Matomo / Piwik ClickHeat Plugin

Description

ClickHeat 3 is a visual heatmap of clicks on a HTML page for Matomo / Piwik 3.x. This plugin based on Dugwood's ClickHeat version 1.14 and forked from Trung Tran's fork of PiwikJapan ClickHeat plugin. It is an OpenSource software, released under GPL licence, and free of charge.

Installation

Method 1: upload zip archive

Run make zip and build the plugin file MatomoClickHeatPlugin.zip. Then open Matomo Settings / System / Plugins and upload the generated file. For some reason it is recognized as a theme.

Method 2: copy the plugin folder

You have to copy the source code of this plugin to your piwik/plugins folder. Since a weird issue, Piwik does not recognize this plugin, you have to manually add it to your Piwik config.ini.php as below:

...
Plugins[] = ClickHeat

Then browse your Piwik System > Plugins, this plugin will be automatically installed.

This plugin installer will make directories:

• piwik/tmp/cache/clickheat/cache
• piwik/tmp/cache/clickheat/logs.

And these MySQL tables : piwik_click_heat, piwik_click_heat_group

The default logger is MysqlLogger. In case you want to use Redis as Logger, you need to install predis/predis via Composer to make this plugin works properly.

composer require predis/predis

This plugin uses a different tracker. Please click on the link "JavaScript" in Visitors > Click Heat menu and put the special Javascript codes into your website. It is recommended to name your Group for easier management.

Logger and Adapter

• Logger used to store logging data of users's clicks on webpages.

• Adapter used to fetch logging data and showing in heat map report.

  Each logger and adapter is associated with a different data storage system (see in following sections). You can combine logger and adapter together for matching your needs and better performance, such as: use RedisLogger for fast serving and use MySqlAdapter for better data storage.

  Available loggers: Redis, MySQL, File system Available adapters: MySQL, File system

Logger

You can use different loggers to track clicks on webpage, currently supported:

• Piwik\Plugins\ClickHeat\Logger\FileSystemLogger - store logging data in text files.
• Piwik\Plugins\ClickHeat\Logger\MysqlLogger - store logging data in MySQL databases, tables needed for this logger will be created when you installed the plugin.
• Piwik\Plugins\ClickHeat\Logger\RedisLogger - store logging data in Redis server.

Currently Redis only used as a Logger and can not create heat map via it. So you need to run a command to import data to another Adapter like MySQL.

./console clickheat:redis_to_msql

We recommend to put this command to a cron job so you don't need to run it manually.

# cron job that run every 5minutes
*/5 * * * * /var/www/piwik/console clickheat:redis_to_msql

Adapter

After logging clicks of webpages, adapters used to retrieve data from associated storing system and generate heat map report, currently supported Adapter:

• Piwik\Plugins\ClickHeat\Adapter\FileSystemAdapter
• Piwik\Plugins\ClickHeat\Adapter\MySqlAdapter

FAQs

And what functions are not included in this feature ?

• remove special addresses defined on the control panel.
• remove special browsers defined on the control panel.
• filters based on added segmentation

Where is the coordinate information from the browser ?

ClickHeat plugin uses text files to record the coordinate data of each browser in directory: yourpiwik/tmp/cache/clickheat/logs.

Does it withstands high traffics ?

This plugin uses minimal text to record data and file based logging. And when click.php is called from a special Javascript for cgi, just append text on end of the each file. And when you analyze the click data and make a heatmap, plugin will create cached heatmap as png image file.

Therefore, we expect the plugin light works, but we don't know what load it has under Piwik 2.x. So we are very glad, when you inform us about your situation.

Please see the link Performance and optimization about system resources. If you want performance, you need to avoid to use a cgi, that is possible. It method is explained on the link.

New click data were added, but not updated heatmap. Why ?

Plugin places heatmap images in the cache directory: yourpiwik/tmp/cache/clickheat/cache. Therefore when you suddenly met with such probrem, you can delete cache files, but do not delete cache directory.

Showed a heatmap, but not overlay a heatmap to the target web page. Why ?

Check that your website does not set the HTTP header X-FRAME-OPTIONS to SAMEORIGIN as this will prevent this plugin from iframing your website for the heatmap report. Please see Page Overlay Troubleshooting, that is same problem.

TODO

• Refactor code.
• Correct File System logger and adapter.
• Implement Piwik 3 System settings.
• Submit to Marketplace.

License

GPL v3 or later