WebTrends Marketing Lab - WebTrends Analytics v8.0d
Release Notes - March 2, 2007
Copyright (c) 1996-2007 WebTrends Inc.
All rights reserved

Please read this document carefully; it contains important information about WebTrends Marketing Lab. WebTrends Marketing Lab is a product family that is made up of two products: WebTrends Analytics and WebTrends Marketing Warehouse. WebTrends Analytics is the foundational online marketing analysis product from WebTrends. WebTrends Marketing Warehouse is an optional product that complements WebTrends Analytics with an enterprise-class, marketing data warehouse you can use to fuel targeted, relationship marketing programs. Topics include:

- Changes in This Release
- System Requirements
- Known Issues
- Upgrade Information
- Documentation Additions
- Obtaining Updates
- Contact Information
- Feedback

Changes in This Release

System Requirements

WebTrends Analytics is a powerful application. You should install it on a dedicated computer. Click here to view the minimum requirements for running each WebTrends component.

Known Issues

WebTrends Server Components Not Supported on Microsoft Vista Operating Systems
A conflict with Data Execution Prevention (DEP) prevents installing WebTrends Analytics, WebTrends Marketing Warehouse, the SmartSource Data Collector, or GeoTrends on a computer running Microsoft Vista. As of v8.0c, WebTrends users can install any WebTrends client components, including WebTrends Marketing Lab Desktop, on Microsoft Vista operating systems.

Compressed Log Files Greater Than 4 GB
If you have compressed log files (such as .GZ or .ZIP archives) greater than 4 GB in size, WebTrends Analytics cannot decompress them. You must first decompress the log files using the utility that created the compressed file.

Cross-Domain Distributed Installations Not Supported
The WebTrends Distributed Architecture feature does not support installations across domains. All computers in the installation must be in the same domain.

Marketing Warehouse Profile Fails to Initialize
Because of a problem with SQL Server, a Marketing Warehouse profile occasionally fails to initialize, generating a publication error such as Call to prCheckSnapshotAgentStatus failed for publication. This problem can be resolved by restarting the SQL Server agent.

Service Pack 2 Required for ODBC Queries with Microsoft Excel v2003
If you experience a failure when querying a Marketing Warehouse or a WebTrends Analytics Report Database using the WebTrends ODBC Driver and Microsoft Excel with Office 2003, you should install Service Pack 2 to resolve the issue.

On Microsoft Vista Systems, Reporting Console Does Not Recognize Older Version of Report Exporter
If you use Microsoft Vista and you previously installed a version of the Report Exporter software earlier than v8.0c, the WebTrends Analytics Reporting Console cannot detect this installation. When you attempt to export a report, WebTrends prompts you to install the current version of the Report Exporter before you can complete the export. You can manually uninstall the old version of the Report Exporter using the Windows Control Panel.

Java Plug-in Security Warning
The first time you view a report after an installation, the Java run-time system recognizes the WebTrends Java applets as new and attempts to verify that they have valid security certificates. In rare cases, this check may fail, resulting in the following error: “Unable to verify the certificate – code will be treated as unsigned.”

This error occurs when the browser fails to access a certificate database maintained by VeriSign. The failure may be due to browser configuration issues. In this case, the error is reproducible and potential fixes include reconfiguring or reinstalling the browser. More likely, the failure is due to a rare and temporary connectivity problem.

Marketing Warehouse Requires SmartSource Data Collector v8.x
The Marketing Warehouse requires additional visit and visitor information that is only supplied by SmartSource Data Collector (SDC) v8 or higher. SDC log files created prior to v8 will produce invalid visitor-related metrics when imported into the Marketing Warehouse. We recommend that you import only SDC log files that were created using SDC v8 or higher.

MySQL Version
If you choose MySQL for your System Database, you must use the MySQL version included with the WebTrends Analytics installation. Existing MySQL servers are not supported.

Pop-Up Blockers Block Help
Using a pop-up blocker application may block the pop-up window that online help uses. If you cannot open the online help, you should check for a method to specify trusted sites within the blocker program and add the URL of the WebTrends installation (for example http://webtrends:7099) to the list of sites that should not be blocked.

Temporary Tables in Marketing Warehouse Module Database
If you use WebTrends Marketing Warehouse, you should periodically look for tables named export_tmp_guid, where the guid is a unique identifier in the standard Windows format. These are temporary tables that you can safely remove if there are no Explore visitor list exports pending for the Module Database.

Viewing Reports in Multiple Browser Windows
Because of issues with Sun's Java Runtime Environment, you should only view reports in a single browser window. Opening multiple windows may cause Internet Explorer to hang.

VMware Installations Not Supported
WebTrends Analytics is currently not supported when installed on VMware or any other virtual machine.

Viewing Help on Asian-language systems
If you see untranslated or invalid characters when viewing the Help, you need to make sure that you have the proper character set encoding selected in Internet Explorer for the language you are trying to view. For example, to view Japanese characters, select Japanese.

Upgrade Information

Supported Versions
If you are running WebTrends v7.x, you can upgrade directly to WebTrends Analytics v8.0. If you are running a version below WebTrends v7.x, you must first upgrade to v7.5 before installing v8.0.

Daylight Savings Time Changes
As a result of changes to the dates when the United States observes Daylight Savings Time (DST), WebTrends Analytics v8.0d includes some updates to its DST settings. If you use custom time zone and DST settings, you may need to modify your profile settings to reflect the new DST. Click here for information about whether your DST settings will be updated automatically.

Data Source Splitter (DSS)
As of WebTrends Analytics v8, the WebTrends Data Source Splitter (DSS) feature is not supported. WebTrends will continue analyzing any existing DSS profiles, and you can continue viewing reports for them. However, you cannot view or modify DSS profile configuration settings. You should create other types of profiles to replace your DSS profiles. Click here for more information about profile alternatives.

Documentation Additions

Using Product Licensing with Proxy Servers
If you are using a Proxy server, you may need to specify the proxy server address and port to activate the product. To specify proxy server settings, add the information to plservice.ini in the WebTrends installation directory.

Visual Basic is the Preferred Scripting Language
Visual Basic replaces WebTrends Script as the preferred language for scripting. We recommend writing all new scripts in Visual Basic. Although WebTrends Script continues to function in WebTrends Analytics, future development will focus on Visual Basic and WebTrends Script will be removed from the product in a later version.

You can reimplement many existing scripts using the URL Rebuilding feature. URL Rebuilding lets you include and exclude specified parameters in all URLs, or only particular URLs. URL Rebuilding is more efficient and easier to configure and maintain than hand-written scripts.

For more information on these techniques, see "WebTrends Conduit API" and "ActiveX Conduit Programmer’s Reference" in the WebTrends Advanced Configuration Guide.

Comparison Mode % Change Column
When viewing reports in comparison mode, the Most Recent Time is displayed in the left column and the Oldest Time is displayed in the right column. In versions prior to v8, the % Change column was calculated as (Oldest Time-Most Recent Time)/Most Recent Time. As of v8, the % Change is calculated as (Most Recent Time-Oldest Time)/Oldest Time.

Obtaining Updates

 Checking for product updates is now automatic. To configure how to be notified when an update is available, the WebTrends administrator should do the following:

  1. In the left pane of the Administration Console, select Administration > Monitoring > Alerts > Configuration.
  2. Select Product Update from the list of alerts.

Contact Information

WebTrends Inc.
851 SW 6th Ave.
Suite 600
Portland, OR 97204

Phone: (503) 294-7025
Fax: (503) 294-7130
US Toll Free: (888) 932-8736
Email: feedback@webtrends.com
Web: http://www.webtrends.com

Feedback

If you would like to give product feedback, report a bug, or request a feature, click here.