Tracking Downloaded Files

  • wordpresspros

    (@wordpresspros)


    1 year, 8 months ago

    Hi Everyone.

    We need to track file downloads on our website and then report the number of downloads for each user. I’m having some issues sorting out the best way to do this.

    On our site, each logged in user can upload files that then get added a Library of all user files uploaded to the site.

    Then all other logged in users can access that Library and download any of the available files.

    Here’s an example:

    UserA uploads a file called userAfile.pdf

    UserB uploads a file called userBfile.pdf

    Those files are now available for download and we need to track how many times each file is downloaded and then report that information to the original user that did the upload.

    So the report might look something like this when user A logs in to the backend of the site:

    UserA – File userAfile has been downloaded 22 times this month.

    I’ve looked into various plugins but none can do the whole job for us.

    I know we can track downloads via Google Analytics but the difficulty there is tying a download to the user that uploaded the file. We would need some sort of unique identifier in the URL to sort downloads by each user. And right now that kind of identifier isn’t available in the url’s for each download.

    We need to show download information for each user and only to that user. We can’t show an aggregate report of all file downloads.

    Has anyone undertaken a project like this? If so, any advice?

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • Moderator threadi

    (@threadi)

    1 year, 8 months ago

    What do you use to manage the file uploads? You must have realized this with a plugin, which then also displays the downloads as a list. This plugin should also provide you with the solution for counting the downloads.

    Thread Starter wordpresspros

    (@wordpresspros)

    1 year, 8 months ago

    Hi threadi.

    I’ve looked into various plugins, and contacted the developers of those plugins, but they say their plugins can’t generate a report that will show each logged in user only the download data for their files. The plugins can generically track downloads, but it’s the report generation for each specific user that seems to be problematic.

    So if you know of a plugin that will do what we need please let me know.

    Right now we aren’t using any specific plugin as we have not yet found one that will do what we need.

    Moderator threadi

    (@threadi)

    1 year, 8 months ago

    I am not aware of any that can solve this very individual wish. But perhaps you have been looking for the wrong approach. Your description sounds to me less like a download plugin and more like a document management system. There are also some plugins for this: https://ww.wp.xz.cn/plugins/tags/document-management/ – but I don’t know if they have such a counter.

    If they don’t, you can take the most suitable plugin and see if you can add what is missing with individual programming. You can find help here, for example: https://jobs.wordpress.net/

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

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