57 Analyzing Usage and Performance Metrics

The Analytics service offers real-time usage and activity reporting for your portal. This chapter describes how to use the pages and task flows provided through the Analytics service. It includes the following sections:

For Analytics task flows to work, the Analytics schema(ACTIVITIES) must be installed and configured, and a connection set up between your application and the Analytics Collector. For more details on the Analytics schema and information on managing the Analytics service backend, see “Managing the Analytics Service” in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal. This chapter describes how to add Analytics task flows to application pages at runtime; to learn how to add Analytics task flows at design time, using Oracle JDeveloper, see Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal.

Audience

This chapter is intended for Spaces administrators with the Application-Manage Configuration permission and individual space moderators who want to analyze activity within their spaces.

57.1 What You Should Know About the Analytics Service

The Analytics service allows Spaces administrators and moderators to track and analyze Spaces traffic and usage. The Analytics service provides the following basic functionality:

  • Usage Tracking Metrics: The Analytics service collects and reports metrics of common Spaces functions, including community and portlet traffic.

  • Behavior Tracking: The Analytics service can be used to analyze Spaces metrics to determine usage patterns, such as page visit duration and usage over time.

  • User Profile Correlation: The Analytics service can be used to correlate metric information with user profile information. Usage tracking reports can be viewed and filtered by user profile data such as country, company or title.

    Note:

    Profile information is cached meaning that changes to a user profile are not visible in reports until the cache is updated. The default cache time is 60 minutes, but this value can be changed by your administrator.

This section contains the following topics:

57.1.1 Understanding the Analytics Administration Page in Spaces

An analytics console that displays metrics for the entire Spaces application is available to Spaces administrators with the Manage Configuration permission. The console consists of four pages, grouping several different reports:

  • Summary Metrics - portal traffic, page views, and login metrics

  • Space Metrics - Space usage and response times

  • Portlet Metrics - portlet views and response times

  • Service Metrics - Usage of searches, documents, wikis, blogs and discussions

Figure 57-1 Analytics Console for Administrators

Analytics Console for Administrators

Out-of-the-box, this console is available through a business role page named Analytics. It is the Spaces administrator's responsibility to grant people permissions to see the Analytics page. This page is intended for anyone who needs to analyze access and usage statistics; this could include administrators, sales or marketing managers or directors, business analysts, and so on.

Just like other business role pages, the Analytics page is pushed to all the users to whom it is assigned, appearing in the Home space. Once the Analytics page is available in the Home space, users can show and hide the page through the Manage Page dialog.

See also Section 7.1.4, "Specifying the Target Audience for a Business Role Page."

57.1.2 Understanding Analytics Task Flows in Spaces

This section lists and describes all the Analytics task flows that are provided with Spaces. The following task flows are available out-of-the-box:

Application Analytics:

Space Analytics:

Portlet Analytics:

Service Analytics:

Note:

The images shown in the following sections represent one view of each report. However each report can be customized to display the data in different ways (for example, a bar chart, a pie chart, a line chart, or a table). For information on customizing reports, see Section 57.2.2, "Customizing Analytics Reports" and Section 57.2.3, "Personalizing Your Analytics Report View."

57.1.2.1 WebCenter Traffic

The WebCenter Traffic task flow (Figure 57-2) displays a summarized view for common events within the portal.

Use this task flow to track application-wide events—space views, page views, portlet views, logins, number of searches, wiki views, blog views, discussion forum views, and document views.

Figure 57-2 Analytics Task Flow - WebCenter Traffic

Analytics Task Flow - WebCenter Traffic

57.1.2.2 Page Traffic

The Page Traffic task flow (Figure 57-3) displays the number of page hits and the number of unique users that have visited any portal page.

Use this task flow to quickly see the most visited pages (top pages) and/or the least visited pages (bottom pages). You can view page data by hits (total number of page views) and/or users (unique number of users who viewed pages). You can filter the report to show data only for specific pages (in the Display options list, select Specify, then click Select, select pages, then click OK) or pages from specific spaces (in the Spaces query options).

Figure 57-3 Analytics Task Flow - Page Traffic

Analytics Task Flow - WebCenter Traffic

Note:

Pages belonging to the Home space are excluded by default but there is an option to include this information if you want to do so.

57.1.2.3 Login Metrics

The Login task flow (Figure 57-4) reports the number of times users log in to Spaces.

Use this task flow to see the total number of portal logins and/or the number of times unique users logged into the portal.

Figure 57-4 Analytics Task Flow - Login Metrics

Analytics Task Flow - WebCenter Traffic

57.1.2.4 Space Traffic

The Space Traffic task flow (Figure 57-5) displays usage information—the number of page hits, number of unique users, and the number of unique visits (multiple consecutive page views within the same space during the same Spaces session is treated as one visit)—for individual Spaces.

Use this task flow to quickly see the most popular spaces (top), and the least popular spaces (bottom). You can filter the data to only show specific spaces or show all spaces.

Figure 57-5 Analytics Task Flow - Space Traffic

Analytics Task Flow - WebCenter Traffic

Note:

The Home space is not included in the data.

57.1.2.5 Space Response Time

The Space Response Time task flow (Figure 57-6) displays page performance information—average, minimum, or maximum response time—for individual spaces over any time period you specify.

Use this task flow to quickly see the slowest spaces (bottom), and the fastest spaces (top). You can filter the data to only show specific spaces or show all spaces.

Figure 57-6 Analytics Task Flow - Space Response Time

Analytics Task Flow - WebCenter Traffic

Note:

The Home space is not included in the data.

57.1.2.6 Portlet Traffic

The Portlet Traffic task flow (Figure 57-7) displays portlet usage information—the number of portlet hits (the number of times a portlet is displayed) and number of unique users that access a portlet.

Use this task flow to quickly see the most popular portlets (top), and the least popular portlets (bottom). You can filter the data to only show specific portlets or show all portlets. Similarly, you can filter the portlet data by Space.

Figure 57-7 Analytics Task Flow - Portlet Traffic

Analytics Task Flow - WebCenter Traffic

Note:

The Home space is not included in the data.

57.1.2.7 Portlet Instance Traffic

The Portlet Instance Traffic task flow (Figure 57-8) displays usage information—the number of portlet hits (the number of times a portlet is displayed) and number of unique users that access a portlet—for individual portlet instances. If the same portlet displays on several different pages, each placement is considered as a portlet instance.

Use this task flow to quickly see the most popular portlet instances (top), and the least popular portlet instances (bottom). You can filter the data to only show specific portlet instances or show all portlet instances. Similarly, you can filter the portlet data by space.

Figure 57-8 Analytics Task Flow - Portlet Instance Traffic

Analytics Task Flow - WebCenter Traffic

Note:

The Home space is not included in the data.

57.1.2.8 Portlet Response Time

The Portlet Response Time task flow (Figure 57-9) displays performance information—average, minimum, and maximum response time—for individual portlets.

Use this task flow to quickly see the slowest portlets (bottom), the fastest portlets (top), and compare performance data. Portlet response times are important because there is often a direct link between page performance and the slowest portlets. When troubleshooting poor performance within a space, it is important to identify the worst performing portlets. You can filter the data to only show specific portlets or show all portlets. Similarly, you can filter the portlet data by space.

Figure 57-9 Analytics Task Flow - Portlet Response Time

Analytics Task Flow - WebCenter Traffic

57.1.2.9 Portlet Instance Response Time

The Portlet Instance Response Time task flow (Figure 57-10) displays performance information—average, minimum, and maximum response time—for individual portlet instances. If the same portlet displays on several different pages, each placement is considered as a portlet instance.

Use this task flow to quickly see the slowest portlet instances (bottom), the fastest portlet instances (top), and compare performance data. You can filter the data to only show specific portlet instances or show all portlet instances. Similarly, you can filter the portlet data by space.

Figure 57-10 Analytics Task Flow - Portlet Instance Response Time

Analytics Task Flow - WebCenter Traffic

57.1.2.10 Search Metrics

The Search Metrics task flow (Figure 57-11) tracks searches performed within the portal.

Use this task flow to quickly see the most popular (top) and least popular (bottom) search phrases.

Figure 57-11 Analytics Task Flow - Search Metrics

Analytics Task Flow - WebCenter Traffic

57.1.2.11 Document Metrics

The Document Metrics task flow (Figure 57-12) tracks how often a document is accessed.

Use this task flow to quickly see the most popular (top) and least popular (bottom) documents. You can filter the data to only show specific spaces or show all spaces.

Note:

Documents in the Home space are included in this report.

Note:

If you have two different documents with the same name, they are treated as two separate documents. The metrics include the parent folder for context.

Figure 57-12 Analytics Task Flow - Document Metrics

Analytics Task Flow - WebCenter Traffic

57.1.2.12 Wiki Metrics

The Wiki Metrics task flow (Figure 57-15) tracks how often wikis are accessed within the portal.

Use this task flow to quickly see the most popular (top) and least popular (bottom) wikis. You can filter the data to only show specific spaces or show all spaces.

Figure 57-13 Analytics Task Flow - Wiki Metrics

Analytics Task Flow - WebCenter Traffic

57.1.2.13 Blog Metrics

The Blog Metrics task flow (Figure 57-14) tracks how often blogs are accessed within the portal.

Use this task flow to quickly see the most popular (top) and least popular (bottom) blogs. You can filter the data to only show specific spaces or show all spaces.

Figure 57-14 Analytics Task Flow - Blogs Metrics

Analytics Task Flow - WebCenter Traffic

57.1.2.14 Discussion Forum Metrics

The Discussion Forum Metrics task flow (Figure 57-15) tracks discussion forums within the portal.

Use this task flow to quickly see the most popular (top) and least popular (bottom) discussions. You can filter the data to only show specific spaces or show all spaces.

Figure 57-15 Analytics Task Flow - Discussion Metrics

Analytics Task Flow - WebCenter Traffic

57.1.3 Access to Analytics Task Flows in Spaces

In Spaces, Resource Catalogs only display analytics task flows to users with appropriate permissions:

  • Administrators - Users with the Administrator role have access to all the Analytics task flows

  • Moderators - Within a space, members with the Moderator role can only access task flows specific to that space

After a task flow is added to a page, anyone with access to the page can see the task flow.

57.2 Working with Analytics Task Flows

This section contains the following topics:

57.2.1 Adding Analytics Task Flows to a Page

The process of adding an Analytics task flow to a page is the same as for any other task flow (for more information, see Section 18.5, "Adding a Component to a Page"). The process varies only in where you can find these task flows in the Resource Catalog. All the Analytics task flows are under the Analytics folder.

Figure 57-16 Analytics Folder in Resource Catalog

Analytics Folder in Resource Catalog

Note:

When you add an Analytics task flow to a space, it displays information for that space, not for all spaces.

57.2.2 Customizing Analytics Reports

If you want to set defaults for Analytics reports, you can do so by editing the report settings in page Edit mode. Any changes you make while in Edit mode will become the default report settings for all users in page View mode. For example, you can edit the Analytics page, changing the following settings on the Summary Metrics page in the Traffic report: set the report type to pie chart, set the time frame to this week, and remove Discussion Forums from the display. When users visit the Analytics page, those settings will be applied by default. Users can then edit the report as necessary for their needs. This can be useful if there are particular settings you know are commonly used by your users, or to customize a particular instance of an Analytics task flow on a group-specific page.

You can also configure the report settings to determine the controls available to users in View mode. In page Edit mode, click the Configure report preferences icon to display the Report Settings popup. In this popup, you can specify whether to show or hide the following report settings:

  • Chart

    • Chart Style list allows you to select a color scheme for reports

    • Chart Type Options allows you to show or hide the chart types (bar, pie, line, table) at the top of the report

  • Data Selection

    • Report Summary allows you to show or hide the Report Summary section to the left of the report

    • Metrics Selector allows you to show or hide the list of metrics (Hits, Unique Users, and such)

    • Display Options (not available with Logins) allows you to show or hide the list of display options (Spaces, Pages, Portlets, and such)

    • Selection Button (not available with Traffic, Logins, Space Traffic, Space Response Time, Search Metrics, Document Metrics, Wiki Metrics, Blog Metrics, Discussion Forum Metrics) allows you to show or hide the Specify option in the Display list and the Select button at the top of the report

    • Additional Options (not available with Traffic, Logins, Space Traffic, Space Response Time, Portlet Traffic, Portlet Instances Traffic, Portlet Response Time, Portlet Instances Response Time, Search Metrics, Document Metrics, Wiki Metrics, Blog Metrics, Discussion Forum Metrics) allows you to show or hide the Additional Options section to the left of the report

  • Filtering

    • Time Frame Filters allows you to show or hide the Time Frame section to the left of the report

    • User Property Filters allows you to show or hide the User Property section to the left of the report

    • Space Filter (not available with Traffic, Logins, Search Metrics) allows you to show or hide the Spaces section to the left of the report

  • Grouping

    • Group By Options allows you to show or hide the Grouping Options section to the left of the report

57.2.3 Personalizing Your Analytics Report View

Analytics task flows include display options at the top of the report and query options to the left of the report. These options enable you to personalize the report for your needs by changing the metrics included in the report and the way the report is presented. Most options are the same for all Analytics task flows.

57.2.3.1 Report Display Options

The report display options at the top of the report enable you to select the type of report, select the type of metrics to include, and, for some task flows, control the top/bottom range to display.

Report Types

You can display your report as a bar chart, pie chart, line chart, or table depending on the display and query options you select. To choose your report type, click the associated icon.

Table 57-1 lists the report types available for different display and query options. It includes the following columns:

  • Selected Metrics specifies what has been selected in the list of metrics, a single metric or multiple metrics.

    Note:

    Search Metrics and Document Metrics task flows show only those single metrics; there is no list to select metrics.

  • Group By Options specifies what has been selected in the Grouping Options section to the left of the report, No Selection or one of the available selections.

  • Bar, Pie, Line, and Table specify whether you can view that type of report with the specified selections.

Table 57-1 Display Options for the Analytics Task Flows

Selected Metrics Group By Option Bar Pie Line Table

Single metric
Login Traffic task flow

No selection

N

N

N

Y

Single metric
All other task flows

No selection

Y

Y

N

Y

Single metric

Time interval, user property, or Both*

Y

N

Y

Y

Multiple metrics
WebCenter Traffic and
Login Traffic task flows

No selection

Y

Y

N

Y

Multiple metrics
All other task flows

No selection

Y

N

Y

Y

Multiple metrics
WebCenter Traffic and Login Traffic task flows

Time interval or user property

Y

N

Y

Y

Multiple metrics
All other task flows

Time interval or user property

N

N

N

Y

Multiple metrics
Login Traffic task flow

Both*

N

N

N

Y


* The grouping option Both is available only for the Login Traffic task flow.

Metrics

You can select which type of metrics to include in your report. Your metrics options differ depending on the task flow you are using:

  • WebCenter Traffic: Spaces, Pages, Portlets, Logins, Searches, Wikis, Blogs, Discussion Forums, Documents

  • Page Traffic: Hits, Unique Users

  • Login Metrics: Logins, Unique Users

  • Space Traffic: Hits, Unique Users, Visits

  • Space Response Time: Average Response Time, Minimum Response Time, Maximum Response Time

  • Portlet Traffic: Hits, Unique Users

  • Portlet Instance Traffic: Hits, Unique Users

  • Portlet Response Time: Average Response Time, Minimum Response Time, Maximum Response Time

  • Portlet Instance Response Time: Average Response Time, Minimum Response Time, Maximum Response Time

  • Search Metrics: This task flow shows only search metrics, so it does not include an option to select metrics.

  • Document Metrics: This task flow shows only document metrics, so it does not include an option to select metrics.

  • Wiki Metrics: Views, Unique Users

  • Blog Metrics: Views, Unique Users

  • Discussion Forum Metrics: Views, Unique Users

To select which metrics to include in your report, select the metrics from the list above the report.

Figure 57-17 Analytics Task Flow - Metrics Selection

Analytics Task Flow - Metrics Selection

Top, Bottom, or Custom Ranges

With some task flows you can specify whether you want to see the top, bottom, all, or a custom ranges of metrics in your report. Use these options to see the most and least popular items in your portal.

To display the top or bottom ranges of metrics in your report, in the lists above the report, select Top or Bottom, and then select a number to define the range.

To display a custom range, in the list above the report, select Specify, then click Select.

The top and bottom options are available for Pages, Portlet Traffic, Portlet Instances Traffic, Response Time, Portlet Response Time, Portlet Instances Response Time.

The custom range option is available for Pages, Traffic, Response Time, Portlet Traffic, Portlet Instances Traffic, Response Time, Portlet Response Time, Portlet Instances Response Time, Search Metrics, Document Metrics, Wiki Metrics, Blog Metrics, Discussion Forum Metrics.

57.2.3.2 Query Options

Analytics task flows include the following query options to the left of the report:

  • Report Summary

    Displays a summary of the selected display and query options shown in the report.

  • Time Frame

    Enables you to specify the date range for the metrics displayed in the report. You can select from the following options: Yesterday, Today, This Week, Last Week, This Month, Last Month, Last Three Months, Last Six Months, This Year, Last Year, or you can specify your own date range.

  • User Property

    Enables you to filter your report by user property. After selecting a property from the list, you can specify a value that the property must contain or must not contain, and only metrics that apply to the filtered property display in the report.

    • Property: Select a property on which to filter the report. You can select City, Company, Country, Department, Display Name, Employee ID, IM User, Manager, Phone, State or Province, Street, Title, or ZIP code

    • Operator: Select how you want to filter the property. You can select Contains or Does Not Contain.

    • Value: Type a value on which to filter the property.

    Note:

    To search using a wildcard (for example, % or ?), you must prefix the wildcard with a forward slash (\). For example, to search for give or giving, type giv\% in the Value box.

  • Additional Options

    Enables you to include Home space pages in report data. These options are available with the Pages task flow (in the Page Traffic report).

  • Spaces

    When Analytics task flows display in the Home space or on a business role page, you can choose which spaces to include in your report. When Analytics task flows are used within a particular space, only metrics only for that space display; the Spaces option is unavailable (grayed out).

    To specify the spaces to include in your report, click the Space Filter icon to display the Specify Spaces popup. Select the spaces you want to include in your report, using CTRL+click and SHIFT+click to select multiple spaces.

    This option is not available with the Traffic, Logins, or Search Metrics task flows.

  • Grouping Options

    Enables you to select an option by which to group the metrics in your report. You can group by a time interval (Hour, Day, Week, Month, or Year), a user property, or, with the Logins task flow, both.

    Note:

    This setting affects the available display options for the report (see Table 57-10).

57.3 Setting Analytics Task Flow Properties

The Analytics service task flows have associated properties, which users with sufficient privileges can access through the Component Properties dialog in Composer (Figure 57-18).

Figure 57-18 Analytics Task Flow - Component Properties

Analytics Task Flow - Component Properties

For information about accessing the Component Properties dialog, see Section 18.6.2, "Setting Properties on a Component."

The following sections provide information about properties of the Events service task flows and describe the properties on the Parameters tab:

57.3.1 What You Should Know About the Analytics Service Task Flow Properties

The properties on the Parameters tab of the Component Properties dialog control the default task flow content. For descriptions of the parameters on this tab, see Section 57.3.2, "Analytics Service Task Flow Parameters." For some task flows, parameters on this tab facilitate the wiring of the task flow to page parameters and page definition variables. For information about wiring pages and components, see Chapter 22, "Wiring Pages, Task Flows, Portlets, and UI Components."

Changes to the properties on the Display Options, Style, and Content Style tabs affect the appearance and behavior of the task flow. These properties are common to all task flows. For more information, see Section 18.6, "Modifying Page Components."

The contents of the Events tab depend on the events supported by the task flow. For more information, see Section 18.6.7, "Working with Component Contextual Events."

All properties on the Parameters and Display Options tabs provide access to an Expression Language (EL) editor, which you can use to select or specify a variable value instead of a constant value. Click the Edit icon next to a property field to open the editor. For more information about using the editor and for descriptions of common EL expressions, see Appendix B, "Expression Language (EL) Expressions."

Note:

Wherever you enter EL on the generic Display Options tab in the Component Properties dialog, the entry is automatically validated. If the EL syntax is invalid, an error appears and the value is neither applied nor saved. Generic Display Options are those cataloged in Table 18-1.

EL validation is not performed on non-generic display options.

57.3.2 Analytics Service Task Flow Parameters

Table 57-2 describes the parameters that are unique to the Analytics service task flows.

Table 57-2 Analytics Task Flow Parameters

Parameter Description

Analytics Report Title

Specifies the display title that appears above the analytics data.

Note:

  • Use the Analytics Report Title rather than the Text property on the Display Options page. Changing the Text value has no effect on Analytics task flows.

  • You cannot change the report titles in the Analytics console.

Analytics Resource Id

Specifies the MDS document used to store user customizations/application customizations for the task flow instance in MDS.

Warning: Do not edit this value.

Application Name*

Specifies the WebCenter Portal application for which you want to display analytics data. For Spaces, this is always webcenter.

The analytics database can be used to store event data from multiple applications so this parameter is required to identify which application data to display.

If omitted, the task flow displays analytics data for all supported WebCenter Portal applications.

Max Data Points Per Series

Indicates the maximum number of data points to be displayed in a bar or line chart. The default value is 25. Valid values are between 1 and 1000.

Note: Increasing the number of data points might increase the time it takes to render the report.