# Piwik conf file

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/piwik-conf-file/236262>\
**Category:** NGINX\
**Created:** [August 19, 2013, 11:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/piwik-conf-file/236262 "2013-08-19T23:54:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![addis\_a](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@addis\_a](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/addis_a)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 11:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/piwik-conf-file/236262/1 "2013-08-19T23:54:22Z")

</div>

I have recently discovered this wonderful includes directive and I am  
using it to clean up my server blocks. Doing this has forced me to  
evaluate some of my configurations.

I am trying to set up a conf file for Piwik installations and I’m  
hoping a second set of of eyes can help:

location /piwik/ {

```
 location /js/ {
     allow all;
 }

 location ~ /js/.*\.php$ {
     include /etc/nginx/global-configs/php.conf;
 }

location ~ /piwik.php$ {
     include /etc/nginx/global-configs/php.conf;
 }

return 301 https://server_name$request_uri?;

```

}

Piwik seems trickier than other applications because certain  
components must be available through HTTP sessions or else browsers  
give scary warnings or don’t load the tracking code, but I want to  
force the Piwik dashboard to open in HTTPS.

Any comments appreciated.

Thanks!

Paul

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Paul\_NSPace](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Paul\_NSPace](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Paul_NSPace)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 11:44pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/piwik-conf-file/236262/2 "2013-08-20T23:44:53Z")

</div>

On Mon, Aug 19, 2013 at 02:53:36PM -0700, Paul N. Pace wrote:

Hi there,

> I am trying to set up a conf file for Piwik installations and I’m  
> hoping a second set of of eyes can help:

In nginx one request is handled in one location. The rules for selecting  
the location are at [Module ngx\_http\_core\_module](http://nginx.org/r/location)

Given that information, the following output…

> ```
> location ~ /piwik.php$ {
> include /etc/nginx/global-configs/php.conf;
> }
> 
> return 301 https://server_name$request_uri?;
> 
> ```
> 
> }

$ sbin/nginx -t  
nginx: [emerg] location “/js/” is outside location “/piwik/” in  
/usr/local/nginx/conf/nginx.conf:14  
nginx: configuration file /usr/local/nginx/conf/nginx.conf test failed

should not be a surprise.

Can you list some of the requests that you want to have handled, and  
how you want them to be handled? That might help someone who knows nginx  
but not piwik to understand what the intention is.

Doing a web search for “site:nginx.org piwik” does seem to point at a  
config file, which seems very different from yours.

Searching for “nginx” on the [piwik.org](http://piwik.org) web site also refers to an  
install document.

Do those documents offer any help to what you are doing?

> Piwik seems trickier than other applications because certain  
> components must be available through HTTP sessions or else browsers  
> give scary warnings or don’t load the tracking code, but I want to  
> force the Piwik dashboard to open in HTTPS.

These words don’t obviously directly translate to your config file  
snippet above. What request is the Piwik dashboard? What request is  
certain components?

## f

Francis D. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Paul\_NSPace](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Paul\_NSPace](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Paul_NSPace)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2013, 1:06am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/piwik-conf-file/236262/3 "2013-08-21T01:06:04Z")

</div>

Thank you for your responses!

On Tue, Aug 20, 2013 at 2:44 PM, Francis D. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)  
wrote:

> Given that information, the following output…
> 
> > 
> 
> should not be a surprise.

Yes, I fixed that by changing to /piwik/js/ - is this the right way to  
enter it? Here is what the file would read now:

location /piwik/ {

```
location /piwik/js/ {
allow all;
}

location ~ /piwik/js/.*\.php$ {
    include /etc/nginx/global-configs/php.conf;
}

location ~ /piwik/piwik.php$ {
    include /etc/nginx/global-configs/php.conf;
}

return 301 https://www.unpm.org$request_uri?;

```

}

> Can you list some of the requests that you want to have handled, and  
> how you want them to be handled? That might help someone who knows nginx  
> but not piwik to understand what the intention is.
> 
> Doing a web search for “site:nginx.org piwik” does seem to point at a  
> config file, which seems very different from yours.

Yes, to be honest, that config is beyond my current understanding of  
nginx. I reviewed the GitHub entry on the configuration, and it  
included instructions to “Move the old /etc/nginx directory to  
/etc/nginx.old” which seems a bit extreme to me and more work to  
reconfigure for the other settings on my server, not to mention that  
their /etc/nginx.conf file, among others, hasn’t been updated in 2  
years.

I have the Mastering Nginx book, but I still struggle to decode many  
example configurations. I especially struggle with regular  
expressions.

> Searching for “nginx” on the [piwik.org](http://piwik.org) web site also refers to an  
> install document.

The nginx FAQ points to the above GitHub page.

> > Piwik seems trickier than other applications because certain  
> > components must be available through HTTP sessions or else browsers  
> > give scary warnings or don’t load the tracking code, but I want to  
> > force the Piwik dashboard to open in HTTPS.
> 
> These words don’t obviously directly translate to your config file  
> snippet above. What request is the Piwik dashboard? What request is  
> certain components?

The Piwik dashboard is located in /piwiki/index.php, and that is what  
always needs to be served securely.

The tracking code for Piwik is loaded with either /piwik/js/index.php,  
/piwik/piwik.php, or the /piwik/js/ directory, depending on various  
client or server configurations.

Thank you for you help!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Paul\_NSPace](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Paul\_NSPace](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Paul_NSPace)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2013, 8:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/piwik-conf-file/236262/4 "2013-08-21T20:22:53Z")

</div>

On Tue, Aug 20, 2013 at 04:05:09PM -0700, Paul N. Pace wrote:

> On Tue, Aug 20, 2013 at 2:44 PM, Francis D. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:
> 
> > On Mon, Aug 19, 2013 at 02:53:36PM -0700, Paul N. Pace wrote:

Hi there,

> > > I am trying to set up a conf file for Piwik installations and I’m  
> > > hoping a second set of of eyes can help:
> > 
> > In nginx one request is handled in one location. The rules for selecting  
> > the location are at [Module ngx\_http\_core\_module](http://nginx.org/r/location)

> Yes, I fixed that by changing to /piwik/js/ - is this the right way to  
> enter it?

It really depends on what the actual urls that are requested are, and  
how you want them to be handled.

In this case, I don’t see what the /piwik/js/ location does – because  
it sets a directive to its default value, and you haven’t shown it set  
to a non-default value anywhere.

> Here is what the file would read now:
> 
> location /piwik/ {

I would probably make that one be “location ^~ /piwik/” – it may not  
make a difference, depending on what else is in your config file.

> ```
> location ~ /piwik/js/.*\.php$ {
> include /etc/nginx/global-configs/php.conf;
> }
> 
> location ~ /piwik/piwik.php$ {
> 
> ```

That one will match the requests /piwik/piwikXphp and  
/piwik/Y/piwikXphp,  
for any single character X and for any multi-character Y.

It may be that, for the requests you care about, that is exactly the  
same as

location = /piwik/piwik.php

> > Can you list some of the requests that you want to have handled, and  
> > how you want them to be handled? That might help someone who knows nginx  
> > but not piwik to understand what the intention is.

> always needs to be served securely.  
> So, in the “http-only” server:

location = /piwiki/index.php {  
return 301 https://www.unpm.org$request\_uri?;  
}

and in the “https” server:

location = /piwiki/index.php {  
# whatever it should be, probably “include php.conf”  
}

> The tracking code for Piwik is loaded with either /piwik/js/index.php,  
> /piwik/piwik.php, or the /piwik/js/ directory, depending on various  
> client or server configurations.

/piwik/piwik.php is handled above; everything ending in “.php” in  
/piwik/js/ is handled above. Everything else in /piwik/js/ comes from  
the filesystem.

Are there specific urls that do not respond the way you expect?

## f

Francis D. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)