Matomo

There is excellent open source documentation for Matomo (Piwik):

If you have any problems using the Matomo web analytics tool, have questions about other functions or need support with the integration into your Fiona website, please feel free to contact us.

How can I use Matomo at Universität Hamburg?

Please fill out our application form. You will then receive your access data and further information.

How can I integrate the Matomo code into my FIONA website?

After you have completed and submitted the user application, you will receive the Matomo/Piwik ID for your website from us.

This ID must be entered in FIONA in the “Piwik Tracking ID:” field and then the page must be released.

Detailed information on setting up Matomo in FIONA can also be found on the homepage of the Regional Computing Center of the University of Hamburg: https://www.fiona.uni-hamburg.de/funktionen/erw-funktionen/matomo.html

How can I get Matomo to track my WordPress site?

1. Request Matomo access

See Matomo user request
Log in to Matomo with access for the page to be tracked
Navigate to the “gear” icon for “Administration” (top right), select the ‘Security’ tab on the left in the following window, then click on “Generate new token” and copy the newly generated value.

2. Connection with WordPress

Log in to your WordPress instance.
Under “Plugins,” select the “Add new” function and enter “Connect Matomo” in the search field at the top right.
Install the “Connect Matomo” plugin and click on “Activate” after successful installation.
Now go to the “Settings” area and select the “Connect Matomo” sub-item.

3. WP Matomo settings

Tab 1 “Connect to Matomo”
- Select “Self-hosted...”
- Matomo URL: https://matomo.uni-hamburg.de/
- Check the box for: Auto-configuration
- Auth Token: - paste the token noted/copied in section 1 here -
- Click on “Apply”
- The tool should now display the description and URL of the blog under “Detected site.”
Select tab 3 “Enable tracking.”
- Under “Insert tracking code:” select the option “Standard tracking.”
- Click on “Apply.”

4. Data protection

If Matomo is used in WP, it must be described in the blog's privacy policy. In the UHH Matomo installation, both fingerprinting and tracking with cookies were disabled at the beginning of 2023. Therefore, a cookie banner is no longer necessary because of Matomo. On the other hand, this also has some disadvantages, which are described in the Matomo documentation at https://matomo.org/faq/general/faq_156/.

If you need a cookie banner for other features such as opt-ins, Facebook Pixel, Google AdSense, and for reloading YouTube videos and iframes, we recommend the Borlabs Cookie plugin.

Data protection: How is the data stored?

The tracking data is stored anonymously in a database in compliance with data protection regulations:

For IP addresses, the last 2 octets are discarded
Tracking cookies are only set after consent (opt-in)
The tracking data is deleted after two years

Our Matomo installation doesn't use tracking cookies nor does fingerprinting, in which case, according to the UHH data protection officer, no cookie banner is required. You can find information on this in the Matomo FAQ at https://matomo.org/faq/general/faq_157/#disable-cookies-for-a-specific-site-when-you-are-using-matomo-on-premise-or-matomo-cloud.

How can I export statistics for a specific period in Excel?

First, set the period/date for which the statistics are to be collected.

In the Piwik web interface, icons for editing and exporting data appear at the bottom left edge of each widget when you hover over it with the mouse. Select the appropriate format and export the data.

How can I create statistics for a specific sub-area?

This functionality is called “Segment”. In the Matomo web interface, you can create, edit or delete a segment under “ALL VISITS”:

Click on “ADD NEW SEGMENT” / “ADD NEW SEGMENT”. A form with various selection fields opens:

Unfortunately, this form is rather confusing. Give the segment a name. Then select the appropriate one from the numerous options. As a rule, you want to collect everything starting from a subfolder of a website that begins with a certain URL. This is selected at the top of the screen. To the right of “Starts with”, enter the URL from which the segment should apply, e.g. https://www.rrz.uni-hamburg.de/services/weitere/www-dienste. Everything that starts with this URL is then collected in the segment (this information can still be found in the overview for the entire tracked website if it meets the criteria set there).

You can then enter further conditions if necessary.

The data for the segment is not created retrospectively, but only from the time the segment is set up.

Why can't I find any data for a page?

The number of hits for subpages is displayed in descending order in a directory. However, the number of subpages displayed is limited. So if you are looking for a page and cannot find it, there are probably more pages in the directory that have higher hit rates than the one you are looking for. At the end of the list, there is always an entry labeled “more” that summarizes everything that cannot be displayed individually, including the missing page.

Furthermore, direct access to documents (PDF files, images, Office documents, etc.) cannot be tracked because they cannot be provided with the tracking code for Matomo. An exception to this are PDF files that are managed by the central WCMS Fiona. Direct access to PDF files in the Fiona system is recorded (if the entire website is tracked by Matomo). However, if the PDF file has been stored on the upload server because it exceeds the maximum size in Fiona, Matomo cannot count it.