ConverTastictm

Where are Your Conversions REALLY Coming From?

Import Help Page

ConverTastic can import server-log files in the Apache Common Log Format and the Apache Combined Log Format. Even if your site is not being hosted on an Apache server, chances are that the server is still writing your logs in one of the Apache formats.

Even though Apache allows logs to be written in any format, very few hosting companies will diverge from the two common formats because that would break all the stats programs. But if you have trouble importing your logs, send us a snippet of one and we will take a look at it. Make sure that it does not contain any confidential customer information such as email addresses, etc. We only need to see a few lines.

Once you have created a database file on the Manage window, it will appear in the upper list. If you have several database files listed, make sure to select the right one before you import any data.

When you click on a database file in the upper list, you will see all the server-log files that have been imported into it in the lower list. ConverTastic will not allow you to accidentally import the same file twice, but glance at the lower list to see which files have already been imported before importing another one.

You can click the "Import File" button and select a server-log file. You can also drag-and-drop the file from your desktop onto the button. If you have a lot of server logs to import, you can put them in a folder by themselves without any other files and then use the "Import Folder" button.

ConverTastic will list the dates of the first and last lines from the log files it imports. You want to look at those dates to make sure you have an un-broken sequence of data. Sometimes your ISP will screw-up and lose some data, so you need to keep an eye on them.

As ConverTastic imports, it shows the name of the server-log file at the lower-left, and the count of the entries being read in at the upper-right. A count will also be shown for lines that could not be parsed next to where it says: "Bad Lines". This number should almost always be zero. A blank line at the end of the file, or anywhere else, will count as a bad line.

If you make a mistake and import the wrong file, you can go back to the Manage window and remove it.

ConverTastic makes very large indexes of the server-log data so that you can research conversions as quickly as possible. As a consequence, the more data you import into to a database, the longer it takes to import new files. So, it is normal for the import process to slow down as a database file grows. If you have a successful website, chances are good that you will need a top-of-the-line computer to efficiently handle your log data.