Sep 7 2005

Pepper: Download Counter

I happily installed Mint this weekend, and couldn’t resist tinkering with it’s Pepper plugin structure. The result is Download Counter, and addition which tracks file downloads linked from your site. I must say that, for the most part, I am impressed with the planning that has gone into Mint. Shaun did a great job.

Update 4/19/2007: Updated for Mint 2.0.

There were only a few places that I wished I had an extra hook, but in general, the Plugin interface is top-notch. Creating the install and preferences procedures was especially simple.

The plugin works by specifying a comma separated list of file extensions you wish to track on your site e.g. zip,pdf,mp3,mpg,jpg Mint will then automagically reforward the files through a download script to register their delivery, so you don’t need to touch any code whatsoever. It’s that easy. Downloads begin tracking immediately.

Limitations

There are a few limitations to this method, just like any other:;/p>

Files must be linked to from an a tag. The href must point directly to the file.
Files must be linked to from a page where Mint is activated.
If other sites link directly to your files, they will not be recorded. But that’s just lame anyway.

Installation

Installation is simple. Just follow these steps:

Just download the files, unzip, and copy the orderedlist directory into your /mint/pepper folder. To clarify, the final file destinations should be in /mint/pepper/orderedlist/downloads/.
Login to your Mint installation and in the Preferences click “Install” under
Pepper.
Click the Download Counter Pepper “Install” button. Click “Okay.”
Now click on the Download Counter preferences under Pepper in the preferences pane.
In the box, type a comma separated list of file extensions to track, eg. zip,pdf,mp3
Click “Done.”

Help and Support

If you encounter problems, have questions, or come up with any suggestions, please contact me and I’ll do what I can to help.

If you feel so inclined, donations of any amount are always appreciated, and help keep me motivated to develop more feature-rich plugins and software. Thanks for your support, and enjoy.