Download Tracker

Full documentation is at https://blogs.jamesrome.net/download-tracker
Install using Composer

composer require drupal/download_tracker
drush pm:install download_tracker

Features

Download Tracker is a high-performance Drupal module that monitors administrator-configured server directories for file changes and software releases, tracks file reads and downloads, and automatically categorizes downloads into New Users, Version Updates, and Repeat Downloads

📂 Watched Directory Management: Monitor any server folder (e.g., /sites/default/files/release, public://release, private://documents).
👥 Role-Based Download Control: Granular access permissions per directory (e.g. restrict to Authenticated users or leave open for Anonymous visitors).
🔐 Report Permissions in UI: Conveniently configure which roles can view analytics directly from the module settings page.
⚡ Intelligent Version Auditing: Automatically computes SHA-256 integrity hashes on disk to detect file updates and increment release versions (v1→v2→ v3...).
📊 Visual Analytics Dashboard:

High-level summary metrics cards (Total Files, Total Hits, New vs. Update vs. Repeat).
Interactive data table with multi-column sorting across all metrics.
Drill-down per-file audit trail with SHA-256 version history and chronological access logs (IP, User ID, Referrer, User-Agent).
One-click CSV Export.

🛡️ Transparent Static Link Redirection: Direct links to static file paths (e.g. https://example.com/sites/default/files/release/app.exe) automatically redirect to the tracker endpoint so no download is missed.
🤖 Bot & Crawler Filtering: Automatically filters out search engine spiders (Google, Bing, Yandex, etc.) to keep your metrics clean.

Post-Installation

Configuration

Navigate to Configuration
→Media
→Download Tracker (/admin/config/media/download-tracker):

1. Report Access Permissions: Check the roles permitted to view reports and statistics.
2. Watched Directories: Configure your folders:

• Machine Key: e.g., release
• Label: e.g., Software Releases
• Directory Path: e.g., /sites/default/files/release or public://release
• Allowed Roles: Select roles allowed to download, or leave unchecked for open public access.

3. Click Save and Scan Directories Now.

TIP
Both standard paths with leading slashes (/sites/default/files/...), relative paths (sites/default/files/...), and Drupal stream wrappers (public://..., private://...) are automatically supported.

Additional Requirements

No

Recommended modules/libraries

No

Similar projects

Supporting this Module

Community Documentation

Full documentation is at https://blogs.jamesrome.net/download-tracker

Note
Automatic Static URL Interception: If users or external sites access legacy direct links like https://example.com/sites/default/files/release/mycode_v1.0.exe, the module automatically intercepts the request, routes it through the tracker to count the hit, and streams the file immediately.
📈 Reports & Analytics
See above image for meanings of the colums

⚙️ Drush CLI Integration
Command : Alias: Description
drush download-tracker:scan drush dt-scan Manually triggers a scan across all watched directories to catalog new files or version bumps.