Winextra – Adding Clicky Web Analytics to your web forums

clicky-web-analytics I will admit to being a stats junkie when it comes to traffic on both my various blogs as well as our Community Forums here at WinExtra. What I really don’t like is having to use different stats packages from different companies. So not long ago I decided to go back to using the Clicky Web Analytics service but since their free option would only let you get stats for one site I decided to sign up for one of their Pro packages.

Not being all that rich I picked the package that was priced at $9.99 per month and would let me track up to 10 different sites. I then set about installing all the tracking codes using their WordPress plugin which just left me with the forums to take care off.

Now for the Community Forums I currently am using the SMF (Simple Machines Forums) software and getting the Clicky tracking code installed on it wasn’t as simple as using a plugin. To do this you have to go to you Clicky account once you have signed up and click on the Site Preference link.

site-pref

Then on the Site Preference page click on the Tracking code link.

tracking-link

This is the page were you will find the Clicky tracking code you will need. The code to copy is in red.

code

Now will come the tricky part – well maybe not so much if you are use to using an FTP program and can navigate your way to your forums directory on your web host. Assuming that you do make your way to your theme directory – Again this is specifically for SMF based forums so if you are using anything else you may have to experiment.

Once you have found the folder the file you will need is the index.template.php file

Note: this is for modifying the default SMF theme so if you are using a custom theme you will need to modify it’s index.template.php file as well.

ftp

Once you have opened the file in a text editor scroll down to the function template_html_below section of the code and just before the closing body tag paste the Clicky tracking code.

clicky