Executive user summary report

Templates were created to give users a good starting point of both understanding how reporting works and get reporting results quickly. Sometimes a bit of fine tuning is needed because no two situations are the same and to get more precise results that are easier to analyze.

The executive summary reports are meant for detailed analysis of a users internet activity without having to create a complete log extract. It consists of six reports that shows when users browse, what they browse, what they search for and how much time is spent browsing. The modifications listed here will clean up the report a bit by excluding technical content and also adjust the output to make it more readable by users who are not experienced with website technical content.

Using the default Executive user summary

The Executive summary for a user report provides a graphical representation of the following activity from a specified username:

  • Number of hits per day
  • Number of hits per hour
  • Total time browsing
  • Top search terms, or phrases, used
  • Categories browsed

To run the report for a specific user, click Advanced » and type their Username. Enter the date range and click Run report.

Modifying the template

The modifications listed here can be used on most templates to achieve the same results giving a cleaner output.

  1. Create a copy of this template to work with by clicking the floppy disk icon, , see our help topic, Generating reports.
    • Folder: Executive summary
    • Report: Executive summary of activity of a specific user
  2. On the Custom page under these sections, make your changes to the template:
    • Customize reports:
      • Name: For example, Executive Summary of Hugh Grant.
      • Location: Select the top level Reports folder or if you have created one for your own modified reports, choose the custom folder.
    • Sections:
      • Grouped options:
        • Display top: "20"
        • Exclude empty results: yes
        • Search term matching: "Whole search phrase"
        • Show results by: "Client IP"
        • Exclude domain: "ytimg.com"
        • Advanced»
          • Exclude adverts: yes
          • Session window: "2min"
          • Filter out images, javascript etc: yes
      • Exclude results:
        • Do not include these categories: - (Include the hyphen to not report on uncategorised content. If you have any custom categories with domains you do not want to report on, add them to this list.)
          • APIs & Web Libraries
          • Content Delivery
          • Software Updates
          • SSL / CRL
          • User tracking and Site stats
          • Search Suggestions
          • Transparent HTTPS incompatible sites
      • URL parsing:
        • Root domain: yes
          OR
      • Time: Set the time frame. This will allow you to only see data from the specified time range. For example, Monday to Friday, each day from 8:00 to 16:00.
    • Domains by Category group:
      • Domain activity:
        • Unit: yes - "Time spent"
  3. Don't forget to click Create report, under the top Customize reports section.

Running the report

We recommend running this report with a limited time frame such as a week. You can then attempt a larger range such as two weeks.

If a report is needed for a two month period or longer, it's better to run multiple reports. This is because the time it takes to complete grows exponentially. For example a one week report may take 30 minutes, but a two week report could take 90 minutes.