: Tracking clicks from a PDF to external URLs? I've published a small e-book in PDF format, which contains several embedded links to external URLs. I want to measure the clicks users make from

@Angie530

Instead of installing a database, as you already have the redirect setup, you should be able to collect the access logs on your HTTP server(s) (guessing Apache if you're using .htaccess?) and use any number of packages to analyze it. Things ranging from the free AWStats to (often paid) Splunk.

Of course this assumes you at least have access to the access log or are able to configure your server to produce one. (Some shared hosting providers may not give this to you)

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@Barnes591

To track clicks you could create a database which records the clicks. So something like what you have already done via unique url on your site. For each link create a row with link url (to redirect to) and click_id to know which to update.

example.com/track.php?click_id=2 redirects to google.com
example.com/track.php?click_id=2 redirects to yahoo.com


Once landed on example.com, track.php a script will update the database where click_id = 2 (increment) and then redirect.

There are loads of scripts available to do this for free heres some I found for you, havent tested with but looks like it'll do the job. The second has a live demo. Hopefully that helps.
www.phpdevtips.com/2011/07/simple-advanced-click-tracking-using-php-and-mysql/ http://www.phpjunkyard.com/php-click-counter.php

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