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Actually, this was discussed towards the end of todays development meeting if you want to listen. It was my understanding that modules are also counted based upon 'update' requests, but it's a slightly different process (as I understood it). 

The difference as I understood it, was that while core is aware of which modules are active on each site when that site checks in for core updates, that information is not tracked as part of this core request. Rather, the site checks with each contrib project directly for updates and each project keeps it's own statistics. 

Nate was unable to give a really clear answer of the difference, which is why it would be helpful if anyone wants to dig in and document how this is all working.

BackdropCMS.org then counts how many sites are pinging.

Backdrop will only count your site if it's pinged consistently for at least 2 weeks. All our demo  sites that only last for 24 hours will never be counted. 

I have several sites that share an IP address

@graham-72 it uses the site key, not the IP address (or maybe a combination of both?) so it does count multiple sites on the same host. It won't however, track three different copies of the same site, for example hosting on Pantheon or Acquia. 

As far as I recall, if your site has Update module set to check for updates, it pings BackdropCMS.org every now and then. BackdropCMS.org then counts how many sites are pinging.

So the numbers of installed sites may probably be higher than shown because some people may turn off their Update module. 

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As far as I recall, if your site has Update module set to check for updates, it pings BackdropCMS.org every now and then. BackdropCMS.org then counts how many sites are pinging.

So the numbers of installed sites may probably be higher than shown because some people may turn off their Update module. 

I have several sites that share an IP address so hopefully it is recognising domain names, indeed subdomain names because these can be separate sites.

 

jenlampton's picture

BackdropCMS.org then counts how many sites are pinging.

Backdrop will only count your site if it's pinged consistently for at least 2 weeks. All our demo  sites that only last for 24 hours will never be counted. 

I have several sites that share an IP address

@graham-72 it uses the site key, not the IP address (or maybe a combination of both?) so it does count multiple sites on the same host. It won't however, track three different copies of the same site, for example hosting on Pantheon or Acquia. 

If anyone is interested, it was my understanding from a conversation in the developer meeting today, that the code that is actually tracking the installations is in the project module

Specifically: https://github.com/backdrop-contrib/project/blob/1.x-1.x/project_usage/project-usage-process.php

It was pointed out that we don't seen to have very good documentation on the specifics of what is happening there. If anyone wants to figure it out and document it, that would be a valuable thing to do. 

it uses the site key, not the IP address

I am feeling a little silly right now, because I don't know much about the site key and how it works. I'm guessing that it is generated during installation and will be unique to every site, unless you clone a site (copy the config and database). So, if I start a site and then clone three copies for different purposes, they will all have the same site key and be treated as one site for statistical purposes. Is that correct?

And does the same scheme count the number of 'active installs' of contributed modules? I imagine so but it would be nice to have a definitive answer.

Actually, this was discussed towards the end of todays development meeting if you want to listen. It was my understanding that modules are also counted based upon 'update' requests, but it's a slightly different process (as I understood it). 

The difference as I understood it, was that while core is aware of which modules are active on each site when that site checks in for core updates, that information is not tracked as part of this core request. Rather, the site checks with each contrib project directly for updates and each project keeps it's own statistics. 

Nate was unable to give a really clear answer of the difference, which is why it would be helpful if anyone wants to dig in and document how this is all working.