Microsoft IIS on Windows Server 2008 or Later

Install and configure Sensor for Microsoft IIS 7.x or 8.x running under Microsoft Windows Server 2008 or later.

The program files for Sensor are packaged in an installation file that you obtain from the Adobe download site. If you do not already have the Sensor installation file for your particular web server, download it (or obtain it from your Adobe representative) before you begin the following procedures.

To install and configure Sensor, you must perform the following high-level steps:

1. Install the program files
2. Edit the Sensor configuration file
3. Start the transmitter and create the disk queue
4. Add the collector to the web server
5. Capture additional data

Install the program files

When running Sensor on Windows IIS, the program files and the disk queue file must reside in the same directory.

Before installing the program files, first determine where you want to maintain the disk queue because that is where you must install the program files.

Use the following procedure to extract and install the program files for Sensor.

1. On your Windows machine, create a directory in which to install the Sensor program files. Keep in mind that your disk queue also resides in this directory, so be sure the device you choose has sufficient space to hold a queue of the size you need.

   For example: C:\VisualSensor

2. Extract the contents of the installation file into the directory you just created. During this step, Sensor installs the following files:

Edit the Sensor configuration file

The txlogd.conf file contains the configuration parameters for Sensor.

You must edit the file to specify, among other things, the size of the disk queue, the address of the Insight Server, and the ID that will be attached to the data produced by this sensor. The configuration file contains required parameters and optional parameters.

• Required parameters are settings that you must specify when you install Sensor. Without these settings, Sensor does not run successfully.
• Optional parameters are settings that default to pre-defined values (which you can modify) or enable optional features.

To edit the Sensor configuration file

1. Open the <SensorDirectory>/txlogd.conf file in a text editor and set the required parameters as well as any desired optional parameters.

   For descriptions of txlogd.conf parameters, see Sensor Txlogd.conf File Parameters.

2. Save and close the file.

Start the transmitter and create the disk queue

After you configure the txlogd.conffile, you can start the transmitter program, register it as a Windows service, and create the disk queue.

1. From the Start menu in Windows, select Accessories > Command Prompt.

2. In the command prompt window, navigate to the directory in which you installed Sensor and execute the following command:

   txlog /regserver
   

   This command starts the transmitter, creates the disk queue, and registers Sensor as a Windows service.

3. To confirm that the transmitter is running correctly, click Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services.

   NOTE

   This command sequence might vary depending on which version of Windows you are using.

   1. In the service list, locate the entry for Sensor and confirm that its status is Started and its startup type is Automatic.
   2. Close the Services control panel.

4. To check whether transmitter experienced any errors during start-up, click Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer to open the Event Viewer.

   NOTE

   This command sequence might vary depending on which version of Windows you are using.

   1. In the left pane of the Event Viewer window, select the Applications log.
   2. In the right pane, look for events with “Adobe” in the Source column.
   3. If you find an error from “Adobe,” double-click the error to display the Event Properties window. This window provides detailed information about the error.

5. When you finish examining the Applications log, close the Event Viewer.

6. Verify that the transmitter has created the disk queue (Diskq2008.log) in the directory where you installed the Sensor program files and that it is the size that you specified in the QueueSize parameter in the txlogd.conf file.

   If the queue has not been created correctly:

   1. Examine the txtlogd.conf file and verify that the QueueSize parameter is set correctly.

   2. Check that the device on which you installed Sensor has sufficient space available to hold a file of the size specified in the QueueSize parameter.

   3. Using the Services control panel in Windows, stop the transmitter.

   4. Delete the queue file.

   5. Re-register Sensor as a Windows service: from the Start menu in Windows, select Accessories > Command Prompt. In the command prompt window, navigate to the directory in which you installed Sensor and execute the following command:

      txlog /regserver
      

The transmitter is designed to run continuously. If you restart the machine, the transmitter restarts automatically. If you need to start and stop the transmitter manually, you can do so using the Services control panel in Windows.

Add the collector to the web server

For IIS, the collector is an ISAPI filter that you add to your web server in IIS.

1. Open the IIS Manager using Start > Administrative Tools > Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.

2. Expand the Local Computer and Sites nodes.

3. Select the website, and in the right-pane, double-click ISAPI Filters.

4. Under the Actions pane, click Add.

5. In the Filter Name field, enter a display name for the filter. The suggested filter name is “Sensor.”

6. Click Browse, select the qlog.dll file (located in the directory where you installed Sensor), and click OK.

7. Click OK to add the filter.

   After you add the filter, the collector is immediately operational and ready to collect data.

If the green arrow does not appear after traffic flows to the collector, complete the following steps:

1. Click Start > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer to check the Event Viewer for errors.

   NOTE

   This command sequence might vary depending on which version of Windows you are using.

2. In the left pane of the Event Viewer window, select the Application log.

3. In the right pane, look for events with “Adobe” in the Source column.

4. If you find an error, double-click the error to display the Event Properties window.

Capture additional data

Web pages are often structured using ASP (Active Server Pages) programming language.

ASP is a Microsoft technology that runs within IIS. When a browser requests an ASP file, IIS passes the request to the ASP engine. The ASP engine reads the ASP file, line by line, and executes the scripts in the file. Finally, the ASP file is returned to the browser as plain HTML. ASP provides RESPOND or REQUEST objects which, in addition to other utilizations, allow the response or request of user queries or data submitted from HTML forms.

In certain cases, you may not want to append the values entered into forms to the URL that is displayed within the Address bar of a user’s browser or that is viewable within the HTML code itself. Simple server-side ASP Script lets you append form field names and their respective values to the log file without making them available within the user’s browser or embedding them into the HTML file. To capture the actual form values entered into particular forms within your website, a few lines of code must be added to append the form values to the log request.

Within the processing page of a form, include the following code to append the entered form values to the request data (in addition to writing the submitted form values to an external database or other location):

var sName= Request.Form("Name");
var sCity= Request.Form("City");
var sState= Request.Form("State");
var sZip= Request.Form("Zip");

Response.AppendToLog("&v_1=" +  sName);
Response.AppendToLog("&v_2=" +  sCity);
Response.AppendToLog("&v_3=" +  sState);
Response.AppendToLog("&v_4=" +  sZip);

This process would append the form values as defined to the request data for the Form Processing page. Within the log data, the appended values would be available as query strings of the Form Processing page as illustrated below. For example, v_1, v_2, v_3 and v_4 would now be query strings containing the data entered into the appropriate form fields. The syntax described in the previous example can be duplicated for any additional form fields and values that you want to capture:

https://www.myserver.com/path/to/formprocessingpage.asp?v_1=John+Smith&v_2=Los+Angeles&v_3=California&v_4=90210

If you want every form field and value to be captured and available for analysis, you can use the following syntax:

var formvalues = Response.Form;
Response.AppendToLog(formvalues);

This example would take all form fields present within the HTML along with their respective values and append them as query strings to the log entry for the Form Processing page. Please note that this would include any hidden fields present within the form.

The log data would be augmented as detailed in the following table:

Business.Adobe.com resources

Custom Variables Customer Profiles Lookalike Modeling Tag Management Audience Insights Data Warehouse