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Webtrends Log Analyzer Advanced 8.0x
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Last modified: 1/1/2011
Introduction:
This document is intended to clarify and expand on the information contained in the Webtrends manual regarding the use of filters.
Trouble using wildcards with domain names.
Remember that *.domain.com will match www.domain.com but not domain.com. To match both, do not include the period. Example of correct usage: *domain.com
Note: This only works with user filters. This does not work with domain or URL filters.
Trouble getting just my domain out of a multi-homed domain file.
When specifying a particular domain out of a set of domains contained in a multi-homed log file, it often helps to place a wildcard in front and behind the domain, removing the "www."
For example, you wish to exclude all other domains, and only report on activity on domain www.subdomain.com:
Filter 1:
Exclude multi-homed domain: *subdomain.com*
Trouble excluding local or internal network users
If you are having trouble using domain names to filter information, DNS resolution may not be returning data from the IP addresses stored in your log file. Try filtering based on the IP addresses instead of the domain names.
Do I want one filter with many elements or many filters?
Remember that one filter with several elements is an "AND" filter, while several filters of the same type are "OR" filters, but do not get this confused with multiple entries in one filter field.
Picking out files from directories.
This idea is best illustrated using an example. You want to exclude all of the home.html files from the www.domain.com/products directory and below, but keep home.html in the area of www.domain.com/marketing. This means you exploit the AND/OR functionality:
Filter 1: Exclude file home.html Exclude directory /products Now, you want to exclude ALL of the home.html files in any directory, but also want to ignore all activity on any file beneath /marketing or /products:
Filter 1: Exclude file: home.htm
Filter 2: Exclude directory: /products /marketing
User Address versus URL versus Referrer
Remember that although they can look very similar, these two entries are very different. These elements can be present in any filter:
User address: www.domain.com
Directory or URL: www.domain.com/
Referrer: www.domain.com
In the first case, www.domain.com is the DNS name given to a specific user, probably a Web server. This filter will either exclude or include activity that this Web server is performing. In the second case, especially in virtual domains, the URL refers to a specific set of directories beneath this path. Finally, in the third case, all activity that has been referred by the domain www.domain.com is matched.
Referrer
Remember that excluding activity based on referrer does more than just remove it from the "Top Referring URLs" table. All entries in the log file regarding user activity referred by this site will be excluded. This means that if you exclude your own home page URL, all activity from users that were referred by your home page to any other page in your site will not be counted in total page views or total user sessions.
Work-Day or Weekend Filters
Using the hour of day or day of week filters in conjunction with one another can provide usage reports over specific time periods within your data range. For example, if you wished to see only activity during work hours, create a filter to "include activity based on" and then choose "hour of day." Finally, specify the range from 8:00 to 17:00 and click OK to finish the filter. To create a filter for only weekend traffic, create a filter from "include all activity" to "include activity based on" and then choose "day of week." Finally, click the appropriate days and click OK to finish the filter. |
