Viewing the logs

ARS keeps detailed logs of all download *attempts of all items. This means that ARS will log not just which items where downloaded but also which download attempts did not result in anything being downloaded because the permissions didn't match. The latter helps you troubleshoot download problems: if there is no download attempt logged the problem might be a firewall or networking issue, whereas if a failed download attempt is recorded the problem is either with the Download ID or the Joomla user group assignment to the user and/or access level in the Category, Release and Item they attempted to download.

These logs are compatible with the EU GDPR and similar legislation without having to notify the user as they fall under the category of security and fraud prevention. Just keep in mind that you should only use non-aggregated, individual entries solely for the purpose of maintaining the security of your site and addressing fraud and abuse to comply with the EU GDPR and similar legislation. For any other use you need to request the explicit permission of the user. WE ARE NOT LAWYERS! If you are not sure how this affects you please ask a lawyer instead.

In order to view you logs, please click on the Download Logs button on the component's Control Panel page. This takes you to the log viewer page.

You can filter the list by IP address, Category, Joomla user, HTTP Referer URL or authorized status.

The columns which appear in the list are:

Item
Displays the download item the user attempted to download. At the top you will see the Category and Release version. Below it, in smaller letters, you will see the title of the item downloaded.

If you enable the Category filter you will see the title of the download Item followed by the Release's version number.

User
Displays the user full name (top row), username (middle row) and email address (bottom row) of the user who tried to download this item. Download attempts by guest (not logged in) users are displayed without any of that information under this column.

Clicking on the user's full name will take you to the Joomla Users edit page for that user. This is a convenient way to inspect the user groups membership of the user when you are troubleshooting a download issue.

Another thing to note is that if the user provided no Download ID or an incorrect one and their request did not come from a browser where they are already logged into your site you will see no user information displayed. This is normal and makes perfect sense: the Download ID is used to temporarily log a user into your site while the download is taking place. If they did not enter a Download ID or it was invalid ARS does not know who they are and cannot log them in, therefore they are guest users to Joomla and ARS, i.e. they have no user information displayed.

Accessed
Information about when and where the download attempt came from. You will find the following information on each row:

• Date and time the download was attempted on.
• IP address of the user who attempted to download the item.
• HTTP Referer set by the user's download client. It only makes sense if the download was initiated by a browser. This allows you to detect hot-linked files, i.e. people linking directly to your download item from their own sites.

Authorized
If the user was allowed to download the item, it is a green check. If the user was denied the download it is marked as a white X inside a red circle. Download are denied if the category, release or item are unpublished, or if the view level settings of a particular category, release or item indicate that a user should be denied access. Do note that if a user has access to an Item but not its Release or the Release's Category the download is denied.

ID A monotonically increasing numeric identifier of the log entry.

Finally, please note that you can NOT edit log entries.