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Automattic
Stats: File Downloads section not present on atomic sites
Steps to reproduce
- Starting at URL: https://wordpress.com/stats/day/
- Look for the new "File Downloads" section
What I expected
The section is present on simple sites, so expected to see it here on this page.
What happened instead
The section is not present.
Screenshot / Video
Screenshot Simple
Screenshot Atomic -- https://cld.wthms.co/dJtuu0
#manual-testing
Another report in #15988923-hc.
User was paying attention to the stats for several PDF files when the site was simple and wanted to know why they had disappeared.
User request in #17385653-hc
I did found some plugins for monitoring file download:
- https://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-download-monitor/
- https://wordpress.org/plugins/download-monitor/
However, using plugin might not be super ideal since folks need to add it as separated content instead of files uploaded to their wp-content area and the download stats are being displayed.
User has come back again (will be the same as at least one report above) #17728694-hc
They are very disturb that this feature is available on the Premium plan but not the Business plan (because they went AT). Any chance we have an ETA or if this is even going to get addressed?
Just noting this is confusing for users who are also expecting Click stats for files, which would have previously shown on simple sites (since the files are served from *.files.wordpress.com).
p9F6qB-58n-p2
Another report: 3102145-zen
But it is still unclear what the problem is. As I wrote, I only installed one plugin, which has no relevance to my problem. And I barely touched WP's preinstalled plugins.
Another customer asking for their stats back following an upgrade to Business.
12967167-hc
The user mentioned that they need the ability to know the stats/"download count function" for their file.
7466656-hc
As a workaround, I asked them to use WooCommerce approach
I upgraded to Business and lost my File Downloads stats, which is actually quite a big deal to me and I can't get them back. It's nuts to get them included in the cheaper plan and then removed with the Biz plan. I'm surprised to see in this forum that this was being reported back in 2019.
"I used to be able to see the audio downloads before upgrading? why would that change?" 25332052-hc
@bluefuton Any idea what it would entail to make file download stats available to Jetpack sites?
@obenland the stats pixel is fired for downloads from files.wordpress.com only, so unfortunately we can't use that method to to count downloads for Jetpack sites (see p7DVsv-7a9-p2#comment-22648).
I asked Jetpack Crew about how we might be able to implement a similar count in Jetpack sites in p9dueE-Zn-p2 and the response was:
Basically, there’s no realistic reliable way we could do this. It requires access to the web server logs, which is different for every site.
@mdrovdahl suggested using a redirect service to count downloads instead (see p56BUd-mI-p2), which looks worthy of further investigation.
So, what if we had a redirect service, eg: at https://distributed.blog/podcast-stats.mp3 which could take a request like: https://distributed.blog/podcast-stats.mp3/distributed.blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/distributed-episode-19-with-vanessa-van-edwards.mp3 and when requested it would make an async request to bump the file stat (for the file in the later part of the url) and 302 to the file at distributed.blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/distributed-episode-19-with-vanessa-van-edwards.mp3?
It requires access to the web server logs
Do you think it would be easier for Atomic sites where we'd have access to those logs?
Do you think it would be easier for Atomic sites where we'd have access to those logs?
Potentially. Worth exploring the possibilities with Systems (@bazza helped us set it up for WordPress.com Simple sites - see p56BUd-kz-p2).
Just had another user request for this - and was about to add it to the Simple/Atomic board - but see @davipontesblog beat me to it :)
They have a VERY valid point:
So... me being on a paid plan causes me to lose this feature? 😕
30141499-hc
Encountered a very time-consuming situation where a podcaster upgraded to Atomic Business and lost this feature.
This wasn't added to Jetpack in the past as it requires we have access to the web server logs for a site. We have such access on Atomic.
Here are the primary issues in the situation I worked on.
- The user heavily relied and preferred the File Downloads feature.
- We don't provide a way for the user to view or download the past File Download stats. I'm sure there is some way, I attempted to use pull them via the API to no avail. HEs ended up reverting the site temporarily just to allow the user to easily access and export the File Downloads stats as CSVs before restoring the site to Atomic again.
- When this feature is lost, we don't have a clear recommended/public solution for podcasters. Our built-in podcasting tool doesn't include a way to automatically add an analytics prefix (like for Podtrac) to the enclosures. Doing so, without using plugins and rebuilding large parts of your site and content, requires manually editing audio player block HTML to add the prefix.
We have an open issue requesting a feature that would allow users to easily add a podcast analytics prefix at https://github.com/Automattic/wp-calypso/issues/47562. This would allow Simple sites to easily access more advanced stats and also make it easier to implement when a site goes Atomic and needs a new stats solution.
Ultimately my frustration is that I am now paying triple what I was paying before, and I have LOST a critical feature. That makes no sense.
31597407-hc 4285654-zd-woothemes
Pbtwg7-1P-p2#stats
Potentially, yes. It seems like all the stats come from the web server, so we can chat to Systems/Atomic about what the solution might be.
Some background: it uses a stats pixel (f.gif) fired by every request to files.wordpress.com.
I had previously asked about how we could make it work on Jetpack here: p9dueE-Zn-p2
There is some discussion about using a redirect approach instead here: p56BUd-mI-p2