Matt Holford <matt.holford@me.com> CONTENTS OF THIS FILE --------------------- * About Pixel Pusher * Requirements * Installation * Running Pixel Ping * Module status ABOUT PIXEL PUSHER ------------------ Pixel Pusher integrates with Pixel Ping, the Node.js pixel-tracking service from Pro Publica and DocumentCloud: http://documentcloud.github.com/pixel-ping/ http://www.propublica.org/nerds/item/pixel-ping-a-nodejs-stats-tracker The point of the module is to receive and process information from Pixel Ping so that Drupal can accurately track node statistics via the node_counter table. This enables a site to operate behind layers of external cache but still have accurate information for determining, e.g., most popular content. REQUIREMENTS ------------ This module runs in Drupal or Pressflow 6.x. To run Pixel Ping, you'll need Node.js and the Node Package Manager (npm) installed: http://nodejs.org/ http://github.com/isaacs/npm INSTALLATION ------------ Install the Drupal module as you normally would: * Unpack the pixel_pusher archive into your modules folder, typically at sites/all/modules. * Enable the module using Drush or in your browser at admin/build/modules. * Pixel Pusher provides an admin page at admin/settings/pixel_pusher where you must specify the server location of Pixel Ping. Set this to reflect the "host" and "port" settings in Pixel Ping's config.json file (see below, "Running Pixel Ping"). * Use the blocks administration page at admin/build/block to add the Pixel Pusher block to your public theme. This would typically go in a footer region. RUNNING PIXEL PING ------------------ Pixel Ping is easy to install and run: pixel-ping path/to/config.json A sample config file is shipped with this module as sample-config.json. You'll see that this config has the server running here: http://127.0.0.1:9187 You should set the "Pixel Ping server" value on the Pixel Pusher settings page to this URL. If you run Pixel Ping in a shell, you'll see a message like this as a confirmation that the service has started: Flushing hits to http://example.com/pixel_pusher/save_hits When a browser requests a page containing this pixel, Pixel Pusher will report back to stdout: 1: node,5276 --- flushed --- The number after the comma is the NID of the node that's been hit. You'll see a "--- flushed ---" when Pixel Ping flushes its data according to the time you set in config.json. MODULE STATUS ------------- The next version of this module will include a second pixel block, this one served by Drupal itself. The pixel will cause Drupal to increment the node_counter stats. The logic for this will be adapted from the excellent Boost module (http://drupal.org/project/boost), to whose developer I am extremely grateful.