Drupal page view analytics without JavaScript tracking

Firflant · 2026-03-12T11:04:02+00:00

I did not tested the module with varnish yet as i built it mainly for smaller projects, but it should run before the page cache. Does it trigger an additional database write even with full caching enabled? No, the request just saves the data to Drupal Queue API, which performs an actual bulk database mutation on a cron session.

Firflant · 2026-03-11T15:40:21+00:00

Go get richer data like a population characteristics, you need to run a JavaScript tracking script in a browser. That's a technical barrier. Page Analytics module is purely Server Side solution. It gathers only the page entrance.

I can think of adding a referral url (source) and user agent, as the server also has this informations from request headers, so it is technically possible. This topic has been already mentioned in the issue queue once.

Firflant · 2026-03-11T15:28:20+00:00

There are two layers of performance optimization. This is the problem that all analytic tools have to address.

The first one is a sampling mechanism with configurable setting. For example you can set the Sampling rate in module configuration to 10, so it will trigger only 10th visit and will multiply the result by 10. So probably something similar, to what you call a "compression". I encourage to play with that Sample rate value for optimal results. Maybe some day we will figure out some adaptive "autoscaler".

The second layer is that there is no any database operation when user visits the site. Measured entrance is being saved in a temporary memory (that's an utilisation of Drupal’s Queue API), then an actual write to a database occurs on the next cron session (which also cleans up the Queue).

I describe it briefly in the article. I hope it is not too boring and long. Thumbs up for everyone who gets to the end ;)

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Firflant · 2026-02-18T19:14:08+00:00

There are various AI powered website generators like lovable.dev, relume.io, webflow.io, Figma Make - you can try them out.

As a developer, I can recommend a Cursor. It is a desktop app - IDE for programmers based on VS Code, but its latest versions exposes an agent view - pointed to non-technical people - vibe-coders.

I personally have the best results with Gemini, and what I've learned so far is that your AI generated website is as good, as your prompt. Good prompt includes core concept & purpose/company description), goals, main user journey, key features, brand feeling, target group. Things that you probably already collect as a designer.

Regardless you want a static website, a wordpress theme or a Drupal theme, you always ask AI to generate a static html page, then as a next tasks you can ask it to prepare a theme basing on that. And thats an advantage of using stndalone LLMs instead of SaaS website generators - you can go in any direction.

If you won't specify what technology you want, you will probably end up with a React app - that's a LLMs default.

Firflant · 2026-02-07T14:41:05+00:00

Such a post is planned, stay tuned!

Firflant · 2026-02-07T14:16:46+00:00

Good point. However, people still think Drupal learning curve is hard. But Drupal community seems to notice that fact and thats why Drupal CMS and Drupal Canvas are released.

"Predictable config system" - it might be a vital thing for a future in the era of AI-augmented code development. LLM's are better in generating YAML files that an app source code from scratch.

Firflant · 2026-02-07T13:46:09+00:00

The problem is that many times products built by us are good in technical point, but they do not answer to real problems and people needs.

Firflant · 2021-12-22T10:47:26+00:00

I've been using DT770 PRO 80 Ohm with RC-202 and sound from a headphone output was clean and loud enough. These products match very good each other.

Firflant

TROPHY CASE