ElfQrin / webservertest

Web Server Test is a simple yet very configurable and flexible PHP page to check if your webserver is up and running.
https://labs.geody.com/webservertest/
GNU General Public License v3.0
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download_count is missing in the GitHub releases API #1

Open ElfQrin opened 5 years ago

ElfQrin commented 5 years ago

I don't know how many times releases for this repository (or any other repository in my account) were downloaded because download_count is missing.

For example, if you open in your browser: https://api.github.com/repos/ElfQrin/webservertest/releases and search for "download_count" there isn't any.

But if you check another repository in another account (not mine, for example): https://api.github.com/repos/clechasseur/pathcopycopy/releases You'll find an occurrence of "download_count" for every release.

calebcartwright commented 5 years ago

It sounds like your core objective is to gain an understanding of how many users are consuming your tools/packages/software/etc., and that you'd like to be able to have a status badge display that data.

We're a ways outside the realm of Shields.io but here's some info you may (or may not) find helpful:

The first question for you in determining how frequently your software is being used is to determine how users are consuming the content of this repo (webservertest)? Do they clone the repository and run/deploy it? Do they copy the contents of your page script and paste it into their own applications? Etc. Your readme doc doesn't specify how someone would consume it so I just don't know (although perhaps a developer more well-versed in PHP would).

You are creating git tags and GH releases with those tags, but the only way you would ever see a download_count is if a user/consumer of your product were to go to one of your published releases and download one of those binaries: image

If that is not how you intend/expect your users to consume your product, then GitHub Release Download count will never be a good metric for you to determine how many users are consuming your product

ElfQrin commented 5 years ago

Hi @calebcartwright , thank you very much for your reply. I agree with you: this is not about PHP or any other language, the counter should start when someone download an asset from a release (.zip or .tar.gz).

That said, it's impossible that nobody, ever, has downloaded any of my releases in any of my repositories. In fact, I've tried to download zip and tar.gz files myself (from another browser, without logging in to GitHub), and still I can't see any counter (download_count).

calebcartwright commented 5 years ago

In fact, I've tried to download zip and tar.gz files myself (from another browser, without logging in to GitHub), and still I can't see any counter (download_count).

Did you create and publish those tarballs/zips as Release assets yourself? Or are those the source code package ones GitHub created for you as part of the tag/release creation process? I'm not sure whether the GH-created source packages count but you'd need to check with GH on that

If you think there's a bug in the GitHub API (FWIW I personally do not), then you'll need to take that up with GitHub. My key point though is that either way, GH release download count is likely not going to be the best place to get a feel for how many people are consuming your content IMO.

Best of luck!