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Here's how to audit WAS traffic

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    #1

    Here's how to audit WAS traffic

    I wanted to be able to monitor my customer's use of my WAS application. Partly for customer service, partly to see how it is used, and partly because I'm just nosey.

    Here's how I audit WAS traffic (it was easy).

    1) Create an A5W page named WAS_traffic with this between the "head" tags in source:
    "%a5
    dim cs as C
    cs = session.sessionid + crlf() + session.timestamp + crlf() + session.username + crlf() + session.refpage
    record_add("WAS_traffic", cs, 2)
    session.refpage=""
    %"

    2) create a table named WAS_traffic with four fields that match the session values above

    3) Add this to each A5W page that you want to monitor
    "%a5
    session.refpage = "Customer"
    a5w_include("WAS_traffic.a5w")
    %"
    --- where Customer would be the name of your A5W page.
    --- Of course the session.username would have to match what YOU used as your login variable.

    That's all!!

    Steve
    Steve Wood
    See my profile on IADN

    Tags: None
    #2
    RE: Here's how to audit WAS traffic

    I've attached a graphic of how the resulting Traffic table might look. Again, I find this useful to see how my customers are using the WAS system. I can tell if they are having trouble or if they changed their password. It might also be useful as an "audit" if necessary. So far, I've used it to telephone the customer (that used the system) and ask how it went. I've received some valuable ideas from each call.
    Steve Wood
    See my profile on IADN

    Comment

      #3
      RE: Here's how to audit WAS traffic

      Since one person reported it offline, I should mention I left out ""ADB_Path"" from the record.add statement I posted above. The statement should be:

      record_add(""ADB_Path"\WAS_traffic", cs, 2)

      Steve
      Steve Wood
      See my profile on IADN

      Comment

        #4
        RE: Here's how to audit WAS traffic

        Steve,

        Hello Steve Wood, how do you get customer ip address??

        Comment

          #5
          RE: Here's how to audit WAS traffic

          Steve, have you considered simply turning on the Access logging int he Web App Server control panel and using one of the many log analysis tools (Webtrnds, Analog, etc) to get this informtaion? I'm wondering if/how what you are doing is more useful, easier, etc.

          I'm trying to get a feel for the usefulness and demand for this type of logging. We have automatic logging to a database on the todo list, but it's way down the bottom right now since nobody has even epxressed interest in it yet. But if folks want it, we could bump it up.

          Lenny Forziati
          Vice President, Internet Products and Technical Services
          Alpha Software Corporation

          Comment

            #6
            RE: Here's how to audit WAS traffic

            request.remote_addr

            You should take a look in the documentation for a description of request. and everything that is available under it. You also may want to look at a5w_info() to help you explore the variables that you can work with on your A5W pages.

            -Lenny

            Lenny Forziati
            Vice President, Internet Products and Technical Services
            Alpha Software Corporation

            Comment

              #7
              RE: Here's how to audit WAS traffic

              Imran - Lenny just answered the IP question, but I wanted to say that is less useful than I thought. The IP address is so often a DSL or dialup account and its not possible to trace it back to some individual. It is interesting to see the significant volume of "hits" from web spiders (Google, Inktomi, etc.).

              Lenny - I hadn't thought about web stat packages. I devised this method because the stock Alpha weblog was too voluminous to review. Here with my solution, I have a nice daily report of all traffic using my terminology and my filters (to try to weed out the spiders and my own Intranet hits).

              I think I will always use this method instead or in addition to a webstat package because I can control what I log. This will become important later on when I start to provide legal documentation over the web - I will definietely need to be able to prove that someone downloaded or reviewed this or that document.

              I've attached a snippet from the daily report.
              Steve Wood
              See my profile on IADN

              Comment

                #8
                Steve,

                I can't get it working.
                I tried to do what you instructed, but being an xbasic dummy, I probably miss something.

                This is my WAS_traffic.aw5 code:
                <head>
                <%a5
                a_tbl = table.open("[PathAlias.ADB_Path]\WAS_traffic")

                dim cs as C
                cs=session.sessionid+crlf()+session.timestamp+crlf()+session.NVST7.username+crlf()+session.refpage
                record_add(a_tbl,cs,2)
                session.refpage=""
                'table.close
                %>

                <meta name="generator" content="Alpha Five HTML Editor">
                <title>Log User Traffic</title>
                </head>

                This is my table structure:
                Sessionid Character 50
                Timestamp Time 17
                Username Character 10
                Refpage Character 50

                This is my Include text:
                <%a5
                session.refpage = "Welkompagina"
                a5w_include("WAS_traffic.a5w")
                %>


                And then I get this error:
                500 Internal Server Error
                Script Error
                Error:Script:WAS_traffic.a5w line:9
                record_add(a_tbl,cs,2)
                Variable is of different type

                Can you help me out?

                Ren�
                Ren�
                Windows 7, V11

                Comment

                  #9
                  The first argument to RECORD_ADD() is the name of the table, not a pointer.

                  Comment

                    #10
                    Thank you.
                    What should I fill in there?
                    If I enter "[PathAlias.ADB_Path]\WAS_traffic" including quotes, I get a stack underflow error.

                    As I said, I am an xbasic nono, sorry

                    Ren�
                    Ren�
                    Windows 7, V11

                    Comment

                      #11
                      Originally posted by Edward Larrabee
                      The first argument to RECORD_ADD() is the name of the table, not a pointer.
                      a_tbl = table.open("[PathAlias.ADB_Path]\WAS_traffic")

                      dim cs as C
                      cs=session.sessionid+crlf()+session.timestamp+crlf()+session.NVST7.username+crlf()+session.refpage
                      record_add(a_tbl,cs,2)
                      What I mean: when the database is not open, because the stand alone WAS is running, and not the full version, the WAS needs to know the location of the table, doesn't it?

                      So, how do I tell that when I cannot use a pointer and the code I used generates an error?
                      Last edited by Ren� Stout; 11-11-2005, 03:32 PM.
                      Ren�
                      Windows 7, V11

                      Comment

                        #12
                        This is my table structure:
                        Sessionid Character 50
                        Timestamp Time 17
                        Username Character 10
                        Refpage Character 50
                        To be more precise, I get this error message.

                        500 Internal Server Error
                        Script Error
                        Error:Script:WAS_Traffic.a5w line:6
                        record_add("D:\a5databases\nvstDB\Nvst\WAS_traffic",cs,2)
                        Result stack underflow

                        Alpha Five/7.0 Build/3879-3004 at HOFSVR06 Port 80
                        Ren�
                        Windows 7, V11

                        Comment

                          #13
                          I think I found the solution, but I still have a some questions...

                          This is what I use now for pages that demand being logged in:
                          HTML Code:
                          <%a5
dim cs as C
cs=session.timestamp+crlf()+session.NVST7.username+crlf()+session.refpage
table.open("[PathAlias.ADB_Path]\WAS_traffic.dbf")
record_add("[PathAlias.ADB_Path]\WAS_traffic.dbf",cs,2)
table.close()
session.refpage=""
%>

                          For pages that are called by visitors of the web site (who don't log in) I use this:
                          HTML Code:
                          <%a5
dim cs as C 
cs=session.timestamp+crlf()+"internet"+crlf()+session.refpage 
table.open("[PathAlias.ADB_Path]\WAS_traffic.dbf") 
record_add("[PathAlias.ADB_Path]\WAS_traffic.dbf",cs,2)
'table.close() 
%>
                          I had to remove the table.close() because it sometimes led to error messages.

                          Can anyone explain why?
                          Can not closing the table lead to problems in the WAS housekeeping?

                          By the way: this is not a specific V6 issue. Is it really wise to split up the WAS issues in two fora?
                          Last edited by AaronBBrown; 11-14-2005, 04:48 PM.
                          Ren�
                          Windows 7, V11

                          Comment

                            #14
                            Rene;

                            On my code, still working today, I neither open or close the traffic database, just the record_add().
                            Steve Wood
                            See my profile on IADN

                            Comment

                              #15
                              It works!

                              Thanks Steve,
                              I tried again and now it works....
                              Ren�
                              Windows 7, V11

                              Comment

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