Matomo (formerly Piwik) – open source web analytics¶
Matomo is an open analytics platform currently used by individuals, companies and governments all over the world.
Installation¶
To start using the Matomo integration, you must have installed the
django-analytical package and have added the analytical
application
to INSTALLED_APPS
in your project settings.py
file.
See Installation and configuration for details.
Next you need to add the Matomo template tag to your templates. This
step is only needed if you are not using the generic
analytical.*
tags. If you are, skip to
Configuration.
The Matomo tracking code is inserted into templates using a template
tag. Load the matomo
template tag library and insert the
matomo
tag. Because every page that you want to track must
have the tag, it is useful to add it to your base template. Insert
the tag at the bottom of the HTML body as recommended by the
Matomo best practice for Integration Plugins:
{% load matomo %}
...
{% matomo %}
</body>
</html>
Configuration¶
Before you can use the Matomo integration, you must first define domain name and optional URI path to your Matomo server, as well as the Matomo ID of the website you’re tracking with your Matomo server, in your project settings.
Setting the domain¶
Your Django project needs to know where your Matomo server is located.
Typically, you’ll have Matomo installed on a subdomain of its own
(e.g. matomo.example.com
), otherwise it runs in a subdirectory of
a website of yours (e.g. www.example.com/matomo
). Set
MATOMO_DOMAIN_PATH
in the project settings.py
file
accordingly:
MATOMO_DOMAIN_PATH = 'matomo.example.com'
If you do not set a domain the tracking code will not be rendered.
Setting the site ID¶
Your Matomo server can track several websites. Each website has its
site ID (this is the idSite
parameter in the query string of your
browser’s address bar when you visit the Matomo Dashboard). Set
MATOMO_SITE_ID
in the project settings.py
file to
the value corresponding to the website you’re tracking:
MATOMO_SITE_ID = '4'
If you do not set the site ID the tracking code will not be rendered.
User variables¶
Matomo supports sending custom variables along with default statistics. If
you want to set a custom variable, use the context variable matomo_vars
when
you render your template. It should be an iterable of custom variables
represented by tuples like: (index, name, value[, scope])
, where scope may
be 'page'
(default) or 'visit'
. index
should be an integer and the
other parameters should be strings.
context = Context({
'matomo_vars': [(1, 'foo', 'Sir Lancelot of Camelot'),
(2, 'bar', 'To seek the Holy Grail', 'page'),
(3, 'spam', 'Blue', 'visit')]
})
return some_template.render(context)
Matomo default settings allow up to 5 custom variables for both scope. Variable mapping between index and name must stay constant, or the latest name override the previous one.
If you use the same user variables in different views and its value can
be computed from the HTTP request, you can also set them in a context
processor that you add to the TEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS
list
in settings.py
.
User tracking¶
If you use the standard Django authentication system, you can allow Matomo to
track individual users by setting the ANALYTICAL_AUTO_IDENTIFY
setting to True
. This is enabled by default. Matomo will identify
users based on their username
.
If you disable this settings, or want to customize what user id to use, you can
set the context variable analytical_identity
(for global configuration) or
matomo_identity
(for Matomo specific configuration). Setting one to
None
will disable the user tracking feature:
# Matomo will identify this user as 'BDFL' if ANALYTICAL_AUTO_IDENTIFY is True or unset
request.user = User(username='BDFL', first_name='Guido', last_name='van Rossum')
# Matomo will identify this user as 'Guido van Rossum'
request.user = User(username='BDFL', first_name='Guido', last_name='van Rossum')
context = Context({
'matomo_identity': request.user.get_full_name()
})
# Matomo will not identify this user (but will still collect statistics)
request.user = User(username='BDFL', first_name='Guido', last_name='van Rossum')
context = Context({
'matomo_identity': None
})
Disabling cookies¶
If you want to disable cookies, set MATOMO_DISABLE_COOKIES
to
True
. This is disabled by default.
Internal IP addresses¶
Usually, you do not want to track clicks from your development or
internal IP addresses. By default, if the tags detect that the client
comes from any address in the ANALYTICAL_INTERNAL_IPS
(which
takes the value of INTERNAL_IPS
by default) the tracking code
is commented out. See Identifying authenticated users for important
information about detecting the visitor IP address.