Analyzing Visitors by Platform

NetTracker enables you to track which platforms are used by the visitors to your server. Platform statistics appear on the Platform Summary.

You can configure how platforms are reported in NetTracker reports. However, since NetTracker comes preconfigured to recognize most major platforms in use today, it is usually unnecessary to change any of the platform groupings.

If you do decide to change platform groupings, review these instructions carefully. If you are not familiar with regular expressions, you may want to review the regular expressions tutorial. (See "Using Regular Expressions with NetTracker".) User agent descriptions make heavy use of regular expressions.

Note: If the Platform Summary is blank, your server is probably not logging the user agent field. (For details, see the server-specific instructions in the “Installing NetTracker” section.)

Creating a Platform

To create a platform group:
  1. Click the Options tab.
  2. In the left-hand panel, click Platforms under Visitors.
  3. Click Add.
  4. In the Name of platform box, enter the name you want to have displayed for the platform.
  5. If you want each major version of the platform to be reported separately, select the Append the version number check box. You will have to use the regular expression (\d+\.) in the definition of the user agents of the platform so NetTracker will retain the version information when it imports your log.
  6. Click Save Options and then click Continue.

Now you need to specify which user agents you want to be part of this platform.

Adding User Agents to a Platform

If you have just created the platform, start with step 3. Otherwise, start with step 1.

Note: For platform grouping to work correctly, the value you enter for the user agent must match the way the user agent is recorded in your log files. You may want to review a sample log before changing this option to ensure that you are familiar with the way user agents are recorded in your log files.

To add user agents to a platform:
  1. Click the Options tab.
  2. In the left-hand panel, click Platforms under Visitors.
  3. Select the platform and click User Agents.
  4. Click Add.
  5. Enter a filter that describes the user agent you want to add to this platform and click Add. (For details on filters, see "Filtering a NetTracker Option".)
  6. The user agent you entered will be part of this platform in all new data you import from now on. If this is what you want or if you have more user agents to add at this time, click Continue. If you want the user agent to belong to the platform in data you have already imported, you will need to delete all the data in your profile and reimport your log files. (Note: If you do not still have all the log files you have imported into this profile, you will lose data permanently by choosing this option.) To delete your profile data, click Delete Profile Data.

Editing the Platforms

You can make changes to the platforms at the list of platforms.

To
Select the platform in the list and
Change the name or properties of a platform
Click Edit
Delete a platform
Click Delete
Change the user agents in a platform
Click User Agents

Editing User Agents in the Platform

You can also make changes to the user agents in the platform at the list of user agents.

To
Select the user agent and
Delete a user agent
Click Delete
Edit a user agent
Click Edit

Determining the Platform for User Agents that Fit Multiple Platforms

A user agent can only belong to one platform. If you have a user agent that meets the criteria for more than one platform, NetTracker will include the user agent in the first platform it can belong to in the list of platforms. You can use the Move Up and Move Down buttons to change the order of the platforms in the list.