One of the more requested features for GD Rating System Pro was the ability to export rating data into CSV format for use in the analysis through Excel or similar data-driven software. Finally, a new addon for that is ready.
The new Analytics Addon is a premium addon for the GD Rating System Pro, and this first version establishes the addon core and ability to run one type of report. As with all addons, it is already included in the Rating Plugin Club membership and Dev4Press Plugins Club membership.
Analytics addon allows you to create one or more Reports. Each report has various settings to specify rating method and rating items, along with the filters to narrow down what rating items to include in the report export. And, each report can be run anytime, so you don’t need to recreate reports, just run them any time, and based on the settings you will get updated and fresh export data.
When you run the report, the report is added to the internal execution queue. The queue is always processed in the background, and it fully supports huge results sets through the ability to track execution time, and split the execution into smaller chunks run in multiple threads to allow for short execution time defined in PHP.
When executed, the report generates an export. All exports are stored in files, and there are 3 types of results generated: ratings, votes, and overview. Ratings and votes are generated as both CSV and JSON files, while the overview is only JSON file because it contains nested data and data that is not tabular.
You can download files from the export panel only, and the downloads are protected from outside access, and they can be downloaded from the export panel only. Files are available via FTP or through hosting control panels, but there is no way to access them directly through HTTP based on their location in the wp-content directory.
The next few versions will add several more features, without the specific order for implementation, depending on the feedback from users:
- reports based on the voting dates range query
- show a visualized representation of the exported data with charts and tables
- overview of the queued reports and run status for them
- get email notifications with exported data
- run reports on a schedule
- ability to delete old exports
The reason this is not part of the first release is the complexity of the first version that had to have a rock-solid background execution system, and it would need some time to test the analytics core before rolling out more features. And, the addon users will surely have some constructive suggestions that will factor into what needs to be developed.
If you find any issues, please, report them in the support forums for: Analytics Addon, GD Rating System Pro.
