Written by Admin on 2025-05-06

How to Use WordPress Download Monitor with NGINX

WordPress Download Monitor is a popular plugin that allows you to easily track and manage downloads on your WordPress website. However, if you're using NGINX as your web server, you may encounter some issues with the plugin's functionality. In this article, we'll show you how to use WordPress Download Monitor with NGINX.

Installing WordPress Download Monitor

Before we proceed, make sure you have the WordPress Download Monitor plugin installed and activated on your WordPress website. You can download it from the official WordPress plugins repository or via the WordPress admin dashboard.

Configuring NGINX

By default, NGINX doesn't handle file downloads like Apache. To enable download tracking, you need to configure NGINX to pass requests for specific file extensions to PHP.

1. Open your server block configuration file in your preferred text editor. This file should be located at /etc/nginx/sites-available/default.

2. Add the following code to the location block in your server configuration file.

   nginx location /downloads { try_files $uri =404; include fastcgi_params; fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock; fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root/index.php; }

   This code sets up a new location called /downloads and passes any requests for that directory to PHP for processing.

3. Save the file and exit your text editor.

4. Restart NGINX to apply the changes. You can do this by running the command:

   bash sudo service nginx restart

Using WordPress Download Monitor with NGINX

Now that we've configured NGINX to handle download requests, we can start using WordPress Download Monitor. Follow these steps to set up and use the plugin with NGINX.

1. Create a new download in WordPress Download Monitor and upload the file you want to track.

2. In the Download Shortcode field, copy the shortcode for your download.

3. Create a new page or post in WordPress and paste the shortcode in the content area.

4. Save and publish the page.

5. Copy the URL of the page you just created.

6. Open the NGINX configuration file again and add the following code to the location block we created earlier.

   nginx location /download-monitor { rewrite ^/download-monitor(.*)$ /index.php?$args&download_monitor=$1; }

   This code sets up a new location called /download-monitor and rewrites any requests for that directory to include the download-monitor parameter in the query string.

7. Save the file and exit your text editor.

8. Restart NGINX again.

   bash sudo service nginx restart

Now when a user clicks on the download link on your WordPress site, NGINX will pass the request to PHP and WordPress Download Monitor will track the download.

Conclusion

Using WordPress Download Monitor with NGINX requires some additional configuration, but it's not too difficult. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can track downloads on your WordPress website even if you're using NGINX as your web server.