Overview
In a nutshell: a Profile is a set of reports for one website. It is necessary to configure at least one Profile per site. There are various reasons for setting up more than one Profile per site, but generally speaking, there is a 1:1 ratio.
More technically speaking, a Profile is a set of rules governing the processing of log files and the creation of reports for one website or parts thereof.
Profiles are the primary organizational tools of the Urchin system, so it's important to understand how they work.
Licensing Information
The Urchin 4 base license includes 100 Profiles. Each one of these can have one Log Source, or more than one Profile can share a Log Source (useful when one Profile is the "master", and one or more others have Filters applied). If a Profile is set up for the analysis of a load-balanced site, that is, it uses more than one Log Source, an upgrade to the license must be purchased. By purchasing an additional Log Source, every Profile gains the ability to process more than one Log Source. So, if 100 Profiles are licensed, 100 load-balanced sites could be analyzed.
Every website must have at least one Profile associated with it to obtain reporting. Usually one is sufficient, but there is no limit to how many can be created for specialized analysis of one web property.
How to Use Profiles
To get started creating a Profile, login to the Urchin administration interface as an Urchin admin and click on the Configuration button at left. To create a new Profile, click the Add button at top-right (see image at top of this screen). You will be taken to the Add Profile Wizard. This is a simple series of steps designed to help you get the Profile set up in basic form quickly and easily. Each screen in the Wizard has explicit help information.
Recommendations
- In order to get the optimum reporting quality from the Urchin system, it is important to enable the Urchin Traffic Monitor (UTM) be used, particularly if unique visitor information is desired. There are three basic steps required to use the UTM:
- Under the Advanced tab of any Profile, select "Urchin Traffic Monitor (UTM)" as the Visitor Tracking Method.
- Install the UTM Sensor on each page of your website you want tracked with high accuracy (if you do not use the UTM, pages will still be tracked, but some actions, like reloads and use of the Back button, will not be reported.)
- Modify your webserver's logging behavior to activate cookies.
- If you intend to set up one or more Filters in conjunction with your Profile, it is advisable to have more than one Profile for that website or part thereof. We recommend having one Profile that is the "master" -- it contains everything. If you wish, for example, to filter out spiders or robots, it's a good idea to put these Filters in a second Profile so you can easily compare the results of the Filters to the master Profile.
See Also
- Importing Profiles (Windows) -- Instant Profile configuration on Windows systems
- Importing, Exporting, and Scripting the Configuration