User Statistics Reporting

[Sam Preston]

Gathering user statistics is important for grant renewals, but having a public git repository on bitbucket means it's probably not feasible to collect download data. Jacob and I discussed it, and we're of the opinion that having a very short questionnaire run the first time the PyCA module is imported isn't too annoying for users. There would only be 3-4 questions and they're all optional, and the data could either be reported back via a HTTP Post call or dropped on an open FTP server. The only changes would be creating a standard location for PyCA user data (.PyCA directory?) where a file would be created so that the questionnaire is only run on the first module load, and deciding on a reporting mechanism that only requires methods from the Python Standard Library.

[Jacob Hinkle]

Added usage_stats.i for usage stats reporting

This addresses issue #37. Pops up a message on the first time a user imports PyCA.Core. Whether they agree to give statistics or not, they will not be asked again. Currently it asks name, institution, IP address, and what you will be using PyCA for. It's currently set to upload to ftp.sci.utah.edu/incoming/pycastats, with a unique ID generated based on the hash of the users fully qualified ID along with the unix time. This should probably be replaced with a HTTP post command to some simple script set up to retreive the information and put it somewhere a little more safe.

→ <<cset 42282b255267>>

[Jacob Hinkle]

this pretty much takes care of it. New features can be new tickets..