To track page views, events, visits, you have to send an HTTP request (GET or POST) to your Tracking HTTP API endpoint, for example, https://your-matomo-domain.example/matomo.php with the correct query parameters set.
This section lists the various query parameters that are supported by the Tracking API. The data for some of these fields will not be available in your app / software which is expected, but you should provide as much information as you can.
Note: all parameters values that are strings (such as 'url', 'action_name', etc.) must be URL encoded.
idsite (required) — The ID of the website we're tracking a visit/action for.rec (required) — Required for tracking, must be set to one, eg, &rec=1.action_name (recommended) — The title of the action being tracked. For page tracks this is used as page title. If enabled in your installation you may use the category tree structure in this field. For example, “game / register new user” would then create a group “game” and add the item “register new user” in it.url (recommended) — The full URL for the current action._id (recommended) — The unique visitor ID, must be a 16 characters hexadecimal string. Every unique visitor must be assigned a different ID and this ID must not change after it is assigned. If this value is not set Matomo (formerly Piwik) will still track visits, but the unique visitors metric might be less accurate.rand (recommended) — Meant to hold a random value that is generated before each request. Using it helps avoid the tracking request being cached by the browser or a proxy.apiv (recommended) — The parameter &apiv=1 defines the api version to use (currently always set to 1)(We recommend that these parameters be used if the information is available and relevant to your use case.)
urlref — The full HTTP Referrer URL. This value is used to determine how someone got to your website (ie, through a website, search engine or campaign).res — The resolution of the device the visitor is using, eg 1280x1024.h — The current hour (local time).m — The current minute (local time).s — The current second (local time).fla (Flash), java (Java), dir (Director), qt (Quicktime), realp (Real Player), pdf (PDF), wma (Windows Media), gears (Gears), ag (Silverlight).cookie — when set to 1, the visitor's client is known to support cookies.
ua — An override value for the User-Agent HTTP header field. The user agent is used to detect the operating system and browser used.
uadata — JSON encoded Client Hints collected by javascript. This will be used to enrich the detected user agent data. (requires Matomo 4.12.0)lang — An override value for the Accept-Language HTTP header field. This value is used to detect the visitor's country if GeoIP is not enabled.uid — defines the User ID for this request. User ID is any non-empty unique string identifying the user (such as an email address or a username). To access this value, users must be logged-in in your system so you can fetch this user ID from your system, and pass it to Matomo. The User ID appears in the visits log, the Visitor profile, and you can Segment reports for one or several User ID (userId segment). When specified, the User ID will be "enforced". This means that if there is no recent visit with this User ID, a new one will be created. If a visit is found in the last 30 minutes with your specified User ID, then the new action will be recorded to this existing visit.cid — defines the visitor ID for this request. You must set this value to exactly a 16 character hexadecimal string (containing only characters 01234567890abcdefABCDEF). We recommended setting the User ID via uid rather than use this cid.new_visit — If set to 1, will force a new visit to be created for this action. This feature is also available in JavaScript.dimension[1-999] — A Custom Dimension value for a specific Custom Dimension ID (requires Matomo 2.15.1 + Custom Dimensions plugin see the Custom Dimensions guide). If Custom Dimension ID is 2 use dimension2=dimensionValue to send a value for this dimension. The configured Custom Dimension has to be in scope "Visit"._cvar — Visit scope custom variables. This is a JSON encoded string of the custom variable array (see below for an example value). (Note: it is recommended to use "Custom Dimensions" instead of "Custom Variables")In Matomo, it is possible to measure the channel used by the visitor to find the website, and then to attribute conversions to specific campaigns or channels. This is useful to identify which marketing efforts are driving the most traffic and conversions.
url parameter. You can generate a Campaign Tracking URL using the URL Builder to include Campaign name, medium, source, content, Campaign ID, placement, group in the URL.You may also use the following Tracking API parameters to additionally ensure goal conversions will be recorded with the right Campaign name or Campaign keyword:
_rcn — The Campaign name used to attribute goal conversions. (Note: this will only be used to attribute goal conversions, not visits)_rck — The Campaign keyword used to attribute goal conversions. (Note: this will only be used to attribute goal conversions, not visits)cvar — Page scope custom variables. This is a JSON encoded string of the custom variable array (see below for an example value).link — An external URL the user has opened. Used for tracking outlink clicks. We recommend to also set the url parameter to this same value.download — URL of a file the user has downloaded. Used for tracking downloads. We recommend to also set the url parameter to this same value.search — The Site Search keyword. When specified, the request will not be tracked as a normal pageview but will instead be tracked as a Site Search request.search_cat — when search is specified, you can optionally specify a search category with this parameter.search_count — when search is specified, we also recommend setting the search_count to the number of search results displayed on the results page. When keywords are tracked with &search_count=0 they will appear in the "No Result Search Keyword" report.pv_id — Accepts a six character unique ID that identifies which actions were performed on a specific page view. When a page was viewed, all following tracking requests (such as events) during that page view should use the same pageview ID. Once another page was viewed a new unique ID should be generated. Use [0-9a-Z] as possible characters for the unique ID.idgoal — If specified, the tracking request will trigger a conversion for the goal of the website being tracked with this ID.revenue — A monetary value that was generated as revenue by this goal conversion. Only used if idgoal is specified in the request.cs — The charset of the page being tracked. Specify the charset if the data you send to Matomo is encoded in a different character set than the default utf-8.dimension[0-999] — A Custom Dimension value for a specific Custom Dimension ID (requires Matomo 2.15.1 + Custom Dimensions plugin see the Custom Dimensions guide). If Custom Dimension ID is 2 use dimension2=dimensionValue to send a value for this dimension. The configured Custom Dimension has to be in scope "Action".ca — Stands for custom action. &ca=1 can be optionally sent along any tracking request that isn't a page view. For example it can be sent together with an event tracking request e_a=Action&e_c=Category&ca=1. The advantage being that should you ever disable the event plugin, then the event tracking requests will be ignored vs if the parameter is not set, a page view would be tracked even though it isn't a page view. For more background information check out #16570. Do not use this parameter together with a ping=1 tracking request.For pageviews the following page performance metrics can be tracked:
pf_net — Network time. How long it took to connect to server.pf_srv — Server time. How long it took the server to generate page.pf_tfr — Transfer time. How long it takes the browser to download the response from the serverpf_dm1 — Dom processing time. How long the browser spends loading the webpage after the response was fully received until the user can start interacting with it.pf_dm2 — Dom completion time. How long it takes for the browser to load media and execute any Javascript code listening for the DOMContentLoaded event.pf_onl — Onload time. How long it takes the browser to execute Javascript code waiting for the window.load event.All page performance metrics expect a value in milliseconds.
e_c — The event category. Must not be empty. (eg. Videos, Music, Games...)e_a — The event action. Must not be empty. (eg. Play, Pause, Duration, Add Playlist, Downloaded, Clicked...)e_n — The event name. (eg. a Movie name, or Song name, or File name...)e_v — The event value. Must be a float or integer value (numeric), not a string.Note: Trailing and leading whitespaces will be trimmed from parameter values for e_c, e_a and e_n. Strings filled with whitespaces will be considered as (invalid) empty values.
c_n — The name of the content. For instance 'Ad Foo Bar'.c_p — The actual content piece. For instance the path to an image, video, audio, any text.c_t — The target of the content. For instance the URL of a landing page.c_i — The name of the interaction with the content. For instance a 'click'.To track a content impression set c_n and optionally c_p and c_t. To track a content interaction set c_i and c_n and optionally c_p and c_t. To map an interaction to an impression make sure to set the same value for c_n and c_p. It is recommended to set a value for c_p.
Use the following values to record a cart and/or an ecommerce order.
&idgoal=0 in the request to track an ecommerce interaction: cart update or an ecommerce order.ec_id — The unique string identifier for the ecommerce order (required when tracking an ecommerce order).ec_items — Items in the Ecommerce order. This is a JSON encoded array of items. Each item is an array with the following info in this order:
An example value of ec_items would be: %5B%5B%22item1%20SKU%22%2C%22item1%20name%22%2C%22item1%20category%22%2C11.1111%2C2%5D%2C%5B%22item2%20SKU%22%2C%22item2%20name%22%2C%22%22%2C0%2C1%5D%5D (URL decoded version is: [["item1 SKU","item1 name","item1 category",11.1111,2],["item2 SKU","item2 name","",0,1]]).
revenue — The grand total for the ecommerce order (required when tracking an ecommerce order)ec_st — The sub total of the order; excludes shipping.ec_tx — Tax Amount of the order.ec_sh — Shipping cost of the order.ec_dt — Discount offered._pkc — The category of the product being viewed._pkp — The price of the product being viewed._pks — The SKU (stock keeping unit) of the product being viewed._pkn — The name of the product being viewed.token_auth)The following parameters require that you set &token_auth= to the token_auth value of the Super User, or a user with write or admin permission to the website visits are being tracked for.
token_auth — 32 character authorization key used to authenticate the API request. We recommend creating a user specifically for accessing the Tracking API, and give the user only write permission on the website(s).cip — Override value for the visitor IP (both IPv4 and IPv6 notations supported).cdt — Override for the datetime of the request (normally the current time is used). This can be used to record visits and page views in the past. The expected format is either a datetime such as: 2011-04-05 00:11:42 (remember to URL encode the value!), or a valid UNIX timestamp such as 1301919102. The datetime must be sent in UTC timezone.
Note: if you record data in the past, you will need to force Matomo to re-process reports for the past dates.
If you set cdt to a datetime older than 24 hours then token_auth must be set. If you set cdt with a datetime in the last 24 hours then you don't need to pass token_auth.country — An override value for the country. Should be set to the two letter country code of the visitor (lowercase), eg fr, de, us.region — An override value for the region. Should be set to (the second part of) a ISO 3166-2 region code, which are used by MaxMind's and DB-IP's GeoIP2 databases. See here for a list of them for every country. The provided region code needs to match with the provided country code. For providing e.g. Alaska (US-AK) as region, country needs to be set to us and region to AKcity — An override value for the city. The name of the city the visitor is located in, eg, Tokyo.lat — An override value for the visitor's latitude, eg 22.456.long — An override value for the visitor's longitude, eg 22.456.Analytics for your Media content (video players and audio players) can be recorded using the premium Media Analytics plugin's HTTP Tracking API parameters.
Activity and consumption of your videos and audios can be measured via the parameters ma_id, ma_ti, ma_re,
ma_mt , ma_pn, ma_st, ma_le, ma_ps, ma_ttp, ma_w, ma_h, ma_fs, ma_se.
Learn more in the Media Analytics HTTP Tracking API Reference.
If you want to track crashes in a language that does not have an official tracking SDK, then you will need to use the Crash Analytics HTTP API.
A crash request consists of the following parameters:
ca: must always be included and always set to 1cra: the message of the error (required).cra_st: the stack trace of the error (optional).cra_ct: the category of the error (optional).cra_tp: the error type (optional)cra_ru: a URI for the source file that originated the error (optional)cra_rl: the line of the source file where the error occurred (optional)cra_rc: the column of the source file where the error occurred (optional)Note: the user of the HTTP API is responsible for determining the source location of an error, including file URI, line number and column number. The Crash Analytics HTTP tracker will not deduce this information from the stack trace.
Queued Tracking can scale your large traffic Matomo (Piwik) service by queuing tracking requests in Redis or Mysql for better performance and reliability when you experience peaks.
queuedtracking — When set to 0 (zero), the queued tracking handler won't be used and instead the tracking request will be executed directly. This can be useful when you need to debug a tracking problem or want to test that the tracking works in general.send_image — If set to 0 (send_image=0) Matomo will respond with an HTTP 204 response code instead of a GIF image. This improves performance and can fix errors if images are not allowed to be obtained directly (eg Chrome Apps). Available since Matomo 2.10.0ping — If set to 1 (ping=1), the request will be a Heartbeat request which will not track any new activity (such as a new visit, new action or new goal). The heartbeat request will only update the visit's total time to provide accurate "Visit duration" metric when this parameter is set. It won't record any other data. This means by sending an additional tracking request when the user leaves your site or app with &ping=1, you fix the issue where the time spent of the last page visited is reported as 0 seconds.By default Matomo does not track bots. If you use the Tracking HTTP API directly, you may be interested in tracking bot requests. To enable Bot Tracking in Matomo, set the parameter &bots=1 in your requests to matomo.php.
Here is an example of a real tracking request used by the Matomo Mobile app when anonymously tracking Mobile App usage:
https://matomo-server/matomo.php?_cvar={"1":["OS","iphone 5.0"],"2":["Matomo Mobile Version","1.6.2"],"3":["Locale","en::en"],"4":["Num Accounts","2"]}&action_name=View settings&url=http://mobileapp.matomo.org/window/settings &idsite=8876&rand=351459&h=18&m=13&s=3 &rec=1&apiv=1&cookie=1&urlref=https://iphone.mobileapp.piwik.org&_id=af344a398df83874 &_idvc=19&res=320×480&
Note: for clarity, parameter values are not URL encoded in this example.
Explanation: this URL has custom variables for the OS, Matomo version, number of accounts created. It tracks an event named View settings with a fake URL, records the screen resolution and also includes a custom unique ID generated to ensure all requests for the same Mobile App user will be recorded for the same visit in Matomo.
Some applications such as the Matomo log importer, have to track many visits, sometimes tens, hundreds, thousands or even more all at once. Tracking these requests with one HTTP request per visit or action can result in enormous delays due to the amount of time it takes to send an HTTP request, Using the bulk tracking feature, however, these requests can be sent all at once making the application far more efficient.
To send a bulk tracking request, an HTTP POST must be made with a JSON object to the Matomo tracking endpoint. The object must contain the following properties:
requests — an array of individual tracking requests. Each tracking request should be the query string you'd send if you were going to track that action individually.
token_auth — (optional) token_auth which is found in the API page. Specify this only needed if you use any of the parameters that require token_authThis is an example of the payload of a bulk tracking request:
{
"requests": [
"?idsite=1&url=https://example.org&action_name=Test bulk log Pageview&rec=1",
"?idsite=1&url=https://example.net/test.htm&action_name=Another bulk page view&rec=1"
],
"token_auth": "33dc3f2536d3025974cccb4b4d2d98f4"
}
Here is the command to send this request to Matomo using curl (without token_auth which is optional in this case):
curl -i -X POST -d '{"requests":["?idsite=1&url=https://example.org&action_name=Test bulk log Pageview&rec=1","?idsite=1&url=http://example.net/test.htm&action_name=Another bulk page view&rec=1"]}' https://matomo.example.com/matomo.php
This will track two actions using only one HTTP request to Matomo.
To verify that your data is being tracked properly, you can enable debug logging in the Matomo tracking file, matomo.php.
Tracking requests will then output the tracking log messages rather than displaying a 1*1 transparent GIF beacon. For security reasons, this should not be done in production or only for a very short time frame.
Follow these steps to enable and view debug logging for the tracker:
In your config file path/to/matomo/config/config.ini.php, write the following:
[Tracker]
debug = 1
Since Matomo 3.10 to enable the profiling of SQL queries you additionally need to enable:
[Tracker]
enable_sql_profiler = 1
If you receive too many tracking requests and the log gets spammed by these requests or if you want to only debug some specific requests you can alternatively enable debug_on_demand in config.ini.php:
[Tracker]
debug_on_demand = 1
In this case messages will be only logged for Tracker requests that have a URL parameter &debug=1 set. This is considered more secure but should be still only enabled for a short time frame.