WOW Usage Tracking is a separately licensed, fee based add on provided by PlanetJ Corporation. Usage Tracking provides the ability to “track” who is executing operations along with search parameters and internal values, track sign-on and sign-off, and track sessions. It can also be used to track the  performance of your operations as well as give your developers an idea of which applications and operations are being used the most and the least. The tracked information is stored in a table (default name is TRACKING). The Usage Tracking add on also pairs up very well with PlanetJ's WOW Fusion Charts add on to provide graphical dashboards and charts for a better visual understanding of your tracking data.

Installation

AS400:

MySQL:

web.xml:

Setting up the Usage Tracking Application

Running the Usage Tracking Application

Usage

Usage Operations Overview

Operation Performance

Operation Performance Overview

WOW

WOW Operations Overview

Server

Usage Tracking Properties and Configuring Tracking for Your Applications

UsageTracking{ }

Configuring Usage Tracking With Init Params

Usage Data Tracked

Installation

Tracking provides the ability to “track” who is executing operations along with search parameters and internal values, track sign-on and sign-off, and track sessions. The tracked information is stored in a table (TRACKING) in your WOW user library. To use WOW Tracking you must set up the wowperf65 library and insert a script into your web.xml file. Setup instructions differ depending on your metadata server:

AS400:

• Copy zip file to WOW Server (PC).  Unzip the file.
• Start a command window.
• Change the directory to the directory with the save file in it.
• FTP the save file (wowperf.savf) to your AS400 system
• Logon to your AS400
• Change the mode to BINARY (bin)
• QUOTE RCMD CRTSAVF FILE(QGPL/SAVF) ** Step 5 is optional, it only needs to be run if the save file needs to be created
• Put XXXXX.savf /QSYS.LIB/QGPL.LIB/SAVF.FILE *This assumes save file is QGPL/SAVF
• Restore library WOWPERF65:  *This assumes save file is QGPL/SAVF
  RSTLIB SAVLIB(WOWPERF65) DEV(*SAVF) SAVF(QGPL/SAVF) MBROPT(*ALL) ALWOBJDIF(*ALL) RSTLIB(WOWPERF65)
• Copy the resource files (folder tracking) into your webapp folder:
   ~\Tomcat 6.0\webapps\wow65
   
  Once the copy is complete, you should see the file structure:
   ~\Tomcat 6.0\webapps\wow65\tracking

• After Tomcat is started, run the following jsp to perform additional updates (your URL may be slightly different):

http://localhost:8080/wow65/tracking/jsp/update.as400.jsp

• Restart Tomcat to pick up changes from previous step.

MySQL:

1. Open up an instance of MySQL Administrator.
2. Sign into your MySQL database with a username and password that has restore privileges.
3. Use the restore option to restore WOWPERF65 using the supplied backup file (wowperf65.sql).  

web.xml:

No matter what type of server is used, you may need to add a script to your web.xml file if you plan on tracking a) User signons or b) user sessions.  If tracking user sessions or user signons, the web.xml file for the web application requires an entry (insert after <description> tag) that points to either SessionTracker (when "sessions" are to be tracked) or SessionListener (for "user sign on" tracking):

"Session" tracking or "session" tracking combined with "sign on" tracking:

<listener>

<listener-class>planetj.dataengine.tracking.SessionTracker</listener-class></listener>

"Sign on" tracking only:

<listener><listener-class>planetj.dataengine.tracking.SessionListener</listener-class></listener>

Setting up the Usage Tracking Application

After you get the wowperf65 library restored in your database, you will need to set up the usage tracking application, which provides a set of operations to analyze your tracking data. To work with the usage tracking application, you will first need to call the builder and reference your new wowperf65 library by using the ?_pj_lib=wowperf65 parameter.  An example of a URL would be: www.testingserver.com/wow65/wowBuilder?_pj_lib=wowperf65. This will bring up your WOW Builder screen with the library set to wowperf65.

Notice the user library is referenced at the top of the page (it is set to wowperf65 in the image).

The next step is to sign in to the builder.

The E-mail should be set to: tracking@planetj.com

The Password should be set to: wow

NOTE: PlanetJ recommends that you change your password and/or E-mail sign-in after signing in and getting everything set up in the wowperf65 context. To change the password and/or the E-mail address run this SQL statement against your database:

UPDATE wowperf65.admin SET email = <email>, password = <pass> WHERE id = 9;

If you don't wish to change the email for signing in (tracking@planetj.com) just leave out the “email = <email>,” from the SQL, this will leave the email but will change the password to whatever you replaced the <pass> with.

Once logged in you should be taken to the Application page inside the builder. The Usage Tracking Application should be in there, it's called "WOW Tracking & Performance." This is the application that is set up to read from the tracking tables and overlay charts/graphs and dashboards to allow for better understanding of your tracking information.

You will need to go into the "Connections" tab and set up the connection so that the application is connecting to your metadata database. When you go into the "Connections" tab, you will see a connection called "TRACKING-PERFORMANCE."  This connection will need to be edited to include your metadata database IP address as well as a valid User ID and Password for that database.

This is the edit screen for the connection.  The fields with the red arrows next to them need to be filled in with your databases information, including a valid UserID and Password for the database.

Try starting the connection to verify settings.  After the connection has been customized to connect to your database, the Usage Tracker is ready to use.

Running the Usage Tracking Application

Your Usage Tracking Add-on comes with a fully functional tracking & performance application set up inside the user library (wowperf65). Once you have your connection set up and set tracking up on some operations and/or applications, you can use this usage tracking application to track your own data.

NOTE: The TRACKING table may contain sample data that was used when creating the Usage Tracker application.  If the TRACKING table contains data, be sure to clean out the table before starting tracking, or this data will remain in the table and may impact your data.

As you can see, the Usage Tracking Application has 4 different menu items, "Usage" "Operation Performance" "WOW" and "Server". Each of these items are discussed in depth below.

Usage

The "Usage" section of the application contains operations that help developers understand the traffic and use of their WOW Applications and Operations.  It also contains dashboards, charts and graphs to help put an image to the numbers.  

 Usage Operations Overview

There are four data operations in the Usage section, as well as two dashboards and seven chart operations.  This overview will briefly explain each of these operations.

• Complete Usage Data:  This operation returns a row collection of all data being collected by Usage Tracking.  This includes operations that ran, users signing on and off of applications, session starts and stops.  The data can be filtered by Application, Operation, Type and Date Range to help you get at the usage data you're looking for.
• User Activity by Application/Date Range:  This opperation gives quick access to information about WOW users accessing your applications or operations, how often they are using them and what they're using them for.  This operation returns user specific records, filtered by User, Application and Date Range.
• Operation Usage by User:  This operation breaks down Operation Usage by User and also groups the results by User and Operation.  It includes a field with the total number of times the operation is run by the user, with a hover panel that gives detailed information about each run.
• Operation Usage by Application:  Primarily the same as Operation Usage by User, but instead of being grouped and sorted by user, this operation is sorted and grouped by Application.  It contains a field similar to that in Operation Usage by User, with the total number of times that operation was run.  This field also uses a hover panel association that gives more detailed information on each run.
• Usage Dashboards:  This sub-menu item contains two Dashboards; the WOW Usage Dashboard and the Application Usage Dashboard.  These Dashboards help bring the data alive by providing graphical representations of the data.

• WOW Usage Dashboard:  This dashboard contains charts dealing with WOW Usage.  It contains charts on operation efficiency, most and least used operations and a count of the total number of sessions.
• Application Usage Dashboard:  This dashboard contains two charts dealing with Application Usage.  The charts display total Application runs and Distinct Application users.

• Usage Charts:  This sub-menu contains 7 different charts relating to WOW Usage.  These Charts help bring the data to life by providing a graphical representation of your usage data.

• 10 Most Run Operations by Application:  This operation displays to the user to view the 10 most run operations filtered by Application.
• 5 Least Run Operations by Application:  This operation displays to the user the 5 least run operations filtered by Application.
• Total # of Sessions Tracked:  This operations displays, in a cylinder chart, the total number of sessions tracked.
• Application Usage by User:  This chart displays operation use filtered by User and Date Range.
• Operation Usage by Application:  This chart displays operation use filtered by Application and Date Range.
• Operation Usage by User: This chart displays operation use filtered by User, Application and Date Range.
• No of Logins by User Id:  This chart displays logins by User Id and can be filtered by Application and Operation.

Operation Performance

The "Operation Performance" section contains operations that provide needed information about performance.  WOW Tracking records information such as database read time, UI generation time, result set read time and overall operation runtime.  This section also contains charts and graphs to help put an image to the numbers.

 Operation Performance Overview

There are 3 Chart operations along with 9 data operations in the Operation Performance section.  This overview will briefly explain each of these operations.

• Operation Performance Charts:  This sub-menu contains 3 different charts relating to Operation Performance.  These Charts help bring the data to life by providing a graphical representation of your performance data.

• Operation Performance by Application:  This chart displays the performance of your operations based on the average runtime of the operation.  Results can be filtered based on Application and Date Range.
• Slowest Operations by UI Gen. Time:  This chart displays the Slowest operations by UI generation time.  Results can be filtered based on Application and Date Range.
• Operation Performance Times by App:  This chart displays the UI Generation Time, Result Set Read Time and Database Read Time all on 1 chart.  Results can be filtered based on Application and Date Range.

• Operation Performance-Slowest to Fastest:  This operation returns data that gives developers and administrators the ability to see and monitor slow operations within an application.  The results can be filtered based on Application and Date Range and the results are ordered from Slowest Total Runtime to Quickest Total Runtime.
• Operations Running Slower Than Average:  This operation returns the results of operations that have been running slower than the average runtime.  The results can be filtered based on Date Range.
• Average Runtime:  This operation displays the average runtime of operations.  Results can be filtered based on Application, Operation and Date Range.
• Average Operation Performance by Date:  This operation displays the average operation performance by date.  Results can be filtered based on Application and a Date Range.
• Average Operation Performance Time-Today:  This operation is a report of average operation performance times for the current day.  It is grouped by Operation and averaged using report breaks.  The results can be filtered by Application.
• Average Operation Performance Times by App:  This operation displays a report of the average operation performance times, sorted by Application.  The results of the operation can be filtered by Application.
• UI Generation Time - Slowest to Fastest:  This operation is similar to the Operation Performance-Slowest to Fastest operation except that instead of being based on Total Runtime, it is now based on UI Generation time.  The results can be filtered based on Application, Operation and Date Range.
• DB Read Time - Slowest to Fastest:  This operation is similar to the Operation Performance-Slowest to Fastest operation except that instead of being based on Total Runtime, it is now based on Database Read time.  The results can be filtered based on Application, Operation and Date Range.
• Result Set Read Time - Slowest to Fastest:  This operation is similar to the Operation Performance-Slowest to Fastest operation except that instead of being based on Total Runtime, it is now based on Result Set Read time.  The results can be filtered based on Application, Operation and Date Range.

WOW

The "WOW" section contains operations that deal with WOW Application performance.  These operations help to detail the caching level of WOW operations and Possible Values Operations, a good way to improve performance.

WOW Operations Overview

There are 2 data operations in the WOW section.  This overview will briefly explain each of these operations.

• Non-Cached Operations:  This operation returns a collection of operations that do not have caching set on them.  Caching is valuable from a performance standpoint because the data doesn't need to be queried from the database after it is cached, it is stored in memory and able to be recalled much quicker.
• Non-Cached Possible Values Operations:  This operation returns all Possible Values operations that are not cached.  Possible Values can slow down performance if not cached, as WOW has to query the database for the values each time the field with a possible value on it is displayed.

 Server

The final section, "Server", contains an operation that tracks the JVM of the server.  Both Max and Current JVM are recorded and displayed in a stacked line chart, similar to the image below:

As you can see, the data can be filtered based on a Date Range.

Usage Tracking Properties and Configuring Tracking for Your Applications

Listed below are the new properties for the UsageTracking property group. Most of these properties can be specified (in the properties field) on both the application and operation levels (the signon property is an application ONLY property). Note that any tracking property assigned to an operation will override any tracking properties defined at the application level.

UsageTracking{ }

Examples:

If you want to track user signons, you'll need the below configuration in the properties for the application to be tracked.  You will also need the web.xml listener entry (from the setup instructions), which is needed for session timeouts (where an explicit sign off is not performed):

UsageTracking{

   signon:TRUE;

}

To set up Usage Tracking on ALL operations within an application, your properties in your Application will have to look like this:

UsageTracking{

  operation:TRUE;

}

If you want to track all operations except for 1 specific operation (or many specific operations), first set the above properties in your application.  Next, for any operation to be excluded from tracking, change the operation properties as follows:

UsageTracking{

  operation:FALSE;

}

If you don't want to track most of your operations, but instead just a few specific operations within applications, you would leave the application properties blank and just fill in the properties below in your operation:

UsageTracking{

   operation:TRUE;

}

Notice the UsageTracking { } property is set in the properties field.  In this example, it is set to track all the operations as well as signons and sign offs (because it was set on the Application, not a specific operation).

Here is an image of a sample set of properties in an Operation:

Notice the UsageTracking { } property is set in the properties field and, in this example, is set to turn tracking for this particular operation off (Operation:FALSE;)

Configuring Usage Tracking With Init Params

Configuration settings for usage tracking can be set either in an Application’s properties or in the WOW init params. (More information on WOW Init params can be found here.)

The usage tracking init params are as follows:

Usage Data Tracked

This section describes the fields in the TRACKING table, the data type inside those columns and the description of what the fields contain.