SurfStats Website Analytics V2012.6.1

Contents

  1. Important notes
  2. Installation Instructions
  3. Purchase Information
  4. Updates and support

1. Important notes

The name has been changed to SurfStats Website Analytics This name change may not reflect in all documentation yet.
This 30-day trial edition can run as the Standard, Professional or Enterprise Edition. The program can be freely distributed if the program is not modified in any way.

Please note that the install program and help may not show the correct version number and release date - the File_id.diz file shows the version number and release date.

Use small fonts when generating reports to PDF.

See the tracking.zip file to see how to track Ads, Clicks and Click Outs. Please note that we cannot help you with fault finding to get the information in your log file.

Log File Analyzing is a very resource intensive operation and no log analyzer can satisfactory parse huge log files and produce reports from it. Some tips when analyzing large log files:

If you do not get data in reports, check that:

Reports may not be generated or empty due to the DEP Problem on some 64 bit CPU machines. If so, please do the following

2. Installation Instructions

Uninstalling a previous version

Make a backup of your site profiles if required.
If you have a previous version installed, uninstall it first AND remove the SurfStats directory before installing the new version.

Uninstall Surfstats Website Traffic Analyzer as follows:

Close all other programs before installing SurfStats and make sure that you are logged in as Administrator or a member of the Administrators group if you are installing it on a Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista/2003/2008 system.

If you are running a recent version of SurfStats Log Analyzer (V6.6 or later, but pre-V7.0) click on File – Save Profiles to export your site profiles to a file with a name of your choice to use later.

If you are running an older version of SurfStats Log Analyzer (V6.5 beta or earlier, but V6.0.1.1 or later) make a copy of the surfsite file in the \Windows or Winnt directory.

If you are running a version prior to V6.0.1.1 you would have to recreate your site profiles after installing V7.0 or later.

If you are running V7.0 or later you can perform a backup of your current profiles, schedules and global options with File - Backup.

Stop and uninstall the SurfStats Scheduler Service (important) from Service Options in the SurfStats Scheduler.

Use the Add/Remove Programs from the Windows Control Panel to remove the currently installed version of SurfStats Log Analyzer from your hard disk.

Delete the SurfStats installation folder (normally  \Program Files\SurfStats for versions prior to V7.1,  \Program Files\SurfStatsXXXX  for V7.1 and later) with Windows Explorer. XXXX is the main version, e.g. 8000

Delete the folder  \Program Files\Common Files\Borland Shared. Older versions of the BDE stored the BDE files in a different location. If the folder \Program Files\Common Files\Borland Shared does not exist find the file idapi32.dfg and delete the folder in which this file is located. V7.0 and later of SurfStats Log Analyzer does not make use of the BDE anymore.

Installing

If the program is in zipped format, use an unzip application like Winzip to unzip it first to a temporary folder. Then run the Setup.exe file to install SurfStats Log Analyzer. If the program is a single self-extracting program, run the program to install SurfStats Website Traffic Analyzer. If you are prompted to overwrite the existing SurfStats Website Traffic Analyzer.msi file select Yes and follow the instructions to complete the installation.

If you were previously running a version prior to V7.0 restore the site profiles from File - Restore - Pre Version 7.0 and select the surfsite file (or the file that you backed up your profiles to), then click the Open button. Rebuild the profile database (by clicking the Rebuild Database menu item on the left and selecting Rebuild All).

If you were previously running V7.0 or later and you have a backup in XML format created by SurfStats Log Analyzer V7.0 or later, you can restore the backup by selecting File – Restore - Version 7.0 onwards.

Unfortunately we cannot guarantee that old profile file formats will be properly restored due to the changes in the file format. Please note that when you install SurfStats some sample site profiles are provided by default. If you restore your site profiles you will not be able to access these samples. If you want to have a look at these samples it is recommended that you do a Save Profiles before restoring your profiles, this will store a copy of the profiles that comes with the SurfStats installation, for you to restore later.

For installation problems please consult the Troubleshooting Guide for SurfStats Log Analyzer on the SurfStats website.

Data Migration
Unfortunately a data-migration facility is not so easy for this type of product. The program uses a complex interlinked relational database structure and the database structure changes between every sub-build e.g. 7.X (7.4, 7.5, etc.). The database structure changes to hold more information due to changes in log file formats and additional information required for new reports like e-commerce, conversion tracking, click-fraud and bounce rate reports. This makes it a nightmare, bug-ridden experience to convert an older log analysis database to a new database and to produce reports from a database that does not have the correct or required data. We are not the only website statistics development company with this dilemma and we do not know of any database-based log analysis program that provides easy and successful migration from an old log file database.

Moving the same version and data to a new machine
The version must be the same, the installation drive must have the same id (e.g. C:) and the log file specification must be the same to move the program and the databases to another machine. Follow the next steps:
1. Make sure that the merge (schedule) service is not running and make a backup of the complete SurfStats directory, e.g.
C:\Program Files\SurfStatsXXXX
where XXXX is the build number e.g. 8000
2. Install the same version on the new machine on the same drive number, (In the above example C:)
3. Send us the machine id and request a new activation key for the new machine.
4. Activate the machine and make sure the merge service is not running.
5. Copy the backed up SurfStats directory in (1) over to replace the complete directory on the new drive.
6. Make sure the log sources are correct and restart the merge service.

Moving to a different version
Note: Only site profiles can be saved and restored. Log files have to be reparsed. Follow the next steps:
1. Make sure that the merge service is not running and make a backup of the site profiles on the old machine.
2. Install the new version, send us the machine id to request a new activation key for the new machine and activate it.
3. Make sure that the merge service is not running and restore the site profiles backup up in (1).
4. Make sure the log sources are correct and restart the merge service.

----- Back to top -----

 

3. Purchase Information

We provide you with an activation code after purchase that removes the expiry limitation and converts the trial version to the licensed edition that you have purchased. You can purchase a copy of SurfStats Website Analytics from the Buy page on the SurfStats web site.

After purchase, please request an activation code from within SurfStats Website Analytics by selecting Help - Register SurfStats - Request Activation Code from SurfStats or email us the 8 character machine id.
Please make sure that you specify the correct email address and that your spam filter does not block email from surfstats.com

After receiving the activation code, use the same screen to register SurfStats Website Analytics.

4. Updates and support

SurfStats provides free updates and email support for one year after purchase. Thereafter you can purchase another year of free updates and email support.  Use the Helpdesk at www.surfstats.com/helpdesk/ to contact SurfStats.

 

----- Back to top -----