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FastStats Analyzer Filter Tutorial

Filters are powerful tools for analyzing your web server log files. The best way to learn about filtering is to dive right in. This tutorial will give you example uses of filters that will help you analyze your web site.

But before we talk about all of the novel uses of filters, you should know how to add, edit, and remove filters from a project. In the Project Chooser, select a project and click Edit. Select the Filter item from the list on the left. Click Add and then begin reading this tutorial.

A filter can either include or exclude data. An include filter is good for analyzing only a certain subset of data (for example, only Internet Explorer 6 users). An exclude filter, conversely, is useful for excluding a subset of data from the analysis (for example, excluding yourself from the site statistics). If you specify multiple include filters, the data will be included if one of those include filters matches. Similarly, if you specify multiple exclude filters, the data will be excluded if any one of those exclude filters matches. You can mix both include and exclude filters in the same project.

Note: you may want to check out Global Options. There are two important checkboxes “Only include log file records if all include filters are true” and “Only include log file records if all exclude filters are true”. You can also set up global filters there for filters you want to use for all your projects.

We've outlined for you some of the most common filtering tasks to help get you started.

Prevent your visitor analysis from being biased by automatic search engine crawlers and spiders.

1. Set up an exclude filter - Quick Filter for Spiders.

Determine what search engine spiders and crawelers are indexing your site, and what pages they examine.

1. Set up an include filter - Quick Filter for Spiders. or... include filters for one or more specific spiders you want to monitor.

Exclude ‘local’ hits or hits from your own computer systems or web developers. Your own developers may hit your site hard for days on end while browsing your site and thinking about how to improve it. You may not want this activity present in your analysis, since it doesn't reperesent typical user behavior.

  1. Set up an exclude filter by IP address.
  2. Use wildcards to specify all IP addresses that may have been used by internal users in testing the web site. For example, if your web developer is an MIT student working for little to no pay, to exclude every user from MIT, specify the following wild card: ’18.*’. If you do not know your local IP addresses, ask your system administrator or ISP.
  3. Set up multiple exclude filters if your web developers are at different locations.

Measure intranet usage - usage of your site within your company. This essentially the opposite of the ‘Exclude local hits’ filter. This time, you only want to include local hits. This lets you measure the usage patterns of internal users.

  1. Set up an include filter by IP Address.
  2. Use wildcards to cover all IP addresses of company computers and servers as needed.
  3. Set up multiple include filters if your company has several different locations at different IP addresses.

Track your competitors' use of your site. Find out if your competitors are accessing your web site, and what parts of it they scrutinize the most! Just set FastStats Analyzer to only include requests from your competitor’s IP addresses (if you know them, of course).

Zero in on the performance of a specific file or directory. Specify a filter for a file or directory and include or exclude that data from your report. For example, some areas of your site may “drown out” less popular areas. Include only the less popular areas and analyze them.

  1. Set up an Include Filter by Requested File.
  2. Use wildcards to specify entire directories of content.
  3. Set up multiple include filters to cover separate directories. Make sure you include relevant site landing pages.

Exclude toolbar buttons or web-based application help files from visitor analysis. Certain files, including toolbar buttons, may be requested disproportionately more than other files and may, again, “drown out” the other files. You may want to exclude behavior of parts of your site linked from an application to your visitor analysis.

  1. Set up an Exclude Filter by Requested File.
  2. Use wildcards to specify entire directories of content relevant to pages linked from your application.
  3. Set up multiple exclude filters to cover separate directories.

Track an advertising campaign or partnership. Include only referring URLs from the site you’re advertising on. This will track which pages on your server (and which pages on their server) users are responding to the advertisement.

  1. Set up an Include Filter by Referrer URL for the advertiser you are workig with.
  2. Use wildcards to specify an entire group of referrers that link to your site.
  3. Set up multiple exclude filters to cover separate referrers.

Determine what features of your site are most important to users of different operating systems. Different operating systems may mean different audiences. Macintosh, Linux, and Windows may be interested in different content on your web site. Find out!

Determine functionality of your site in specific browsers. Are Netscape or Internet Explorer users avoiding a particular part of your site because it does not work well with their browsers? Or, if you have a large web site, conduct your own browser market-share test.

Text-only browsers. Include only requests from Lynx or other browsers, to see how your site performs in a limited interface environment, which may be particularly relevant for the visually impaired.

Note: many browsers, such as Internet Explorer and Opera, report themselves as Mozilla (Netscape) compatible; it is difficult to include only Netscape users or exclude Internet Explorer users. Read this help topic for more information.

Measure the effectiveness of a site change with analysis before and after a certain date of website change.

To Do: Scenario example

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