Query Strings

  • Article

If your site uses query strings, you can record the query strings in log files and import them into the Data Warehouse. Query strings can be used in your site for searching or running executable files. If you have a list of query strings that your site uses, you can enable reporting on the content associated with those query strings.

By default, query strings are stored with the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) in the Data Warehouse. The query strings allow you to perform HTML title lookups for the pages on your site that use query strings. However, if there are many different combinations of parameter names and values for the query strings in your log files, the number of imported requests could increase substantially, which may reduce system performance. If this occurs, you may want to discontinue storing query strings with the URI.

Ee823924.note(en-US,CS.10).gif Notes

  • The Data Warehouse can import a combined maximum of 256 single- and multi-valued query strings.

  • Imported query strings can consist of a maximum of 150 single-valued query strings or a maximum of 256 multi-valued query strings. Importing too many query strings may cause the Web log import process to fail.

  • The Data Warehouse limits the length of imported multi-valued strings (including query strings) to 512 characters. Any multi-valued query string consisting of more than 512 characters is truncated to 512 characters when it is imported.

To configure query strings for import

To remove a query string from import

To view the properties of a query string configuration

To configure query strings for import

  1. Expand Microsoft SQL Server, expand SQL Server Group, and then expand the server on which your Data Warehouse is installed.

  2. Right-click Data Transformation Services, and then click New Package.

    Alternatively, if you are changing an existing package, right-click Data Transformation Services, click All Tasks, and then select Open Package. Select the package you want to change, and then click Open.

  3. On the Task menu, click Web server log import (Commerce Server).

  4. In the Import Web Server Logs dialog box, click Advanced.

  5. In the Advanced Web Log Import Properties dialog box, on the Query Strings tab, do the following:

    Use this To do this
    Save query strings with URI Select this box if to store your query strings together with their associated URIs in the Data Warehouse.
    Add Click to open the Query Strings dialog box.

  6. In the Query Strings dialog box, do the following:

    Use this To do this
    Name Type the name of the query string exactly as it appears in your log files.

    The name cannot match any of the default Data Warehouse columns; it also cannot contain "CEVT" (this grouping of letters is reserved for Commerce Server query strings). In addition, the name cannot contain spaces or include the characters: ', ", +, &, ^, ', ", {,}, <, >, or =.
    All applications within a site Select this option to import query strings from all applications within the site.
    Selected applications within a site Select this option to select the applications for which you want to import query strings.
    Select data type Select the data type of your query string from this drop-down list. Four data types are possible: integer, string, date/time, or real.

    The maximum number of characters for the data type string is 255 characters.
    Multivaluedata type Select this check box if your query string has a multi-value data type.

  7. Click OK to close the Query Strings dialog box.

  8. Click Apply, and then click OK.

Query strings are configured for the Web log file import process. You can continue to configure the Web log file import properties, or you can import data into the Data Warehouse. You must synchronize your site configuration with the Data Warehouse before you import data into the Data Warehouse.

To remove a query string from import

  1. Expand Microsoft SQL Server, expand SQL Server Group, and then expand the server on which your Data Warehouse is installed.

  2. Right-click Data Transformation Services, and then click New Package.

    Alternatively, if you are changing an existing package, right-click Data Transformation Services, click All Tasks, and then select Open Package. Select the package you want to change, and then click Open.

  3. On the Task menu, click Web server log import (Commerce Server).

  4. In the Import Web Server Logs dialog box, click Advanced.

  5. In the Advanced Web Log Import Properties dialog box, on the Query Strings tab, select the query string you want to remove, and then click Remove.

  6. Click Apply, and then click OK.

The query string is removed from the Web log file import process. You can continue to configure the Web log file import properties, or you can import data into the Data Warehouse. You must synchronize your site configuration with the Data Warehouse before you import data into the Data Warehouse.

To view the properties of a query string configuration

  1. Expand Microsoft SQL Server, expand SQL Server Group, and then expand the server on which your Data Warehouse is installed.

  2. Right-click Data Transformation Services, and then click New Package.

    Alternatively, if you are changing an existing package, right-click Data Transformation Services, click All Tasks, and then select Open Package. Select the package you want to change, and then click Open.

  3. On the Task menu, click Web server log import (Commerce Server).

  4. In the Import Web Server Logs dialog box, click Advanced.

  5. In the Advanced Web Log Import Properties dialog box, on the Query Strings tab, click Properties to open the Query Strings dialog box. (You cannot change any of the properties shown.)

Ee823924.note(en-US,CS.10).gif Note

  - To change properties, you must first remove the query string for import, and then add it again with the new properties you want.
  1. Click OK, and then click OK again.

You can continue to configure the Web log file import properties, or you can import data into the Data Warehouse. You must synchronize your site configuration with the Data Warehouse before you import data into the Data Warehouse.

See Also

Data Warehouse Components

Configuring Web Log File Import Properties

Importing Data into the Data Warehouse


All rights reserved.