Automating Web-Site Maintenance Part 2
Perl-based tools to manage your Web site
By Paul Helinski
Perhaps the most perplexing aspect of Web system management is tracking and responding to visitors. Visitors to your site know what they like or dislike and what they want more of. But how do you determine what's important? Do you examine server logs, page impressions, or live hits? What about list servers? Tracking and responding takes time and an expensive software package. Or does it?
This month, I'll cover Trakkit and Tickler, two additions to your Web toolbox. Trakkit decodes your visitors' "click trail." Tickler builds an email list as people sign in with their preferences and automatically notifies them when you add or update content. Both will enhance your automation capabilities, both are written in Perl version 5.002, and both are free for you to download and use; see "
Online."
Trakkit Installation
Before you get started, you'll need to set up the SiteWrapper configuration to log page hits as described in "Automating Web-Site Maintenance, Part 1" in the November issue of Web Techniques. If you created a logs directory last month, its permissions should be set to CHMOD 777 (read, write, and execute). Verify that those log files are there for Trakkit to decode. They'll be in the format thismonth.page.html.log and, depending on the popularity of your site, could be quite long.
