2. Disclaimer
NetIQ Corporation makes no representations or warranties with respect to the contents or
use of this manual, and specifically disclaims any express or implied warranties of
merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. Further, NetIQ Corporation reserves
the right to revise this publication and to make changes to its content at any time, without
obligation to notify any person or entity of such revisions or changes.
Further, NetIQ Corporation makes no representations or warranties with respect to any
NetIQ Corporation product, and specifically disclaims any express or implied warranties of
merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. Further, NetIQ Corporation reserves
the right to make changes to any and all parts of NetIQ Corporation products at any time,
without obligation to notify any person or entity of such changes.
Trademarks
AuditTrack, WebTrends Reporting Center, and WebTrends are registered trademarks of
NetIQCorporation.
Additional trademarks of NetIQ Corporation include: ClusterTrends, DBTrends, Enterprise
Reporting Server, Enterprise Suite, Enterprise Suite for Lotus Domino, FastTrends, Log
Analyzer, Firewall Suite, Security Analyzer, Virtual WebTrends, WebTrends Live, VRM, and
WebTrends Professional Suite.
Other brands and their products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their
respective holders.
The Data Collection Server includes software developed by the Apache software
Foundation (www.apache.org).
The Data Collection Server includes cryptographic software written by Erice Young
(eay@cryptsoft.com).
The Data Collection Server includes software written by Tom Hudson (tjh@cryptsoft.com).
Support
If you should have any questions during the installation or use of the WebTrends Data
Collection Server, please contact our Product Support Department at:
Telephone: (503) 223-3023
Fax: (503) 294-7130.
3. Query Parameters 1 1
Introduction
Web analytics is about making business sense out of web visitor behavior –
the same common sense analysis that business professionals have been
applying to traditional offline business for decades. Gaining the appropriate
insight to enable your organization to make smarter business decisions
means understanding your site's business objectives and determining the
appropriate web metrics to provide that information.
Today's business environment typically involves working at remote and off-
site locations. Consequently, the people responsible for the website and those
analyzing visitor activity on the website in order to measure web metrics often
do not work side-by-side. That is, they are frequently in different groups and
locations. This situation necessitates coordination between developing and
rolling out content and reporting and analyzing the resultant activity.
To facilitate interaction between departments, locations and individuals,
WebTrends introduces a new capability designed to place the power of
analysis into the hands of those individuals who are most interested in it. This
feature, WebTrends Query Parameters, makes use of typical website
instrumentation to facilitate the web analytics end-users want to see.
How WebTrends Query Parameters Work
By using WebTrends Query Parameters when designing a site, reporting
becomes a part of the design phase, eliminating the massive coordination and
frequent misunderstandings that may take place when different groups
objectives’ are at play. WebTrends Query Parameters are passed in URLs via
JavaScript to the WebTrends software analyzing the web logs. These
processes then automatically configure the appropriate web analytics
advanced features and create the appropriate reports.
Using WebTrends Query Parameters
The goal of many organizations is to limit the amount of manual intervention
that is required to produce valuable reports. WebTrends Query Parameters
1
4. WebTrends Query Parameters
were designed to automate the configuration of the WebTrends software that
uses them, making the WebTrends web analytics solutions more insightful
with reduced effort.
For example, when using WebTrends Data Collection Server to extract page
titles, product names and information, or campaign names from HTML pages,
you can insert WebTrends Query Parameters in the HTML META tags to
automatically configure the advanced features in the WebTrends reporting
product.
Another simple example would be for the organization that wishes to
streamline campaign analysis. By creating a custom "Campaign Submission"
page in a company intranet that sends the WebTrends Query Parameter to
automatically trigger the WebTrends software to report on new campaigns,
less time is spent on system configuration. Similar pages may be created for
other applications, using any of the WebTrends Query Parameters.
WebTrends Products That Use WebTrends Query
Parameters
The following WebTrends products are designed to take advantage of
WebTrends Query Parameters:
• WebTrends Intelligence Suite (WIS)
WebTrends Intelligence Suite provides the ultimate in web analytics by
offering the most complete view of web customer activity in order to
measure and improve the performance of an organization's e-business.
To move beyond traditional web traffic reporting and analysis, the
WebTrends Intelligence Suite adds the sophistication and flexibility of a
scalable data warehouse with the ability to integrate customer and sales
information and leverages a range of highly developed analysis
technologies.
WebTrends Query Parameters are used with WebTrends Intelligence
Suite to place specific parameters into web log files. These are analyzed
and stored in the data warehouse, WebTrends Warehouse, or used for
reporting with WebTrends Reporting Center, one of the analysis tools
within WebTrends Intelligence Suite.
• WebTrends Reporting Center (WRC)
WebTrends Reporting Center sets a new standard in web analytics,
delivering the simplest way to get relevant, actionable insight into web
2
5. visitor behavior to drive smarter business decisions – all with a
sophisticated solution designed for simplicity.
WebTrends Query Parameters are used by WRC during log file analysis.
• Data Collection Server (DCS)
WebTrends Data Collection Server provides organizations with
geographically dispersed web servers or multiple domains a data
collection method to collect web visitor data into one easy-to-access
source for comprehensive web site analysis. WebTrends Data Collection
Server uses client-side data collection technology, eliminating the need to
collect log files and extending an organization's ability to generate
accurate, complete analysis of web visitor activity.
DCS removes the step of creating Query Parameters in HTML content by
including many of them in a typical DCS JavaScript with blanks that are
simply filled in. The Query Parameters are then passed automatically.
Further easing of content management, the DCS tags can retrieve data
stored in a custom <META> tag of an HTML header so that during the
creation of the content itself, a site designer may, for example, indicate to
what group of content the page belongs or which product a page
promotes. The DCS script will retrieve this meta data and pass it in an
Query Parameter to the WebTrends reporting product.
• Data Conduits for Content Management Systems
When using content management systems, WebTrends' Data Conduits
for Content Management Systems can translate the proprietary data
formats of industry-leading content management systems into meaningful
reports and analysis for use with WebTrends Intelligence Suite and
WebTrends Reporting Center. The Data Conduits that comprise this
product provide support for Vignette Content Management Server,
BroadVision One-to-One Enterprise and Macromedia Spectra. The Data
Conduit for Dynamic Sites supports other content management solutions,
such as ATG and Open Market, and dynamic content servers, such as
ColdFusion and ASP.
Syntax
The set of WebTrends Query Parameters follow specific syntax that include
name, value, and format.
3
6. WebTrends Query Parameters
Name syntax
The name of each WebTrends Query Parameter uses the following syntax.
WT.cg_n
Attribute
Attribute Separator
Type Identifier
Name Space Separator
WebTrends Name Space
The name component is case insensitive. As a best practice, the WebTrends
name space ("WT") should be in uppercase and the type identifier in
lowercase.
Value syntax
The values associated with WebTrends Query Parameter use the following
syntax.
Marine;Land%20Vehicle
2nd object/nth attribute
Object separator
1st object/nth attribute
Example of Content Group
Each WebTrends Query Parameter name includes an associated value
component. The value represents one or more occurrences of a particular
attribute associated with a particular data type. The data type and attribute are
identified by the parameter name.
4
7. For compound data types, each attribute is specified as a separate parameter
as shown in the following example:
WT.si_n=name1;name2&WT.si_x=position1;position2.
If there are multiple instances of an object, the attributes for the respective
objects are separated using a semicolon (";").
Note: Not all WebTrends Query Parameter values allow multiples. For
example, HTML Title Page allows only one attribute.
If the value contains a semicolon, it must be hex-encoded ("%3B") to avoid
being confused with the object separator.
Since each attribute has a unique parameter name and multiple objects of a
single type are supported, the order of the attributes for compound data types
is important. Each attribute of the compound data type must line up with the
position of the associated attributes identified by different parameters. For
example, WT.si_n=name1;name2&WT.si_x=position1;position2.
Default attributes are not supported. You must specify a value.
Complete syntax
The WebTrends Query Parameters are represented as name/value pairs.
The name/value pairs adhere to the following syntax:
Parameter separator
2nd object/1st attribute
WT.cg_n=Sailboats&WT.mc_t=S-72&WT.ad=Summer_Sale
1st object/2nd attribute
Parameter separator
1st Object/1st attribute
Example of WebTrends Query Parameter (Partial)
5
8. WebTrends Query Parameters
The WebTrends Query Parameters are logged in web server log files. Each
name/value pair is separated by an ampersand (&).
The WebTrends Query Parameters must co-exist with other web site query
parameters. This means that WebTrends Query Parameters can be mixed
with standard query parameters. The WebTrends Query Parameters can be
separated from the other query parameters using the ampersand delimiter.
While a WebTrends namespace is part of each Query Parameter, it is
conceivable that parameter collisions may occur. If a Query Parameter string
contains duplicate key values, the first instance will be used and the others
will be discarded.
Examples
Non-compound type, single instance
WT.ad=Finance%20Offer
This is an example of a page associated with the "Finance Offer" advertising
view.
Non-compound type, multiple instances
WT.ad=Finance%20Offer;FishFinder%20Offer
This is an example of a page associated with both the "Finance Offer" and
"FishFinder Offer" advertising views.
Compound type, single instance
WT.mc_n=Marine&WT.mc_t=Power%20Boats
This is an example of a page associated with the Marketing Campaign Name/
Marketing Campaign Type "Marine"/"Power Boats."
Compound type, multiple instances
WT.mc_n=Marine;Marine&WT.mc_t=Power%20Boats;Sail%20Boats
This is an example of a page associated with the Marketing Campaign Name/
Marketing Campaign Type "Marine"/"Power Boats" or "Marine"/"Sail Boats."
WebTrends Query Parameters Reference
Important: DCS Only – If JavaScript is not enabled on the web client, you will
not get ANY WebTrends Query Parameters in the hit. This is because the meta
tags are extracted by the JavaScript.
6
9. The following subsections list the WebTrends Query Parameters, which have
been grouped by the category of expected use on the analysis side. The
categories are as follows:
• Auto-Configuration—Parameters recognized by WRC’s Auto-
Configuration feature (see page 7).
• Custom Reports—Parameters used by WRC Custom Reports
dimensions (see page 10).
• Visitor Properties—Parameters related to visitor properties added by
WebTrends software during the analysis process (see page 14).
Note: Visitor Properties parameters do not apply to DCS, because they
are generated by WRC.
Auto-Configuration parameters
The WebTrends Reporting Center Auto-Configuration feature makes use of
certain WebTrends Query Parameters to configure the appropriate web
analytics advanced features and create the appropriate reports. These Query
Parameters are grouped into categories as follows:
• Content Group (see page 7)
• Marketing Campaign (see page 8)
• Advertising View (see page 8)
• Advertising Click (see page 8)
• Server (see page 9)
• Scenario Analysis (see page 9)
• HTML Title Page (see page 10)
Content Group parameters
The Content Group definition consists of the following attributes:
WT.cg_n – Name of the Content Group
Multiple Content Groups per page are supported.
WT.cg_n
WT.cg_n=name[;…]
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10. WebTrends Query Parameters
This parameter represents the name of a Content Group. The maximum
length is for each name is 64 bytes.
Marketing Campaign parameters
The Marketing Campaign definition consists of the following attributes:
WT.mc_n – Name of the Marketing Campaign
WT.mc_t – Type of the Marketing Campaign
Multiple Marketing Campaigns per page are supported, but only one of the
campaigns will qualify for a visit. Therefore, for any given visit (where "visit" is
determined by our analysis) to the web site, the first marketing campaign is
used in the analysis and resulting reports.
WT.mc_n
WT.mc_n=name
This parameter represents the name of a Marketing Campaign. The
maximum length for each name is 64 bytes.
WT.mc_t
WT.mc_t=type
This parameter identifies that the page is associated with a particular
Marketing Campaign. This is a free-form text field. The maximum length
for each type is 64 bytes.
Advertising View parameters
The Advertising View definition consists of the following attribute:
WT.ad – Name of the advertisement viewed on the page.
Multiple Advertising Views per page are supported.
WT.ad
WT.ad=name[;…]
The name of the advertisement viewed on a particular web page. The
maximum length for each name is 64 bytes.
Advertising Click parameters
The Advertising Click definition consists of the following attribute:
WT.ac – Name of the advertisement clicked.
8
11. Only a single Advertising Click per hit is supported. If your page contains
multiple ads, you can design the page to repond to clicks so that each click
generates a hit to the DCS server.
WT.ac
WT.ac=name
The name of the advertisement clicked to reach a particular web page. To
capture this information with DCS, the Advertising Click must contain an
external redirect back to the client. The redirect needs to include the
necessary code to generate a hit to the DCS. The maximum length for
each name is 64 bytes.
Server parameters
The Server definition consists of the following attribute:
WT.sv – Name of the machine serving up the web content.
Only a single Server per hit is supported. If your page contains multiple ads,
you can design the page to repond to clicks so that each click generates a hit
to the DCS server.
WT.sv
WT.sv=name
This parameter identifies the name of the web server that served up the
web content. This is used for server cluster load balanced reports. The
maximum length for name is 256 bytes.
Note: The WT.sv parameter requires that the profile be set up as clustered with
at least one server. This is the server that will be used if an incoming hit does not
explicitly have a server defined.
Scenario Analysis parameters
The Scenario Analysis definition consists of the following attributes:
WT.si_n – Name of the Senario Analysis
WT.si_x – The position of a path name within the Scenario Analysis
Multiple Scenario Analyses per page are supported.
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12. WebTrends Query Parameters
Note: Scenario Analysis must be configured manually. You can then use the
WebTrends Query Parameters to match different Scenario Analyses and their
steps.
WT.si_n
WT.si_n=name[;…]
This parameter identifies the name of the Scenario Analysis. The
maximum length for each name is 64 bytes.
WT.si_x
WT.si_x=position[;…]
The numeric position of the pathname within the associated Scenario
Analysis.
HTML Title Page parameters
The Title definition consists of the following attribute:
WT.ti – The HTML title of the web page
Only a single Title per page is supported.
WT.ti
WT.ti=title
The HTML title of the associated web content. If this parameter is found in
parameter list, the value is used in the reports. When present, no other
page title lookups will be performed. The maximum length for title is
1024 bytes.
Custom Report parameters
WebTrends Reporting Center’s Custom Report dimensions use the following
types of parameters:
• Advanced Features (see page 10)
• Web Client Properties (see page 11)
Advanced Features parameters
This section lists parameters that are associated with WRC Advanced
Features. These parameters are used with Custom Reports dimensions.
10
13. Multiple values per parameter are supported. When multiple values are
included, however, the order of the values is important. The order
dependency is important when values found in different parameters need to
be correlated to each other. For example:
WT.pn=shoe,shirt,tennisracket&WT.pc=apparel,apparel,sportsgear
WT.pn
WT.pn=productName[;…]
The name of the product. The maximum length for productName is 64
bytes.
WT.pc
WT.pc=productCategory[;…]
The category of the product. The maximum length for
productCategory is 64 bytes.
WT.tx_t
WT.tx_t=type[;…]
The type of Order – for example, Direct Sale. The maximum length for
type is 64 bytes.
WT.tx_u
WT.tx_u=units[;…]
The quantity purchased. (This should be associated with an Order.) This
value is represented as a positive integer.
WT.tx_s
WT.tx_s=subtotal[;…]
Total cost. Should be associated with an Order.
The format of this field must match the currency format that your copy of
WebTrends Reporting Center has been configured to analyze. Do not
include a currency symbol. For example, if you globally define your
currency as US-Dollars in WebTrends Reporting Center, the format of this
parameter set to a $4500 cost is:
WT.tx_s=4500.00
Web Client Properties parameters
This section lists parameters that are associated with web client (browser)
properties. These parameters are used as dimensions in Custom Reports.
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14. WebTrends Query Parameters
WT.tz
WT.tz=timezone
This indicates the web client’s time zone and is the offset of the web client
from UTC. The value is expressed in minutes.
Example:
var dCurrent = new Date();
var tzQueryParam = "&WT.tz=" + escape(dCurrent.getTimezoneOffset());
WT.ul
WT.ul=userLanguage
This indicates the web client’s user language.
Example:
var ulQueryParam = "&WT.ul=" + navigator.appName == "Netscape" ?
escape(navigator.language) :
escape(navigator.userLanguage);
WT.cd
WT.cd=colorDepth
This indicates the web client’s screen color depth. It is represented as the
number of color bits to which the web client computer’s video display
control is set.
Example:
var cdQueryParam = "&WT.cd=" + escape(screen.colorDepth);
WT.sr
WT.sr=screenResolution
This indicates the web client’s screen resolution. It is expressed as the
gross width and height of the web client’s monitor. The format of the value
is widthXheight (for example, 800X600).
Example:
var srQueryParam = "&WT.sr=" + escape(screen.width) + "x" +
escape(screen.height);
WT.jo
WT.jo=isJavaEnabled
This indicates if the web client has enabled Java. Valid values are yes and
no.
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15. Example:
var joQueryParam = "&WT.jo=" + navigator.javaEnabled() ? "Yes" : "No";
WT.js
WT.js=isJavaScriptEnabled
This indicates if the web client supports and/or has enabled JavaScript.
Valid values are yes and no.
Example:
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
...CODE ABOVE WHERE YOU WANT THIS MODIFICATION TO GO...
var jsQueryParam = "&WT.js=Yes";
...CODE BELOW WHERE YOU WANT THIS MODIFICATION TO GO...
</SCRIPT>
<NOSCRIPT>
<IMG BORDER="0" NAME="DCSIMG" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1" SRC="http://localhost/
njs.gif?dcsuri=/nojavascript&WT.js=no">
</NOSCRIPT>
Note: You can use WebTrends Reporting Center to set up a custom table
(augmenting the Top Pages reports) that keys on WT.js and provides a targeted
count of no JavaScript hits.
WT.jv
WT.jv=javaScriptVersion
This indicates the version of JavaScript supported by the web client. If
JavaScript is not enabled, this parameter should not be included.
Example:
var jvQueryParam = "";
<SCRIPT Language"Javascript1.0">
jvQueryParam = "&WT.jv=1.0"
</SCRIPT>
<SCRIPT Language"Javascript1.1">
jvQueryParam = "&WT.jv=1.1"
</SCRIPT>
<SCRIPT Language"Javascript1.2">
jvQueryParam = "&WT.jv=1.2"
</SCRIPT>
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16. WebTrends Query Parameters
WT.co
WT.co=isCookieEnabled
This indicates if the web client supports and/or has enabled cookies. Valid
values are yes and no.
Example:
var coQueryParam = "&WT.co=" + navigator.cookieEnabled() ? "Yes" : "No";
Visitor Properties parameters
To support visitor profiling, the following parameters are used in conjuction
with the scripting capabilities of WRC 5.1. They can be used for augmenting
information in Custom Reports. Do not use these parameters in DCS tags.
WT.vr_fr
WT.vr_fr=firstReferrer
The first recorded referrer for a visitor.
WT.vr_fc
WT.vr_fc=firstCampaign
The first recorded marketing campaign responded to by a visitor.
WT.vr_fe
WT.vr_fe=firstEntryPage
The first page view recorded for a visitor.
WT.vr_fv
WT.vr_fv=firstVisit
The time of the visitor’s first visit.
WT.vr_vc
WT.vr_vc=visitCount
The total number of visits recorded for a visitor.
WT.vr_vv
WT.vr_vv=visitorValue
The value of all purchases recorded for a visitor over time.
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