Configuring Webtrends Analytics Reports

This article provides an overview of the basic steps you should complete to generate Webtrends Analytics reports. For information about configuring Visitor Data Mart reports, see “Configuring Visitor Data Mart User Rights, Profiles, and Events” in the Visitor Data Mart User’s Guide.

Basic Report Configuration

To set up and generate a Webtrends Analytics report:

1. In the left pane, click Administration > Application Settings > Data Sources and create a new data source. Data sources identify the web activity data, Visitor Data Mart data, or SmartSource data files that Webtrends analyzes to create your report. For more information about data sources, see "Understanding Data Sources."

2. In the left pane, click Web Analysis > Reports & Profiles and create a new Webtrends Analytics profile. A profile captures the analysis settings for your report, for example the type of analysis, the data source, the home page of your site, DNS resolution settings, and when and how often Webtrends analyzes your site data.

   Note

   If you want other users to be able to access the reports you generate, make sure they have View rights to both the profile and the template associated with the reports. To set profile access, use the Profile Access dialog in the profile settings. To set template access, click Report Designer > Templates and use the Template Access dialog in the template settings.

3. Save your profile. Webtrends automatically begins analyzing your data, and you can refresh the Profiles panel to see the current status of the analysis. (For detailed status information, click Scheduler > Scheduled Jobs mouse over a job and click View Job Detail on the Action menu). When your report is complete, the Profiles list shows a green check mark next to your profile.

4. Click the name of the profile to view report data.

Using Templates and Dashboards

Templates determine the report pages, tables, graphs, and funnels that your report contains. Dashboards are collections of tables and graphs that link to reports or external web data, providing an overview of an area of interest. By default, Webtrends Analytics uses the Complete View report template, which includes all the standard reports and dashboards and many frequently-used custom reports. However, you can use templates and the dashboards they contain to tailor your reports for different audiences and business objectives. Because creating all the reports in the Complete Template can be resource-intensive, and because users can have trouble finding the data they need in such a large collection of reports, you should consider creating one or more smaller, focused templates. Granting template-specific access to report users who do not need the complete report set can save time and resources while ensuring report users can quickly access required data.

Building Templates

To build a template, you select some or all of the following components and determine how they are displayed:

• Webtrends Analytics reports
• Webtrends Analytics dashboards
• Webtrends Analytics performance dashboards

Webtrends Analytics performance dashboards are interactive reports that allow you to set and monitor performance goals for campaigns, products, or a range of key performance indicators.

To create a customized report template:

1. In the left pane, click Administration > Web Analysis > Report Designer > Templates.

2. Click New.

3. Specify a name for your template. The name identifies the template in Administration as well as in the template selection menu for Analytics Reports.

4. Select a template type:

   • If the profile you will use with this template uses standard analysis for web or SDC data, click Web.
   • If the profile you will use with this template uses basic analysis for web or SDC data, click Basic Analysis.

   Your selection determines which reports and dashboards you can include in the template.

5. In the Content dialog, add elements such as reports, dashboards, and external links to the template. You can move elements around after you add them by selecting them and clicking Move Up or Move Down.

   • To add reports or dashboards to the template, click Add Report, select a report library from the list, and select one or more reports or dashboards in the list. For information about creating your own dashboards, see “Building Dashboards,” below. You can also select an Auto-Populated Folder Library to add a folder that will include all current and future reports of its type. After you select an auto-populated folder, you can not add dashboards or built-in reports.
   • To add an external link to an image or web page, click Add External Link. You can customize external links to show a web page as an inset in your Webtrends report. You can also use macros to ensure the external link always shows current data.

6. In the Style dialog, specify graph and table standards such as word wrapping and whether to include graphs, tables, and Help cards.

7. In the Template Access dialog, specify users who can access this template. You should grant View access to users if you want them to be able to select the template when using Webtrends Analytics Reports. Some users, such as administrators, have access to all templates based on their general user rights.

Building Dashboards

To build a dashboard, you select multiple graphs, tables, and/or external links to web pages or images. Dashboards should present an overview of available information for quick reference.

To use a dashboard, add it to a template as described in “Building Templates,” above.

To create a customized report dashboard:

1. In the left pane, click Administration > Web Analysis > Report Designer > Dashboards.

2. Click New.

3. Specify a name for your dashboard. The name identifies the template in Administration.

4. In the Content dialog, add elements such as reports, dashboards, and external links to the dashboard. You can move elements around after you add them by dragging them to a new position in the dashboard layout.

5. To add a table or graph to the dashboard, click Add Report, select a dashboard library from the list, and select one or more items in the list. The icon by each item shows whether it is a table or a graph and indicates the style for graphs.

6. To add an external link to an image or web page, click Add External Link. You can customize external links to show a web page as an inset in your dashboard. You can also use macros to ensure the external link always shows current data.

Creating a Custom Report

When the standard Webtrends Analytics reports don’t meet your requirements, or when you want to provide focused reports for specific business needs or users without creating a new profile each time, you can use Custom Reports to design reports with only the content you specify. Webtrends allows you to use a large number of preconfigured components to construct a custom report, or you can design your own components and provide information about how Webtrends can track them. You can also add a calculated measure column to a custom report that calculates its values using the formula that you specify.

For more information on Custom Reports, see “Using Custom Reports.”

Adding Custom Building Blocks

Webtrends allows you to define many customized report objects and components that tailor Webtrends analysis to your business needs. For example, you can specify how Webtrends should track visitor navigation through your site, or define the user scenarios that Webtrends should analyze. You can also create custom reports by specifying your own dimensions and measures. You can associate one or many building blocks with a profile to refine and enrich your analysis. Custom building blocks include:

On-Site Advertising
Defines how Webtrends should track hits to a specific ad.

Campaigns
Defines how Webtrends should track responses to a specific advertising campaign.

Content Groups
Defines how Webtrends should track site activity on groups of related pages.

Intranet Domains
Defines how Webtrends should track activity for different divisions or domains.

Path Analysis
Defines how Webtrends should find patterns of user navigation through specified areas of your site.

Scenario Analysis
Defines how Webtrends should track user participation in site tasks such as completing a purchase or registering with the site.

URL Parameters
Specifies how Webtrends should track URLs that are created dynamically by user interaction.

Visit and Hit filters
Specifies groups of data Webtrends should include or exclude from analysis and reports.

To add custom building blocks to your reports:

1. In the left pane, click Administration > Web Analysis > Report Configuration.

2. Click any building block you wish to define. For example, click Content Groups to create a list of related pages. You can create as many new building blocks as you need.

3. In the left pane, click Web Analysis > Reports & Profiles and click the name of your profile.

4. Click Advanced and select that building block you want to associate with the profile. For example, click Path Analysis to specify which Path Analysis definitions Webtrends should use in the analysis. Click Reports to specify which Custom Reports to include.

5. Save the profile.

6. If you already analyzed the profile, mouse over the profile and click Clear Analysis Data from the Action menu to ensure old data does not conflict with data generated by your new settings.

7. Click Analyze Now from the Action menu.

8. When analysis is complete and the Profiles dialog shows a green icon next to your profile, click the profile name to launch Analytics Reports.