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Question

I have an asp.net (webforms) application and I would like to track user visits to the site. I have the DB, objects, basic idea down.

My goal is to track a user from the first time he enters the site and up until he creates an account. So I can trace back where this user came from in his initial visit (Organic, paid, referrer, etc.).

I am planning to create a cookie with a GUID for each initial visit, store all actions in the DB, and finally, when the user registers, I can go back and update a username field for all rows matching the GUID.

My problem is that I can't make up my mind on the best method to do this. Should I use an HTTP module and the session start and end events, or maybe ajax calls to a WCF backend?

What would be the most efficient and accurate way to do this?

Answer 1

Unless you plan on supporting anonymous sessions (which depending on traffic may or may not be an option), Session won't work.

The simplest thing that could work is simply putting a ticket (like your guid) in a cookie. You can set and retrieve Cookies from your Page and use that to track the user. This does mean you'll only be able to track a user when he accesses from the same machine but until he's authenticated, you don't really have that much of a choice.