so i need a good tracking system, and i don't want to rely on google analytics or pay.
there are two ways i can think of to do this. log info to the db or parse http access logs.
i want to read and write from the db as little as possible so i'm leaning towards access logs since they are being written anyways.
with lighttpd and

apache

  (i think) i can send data in the response from the app to be logged (ex. session id).
then i would just parse the logs, scheduled and/or manually.
i'm just kind of thinking out loud here. i'd love to hear what others here are doing.
this would be for ppc campaigns so i'm going to want as much info with as little overhead as possible, including click streams, hotspots, etc.

also, how would you deal with getting hotspots (i don't know if thats what you call it), meaning the exact spot on the page the user clicked?
i'm thinking

javascript

  that sets a onclick handler onload, wich adds the mouse's x and y position.

thanks

I used to track all activity at the page pull, since my sites are all dynamic and flow through a single script.

But like you said, I wanted to minimize DB activity, so I have gone to a single pixel pull to another domain where my tracking is done. The single pixel is something like this: < !mg src="h++p://mytrackingdomain . com/dotclear.

php

 ?ref=..." >; and I load all the important stuff into GET parameters that are collected by a little

PHP

  script before it returns a single pixel clear graphic. This takes the load of tracking completely off my primary domains. Note that I use a little routine to make sure there is a session cookie out at the surfer so that I can track visit activity as well (I look for click track and purchase track, as well as try to ascertain the abandon point). This also allows me to scale my tracking for all of my domains pretty easily. Everything goes into a DB at the moment of tracking and then I use a cron job to create my telemetry graphs for activity. My little fun project ATM is to recreate these charts into a perfectly-sized graph for my

iPhone

 .

You can do a click point monitor with what you are describing - an

ajax

  throw is a good way to go (or my XRPC class in the code repository) - shoot off a quick request before you fulfill what the button does and you're good to go. Note that if you fulfill and move to another page before you track then the track notification will be cancelled immediately, especially by IE.

/p

thanks perk

one domain for central tracking is perfect. i should have thought of that.

@graphs for the

iphone

 , im thinking im getting important enough to get me a blackberry, so i might do the same.