CodePlex projects now get free application analytics data hosting. PreEmptive Solutions' Runtime Intelligence Service + CodePlex = Cooler Project Reports

Port 25 - CodePlex Users get Application Analytics Data

“The latest update to CodePlex, Microsoft's Open Source software project hosting repository, brings integration with PreEmptive Solutions' Runtime Intelligence Service, which lets users instrument their applications to get analytics on their runtime usage.

While CodePlex has long offered reports on what user activity occurs on the project Web site, what happened after the user downloaded the software was unknown. Now, using the analytics capability of this application, CodePlex users can see information like how many people are using the application.

The Runtime Intelligence Service lets developers inject usage instrumentation directly into application binaries. When the application is run by an end-user, the instrumentation will collect analytics data from the application, but no personally identifiable information is ever collected, and applications can include opt-out dialogues.

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CodePlex Weblog - Application Analytics and Browsing Forks

“With today’s release, CodePlex users now have the ability to instrument their applications to get analytics on their runtime usage. CodePlex has long offered reports on what user activity occurs on the project website, but what happened after the user downloaded the software was unknown. Now, using this new application analytics capability, CodePlex users can see information such as how many people are using the application.

This capability is provided by the new Runtime Intelligence Service from PreEmptive Solutions. The Runtime Intelligence Service allows for developers to inject usage instrumentation directly into application binaries. When the application is run by an end user, the instrumentation will collect analytics data from the application. No personally identifiable information is ever collected and applications can include opt-out dialogues.

CodePlex users instrument their .NET applications via the latest release of Dotfuscator Software Services Community Edition included in Visual Studio 2010. Application analytic reports will then be available on CodePlex from the project statistics page with the ability to view more advanced statistics through a portal hosted by PreEmptive Solutions.

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That’s pretty cool. I dig the thought, where this is leading, of a single dashboard for your source available/OSS project. Where not only the code, discussions, doc’s, work items, etc is hosted but also post-deployment runtime information too. Counting downloads is one thing, but see how often an app is run is something totally different.

But PLEASE use this intelligently. Allow your users opt-in. If you opt them in automagically you will lose there trust and your app will pay the price. Again, only use this for users who opt-in. Period.

Now if only CodePlex would add [Guess what feature I’m going to ask for… ;]

 

Related Past Post XRef:
How do you know if your users are using a given application and/or feature? Or how often they are using it? Check out the free, included with VS2010, “Dotfuscator Software Services - Community Edition”