Feedburner Feed Stats is a simple plugin that I put together with the ideas (and some of the code) from an article that I was reading yesterday for a WordPress hack of sorts. The idea is good and the code is simple.
Since a lot of people like the subscriber statistics offered by Feedburner but want to continue to offer feeds directly through WordPress, if there was a way to pass on every feed request made to WordPress transparently onto Feedburner, Feedburner would be able to gather subscription data. 45n5 came up with the concept and some of the code for the WordPress hack. I took some of that code, some more code from transparent proxy scripts, added a smattering of more code on suggestions from Eric Lunt along with the plugin framework that was already built by Steve Smith and am ready to alpha test my version of the Feedburner Feed Stats Plugin.
As I explained to a friend, after installing this plugin, the feed for your (WordPress) blog will be served directly by your blog. All feedburner is doing at that point is counting the number of people that read your feed.
You can download the alpha code from the following link. Download the Feedburner Feed Stats Plugin
Couple of gotchas and assumptions:
- You have to disable any Feedburner redirect plugins since this will effectively do the same thing. Might cause double the stats and all kinds of goofy redirect problems.
- You will lose the click through statistics from Feedburner since the links on the feed are no longer from Feedburner.
- I am assuming that Feedburner respects the HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR header from transparent proxies and uses that information to tag unique subscribers. The answer to that question might affect subscriber numbers
- It looks like the country of origin is not determined by the proxy information and everything is showing up as the servers’ location. I wonder what they use to determine the location of the subscriber. I also wondered if there was a way to spoof the remote_addr server variable from inside a curl request.
As pointed out in the comments, this plugin requires PHP 4 >= 4.3.0Also, as Adam points out in the comments, Apache is required for this version of the plugin- If you run any kind of ads over Feedburner, this is not for you
If you still have questions, please leave a comment. Installation is really simple. Just download, move to your plugin folder, activate in your Wordpres back end, go to the options tab and configure. If something breaks, simply turn the plugin off or delete it from your plugin folder. Please post bugs and suggestions.
I`m not using Ads by Feedburener, by it`s the first question get to my mind :).
Thanks for the clarification.
well… it is indeed good… but error shows on my site… -_-b… help…
Fatal error: Call to undefined function apache_request_headers() in /home/.giantic/iambencn/nokia3250.iambencn.com/wp-content/plugins/FeedburnerFeedStats.php on line 92
WP installed on Dreamhost….. and it cannot fix after deactivating…
thx…..
i.am.ben: you should be able to just delete the plugin file from your plugin folder if you get that error for everything. Once you delete the file, everything should be back to normal.
Awesome! Thanks for the mention and taking the small idea to great new heights.
Mark: well… i had tried it… after deleting the file, the /feed/ stayed the same with the error… and i turn off the cache plug-in, the same… and i clear the caches, also the same… and i am just wondering how can WP call the file after i deleted it… so weird… any other help…. T_T i just cannot fix it myself….. thx….
Maybe I am missing something. But where do your stats show up?
a.am.ben: If your blog is the one linked from your comment, the /feed/ works just fine for me here.
Laundro: your stats show up inside feedburner. Once you log into Feedburner, click on “My Feeds” on the top left, then click on your feed title and then the Analyze tab.
the plugin requires Apache, as well? or just REQUEST_URI? i get a fatal error: call to undefined function apache_request_headers()
Adam: Yes, at this time it does. I should have mentioned that in the requirements. I will add that. Thanks.
Oh man!
I just release a FeedBurner Stats plugin today too, based on the same same article. 😛
Oh well, we’ll see how it goes. You can check it out at:
http://code.google.com/p/feedburnerstats/
Later!
mstormo: Nice job. I see that yours will be IIS compatible.
I have the same problem as i.am.ben. tried the plugin and it breaks the subscribe function called from the address bar.
it says: Call to undefined function: apache_request_headers() in [path]/FeedburnerFeedStats.php on line 92
and it’s true the plugin seems to stay broken after you have unplugged the plugin or deleted the file, although if you open the site in a new tab and retry the subscribe operation then everything is back to normal.
as far as I know my server is apache anyway (bluehost)-
i really would have loved this plugin to work. I have a bunch of subscribers to my wordpress feed but there is no easy way to monitor them…
nonhocapito and i.am.ben: Download the plugin again and try it. I have fixed those requirements and if that was the only problem, it should work now.
Line 92 problem :S
Thank you Mark, this one really helps. Too bad it took me over a month to find it.
all the best, jon
There is a neat hack to reveal a fellow blogger’s Feedburner count even if they have not displayed it on their blog, although it doesn’t work if they have set stats to hidden, it’s great for spotting who is hiding their light under a bushel and who really ought to stop wasting their time.
db
Thanks for this plugin, this works great.