Clickstream Analysis (User Path Navigation Analysis) using Open Source Tools

Web Analytics Services

Tool Selection, Implementation and Training

Bookmark this resource

The following is very minimal documentation intended to assist in the evaluation of open source clickstream analysis tools. The exact syntax works on Linux; Mac and Windows users will need to modify accordingly.

Contents

StatViz Installation, Configuration and Usage

  1. Download StatViz.
  2. Unpack the achieve, i.e. tar -xvzf statviz-0.5.tgz
  3. cd statviz-0.5 # change to program directory
  4. cp example.conf mydomain.conf # copy example configuration to one for your domain, i.e. antezeta.conf
  5. edit mydomain.conf. At a minimum, review the following values:
  6. Verify php interpretor is installed: $ which php. Ouput should be similar to /usr/bin/php
  7. Modify the first line of statviz.php to match the location of the php program, if necessary: 
    -#!/usr/local/php/bin/php -d output_buffering=0
+#!/usr/bin/php -d output_buffering=0
  8. Install php Config module if not already present: $ pear -v install Config
  9. Verify graphviz is installed: $ which graphviz. Fedora Core 4 users can install this from the extras repository using $ yum install graphviz.
  10. Run statviz: $ ./statviz.php --config antezeta.conf
  11. Check the subdirectory statviz-output for created files. statviz-output/ should contain one pairs.dot file and multiple track-host-name.dot files.
  12. View output $ dotty statviz-output/pairs.dot

Viewing StatViz with the ZGRViewer, part of the ZVTM - Zoomable Visual Transformation Machine

A better viewer is the ZGRViewer. ZGRViewer requires Java runtime environment v1.4.0 or better.

  1. Download ZGRViewer
  2. unzip zgrviewer-0_5_0.zip
  3. cd zgrviewer
  4. ./run.sh # MS Windows users will want run.bat
  5. Choose View -> Preferences from the menu
  6. Review and update directory settings. The default settings are for Windows executables.
  7. Open statviz-output/pairs.dot either with dot or with neato.
  8. Use the mouse wheel to zoom in or out.
  9. Use the overview window (ctrl-o) to more easily navigate a large diagram.

[Contents ↑]

Pathalizer Installation, Configuration and Usage

An alternative to StatViz is Pathalizer.

  1. Download Pathalizer. Verify your system has gs, (dot) graphviz and installed:
  2. $ tar xzvf pathalizer-0.7.tar.gz
  3. $ cd pathalizer-0.7.tar.gz
  4. $ make
  5. $ su make install
  6. This will install the following programs: 
    cp bin/pathalizer /usr/local/bin
cp bin/apache2events /usr/local/bin
cp bin/event2dot /usr/local/bin
cp bin/ps2img /usr/local/bin
  7. $ mkdir data
  8. Download our configuration file pathalizer.conf and modify as needed.
  9. $ pathalizer -o dot -d data -f ./pathalizer.conf path to log file # i.e. /var/log/httpd/access_log or similar. Change dot to pdf for pdf output.
  10. access_log.dot and / or access_log.pdf files will be created in the data directory. Use a pdf or dot viewer.

[Contents ↑]

Further Information on Web Analytics

Let Antezeta help you in the selection, implementation and usage of a Web Analytics solution!

Contact us to find out more about this topic and the rest of the Web Ecosystem.

Is there something that should be listed here? Contact us with feedback.


Home · Contact Us · Site Map & Search · Keyboard shortcuts · Top ↑