Custom Shortstat Plugin

A very handy plugin that I use for web stats is Jeff Minard’s WordPress port of Shortstat, which is a script that Shaun Inman originally wrote.

Shortstat Plugin Conflict

It appears that Jeff recently updated the Shortstat plugin to version 1.3 and that there was a conflict with another great plugin, Google Sitemap Generator. After some research on WebKeyDesign, I found that the 2.7 version of Google Sitemap Generator conflicts with the 1.3 version of the Shortstat plugin. But the 2.7.1 version works fine. If you have not updated Sitemap to 2.7.1, first do that then download the new 1.3 version of Shortstat and set that up. This should make both plugins work.

Shortstat Slows Down WordPress Dashboard

As if the Dashboard was not slow enough some days, Shortstat adds even more delay due to the IP address lookup that it does. You can disable this feature if you do not particularly care about what country your visitors are from. Most webmasters want to know what state or region in the USA, instead of the country, so for many webmasters this feature is not specific enough. To disable the feature just go to line 119 and look for the following code:

$coinfo = @file('http://www.hostip.info/api/get.html?ip=' . $ip);
$country_string = explode(':',$coinfo[0]);
$country = trim($country_string[1]);

Change the code to this:

// $coinfo = @file('http://www.hostip.info/api/get.html?ip=' . $ip);
// $country_string = explode(':',$coinfo[0]);
// $country = trim($country_string[1]);
$country = '(Private Address) (XX)';

The Dashboard will still be slow due to feeds but Shortstat will not add to the delay.

Shortstat Database Data

If you take a quick look at the stats that you get, you can tell that they can start to add up and that while these stats are adequate for a quick daily glance, they are not really something to keep for a year or even more than a few months, so what you eventually need to do is zap the stats from time to time.

Shortstat adds two tables to the WordPress database: ss_stats and ss_search. I personally zap ss_stats more often than ss_search, since ss_search has the data for sites that refer to me and what searches people have used on my weblog. You can however zap both tables. If you have your log hosted on cPanel or have access to just phpMyAdmin you can easily do this. You will need to select only the two tables, and none of the other tables or you could end up deleting your blog data!!! Make sure you backup first. You can reference my Optimize Your MySQL Databases instructions, which should help you understand the process a bit better. The only difference is that instead of optimizing the table, you will be choosing to empty the selected table.

Shortstat in Blue

One last thing that I like to do with Shortstat is change the color design. For some reason the red links really bother me, but since I started changing it I ended up adding color to the columns too. Here is kind of what it looks like in blue:

Shortstat Plugin in Blue

Custom 1.3 Shortstat Plugin

If you like the blue scheme and want to disable the IP lookup feature, you can download the plugin with the complete changes here:

wpshortstat.blue.txt

You can copy and paste the code into the Plugin Editor or rename the file to wp-shortstat.php and upload it to your server.

Custom Shortstat Plugin for WordPress 2.0

Since WordPress 2.0 came out I redid the changes, see WordPress 2.0 Shortstat Plugin.

Google Pagerank Widgets

Mac OS X 10.4 users have plenty of options for viewing Google’s PageRank. Here are three very colorful widgets for keeping tabs of your site’s PageRank:

The first widget is from Ran Aroussi. Entitled simply Google PageRank, Aroussi’s Dashboard widget allows you to enter any url and receive instant PageRank status.

Dashboard Google PageRank Widget

But if you want to monitor multiple sites at once, you should install Konfabulator and download PageRank.

Konfabulator PageRank Widget

This Konfabulator widget also works on Windows and Mac OS X 10.3.

Then there is DigitalPoint.com’s PageRank Toolbar which is a Macintosh only widget for Konfabulator.

Konfabulator PageRank Toolbar Widget for Macintosh

Unlike the previous two widgets which require user input, this widget automatically checks what site is loaded in Safari and displays the PageRank.