Fathom Lite
Fathom Lite is a Go-based website analytics service that respects the privacy of the users and does not collect any personally identifiable information. It is released under the MIT license.
Prerequisites
Your website domain or subdomain needs to be setup up:
[isabell@stardust ~]$ uberspace web domain list
isabell.uber.space
[isabell@stardust ~]$
Installation
Create a folder fathom in the home directory of your account and move there. Get the current binary from Github Releases. Use the fathom_x.x.x_linux_amd64.tar.gz and unpack the release.
[isabell@stardust ~]$ mkdir fathom
[isabell@stardust ~]$ cd fathom
[isabell@stardust ~]$ wget https://github.com/usefathom/fathom/releases/download/v1.2.1/fathom_1.2.1_linux_amd64.tar.gz
...
[isabell@stardust ~]$ tar xfv fathom_1.2.1_linux_amd64.tar.gz
LICENSE
README.md
fathom
[isabella@stardust ~]$
You can now check if fathom is working properly by checking it’s version.
[isabella@stardust ~]$ ./fathom --version
Fathom version 1.2.1, commit 8f7c[...], built at 2018-11-30T09:21:37Z
[isabella@stardust ~]$
Configuration
Create the configuration file
For the configuration Fathom Lite uses an .env file. Create a file ~/fathom/.env and set the basic information like shown below. Replace the value of FATHOM_SECRET with some random value.
FATHOM_SERVER_ADDR=:5432
FATHOM_GZIP=true
FATHOM_DATABASE_DRIVER="sqlite3"
FATHOM_DATABASE_NAME="fathom.db"
FATHOM_SECRET="random-secret-string"
We use the port 5432 and the integrated support for sqlite. Fathom also supports the usage of MySQL. You find details for that in the configuration documentation.
Setup daemon
Create ~/etc/services.d/fathom.ini with the following content:
[program:fathom]
directory=%(ENV_HOME)s/fathom
command=%(ENV_HOME)s/fathom/fathom server
autostart=true
autorestart=true
stopsignal=INT
After creating the configuration, tell supervisord to refresh its configuration and start the service:
[isabell@stardust ~]$ supervisorctl reread
SERVICE: available
[isabell@stardust ~]$ supervisorctl update
SERVICE: added process group
[isabell@stardust ~]$ supervisorctl status
SERVICE RUNNING pid 26020, uptime 0:03:14
[isabell@stardust ~]$
If it’s not in state RUNNING, check your configuration.
Configure web server
Note
Fathom Lite is running on port 5432, as defined in ~/fathom/.env. Fathom does not work in sub-directories, but works smoothly on sub-domains.
To make the application accessible from the outside, configure a web backend:
[isabell@stardust ~]$ uberspace web backend set / --http --port <port>
Set backend for / to port <port>; please make sure something is listening!
You can always check the status of your backend using "uberspace web backend list".
[isabell@stardust ~]$
Usage
Please also refer to Fathoms Lite’s quick start guide.
On the first launch Fathom Lite asks you to add a website you want to track. After giving the name the tracking code is offered that needs to be integrated into your website to be tracked.
Note
By default and as long as there are no users the Fathom Lite instance is public, so everybody can see the statistics.
You can track multiple pages with this instance. Therefore you need to create at least (temporary) one user which can access the dashboard. You can create users using the fathom command.
[isabella@stardust ~]$ ~/fathom/fathom user add --email=your@email.com --password=secret
Now the dashboard is no longer public and instead a login prompt is shown by Fathom Lite. After login you can add additional sites to track in the upper right corner.
To make the dashboard public visible again, you have to delete all users. Fathom Lite does not provide a list of all users, but you can check them in your database.
[isabella@stardust ~]$ sqlite3 ~/fathom/fathom.db
SQLite version 3.28.0 2019-04-16 19:49:53
Enter ".help" for usage hints.
sqlite> SELECT email from users;
your@email.com
sqlite> .exit
[isabella@stardust ~]$ ~/fathom/fathom user delete --email=your@email.com
[isabella@stardust ~]$
Privacy
Fathom Lite respects the DoNotTrack settings of the browser. It’s not tracking IP addresses, but it’s setting a small cookie for some technical reasons (explanation).
Please check if you need to update your Privacy Policy regarding Fathom Lite.
Updates
Note
Check the update feed regularly to stay informed about the newest version.
Go to ~/fathom and rename the current fathom executable to fathom_old. Then download the new version like described on the installation part.
And restart the service.
[isabell@stardust ~]$ supervisorctl restart fatom
[isabell@stardust ~]$
Tested with Fathom 1.2.1, Uberspace 7.5.0.1
Written by: Eike Broda <uberlab@ebroda.de>