Tracking Usage

[medeek]

I am often wondering what features of my plugin are being most utilized or under utilized. With that in mind I am curious if anyone has ever implemented some sort of tracking within their plugin that is able to call home and report usage? From a privacy standpoint is this advisable or possibly problematic? Please feel free to weigh in with any and all solutions and opinions.

I have a web server that is typically up 24/7 so having some sort of call home feature could easily be achieved, but I'm worried about breaking the plugin with internet access is not available and also what sorts of privacy issues may be at stake.

[thomthom]

Technically - this is something one should do in a background thread, such that it doesn't lock up the main SU thread which could be for quite a while if there's a bad connection.

Privacy would be my main concern as well. I'm not sure what the laws for this are.
For some of my extensions I do have an update check that runs in the background - but I've stayed away from collecting additional data due to privacy law concerns.

Even for my error reporting tools I pop up a dialog asking the user to submit the data instead of automatically submitting it.

This might be something you need an EULA and a lawyer for.

[kaas]

I personally don't like it when apps collect my personal / any data - even if it's for improving the software.
I might still comply if the tool would prompt me showing the data that it would like to send back to HQ.

[Garry K]

When I have collected usage information in the past I have done so only with the consent of the user. Furthermore the numbers simply go into a database and do not have names or locations attached.

Many web sites today perform analytics. Even sketchucation performs a type of analytics to establish daily download numbers for plugins. The key bit is they don't track who downloaded - they just count the downloads.

These are the download numbers for cab maker. You can see that the number of downloads gained momentum around the time Sketchucation featured my plugin. Now they have settled down.

Similarly, in the past I have counted some usage specs to determine if a feature is worth more development or not. Again I do not know or care who used the feature.

For example - If I were going to gather info on my CabMaker (which I have not done), I would first ask the user if it is ok and then I would provide them with a configuration that they could turn on / off anytime they want.

The info could be something like this for Cabinet counts:
Standard=155
Sink=6
Angled=1
Return=5
Left Blind=0
Rignt Blind=0
Tall=1

This combined with users emailing me with wish lists would help me streamline the priorities for further programming.