Introduction
The LogDoor multi-site log processor provides real-time, site-specific access information based on your WebSTAR or MacHTTP log file. This information, which can be accessed over the Web if desired, includes a complete log file and day-by-day access summary reports for each site on your server, and a real-time overall display of accesses to your server as a whole.
LogDoor is a standalone application which works by processing your Web server's log file. The processing can be done in real time while the log file is being produced, once a day at a time when traffic to your server is minimal, or off line after the log file has been closed.
LogDoor processes your log file by top-level "site." A site, as far as LogDoor is concerned, is a folder at the root of your Web server (that is, a folder within the WebSTAR or MacHTTP folder). LogDoor displays accesses and produces log files and summaries on a site-by-site basis, plus overall summaries for your server as a whole. All of LogDoor's output can be made Web-accessible, allowing you as Webmaster to make this information easily available to those responsible for each site. Using the security mechanisms of your server, this information can also be password-protected as desired.
LogDoor is not a complete log analysis application. Although the summaries produced by LogDoor may be sufficient for many purposes, LogDoor also outputs site-by-site WebSTAR-compatible log files, allowing you or your site owners to run any WebSTAR log analysis application to analyze the site logs in any way desired.
Environments supported
LogDoor is distributed as both a 68K and a PowerPC-native application. It requires System 7.5 or later to run, and a minimum of 1MB of RAM. LogDoor does not require or use MacTCP or Open Transport.
LogDoor will process any valid WebSTAR or MacHTTP log file. If you wish LogDoor to process the log file while that log file is still open by your Web server, LogDoor must run on the same Macintosh as that Web server. Otherwise it can run on any Macintosh on your network.
The LogDoor model
All LogDoor processing is done through a LogDoor task and its associated task file. A LogDoor task file holds the processing state of the task itself. This state includes:
The real-time output of a LogDoor task is a number of individual site log files, one for each top-level site on the Web server. Each site log file is written to a specific folder for that site. The LogDoor task also produces, on a periodic basis, a summary of its to-date processing for each site, and writes that summary to the site's folder. This summary comes from the day-by-day, site-by-site information stored within the task itself. See the "LogDoor Files" section for details of LogDoor tasks' output files.
Getting Started
This section presents a brief summary of how to get started using LogDoor to process your log file.
To install LogDoor, simply drag the LogDoor application onto your hard disk. To create a new LogDoor task, run LogDoor by double-clicking the LogDoor icon. You will be asked to provide a name for the new task file. The task status window will appear. To select the log file for the task to process, click on the Input Log File icon in the task status window, or choose "Input File" from the Task menu. The input log file can be the same one which is currently being produced by your Web server, as long as LogDoor is running on the same Macintosh as the Web server.
Normally the LogDoor task will create its output files in a folder called "Output" in the same folder as the task file. To change where the output should be produced, or to change the names or types of output files, you can click on the Output Files icon, or select "Output Files" from the Task menu. See the "LogDoor Files" section for details of the Output Files dialog box.
To start the LogDoor task, click on the Processing icon or select "Run" from the Task menu. The LogDoor task will begin processing the log file you selected. The task will create, in the output folder you indicated, one folder for each top-level site that it encounters. The task will write the log file for each site to the site's folder. The task will also periodically write HTML and text-based summaries of the procesing it has performed for the site to the site's folder.
In addition to site-specific folders, the task will create a folder called "root" to which it will write a root-level log and periodic summaries of the processing it has performed for files at the Web server's root level. The task will also create a folder called "overall" to which it will periodically write summaries of everything it has processed to date. See the "LogDoor Files" section for details of the task's output.
While running, the LogDoor task will display a site-by-site summary of the information it has processed, plus overall totals. You can suspend LogDoor processing by clicking the Processing icon or selecting "Suspend" from the Task menu. The task will stop running and close all of its output log files. Since the task's site-by-site summary reports are only written out periodically, you may also wish to select "Write Summaries Now" from the Task menu to ensure that the site summary reports are up to date. To resume processing, click the Processing icon again or re-select "Run" from the Task menu.
The LogDoor task will process the input log file until it has read through that file completely, at which time it will indicate that the file is 100% processed. The task will then continue scanning that file for additional information added to it by the Web server, and process that information as it comes in. You can terminate this scanning by suspending processing, by closing the task (select "Close Task" from the File menu) or by quitting LogDoor.
