What is Viewtracker – Analytics for Confluence?

ℹ️ Have a look at the feature comparison of Viewtracker and Analytics for Confluence which contains all the existing Viewtracker features.

When companies decide to use Confluence for their knowledge management, they often face a tough challenge: How can user engagement be measured to justify the investment in Confluence? Questions might include:

• Do users actually access the content on Confluence?
• Which pages and spaces are top of the class, with many views, edits, comments and likes?
• What are users searching for on Confluence?
• Are attachments found, viewed, or perhaps even downloaded?

These metrics are all crucial when asking yourself if your Confluence instance is “alive”.

The app Viewtracker – Analytics for Confluence by bitvoodoo can answer all of these questions and many more. Once installed, it starts tracking user activity right away. All you have to decide in the beginning is whether to track users by name or not. We’ll get back to that in the section “Data Privacy Settings”. But first, let’s see some of Viewtracker’s features in a short introduction:

Content, Space or Global Report on Confluence

• Do users actually access the content on Confluence?
• Which pages and spaces are top of the class, with many views, edits, comments and likes?

These questions can be answered thanks to helpful predefined Viewtracker – Analytics for Confluence reports.

Viewtracker Content Report on Confluence: You can generate Confluence page analytics data to find out how many views each page or blog post attracts in a specific date range. This information is available on each page/blog post.

The page views, along with the number of created pages, edits, comments, etc., are then accumulated in the Space Report on Viewtracker. The Space Report displays the content with the most views and the most active users in the respective Confluence Space. To protect users’ privacy, only Confluence space administrators and members of a specified group can access this report.

Global Confluence activity can be assessed in the Global Content Report on Viewtracker. This Confluence page analytics report contains the overall number of views, comments, etc. on your Confluence as well as the most active spaces, pages and users. It can be filtered by space, source, content type, user’s login type or any CQL query of your choice. This comprehensive report can only be accessed by Confluence Administrators and members of a specified group.

The data accumulated in each report can be exported as a CSV file by an Administrator at any time.

Extensive Data Privacy on Viewtracker

As mentioned above, the Space and Global Report on Viewtracker can only be accessed by specified individuals. Confluence admins can also go a step further and select a data privacy setting that collects less information about Confluence users. The most advanced setting, “Extended Privacy Mode”, will only count the total of views, but there are also settings in between to suit each company’s individual need.

Manage Tracking: Exclude spaces and/or users, limit Data Retention

Confluence administrators can choose to set up their Confluence tracking to not track views in specific spaces (e.g. those containing sensitive information) or views made by certain users (e.g. anonymous users or members of a specific user group). These settings make sure that only the data relevant to your use case is collected for Confluence’s Viewtracker reports.

Also, Confluence administrators can decide to limit the Data Retention period from all time (default) to 1 year, 2 years, etc (on-premise only).

More Analytics on Viewtracker

Content and Usage Report

In the Global Report you will also find the “Content and Usage Report”. While the Global Report gives you a broad overview, the Content and Usage Report provides a detailed report of the most active spaces, content and users in your Confluence instance. You can filter by views (for ex., spaces or content with less than 10 views), space, source, status (current or archived), content type or user’s login type. Read more about the use cases of this report in our blog and find out how it works in Confluence Cloud and Data Center.

Confluence Search Analytics

What are users actually searching for in Confluence? The Search Report feature on Viewtracker – Analytics for Confluence presents this relevant information for Confluence Administrators. They can find the most sought-after keywords or keyword combinations as well as the number of results for that particular search. If a search yields no results at all, this can present excellent input for content creators: Do we need to create new content or update existing pages? Do we use labels for frequent misspellings, terms in other languages and more? Editors on Confluence can now use this information to improve content pro-actively and based on actual user data.

Attachment Tracking on Confluence

Are the fancy sales presentations attached to a page actually being accessed by your users on Confluence? Based on the file types specified in the settings, the Attachment Report on Viewtracker can tell you which attachments are viewed how many times. For example, this information can help you assess whether PDFs or PowerPoint presentations are the more popular medium among your users. If the attachment engagement is very low on the Confluence user activity report, even on pages with many page views, this might mean that attachments are not linked prominent enough in the content and, therefore, overlooked by readers.

Report Macros to Customize Confluence Reporting

Viewtracker – Analytics for Confluence tracks views, creates, edits, and other data out of the box. It also contains various macros that can be inserted on any Confluence page. Using the Report Macros, you can create pages that present individual pages’ or spaces’ performance in an appealing way.

The Space Analytics Macro displays the number of views, edits and creates in an individual space.

Instance Report

This report includes insights into your Confluence instance, such as storage capacity, number of users, active vs. inactive users, a heatmap of when Confluence use is the highest and more. Check out the use cases of this report in our blog, or find out how it works in Confluence Cloud and Data Center.

Space Status Report

The Space Status Report offers a comprehensive view of a Confluence space’s activity and content engagement. It shows metrics like content, attachments and active users to visualize their development over time. The report highlights the space’s most and least active periods and lists the top 10 content pieces. This tool is valuable for space administrators aiming to analyze and improve space engagement and content relevance​. Read more about the Space Status Report in Cloud and Data Center.

What are the Benefits of Confluence Analytics? 

Confluence analytics provides numerous benefits that help organizations optimize their content management and collaboration efforts. Here are the key benefits:

Enhanced Content Performance Understanding

• Page View Tracking: Understand how often pages and blog posts are viewed and by whom, enabling you to identify the most engaging content.
• Content Interaction Tracking: Gain insights into how content is interacted with, including publishing, editing, likes, and comments.

Improved User Engagement

• Most Active Users Identification: Identify and recognize the most active contributors within your organization.
• Popular Spaces and Content: Discover which spaces and content are most popular, helping you focus on areas that drive engagement.

Search Behavior Insights

• Confluence Search Analytics: Uncover user search patterns and intentions, allowing you to improve content discoverability and relevance.

Effective Document Management

• Document Attachment Tracking: Monitor the usage of attached documents, ensuring critical documents are easily accessible and frequently used.

Customizable Reporting

• Global, Space, and Page Reports: Generate comprehensive reports at various levels to analyze content performance and user activity.
• Report Macros: Create visually appealing reports that present performance metrics on a Confluence page.

Data Integration and Export

• REST API: Integrate analytics with other applications for a unified data view.
• Data Export: Easily export data for further analysis and sharing with stakeholders.

Privacy and Compliance

• Privacy Modes*: Choose from granular privacy settings to protect user information, ensuring GDPR compliance.
• Data Retention*: Specify how long data is stored, particularly for on-premise setups, to align with organizational policies.

Access Control

• Global & Space Report Permission*: Control access to reports by granting specific user groups the ability to view global or space-specific data.

User Behavior Tracking

• Source Analytics & Integrations*: Understand how users access your content, whether via desktop, mobile app, Jira Service Management Help Desk, or other platforms (Available only for DC).

Customizable Data Filtering

• CQL Filter*: Use customizable filters to generate reports tailored to specific needs and requirements.

Exclusion and Inclusion Management

• Space & User Group Exclusion*: Exclude certain spaces or user groups from tracking to focus on relevant data.

Data Continuity

• Data Import*: Import previously collected data to maintain continuity and historical context in your analytics.

By leveraging these benefits, organizations can enhance their content strategy, improve user engagement, and ensure their Confluence spaces are used effectively and efficiently.

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Notes:

• Features marked by * are not currently offered by other Confluence analytics apps.
• The deployments for Viewtracker – Analytics for Confluence Data Center or Server and Cloud vary slightly in design (user interface) and feature complexity. For the latest information on features, please refer to the Viewtracker documentation.

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All Viewtracker – Analytics for Confluence features, in a nutshell

ℹ️ This basic feature list of Viewtracker – Analytics for Confluence is still valid. However, we have created a new Viewtracker feature list with each feature in detail in 2024.

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Summary

Viewtracker – Analytics for Confluence is a powerful app that collects relevant information on your Confluence users’ behavior. The Confluence tracking starts right after installing the app. Administrators have full control over the data collected thanks to many granular settings (data privacy, exclusion of spaces, data retention, and more). They can also export the analytics data from each Viewtracker report.

Created by bitvoodoo, the Viewtracker – Analytics for Confluence app is available for Cloud & on-premise (Data Center or Server).  

Ready to supercharge your Confluence reporting?