How to view HTTP Referrers on your sharepoint site

Ewan just clued me in to something nifty: you can get HTTP referrer data in your sharepoint site, just go to https://server/sites/nameofsite/ _layouts/1033/usagedetails.aspx.

To get there in the UI:

• Click on Site Settings (by default at the top of the page)
• “Go to Site Administration“
• “View site usage data“

Although it doesn't give me quite the depth of detail I was hoping for, it's still quite handy... for example, since all the users of my intranet site are authenticated, I can even see the names of the people who visited the site and when. That helps me determine if the site is sticky enough. And of course, as a blogger I always find referrer data fascinating.

(BTW, I'm using Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003)

Comments

• Anonymous
  May 19, 2004
  If it's not detailed enough, then roll your own logger :)
  
  You can hook into the Application_OnPostRequestHandlerExecute event in global.asax which fires after every page asp.net handles (so, unless you setup a handler for .html, .doc and so on, you won't see those). Then save the HTTP_REFERER field away into a database and you have instant logging, where you don't have to add anything to your individual pages.
  
  I documented a simple logging class at http://idunno.org/dotNet/loggingReferrals.aspx
  
• Anonymous
  May 20, 2004
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  May 20, 2004
  Also, it will take a day to see the usage stats after they are enabled, since they're only processed once a day.