WordPress.org

A client of mine wanted a plugin to log what users type into forms. I kind of didn't see the point at first. But a few days later I was a little annoyed that there was apparently no free alternative to websites like clixpy, clicktale and similar services.

It occured to me that recording movies of visits wasn't really hard to do. And so i started a new plugin, loosely based on the unpublished form input tracking plugin.

I am very pleased with the results so far. Of course it's no match for the professional services mentioned above. But it is good enough to gain a few insights into what can be improved on your website.

The recording script is pretty lightweight but has a rather hefty dependeny: jQuery. It also loads json2.js. I'm sure the logging could be rewritten without the jQuery dependency but that really wasn't a priority for the first public release.

This plugin probably needs WordPress 2.8 and PHP 5. I didn't bother to test older versions and won't support them in the future.

Here is a sample movie of what a recorded session can look like. As you can see mouse movements, clicks, form input, select boxes, checkboxes and radio buttons are recorded.

Important: For the playback you should always use the same browser as the visitor. If you don't, the mouse position will probably be very wrong. The plugin also doesn't save a page's state at the time of recording. This means if comments are added or the content changes, you will see the old movements on a new website.

The daily report

On the plugin's options page you can see a list of daily reports. Click on one to see the defailed report.

• Time: When the user visited the site, server time
• URL: Which page he was on
• Referrer: Where he came from
• IP: Visitor's IP
• Browser: Rendering engine and version
• Duration: How much time the visitor spent on the page, in seconds
• Events: How many events were recorded (clicks, mouse movements, etc.)
• Form: Number of data entry events in forms
• Window Sie: Browser size
• Playback: Two buttons. The first one is the standard, the second one for browsers that don't support resize, like Safari and Chrome.

Support

Visit the plugin's home page to leave comments, ask questions, etc.

My plugins

Visitor Movies for WordPress: Did you ever want to know what your visitors are really doing on your site? Watch them!

Custom Avatars For Comments: Your visitors will be able to choose from the avatars you upload to your website for each and every comment they make.

Better tag cloud: I was pretty unhappy with the default WordPress tag cloud widget. This one is more powerful and offers a list HTML markup that is consistent with most other widgets.

Theme switch: I like to tweak my main theme that I use on a variety of blogs. If you have ever done this you know how annoying it can be to break things for visitors of your blog. This plugin allows you to use a different theme than the one used for your visitors when you are logged in.

Zero Conf Mail: Simple mail contact form, the way I like it. No ajax, no bloat. No configuration necessary, but possible.

Move WordPress comments: This plugin adds a small form to every comment on your blog. The form is only added for admins and allows you to move comments to a different post/page and to fix comment threading.

Delete Pending Comments: This is a plugin that lets you delete all pending comments at once. Useful for spam victims.

Snow and more: This one lets you see snowflakes, leaves, raindrops, balloons or custom images fall down or float upwards on your blog.

Fireworks: The name says it all, see fireworks on your blog!

Rhyming widget: I wrote a little online rhyming dictionary. This is a widget to search it directly from one of your sidebars.

Author: nkuttler