Use Session Tracking definitions to specify the length of visitor sessions and how to track them. It's a good way to stitch together visitor sessions by tracking a common value. You can track visitor sessions either by IP address only or by one of the following methods. Use IP Tracking is the default setting.
- Authenticated User: Use this to track visitors by user name and password. You may find more authenticated users than visitors because several persons may be using the same IP address. Since many ISPs dynamically assign IP addresses, and since multiple visitors may come from a single IP address, authenticated users is a much more accurate way to identify visitors.
- URL Match: Use this to track visitor sessions by URL. You can specify multiple strings by separating them with a pipe character (|). The pipe is interpreted as an "OR"--so if it finds any of the strings listed, it will consider it a match. The search is not case sensitive.
- Parameter Match: Use this to track visitor sessions by parameter name. Parameters are located in the URL immediately after a question mark and they are followed by an equal sign and a return value. For example, if the URL is /products/furniture.asp?product=couch, the parameter name would be product. If there are multiple parameters, they are separated by an ampersand (&).
- Cookie: Use this to track visitor sessions by cookie.
You can select one, all, or any combination of the these methods. If you select more than one, the WebTrends software will look for them in the order they are listed. Once the WebTrends software finds a value for one of the methods, it uses that value for that visitor session and disregards the other methods, even if the other methods have values too.
For example, suppose you select Authenticated User, Parameter Match, and Cookie. The WebTrends software first searches for authenticated users, if there are no values for that, then it searches for parameter matches. If it is able to match a parameter, that parameter’s value is used for this visitor session, even if there are values for cookies too.
To create a new Session Tracking definition:
- From the links at the top of the WRC AdminConsole, select Advanced Features.
- Select the Session Tracking tab and click Add.
- Complete the settings in the General dialog box.
- According to your General settings, complete the necessary dialog boxes:
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