The Web analytics module allows you to track and analyze metrics of your website such as visits, page views, file downloads, traffic sources and much more. Only activity on the live site will be measured, the statistics of the pages belonging to the Kentico CMS administration interface (CMS Desk and Site Manager) are not tracked.

 

Web analytics are disabled by default. You can enable them in Site Manager -> Settings -> On-line marketing -> Web Analytics by checking the Enable Web Analytics check-box. This settings page may also be used to configure other aspects of the module, such as enabling or disabling tracking for various types of events and certain additional options.

 

Even though the module provides many statistics and tracking options out‑of‑the‑box, you may in some cases wish to track custom events that are unique for your website. For instructions on how this can be done, please refer to Developer's Guide -> Modules -> Web analytics -> Adding custom analytics.

 

How it works

 

When a tracked event (such as a page view, file download, etc.) occurs, a record of it is logged into a file in the ~/App_Data/CMSModules/WebAnalytics/ folder. The names of the log files use the following format: <event type>_<date>_<time>.log

 

A global scheduled task reads the content of all analytics files every minute (or other scheduled interval) and imports the processed data into the database. This data is then loaded and displayed in an easy to read format using web analytics reports defined through the Reporting module. The name of the scheduled task that performs this functionality is Process analytics log and you can view its status or configure its settings in Site Manager -> Administration -> Scheduled tasks. Because the data must be processed periodically by this scheduled task, there may be a delay between the time that an event occurs and the time it is reflected in the web analytics statistics.

 

Please note that the Web Analytics module requires that the Modify permission for the ~/App_Data folder on your disk is granted to the ASP.NET account (see the Disk permissions problems chapter in the Developer's Guide for the names of the account under various operating systems).

 

Viewing analytics reports

 

When a statistic is selected from the tree menu in the web analytics interface, its report will be displayed on the right. For most statistics, the data is organized into a graph showing the hits measured over time and a table containing detailed information for individual objects.

 

The From and To fields on the right can be used to enter a time period for the report. Only hits that were logged for the statistic during the specified interval will be included in the displayed data.

 

The following options allow you to choose which unit of time should be used in the statistic's report:

 

• Hour

• Day

• Week

• Month

• Year

 

This selection determines the length of time which is represented by individual units in the report's graphs (if there are any) and the precision that can be specified in the From and To fields.

 

The actions available at the top of the page may also be performed for every report:

 

• Save - saves the report in its current state (according to the selected time interval). To view the saved reports at a later time, go to CMS Desk -> Tools -> Reporting, select the matching report and switch to the Saved reports tab.

• Print - allows the report to be printed. The available options depend on the used browser.

• Delete data - clears all data measured for the given statistic. Please note that this permanently removes all of the statistic's hits from the database. This action is only available for users who have the Manage data permission for the Web analytics module.

• Subscribe - opens a new dialog where you can subscribe to the report. Subscribing allows you to periodically receive e‑mails with the up‑to‑date content of the given report. It is also possible to subscribe to a specific reporting component (graph or table) by right clicking on it and selecting the Subscribe to option in the displayed context menu.

 

The data currently displayed in the reports may also be exported into external files using various formats. This can be done by right‑clicking on a graph or table in the report, which will open a context menu offering the following export options:

 

• Export to Excel - exports the data displayed by the given object to an XLSX spreadsheet.

• Export to CSV - exports data to a CSV file.

• Export to XML - exports data to an XML file.

 

After you select an action from the menu, your browser's standard file download dialog will pop up, letting you open or save the file with the exported data just like when downloading any other type of file. For more details on the data export feature, please refer to the Modules -> UI data export chapter of the Developer's Guide.