Another issue with Flash is that you can’t track what your user checked on your website.
For example, if your user goes to your website, he will click on several links in the navigation. The thing is, these links don’t match with files and, as a result, each new page visualised is not added to your website’s logs and then don’t appear in your statistics.
This issue is not a problem to the user, it’s actually a problem to you because you don’t know what is the most attracting part of your website, the least attracting part of it or whether an article has been read a lot, etc.
Let’s think of some ways to fix this issue:
1. Split your Flash file
You can, if you like, split your Flash file into several Flash files. You could have one main Flash file that loads other Flash file, one for each page and then each file will be notified in your logs. However, according to the statistics tools you use, it’s pretty sure than these Flash files won’t appear in your statistics as the Flash format is not recognized a proper page. Besides, according to the size of the content of your pages, it could be very painful for the user to wait for the page to load and display each time they click on a link.
2. Use Google analytics
Another solution is to use Google analytics. Google analytics is a statistics tool developed by google that enable you to track every page of your website, as well as Flash pages. How does it work? It’s pretty simple. Google analytics provide you with some Javascript code that you have to insert in every HTML page of your website, as well as the one containing your Flash object. Inside your Flash object, you just have to call the JavaScript function they gave you, and pass it the name you want for your Flash page (“about”, “about/people”, etc.). It works very well. The only problem is that some people turn off JavaScript, therefore, you can’t track them. Google analytics also require images and cookies to be enabled. It’s a shame Google analytics doesn’t provide code that doesn’t need these features.
3. Develop your own statistics tool
You can write a function in your Flash file that will call a PHP file that will write in a file or in your database that the user with such IP viewed such page at such time. Then, you can create a page that will compute visits, pageviews, etc. This way, you are sure you will get what you want. But it is quite time consuming and intricate: How do you compute a visit? How do you know where your user come from? How do you know what keyword brought your user to this specific page? The subject is very broad and it will take a lot of time to develop a tool that can answer all your questions.
So?
Well, personally, I would run for the Google analytics solution. Because, first of all, it’s Google, and these guys know what they do. Second, because everything is already done and it’s very simple to implement and very efficient. Then, because someone who has Flash Player probably has JavaScript, images and cookies enabled, don’t you reckon?
No.
I think I’m just too lazy.
