Stats System On the Way
I spent the last week or so building a server with MySQL, Apache, and PHP all on Linux. I chose to use RedHat 9 simply because that is what I had available. I was extremely happy that I was able to do it all through the command prompt, which isn't too bad given that I haven't touched Linux in 2 years. The server is going to be my new stat system for the lab. Bofe and I got the idea off a Listserv that we are a part of. Currently, students sign in when they come into the lab and the student workers are responsible for counting the signatures every hour. This process obviously doesn't generate the greatest results. Not to mention that "Penis" signs in at least 10 times a day. The current idea is to have a login script that uses php. When a student logs in it will let the stats system know that one person is present in the lab. When that individual logs out, it will let the system know that the person left the lab. All this information will be kept in a MySQL database. If all goes well, we will be able to open up a page on the new server that displays the total number of people in the lab (real time). It will have charts displaying traffic statistics over a given period of time. And to make things interesting, we are hopefully going to grab entries from the PHAROS UNIPRINT database (which is MySQL) to calculate total amount of print jobs/pages for the day and so on. From the print statistics we should also be able to determine the amount of money that should be in the change machines, which will help to check the accuracy of the changing system. This server will be a GALM (General Access Lab Manger) dream. Hehehe! If it works. The server is up and running so the easy part is out of the way. I will keep you updated. Who knows, you might be able to visit the page to see if there are any available computers in the lab. Chances are you will just have to take my word for it! I would say that Bofe and I have our work cut out for us on this one, mainly because this is something that we are going to conquer in our spare time (non-existent).Posted by dmac at October 3, 2004 03:10 PM
