Below, in Figure C, you can see a report of the browsers used to access our sample Web site.

The time it takes for Dominator (and most log analysis programs) to generate a report is directly related to the size of your Web log. Most webmasters maintain their Web logs and set purge intervals to keep the size to a manageable level, so this should not pose many problems. The ability to schedule report generation makes it easy to create reports during non-peak usage.

FIGURE C


This site is accessed most by various Navigator releases. Surprisingly, IE4 is not represented. Roll over picture for a larger image.

In addition to the browser report, shown above, you can easily generate standard reports like referrer, database usage, hit count, errors, activity by month, activity by date, and activity by day -- to name a few.

WebTrends Suite for Lotus Domino v1.0
WebTrends is one of the most well know of the Web site analysis tools. It frequently wins awards such as the PC Magazine Editor's Choice Award. They also offer numerous site analysis products in addition to the Domino tool.

I downloaded a 30-day demo from their website. The installation was clean and fast, but the interface was a bit awkward. I encountered problems with the interface due to the fact that it was a Windows-based tool and not a Domino application. It is not a native Domino/Notes tool. Figure D shows the attractive WebTrends Windows-based interface.

FIGURE D


This is the WebTrends interface. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Like most responsible users, I did not read the instructions before diving in. As a result, I encountered numerous problems attempting to use the product (of course, we can't blame WebTrends because I needed to RTFM).

It took me a few minutes, but I then realized that the tool only supports text-based log files. This isn't a big problem, but you have to make sure your Domino server is configured to log to text files (for details on doing this, see my "Logging and monitoring web activity with Domino" in the August issue of DominoPower).

Another problem I encountered was the lack of ability to monitor any server other than the server where it was installed. There is an easy work-around, though. To monitor other servers, you must setup the logs on network drives for access or make them available via their URLs.

WebTrends is a very powerful product. It offers some advanced features that:monitor ad links (banner ads), analyze links to ensure they are working properly, generate graphs, and much more.

One final concern is that the application has to be installed on workstations and servers for use; it is not client/server-based application like the Dominator.

Domino Log Analyzer
The Domino Log Analyzer application from WorkFlo Systems Inc is another native Domino application. In the column last month, I proclaimed the Dominator as the only native Domino log analyzer. Bill Fox from WorkFlo quickly corrected me. In addition, he sent me a demo copy to evaluate.