⚡ Glimpse Analytics

Privacy-first, server-side analytics for Laravel 12+.
No cookies. No JavaScript tracking pixel. No GDPR consent banners.
Just clean, fast, anonymous analytics built entirely on the server.

Features

• Zero client-side footprint — tracking is 100% server-side via a Laravel middleware
• Session-based unique visitors — derived from Laravel's existing session ID (SHA-256 hashed, never stored raw)
• No PII stored — IPs are one-way hashed with your app key; no names, emails, or identifiers
• Cookie-free — no new cookies introduced; uses the session cookie your app already sets
• Livewire dashboard — a Pulse-style real-time dashboard at /glimpse
• Custom events — Glimpse::event('checkout', ['plan' => 'pro'])
• GeoIP — country, region, city, language (MaxMind or SxGeo, optional)
• Device detection — browser, OS, platform (desktop/mobile/tablet)
• Referrer classification — organic, social, paid, email, referral, direct
• Pre-aggregated — dashboard queries never touch raw tables; fast at any scale
• Queue-driven — zero latency added to your requests

Requirements

Installation

composer require pascalkleindienst/laravel-glimpse
php artisan glimpse:install

glimpse:install will:

1. Publish config/glimpse.php
2. Publish and run the database migrations
3. Inject TrackVisitor middleware into bootstrap/app.php
4. Run a health check and print next steps

Quick Start

1. Register the middleware

The install command does this automatically. If you need to do it manually, add to bootstrap/app.php:

->withMiddleware(function (Middleware $middleware) {
    $middleware->web(append: [
        \LaravelGlimpse\Http\Middleware\TrackVisitor::class,
    ]);
})

2. Start the queue worker

Glimpse dispatches a queued job per request so tracking adds zero latency:

php artisan queue:work

3. Enable the scheduler

Add to your crontab (or use Laravel's built-in scheduler):

* * * * * php /path/to/your/app/artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1

Glimpse auto-registers two scheduled commands:

• glimpse:aggregate — every 5 minutes (aggregates raw data)
• glimpse:prune — daily at 03:00 (deletes data beyond the retention window)

4. Open the dashboard

https://your-app.com/glimpse

Configuration

Publish the config file:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=glimpse-config

GeoIP Setup

Geo resolution is disabled by default (driver = null). To enable:

MaxMind GeoLite2 (recommended)

1. Sign up for a free MaxMind account and download GeoLite2-City.mmdb
2. Place the file at storage/app/glimpse/GeoLite2-City.mmdb
3. Set in .env:

GLIMPSE_GEO_DRIVER=maxmind
GLIMPSE_MAXMIND_DB=/absolute/path/to/GeoLite2-City.mmdb

SypexGeo (no sign-up required)

1. Download SxGeoCity.dat and SxGeo.php from sypexgeo.net
2. Place both files at storage/app/glimpse/
3. Set in .env:

GLIMPSE_GEO_DRIVER=sxgeo

Artisan Commands

Backfill historical data

# Backfill the last 90 days
php artisan glimpse:backfill --days=90

# Backfill a specific range
php artisan glimpse:backfill --from=2024-01-01 --to=2024-03-31

# Process in smaller chunks to limit memory usage
php artisan glimpse:backfill --days=365 --chunk=7

How It Works

Session identity

On every request the TrackVisitor middleware computes:

session_hash = SHA-256(laravel_session_id)

This is stored as the visitor identity. The raw session ID is never persisted. When the session expires (default 2 hours in Laravel), so does the identity — genuinely ephemeral.

Request lifecycle

HTTP Request
    │
    ├─ TrackVisitor middleware (sync — reads cache only)
    │      └─ Dispatch ProcessVisitJob to queue
    │
    └─ Response returned immediately ← zero DB writes in the request

Queue worker (async)
    └─ ProcessVisitJob
           ├─ GeoResolver    (IP → country/city)
           ├─ DeviceResolver (UA → browser/OS/platform)
           |- LanguageResolver (Accept-Language Header → language)
           ├─ ReferrerResolver (referer → channel)
           └─ Write to glimpse_sessions + glimpse_page_views

Aggregation

Every 5 minutes, glimpse:aggregate reads raw rows and upserts pre-computed buckets into glimpse_aggregates. The dashboard only reads from glimpse_aggregates — it never queries raw tables, so it's fast at any volume.

Privacy

Glimpse is designed to be GDPR/ePrivacy compliant by default:

• No cookies introduced — uses the session cookie already set by Laravel
• No PII stored — IPs are one-way hashed (SHA-256 + app key) before storage
• No third-party requests — all data stays on your server
• No cross-site tracking — identifiers are session-scoped
• No fingerprinting — User-Agent is parsed but never stored

Legal note: Glimpse minimizes data collection but you are responsible for your own compliance. Consult a legal professional for advice specific to your jurisdiction.

Testing

composer test

License

MIT — see LICENSE.