Software Dissemination
The Software Dissemination system is a combination of standalone PHP scripts and a Joomla extension designed to allow developers at the Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute to easily publish new software releases and also provide download analytics. The Institute disseminates over 30 software packages each consisting of multiple regularly updated versions. The software dissemination system allows developers to release new packages simply by placing the new files in a dedicated directory and including a short XML file. The Joomla extension automatically finds the highest version number to make the default package available on the website, however older versions are still available and can be selected for download.
On a weekly basis, log files are automatically parsed for downloads. Log data is matched with metadata from the associated XML file and relevant information is stored in the database. Filters are applied to eliminate non-human, illegitimage, incomplete, or excessive downloads from a single host. Reverse geolocation is performed on the IP addresses to determine the locations of the downloads. Numbers of downloads and purportions can be analyzed by location, version number, distribution for specific OS’s, filename, host name, and web browser used.