Log Analyzer 1.1 - User Guide and FAQ

1. At the first step, you need to select the profile that corresponds to the format of your log file. If you do not want to specify the logfile format or you are not sure about it, you may select Autodetect from the list of available profiles.
   
   The list contains 3 standard profiles: Apache 2.0 standard, Zeus 1.0, and W3C Extended Log Format, and as an alternative - Autodetect. If you select Autodetect, the program will try to locate the fields with key data in the log file records automatically. Autodetect works only for logs in Combined Log Format or W3C Extended Log Format.
   
   
2. After you select the profile and press Next , you'll be taken to the next step, where you will pick the import source. This may be a local file or a file on the remote FTP server.
   
   In case of the latter you will have to enter your FTP server address and connection parameters. If you have entered these settings before and saved them as default ones, you'll be able to load them instantly. When you are done, press Next to proceed to the next step.
   
   
3. At this step you will select log files to be imported. Naturally, all of them must be of the same format . There is a list of last 10 imported log files (this list is project-specific). You may move them to the list above for import by double-clicking them. The Browse button opens the file selection window. Log files may be saved in the form of ordinary text files, .gz archives (packed text log), or .tar.gz archives (several log files packed together). Also, you may enabe Files by mask option - in this case the program will find ll log files, corresponding to the mask and add them to the list.
   
   
4. The fourth step (Autodetect profile) is activated only if you have selected Autodetect at Step 1. Otherwise this step is skipped. One string from the log file is displayed at the top of the window. You may change the current string using Previous Line and Next Line buttons. The autodetect is performed automatically when you change the current line. When autodetect is completed successfully, there are two variants possible: if the log file was saved in W3C format, you'll receive a message stating so. If it is Combined Log Format, the information detected would be displayed in the fields at the bottom.
   
   If all is well, press Correct to proceed to the final stage of import. If the results are not satisfactory, that means that Autodetect is unable to locate the fields properly and you need to specify the exact profile.
   
   
5. At the final step you can specify the parameters of data to be saved into the log database of the current project.
   
   

Frequently Asked Questions - Log Analyzer

1. Can I transfer the project files onto another computer?
   By default the project files are stored in the folder C:\Program Files\Log Analyzer\Projects\. Every project has an extension *.lap. You may copy them and run on another instance of the program provided both copies are registered.
   
   
2. After downloading a log file the program didn't show any information on site activity.
   The program only shows information on robots visits and visits from search engines. The lack of information on a given day means that there was no such activity that day.
   
   
3. After analyzing log files I get keywords in an indecipherable encoding.
   Most likely, your log files contain search engine referrers, which have been encoded by server. If you copy such referer into the browser you will see if it is so.
   
   
4. I have downloaded the trial version of the software, but I cannot get it generate reports on Linux .gz log files, which are stored on my local machine.
   The program supports various log formats and extracts information from log files, compressed with Zip or Linux Gzip. Still, some of the log files may not contain Referrer and UserAgent, fields. In such case the analysis is useless, since the required information is not recorded and cannot be analyzed.
   
   
5. Can I save my reports to a separate file?
   Yes, the program can save the reports in HTML and DOC formats. Also, you can print the reports directly from the reports window.