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TraceWatch is different, though. To begin with, it is easy to install. Un-zip the archive, set up a database, run a simple install PHP file and it’s done. Overall it has a flexible installation scheme which allows for multiple instances of the script to co-exist, handy when running multiple sites off a root folder.

Integration with your web site is also very convenient. There is a code generator on the TraceWatch site which will generate either the JavaScript or PHP code to use. There is also the option to record URL parameters or not when recording activity. This gives the webmaster control over the level of granularity to be collected. Both the JavaScript and PHP code worked well, though the JavaScript did seem to conflict with a Flash object wrapper on one site. Otherwise there were no problems.

The thing which made me take notice of TraceWatch was the clean and well-organized data display. One the main output page you are presented with information on traffic, page activity, referrers, bots, browsers, countries, and a by-day distribution of traffic activity. Each chart can be viewed by day, month, or all - independantly. This is really convenient as many web logging packages force you to view everything together in one mode. TraceWatch lets you switch your depth of field on the fly for each set of data.

For every statistic there is drill-down, right down to viewing each visitor associated with a specific value. There is also a record of Latest Visitors, including the navigation paths they followed, and how long they stayed on each page.

Lastly, there is a complete path analysis. This allows the web designer to see where people went on their site based on various starting points. This gives a level of information beyond simple hit counting which can be highly valuable.

Rounding out the package is a nice administration page which the database to be pruned and maintained. Compared to other web tracking scripts, the administration on TraceWatch may seem sparce, but it really has all you need given how well structured the package is. There just isn’t much else you need.

All in all this is a well written and documented product. It is only at version 0.234 at the time of this writing, so there are some things which need work still. For basic web statistics that are easy to read and understand, this is a very nice system.

While TraceWatch is not truly open-source (the core code is obfuscated and there are terms of use which are more or less in place to protect the author), there is no license fee to use it.

Product Name	TraceWatch
Developer	Arash Dejkam
Web Site	http://www.tracewatch.com/
Price	Free

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