This article will show you how to report on categories of websites with WebSpy Vantage.
There are different ways to report on categories of websites with Vantage, depending on the type of proxy server, firewall, or logging device you have. WebSpy has its own website categorization system, called Profiles. Find out more about WebSpy’s Profiles and how they work here: http://www.webspy.com/blogs/index.php/what-are-profiles/
Some proxy servers or firewalls have their own categories, which are recorded directly into the log file, such as Microsoft FTMG and IronPort. If your log file has categories recorded in it, then you can report on these, otherwise you can use WebSpy’s Profiles.
The default reports that come with WebSpy are designed to use WebSpy’s Profiles, and the results of WebSpy’s categorization is displayed in reports and summaries analyses in the “Site Profile” field. If you wish to modify the report template to use the categories from your own log files instead, you will firstly need to make a copy of the sample template and set the Schema to your specific log file schema, as the base schema does not have access to specific fields from different log files.
For more information on how to do this, check out our blog article, or video tutorial.
Once you have converted the template to your own log file schema, the next step is to modify the template node that reports on the categories to use your log file’s own categories instead of WebSpy’s Profiles.
To do this:
1. Go to Reports in Vantage and right-click your new template, then choose Edit Template from the pop-up menu
2. Double-click the node in the template that reports on profiles, such as Profiles Activity
3. On the General page, in the Columns section, double-click the Site Profile key value
4. Set the Summary dropdown to the category field from your log files, such as “Categories” for IronPort logs, or “URL Category” for Microsoft FTMG logs; leave the Alias set to (No alias), then click OK. You can also change the Name text box to change the name of the column in the table if you wish
You can also use Filters to restrict the report to only include certain categories, such as creating a report that shows only Adult content hits for example.
If you want to apply the filter to the entire report, and the categories you are including will be the same every time you run the report, then use the Template Properties link on the left, to specify this filter.
If you want to apply the filter only to the Profile/Category node of the report (and any subnodes), and leave the rest of the report open to include all of the categories, then double-click the node, and use the Filters page of the Edit Node dialog to specify the filter.
If you want to apply the filter to the entire report, but the categories you are including will change every time you run the report, then use the Filters page of the Report Wizard to specify this filter.
To specify the filter:
1. Click Add | Field Value Filter
2. Select the Summary you want to use for the filter – if you are using WebSpy’s Profiles, use Site Profile; or if you are using the categories from your log files, select the appropriate field instead
3. Leave the Alias set to (no alias)
4. Select the Include radio button to include only specific categories
5. Click the Add button and type in the name of the profile or category you want to include. This must match exactly the name as it’s displayed in the Profiles section of Vantage, or in your log files; then click OK. It’s recommended not to click the “Display Known” button, as this can take some time to return all possible results, depending on the size of your storages. If you are not sure of the exact name of your category, go to Summaries and run a new analysis, and select the analysis type as ad-hoc, then look at the category summary when the analysis completes to view the names of all available categories.
6. If you wish to include another category, click the Add button again, and type in the name of the profile or category, then click OK.
Tips:
1. Whenever you make changes to a report template, on completion of the changes, click Return To Reports on the left, then click the Save Templates link to make a copy of your changes, before running the report.
2. When you run the report, use a test storage, with only a very small amount of data in it. This will allow the report to complete quickly, and let you see whether the changes are what you expected. If they are, then you can run the report on your entire data.
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