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could someone please explain URL Query Parameters and its uses?

(11 posts)
  • Started 1 year ago by darkriftx
  • Latest reply from travisnps

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  • darkriftx
    Member

    There is very little information on what "URL Query Parameters" is and what it does.

    Posted 1 year ago #

  • John P.
    Chief Cat Herder

    darkriftx,

    You're right. As we add new features we need a better way of documenting their functionality, etc. We've toyed with the idea of a help file, or a Wiki, but we haven't yet decided the best way to go with regards to feature documentation.

    Anyway, I'm not the best guy to explain this new feature, but I'm going to try...

    The URL Query Parameters feature is designed specifically to address the needs of clients who use dynamically generated Websites. It allows Web authors to either group a number of pages together, or to treat them as separate for counting purposes.

    In order to illustrate what I mean, I need to use an example. First of all, when Woopra aggregates statistics it looks at the URL of the page in question and drops everything after a question mark ("?"). It then aggregates based on exact matches of the remaining data.

    So the following three queries would all be treated as the same:

    They would simply register as a visit to the Search page, with no hint at the actual search term.

    However, if we use the "Include" capability of the URL Query Parameters function, we can simply add "s" and it tells Woopra to go ahead and leave the search term attached when aggregating stats. This means that these three would no longer register as vists to the Search page, but would instead be counted as distinct page visits of their own.

    This example would allow you to count all your site searches separately to see what people are looking for the most. Perhaps then you could take action to make that information easier to find.

    The "Exclude" option works exactly the opposite way, though I'm not sure I can really describe it properly.

    But as I understand it, lets say you had an online store, like ThinkGeek.com, and you would rather not track individual product view pages, but are only interested in the Category views (God only knows why anyone would do that...). Your normal URL might look like:
    http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/car/aa31/

    But you could use the "Exclude" option to lop off everything after "car" or even "gadgets".

    I'm hoping that someone will do a little experimenting with these and ensure that I've described them accurately. I'm certain that my description does not do them justice, but I know that this feature has been requested by many, many people who should now be able to take advantage of it and report back as to how it's working.

    John

    Posted 1 year ago #

  • darkriftx
    Member

    Good enough for my purposes. The name of the feature gave a hint at what it did which is exactly what I need on my phpbb forum. Thanks for the attempt :)

    Posted 1 year ago #

  • darkriftx
    Member

    Wow, Its GREAT!!. I hope you guys are going to have a cheap service because with this feature finally there I really cannot lose woopra.

    I have been playing with this and I found the PERFECT feature to go along with it. With notifications if you could use that url param in teh notification, for example i have one called "f=8" (phpbb3 forum, means forum #8) and make the notification give you a variable %PARAM-F% that would give us "8". I see this as being a huge jump for anyone who currently has a dynamic site AND uses notifications (I know not all do).

    Posted 1 year ago #

  • thor918
    Member

    John P.,
    perhaps you could remove the code that converts all querystrings to lowercase?
    my querystrings are case sensitive!

    Posted 1 year ago #

  • Anonymous
    Unregistered

    A better way of working with URL query parameters would be to set a default; i.e., always include them (as does Google Analytics) or always exclude them. The way you chose does not allow a user to exclude some parameters but include others. Of course, you could have two fields, one for includes and one for excludes. It seems that right now your server automatically excludes them, but having that "exclude" radio button makes one wonder whether it does anything....

    Posted 1 year ago #

  • travisnps
    Member

    if my url was /index.php?p=compare, would i just put (?p) or (?p=compare)

    Posted 11 months ago #

  • Wurreker
    Member

    just ? will do as it will capture all dynamic pages with the ? in the string

    Posted 11 months ago #

  • travisnps
    Member

    when i put in a ? and click update it shows this %3F is that correct? I dont thin that is working?

    Posted 11 months ago #

  • Wurreker
    Member

    you might want to put variations in for example

    http://www.woopra.com/search?s=updates

    would be added as

    ?, ?s,?s=

    This will ensure that all dynamic variables are captured on a similar string (might be a little overkill)

    Once it is saved - should you login and view it again it is converted from a WYSIWG format to something readable by Woopra Code. So dont panic. Your on the right track and can just fine tune it to see how things go - you might need to restart Woopra Desktop app - but you will "suddenly" start seeing those lovely long strings.

    Good luck

    Posted 11 months ago #

  • travisnps
    Member

    so from what i have been able to get working i i seen this url http://www.woopra.com/search?s=updates i would use only s
    and would not put the ? or =

    Posted 10 months ago #

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