Website Analysis Tools

[Xueilonox]

I'm working on a project that has a website with some streaming video. We're
tracking clicks on the custom video player (Windows Media Player) to a
mysql database (requirement).

Is there a tool/package out there (free or pay), that would allow us to
generate reports against the database? The reports are going to marketing
people so they need to produce pretty graphics. That's not a requirement
as far as I'm concerned, but it would be nice.

BTW, I'm not a webmaster so any obvious answers are not apparent. Thanks in
advance.

PS: Also posted in alt.www.webmasters
--
Xueilonox
http://www.digitalmerging.la
Blogging about new media and digital convergence.

[Michael Vilain]

In article <Sxyhd.2268$cA4 .1283@trnddc01> ,
Xueilonox <xu*******@digi talmerging.la> wrote:

I'm working on a project that has a website with some streaming video. We're
tracking clicks on the custom video player (Windows Media Player) to a
mysql database (requirement).

Is there a tool/package out there (free or pay), that would allow us to
generate reports against the database? The reports are going to marketing
people so they need to produce pretty graphics. That's not a requirement
as far as I'm concerned, but it would be nice.

BTW, I'm not a webmaster so any obvious answers are not apparent. Thanks in
advance.

PS: Also posted in alt.www.webmasters

Can you explain more clearly what your want to do to "generate reports
against the database"? What are you looking for, specifically--reports
on utilization of the mysql database or web site analysis of the logs?

Website traffic analysis tools abound, some free, some not, some really
pricey. If they're "marketing people" who want graphs, you'll probably
have to go with the pricey. I've only ever used the free UNIX tools
like "analog".

Any package you buy won't tell you "What does this mean?" or "What am I
seeing here with this graph?" which you'll get with marketing types.

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[Xueilonox]

Michael Vilain wrote:

In article <Sxyhd.2268$cA4 .1283@trnddc01> ,
Xueilonox <xu*******@digi talmerging.la> wrote:
Can you explain more clearly what your want to do to "generate reports
against the database"? What are you looking for, specifically--reports
on utilization of the mysql database or web site analysis of the logs?

Website traffic analysis tools abound, some free, some not, some really
pricey. If they're "marketing people" who want graphs, you'll probably
have to go with the pricey. I've only ever used the free UNIX tools
like "analog".

Any package you buy won't tell you "What does this mean?" or "What am I
seeing here with this graph?" which you'll get with marketing types.

Normally, you would run a program that generates a report based on your web
logs (how many hits, what page, etc). In this case, we have a media player
that's logging the information we want into a database (who hit play, stop,
rewind, etc). The important things is, we have the information.

Now, I'm trying to determine if there are any packages that would generate a
usage report from the information in the database (not the web logs). I
know we could probably write something but if some type of reporting
package will do it, that would be preferrable.

Hope that's a little more clear. TIA.
--
Xueilonox
http://www.digitalmerging.la
Blogging about new media and digital convergence.

[Mark Parnell]

On Tue, 02 Nov 2004 04:36:50 GMT, Xueilonox
<xu*******@digi talmerging.la> declared in
comp.infosystem s.www.authoring.html:

Now, I'm trying to determine if there are any packages that would generate a
usage report from the information in the database (not the web logs). I
know we could probably write something but if some type of reporting
package will do it, that would be preferrable.

Probably only something very basic if at all then, as it would depend
heavily on the database structure.

--
Mark Parnell
http://www.clarkecomputers.com.au

[Xueilonox]

Mark Parnell wrote:

On Tue, 02 Nov 2004 04:36:50 GMT, Xueilonox
<xu*******@digi talmerging.la> declared in
comp.infosystem s.www.authoring.html:

Now, I'm trying to determine if there are any packages that would
generate a usage report from the information in the database (not the web
logs). I know we could probably write something but if some type of
reporting package will do it, that would be preferrable.

Probably only something very basic if at all then, as it would depend
heavily on the database structure.

If it's just basic stuff, then basic will have to do for now. Just need
pointers. Thanks.

--
Xueilonox
http://www.digitalmerging.la
Blogging about new media and digital convergence.

[David Quinton]

On Mon, 01 Nov 2004 18:35:18 -0800, "Michael Vilain
<vi****@spamcop .net>" wrote:

Is there a tool/package out there (free or pay), that would allow us to
generate reports against the database? The reports are going to marketing
people so they need to produce pretty graphics. That's not a requirement
as far as I'm concerned, but it would be nice.

I used to always look for a non-Microsoft solution, but now I tend to
look what's easiest and cheapest!

If they're not going to need the reports on demand (i.e. you will
create these reports for them - say every month) then cheat:
* Export MySQL data to a CSV file (phpMyAdmin etc.) and let Access do
it for you.

If on demand by Marketing people:
* Install MySQL ODBC driver, allow Read-only access remotely and write
some Access macros
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[Xueilonox]

David Quinton wrote:

On Mon, 01 Nov 2004 18:35:18 -0800, "Michael Vilain
<vi****@spamcop .net>" wrote:

I used to always look for a non-Microsoft solution, but now I tend to
look what's easiest and cheapest!

If they're not going to need the reports on demand (i.e. you will
create these reports for them - say every month) then cheat:
* Export MySQL data to a CSV file (phpMyAdmin etc.) and let Access do
it for you.

If on demand by Marketing people:
* Install MySQL ODBC driver, allow Read-only access remotely and write
some Access macros

I don't think on-demand is a requirement so it's completely possible for
this to be an option. I'll look into it.

Just curious, what non-Microsoft solutions did you use? I've been told by
the powers that be that payware is OK (probably within a certain limit).

Thanks.

--
Xueilonox
http://www.digitalmerging.la
Blogging about new media and digital convergence.

[David Quinton]

On Tue, 02 Nov 2004 23:39:19 GMT, Xueilonox
<xu*******@digi talmerging.la> wrote:

Just curious, what non-Microsoft solutions did you use?

I'd probably have written a PHP app to create an on-line system with
pretty graphs. PHP can create images "on the fly".
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[jmm-list-gn]

Xueilonox wrote:

Is there a tool/package out there (free or pay), that would allow us to
generate reports against the database? The reports are going to marketing
people so they need to produce pretty graphics. That's not a requirement
as far as I'm concerned, but it would be nice.

Mysql is a fairly well-supported database. Commercial report generators
like Crystal Reports (http://www.businessobjects.com/) will warm the
cockles of any marketeer. All you need is an odbc connector.
A Google search for ["report generator" +mysql] found a lot of other
products.

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[Xueilonox]

jmm-list-gn wrote:

Xueilonox wrote:

Is there a tool/package out there (free or pay), that would allow us to
generate reports against the database? The reports are going to
marketing
people so they need to produce pretty graphics. That's not a requirement
as far as I'm concerned, but it would be nice.

Mysql is a fairly well-supported database. Commercial report generators
like Crystal Reports (http://www.businessobjects.com/) will warm the
cockles of any marketeer. All you need is an odbc connector.
A Google search for ["report generator" +mysql] found a lot of other
products.

Thanks for the tip. I've always heard of Crystal Reports but never really
knew the details of exactly what they did.

--
Xueilonox
http://www.digitalmerging.la
Blogging about new media and digital convergence.