# ParaView usage logger

**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/paraview-usage-logger/6276
**Category:** Tips and Tricks
**Created:** [January 22, 2021, 2:08am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/paraview-usage-logger/6276 "2021-01-22T02:08:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![wascott](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/8e8cbc/32.png) [@wascott](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/wascott)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2021, 2:08am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/paraview-usage-logger/6276/1 "2021-01-22T02:08:03Z")

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ParaView now has an optional usage logger. This logger defaults off. It is documented in the class reference here: [https://kitware.github.io/paraview-docs/nightly/cxx/classpqUsageLoggingBehavior.html](https://kitware.github.io/paraview-docs/nightly/cxx/classpqUsageLoggingBehavior.html). Here is the checkin: [https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview/-/issues/20267](https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview/-/issues/20267).

This class will make a call to a website with information about the user. A few notes:

- Make sure you are actually using your file named “usage\_logger.json”. Put an illegal word in there, such as “stop” without the ". ParaView should make noise.
- Make sure you are calling a website by the website name. If the disk name is /web/paraview/myLogger/logScript.sh, and the website is seen as [http://paraview.Company.com](http://paraview.Company.com):/paraview/myLogger/logScript.sh, call to the website, not the disk.
- On the website, you need a script that catches an http:/mywebsite/myLogger/logScript.sh. Google is your friend.
- Test this receiving script using curl.

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### Author: ![wascott](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/8e8cbc/32.png) [@wascott](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/wascott)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2024, 1:43am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/paraview-usage-logger/6276/2 "2024-04-12T01:43:25Z")

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This documentation needs to be cleaned up. In the mean time, here is how to get this logger to work.

- Add the file usage\_logger.json into your ParaView install. Details are in the source file Qt/ApplicationComponents/pqUsageLoggingBehavior.cxx and .h. and in the class description above.

This is going to call (for example) [http://my-website.com](http://my-website.com):/cgi-bin/my\_tracking\_file.cgi?user=myName&platforms=MacOS-arm&date=12:34:2020&product=ParaView&version=5:12:0

Place a file in your website in a directory named cgi-bin/my\_tracking\_file.cgi. This file will most likely have java in it, and can catch the parameters of the call. As I am not a Java programmer, just google “passing data to a cgi script”. Append these into a file.

Then, create a python script that parses this file, and does usage counts. Alternatively, if you don’t have much usage, this can be done by hand.

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/mwestphal/32/17_2.png) [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2024, 12:29pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/paraview-usage-logger/6276/3 "2024-04-13T12:29:58Z")

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> [@wascott](#):
>
> This is going to call (for example) [http://my-website.com](http://my-website.com):/cgi-bin/my\_tracking\_file.cgi?user=myName&platforms=MacOS-arm&date=12:34:2020&product=ParaView&version=5:12:0

Wrong copy paste ?