Some of you might not be aware that starting with version 2.0 back in 2009 we have decided to switch to “free updates for a year” policy. Information about this can be found on several places (order page, blog here and here, emails, etc), but it’s probably easy to miss. To make this transition as painless as possible, we didn’t enforce this policy until v2.6, and we have embedded this information inside the application starting with v2.5 (which is still free for all v2.x customers). Also, the policy in last several updates are actually unofficially stretched to two years. Still, it seems that pain cannot be avoided completely. 🙂

The reason for this decision was that we are very conservative with raising major version numbers, even though, combined, all improvements between few minor updates (for example between 2.0 and 2.2 or 2.3), might deserve to be declared as v3.0 (you can see the link to the change history at the bottom of the home page to see if you agree or not).

On the other hand, there might always be an unfair feeling on customer’s side if they bought v2.8 and then we decide to put a v3.0 label on the next update – they would not be able to use it. And if we declare it as v2.9, they would, so it might seem a bit unfair for customers and also hard for us to “draw a line”. We felt that, in this case, as what we call “minor updates” are actually “moderate updates”, giving them for free within at least one year is more clear and it works better for both sides. Each of you can decide for yourselves if the improvements are worth now, in few years or never.

Of course, we can’t make everyone happy no matter how hard we try. I understand that it might be frustrating when this period is over, especially if you were not aware of the policy upfront, so if any of you have concerns about it, I encourage you to drop an e-mail so we can find a mutually acceptable solution.

Web Log Storming version 2.8 is available for download. Most important changes include an improvement in spider identification algorithm and a custom IP resolving. This update is free for everyone who bought after February 14th, 2011.

Spider identification

Even well established web crawlers don’t behave as they used to. We remember happy times when all decent bots (excluding shady ones) presented themselves in User Agent field, so it was easy to identify them while parsing log files.

As one of our users noticed and pointed out (thanks, John!), even big players like MSN Bot introduce themselves as regular browsers now. This wasn’t easy to notice without resolving IPs to domain names; even by close inspecting their sessions, you can rarely notice anything unusual (they look like regular visitors, with IE7 browser and different Windows versions). Only after resolving IPs, you can see their true nature.

That’s why, in this version, we have added a feature to define Spider Domains identification list, in addition to already existing Spider User Agents list. Domains list can contain IP addresses (wildcarded) or domain names. That way identification works regardless if user resolves domain names or not.

Accompanied with this change, we have also added a right-click menu option Add Selected to Spiders in Domains report.

Custom IP resolving

Speaking of IP resolving, we have added an additional tool as a nice addition to Manually edit host name * option (Professional version only). If you work in teams, now you can define URL to web script that will be used to get these custom names from shared web space, for example database.

This script should follow simple rules for getting and setting IP/domain pairs. You can see more details here.

* In case you are not already familiar with it, Manually edit host name allows you to assign any text to IP address and this text will appear in reports as it was a normal domain name. That way you can assign texts like “Our company”, “Prospective client #1”, “Hacker”, etc.

Download Web Log Storming

Another Web Log Storming update is ready.

+ Added search & replace for file names (Project Properties window)
+ Introduced access method column and parameter (GET, POST, HEAD…)
+ Goals are clickable now in Overview report
& Search Engine detection only in domain
& Drill-down from Directory report: subdirectories are not excluded anymore
* Firefox v10+ are now correctly recognized
* “https” in referred URLs is correctly processed now
* Problem with quoted search phrases
* First goal was not visible on Overview report
* Crash when copying Overview report to clipboard in some cases
* Few other minor problems

Links:

Web Log Storming website
Download an update

Another Web Log Storming update is ready.

+ Configure font for report list and tree
* Export reports to HTML now works again
& Extend max. clipboard and report lines to more than 9999
* Sample data problem
* Few other minor problems

Links:

Web Log Storming website
Download an update

As you might know, we have released Web Log Storming v2.5 a day ago. This post is a follow up that explains few important changes.

Update Subscription

Even though we’ve switched to optional yearly update policy starting with v2.0 (as it is and was indicated on the purchase page), we have decided to prolong activating it for a while. Main reason for waiting was to give you, especially to v1.x users, some additional time to get used to the idea.

Now that time has come. Version 2.5 now informs user about date when free updates period ends (see Help | About), but it will never cease to work. Next version, however, will cease to work for those who bought their licenses more than a year ago. You’ll have three options:

• Continue using the last version that you are eligible to, forever, or until you eventually decide that improvements are beneficial enough for your needs
• Buy an update subscription for another year (for about 40% of full license price)
• Buy a lifetime update subscription (for full license price)

Of course, in case you decide to extend subscription months or years after the original one expired, your new free updates period starts from the date of the new purchase. On the other hand, if you decide to extend it before current one expires, new period will not start until the original expiration date.

Important: as version 2.5 is the last version that will be free forever for all v2.x users, we strongly suggest you to install it.

Spider detection

If you often use View | Human option, you might suddenly notice dramatically reduced number of visitors. Don’t worry, it doesn’t mean that your business is going downhill. 🙂 We’ve implemented smarter algorithm to detect which visitors / domains are behaving like spiders.

It would be easier for analysis if spiders and bots followed few simple rules: introduce themselves as such in User agent field, read and respect robots.txt file, etc. Although some do (like Google, Yahoo and similar legitimate spiders), some don’t care and/or are trying to full us in different ways (“referrer spam”, for example).

This more advanced algorithm tries to figure out if certain domains and visitors don’t behave like human beings. For example, if you get lots of hits on small number of different files from a single domain on regular basis over the time, it’s most probably a bot. Of course, exceptions are always possible (false negatives and false positives), but we think that we’ve managed to reduce mistakes significantly compared to previous version.

That said, if you notice some obvious false positive/negative, feel free to let us know. We will analyze these sessions and see what we can do to improve the detection further.

Links:

Web Log Storming v2.5 is available for download. This update contains several improvements and bug fixes:

• Better spider detection (possibly reduced number of Human visitors in reports)
• Spider visual indication (marked gray)
• Problems with downloading log files from HTTPS
• Problems with some User Access Control settings on Vista and Windows 7
• In some cases referrer was not correctly recognized
• Friendlier message when project file (.wls) doesn’t exist
• Other minor and medium bug fixes and improvements

Links:

Web Log Storming home page
Download an update

Web Log Storming v2.3 is now available for download. Changes in this release contain several new features that will make Web Log Storming easier to use, some improvements and additions and, of course, few bug fixes. As this is a free update for anyone who bought v2.x, we strongly recommend you to download and install an update.

Links:

Web Log Storming home page
Download an update