Analyzing Visitors by Browser

NetTracker enables you to track which browsers are used by the visitors to your site. Browser statistics appear on the Browser Summary.

Note: If the Browser 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.)

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

If you do decide to change browser 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.

Creating a Browser

To create a browser:
  1. Click the Options tab.
  2. In the left-hand panel, click Browsers under Visitors.
  3. Click Add.
  4. In the Name of browser box, enter the name you want to have displayed for the browser.
  5. If you want each major version of the browser 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 browser so NetTracker will retain the version information when it imports your log.
  6. Click Save Options and then click Continue.

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

Adding User Agents to a Browser

If you just created the browser group, start with step 3. Otherwise, start with step 1.

Note: For browser 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 file 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 browser:
  1. Click the Options tab.
  2. In the left-hand panel, click Browsers under Visitors.
  3. Select the browser and click User Agents.
  4. Click Add.
  5. Enter a filter that describes the user agent you want to add to this browser and click Add. (For details on filters, see "Filtering a NetTracker Option".)
  6. The user agent you entered will be part of this browser 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 browser 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 Browsers

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

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

Editing User Agents in the Browser

You can make changes to the user agents in the browser 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 Browser for User Agents that Fit Multiple Browsers

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