Tracking files for Webtrends

Doesn't allow publishing to site - files to big.

[TammyJo]

Hoping someone could help me with this.

My larger site uses the Webtrends program provided by our server. Almost every other day I have go in and delete log files because they become to large. From what they say the server "consolidates" the data about once a week. Here is what my weblogs look like:

050911.log.gz 2885kb GZ File
050912.log.txt 40418kb Text File

I have now idea what a GZ file is and how I can access it and the text files are way to large for me to download everyday (yet if I have to I will)

My question is: What is the best way for me to back up or save this data and view it later? I really want to be able to use my tracking reports, but there seems to be something wrong with the webtrends system and it won't allow me to download any of these files through the program provided by my hosting company. They say they aren't responsible for webtrends software.

Any help as to what I should do about my tracking files. I'm not real savy in this area so patience is appreciated :)

[cgrantski]

.gz files are compressed files, i.e. zipped files. You can throw away the txt files because the same data is in the .gz file. You can unzip the .gz file with just about anything, such as Winzip.

40 MB (the size of your txt file) is not a very large log file so i'm confused about what else is not working. WebTrends hosted by your service won't be the program to get the log file from your host to your own computer, but it sounds like you're expecting it to do the transfer.

Also depending on how your site is organized and the operating system, your service might be able to turn off logging for images and other files that are in directories by themselves, and which you might not care about analyzing. For most sites that will reduce the size of the logs by 90%, and zipping reduces them by another 90%, so you end up with a .gz file that's only 1% or so of the original.

I have a feeling I don't completely understand your issues so get back with more q's if you want.

[TammyJo]

Thank you so much for your help!
- I have transfered the .gz files to my computer and will try to unzip them.
- Great idea about asking them to turn of image file tracking. This may help make the reports smaller. The challenge is they don't convert the text tracking files into .gz but once a week. For some reason there isn't enough space and the only way it allows me to publish or update files is if I delete log files.

The Webtrends reports have a special software program we can download that allows us to save the log files into excel or word format (I have never been able to use this service (gives me an error) and they don't offer and assistance with it).

Is there a simpler way to track or use these log files? I downloaded and opened a text file last night, but couldn't make heads or tails of what I was looking at and couldn't see how to make it useful.

Thanks again for your help and patience:)

[cgrantski]

Depends on what you want. The level of WebTrends offered by a lot of the hosting companies is basic but adequate. Do you want something more than what's in the WebTrends reports? If so, what?

The contents of a log file is LOTS easier to understand if you know what each field means. In Apache logs, which I'm sure is what you have, there are no headers at the beginning of the file that tell you what each field means. In your files, anything inside a pair of quote marks is a field. Anything not inside a pair of quote marks should be divided at each space character. (Put another way, a space character is the field delimiter EXCEPT when the space character is part of a string that's between quote marks, and for the latter the quote marks are the field delimiter.) As for what the individual fields mean, Google "Apache log file format" and you'll find items that explain and identify each field.