# INTERCEPT PDF FILE
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^.*$ # For all hosts
RewriteRule ^homesteaders-rulebook.pdf$ track-hs-rules.php [L] # Replace file silently

You can expand on this and use mod_rewrite to send all requests for any PDF (or other files) to your tracking script and then track multiple downloads with one script. This is slightly more in depth but if you think it would be of value then I could post a new article with full details of how to do this (I use this facility myself to track downloads from my blog – it also tracks clicks on my mini URLs).

For example, right now I 301 redirect http://tastyminstrelgames.com/rules/homesteaders-rulebook.pdf to track-hs-rules.php.

So the url shows up as http://tastyminstrelgames.com/rules/track-hs-rules.php (which of course I do not want people actually linking to)

If you want to track a PDF you need to change the header content type to match – try changing the last three lines to the following:

header('Content-Type: application/pdf;'); // set the document content type to PDF
$pdf = @file_get_contents('homesteaders-rules.pdf'); // get the actual file to output
echo $pdf; // output the data

Let me know if that helps.

MJ

<?php

$ga_uid='UA-1152824-2'; // Enter your unique GA Urchin ID (utmac)
$ga_domain='www.tastyminstrelgames.com'; // Enter your domain name/host name (utmhn)
$ga_randNum=rand(1000000000,9999999999);// Creates a random request number (utmn)
$ga_cookie=rand(10000000,99999999);// Creates a random cookie number (cookie)
$ga_rand=rand(1000000000,2147483647); // Creates a random number below 2147483647 (random)
$ga_today=time(); // Current Timestamp
$ga_referrer=$_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER']; // Referrer url

$ga_userVar=''; // Enter any variable data you want to pass to GA or leave blank
$ga_hitPage='/rules/homesteaders-rules.pdf'; // Enter the page address you want to track

$gaURL='http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmwv=1&utmn='.$ga_randNum.'&utmsr=-&utmsc=-&utmul=-&utmje=0&utmfl=-&utmdt=-&utmhn='.$ga_domain.'&utmr='.$ga_referrer.'&utmp='.$ga_hitPage.'&utmac='.$ga_uid.'&utmcc=__utma%3D'.$ga_cookie.'.'.$ga_rand.'.'.$ga_today.'.'.$ga_today.'.'.$ga_today.'.2%3B%2B__utmb%3D'.$ga_cookie.'%3B%2B__utmc%3D'.$ga_cookie.'%3B%2B__utmz%3D'.$ga_cookie.'.'.$ga_today.'.2.2.utmccn%3D(direct)%7Cutmcsr%3D(direct)%7Cutmcmd%3D(none)%3B%2B__utmv%3D'.$ga_cookie.'.'.$ga_userVar.'%3B';

$handle = @fopen($gaURL, “r”); // open the xml file
$fget = @fgets($handle); // get the XML data
@fclose($handle); // close the xml file

header('Content-Type: text/xml;'); // set the document content type for the output
$xml = @file_get_contents('homesteaders-rules.pdf'); // get the actual file to output
echo $xml; // output the data

?>

XML Parsing Error: not well-formed
Location: http://tastyminstrelgames.com/rules/track-hs-ru...
Line Number 1, Column 9:
%PDF-1.3
——–^

I have no clue what this means I followed the direction exactly.

If you really get stuck just shout as I have been meaning to develop a PHP class which allows quick and easy server-side tracking with GA (including events, custom variables and AdWords/Campaign tracking) – I'll have to add it to my to do list.

Thanks

MJ

1. When using random numbers for 3 of the provided vars, will Google count the request as NEW users? Shouldn't the cookie be used to identify the user somehow?
2. I guess the requesting IP and hence country will alsways be my server. Can you at least use filters to “mark” anonimze those requests? Result would be some “unknown” source in the reports.
3. Can or maybe have you already modified the script to track events instead of pageviews? I need t track downloads which are provided by a PHP file based on some GET params.
4. Can you make the “hitpage” dynamic, so that it really displays the url the file has originally been requested on?

Thanks!