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<title>Automating Analog and Report Magic for Windows</title>
<h1 align="center">
HOW-TO<br>
Automate <A HREF="http://www.analog.cx/">Analog</a> and
<a href="http://www.reportmagic.org/">Report Magic</a> for Windows</h1>
<p align=center><i>by Troy Janisch, Online Arts</i><br>
<i>original document
<a href="http://www.onlinearts.net/read_more.php?id=10">at Online Arts
site</a></i></p>
Analog may be the most popular Web stats analyzer in the world, but it
isn't the most intuitive program for Windows users to automate. These
step-by-step instructions will get the program working on your server,
like magic.
<p>
For the sake of brevity, I'll assume that you can download and install
Analog and Report Magic. If you can't do that, you probably shouldn't
be writing scheduled batch files anyway.
<p>
<strong>Step 1 - Your Analog CFG file</strong><br>There is nothing
magical about setting up a good CFG file for Analog. Since CFG files
are roughly the same for each platform, I won't waste your time here.
Instead, I'll provide you with a few useful links:
<p>
<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.analog.cx/docs/custom.html" target="link">Analog documentation</a> - which tells you how to create a CFG file.
<li><a href="http://www.rix-web.com/analyzer/" target="link">The RixWeb CFG file creator</a> - which will create a CFG file for you.
<li>This <a href="http://www.iconinteractive.com/resources/my.cfg"
target="link">example CFG file</a> - which you can use for
inspiration
</ol>
When creating your CFG file, there are just a couple of things to keep
in mind. First, that you'll be overriding the LOGFILE setting when the
program is run. And, second, that you only need to output a .DAT file
if you're going to run Report Magic.
<p>
<a href="http://www.reportmagic.org/">Report Magic</a> is a tool that makes Analog reports look prettier. Like Analog, its free, so there is no reason not to use it.
<p>
<strong>Step 2 - Your Report Magic INI file</strong><br>Report Magic
INI files need to know where to find your DAT file and where to write
the HTML files for the Web Stats report. In this case, here are the
relevant links:
<p>
<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.reportmagic.org/docs/config.html" target="link">Report Magic Settings Documentation</a> - where you can read about creating an INI file.
<li>This <a href="http://www.iconinteractive.com/resources/my.ini"
target="link">example INI file</a> which you can use for inspiration.
</ol>
Report Magic can dynamically create file names that include date
information. You'll probably want different INI files for monthly and
yearly reports. It's not uncommon to have multiple Report Magic INI
files for a single Analog CFG file.
<p>
<strong>Step 3 - Your Manual Batch File</strong><br>If you're setting
up Analog or Report Magic for the first time, you'll want to create a
batch file that generates historical reports - those for previous
month/years that you'll want to view statistics for.
<p>
The manual batch file needs to include two lines for each report
generated. The first is the Analog command. The command above
specifies: 1) the location of analog.exe; 2) the log files to be
included in the report; and 3) the .CFG file to be executed. For
example:
<blockquote>call c:\analog\analog.exe c:\LogFiles\W3SVC9\ex0203*.log +g"c:\stats\config\my.cfg" -G</blockquote>
The second line for each report is the Report Magic command. This
command specifies: 1) the location of the rmagic.exe; and 2) the
location of the .INI file. For example:
<blockquote>call c:\analog\rmagic.exe c:\stats\config\my.ini</blockquote>
This <a href="http://www.onlinearts.net/downloads/analog/manual.bat" target="link">example</a> generates monthly reports for 2002.
<p>
<strong>Step 4- The Automated Batch File</strong><br>The automated
batch file takes the same format as a manual batch file. However, at
the beginning of the batch file you must first fetch the current
month/year:
<p>
<blockquote>@ echo off<br>set yy%date:~12,2%<br>set mm=%date:~4,2%</blockquote>
Then, use the same commands, replacing the appropriate portion of the log file name:
<p>
<blockquote>call c:\analog\analog.exe c:\LogFiles\W3SVC9\ex%yy%%mm%*.log +g"c:\stats\config\my.cfg" -G<br><br>
call c:\analog\rmagic.exe c:\stats\config\my.ini</blockquote>
This <a href="http://www.onlinearts.net/downloads/analog/nightly.bat" target="link">example</a> generates a monthly Web stats report.
<p>
<strong>Step 5 - Use Windows Task Scheduler</strong><br>Using Windows Task Scheduler, specify a time when you want the batch file to run. For detailed instruction, visit the <a href="http://www.analog.cx/how-to/batch/index.html" target="link">Analog web site</a>
<p>
<img src="task1.jpg" width="350">
<p>
Ta da! You're automatically generating Analog web stats report.
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