When helping a client with a data explorer query, they noticed a difference between the topic views returned by the query, and the number on the category topic list. Where does the difference between SELECT COUNT(*) FROM topic_views WHERE topic_id = X and Topic.find(X).views come from?

[image] Topic view count is inaccurate in topic index Note that topic view counts are reset once per 8 hours per IP (for anons). So if you had a lot of anon visitors coming from the same IP that won’t show up in view counts. Topic.views is integer count which includes both user and anonymous t…

[image] vinothkannans: used to track topic views by registered users No, that is not entirely true. topic_views registers anonymous views as well, in those cases user_id is null. So what’s I think that’s left is that Topic.views counts for anonymous users are counted once per topic_view_dura…

Yes I can see now. As per the index uniq_ip_or_user_id_topic_views either user id or ip address is required.

So what is the intended use of topic_views ? For registering statistics about topic views it would make sense if it used the same rules as Topic.views. For registering which user saw what topic it wouldn’t make sense to register IP addresses for anonymous visitors (which is a left over GDPR toxic …

In a 20 users private community a topic can have 100 views count. Since new topic visits after topic_view_duration_hours are calculated as new view count. But select count(*) from topic_views where topic_id = X will never exceed the count 20. That’s why Topic.views count is different. This is applic…

[image] RGJ: So what’s I think that’s left is that Topic.views counts for anonymous users are counted once per topic_view_duration_hours (default: 8) hours per IP, and topic_views for anonymous users are counted once per IP ? Sounds about right. Long term I don’t even see much value in carryi…

[image] vinothkannans: I’m not sure here. I will check it on Monday. Did you check already?

[image] GDPR countdown and compliance Community As we’re quickly approaching May 25th, here’s my (perhaps naive) understanding of certain key Discourse GDPR issues: Right to Be Forgotten white_check_mark If the user requests, the admin can use the user info pa…

It’s discussed there, but there is no solution. IP addresses for anonymous visitors are still being stored. [image] Problematic IP address fields Feature Although I do absolutely welcome these PR’s I do want to emphasize that storing the IP addresses of visito…

I don’t think we have quite gotten around to it, but it is definitely on our list. If you would like it to be done faster, have you considered contributing a PR to get it done?

Topic_views vs Topic.views

Development

vinothkannans (Vinoth Kannan) September 28, 2018, 8:55am 9

It’s already discussed in above topics.

Topic		Replies	Views
How many views are counted per IP? Feature	39	10464	December 4, 2025
View count difference in category vs data-explorer Data & reporting	3	195	November 9, 2024
Topic view count is inaccurate in topic index Bug	7	2035	August 5, 2020
Views counter specification UX	6	1696	May 23, 2023
Total Views Error Support	2	564	May 30, 2019

Topic_views vs Topic.views

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