor demographics, but if you are solely interested in turning more visitors from SEO I recommend iBusinessPromoter(IBP) from Axandra software. IBP is a very powerful Search Engine Optimization and listing tool that is by far the biggest assistant for SEO I’ve ever seen. Woopra is easily the best analysis software I’ve ever used and is leaps and bounds more powerful than the analysis tools on your web hosts control panel.

Some more screen shots of the actual app are below. Give Woopra a try, it’s a great application. http://www.woopra.com

Click for larger views.

Category: Software, Web Design by Johnux