Modification Rules

The modification rules allow you to specify how to process value strings before showing them in the report. The program also uses similar rule sets to determine visitor browsers, operating systems, device types and spiders. These rules are located in the Browsers.cfg, OperatingSystems.cfg, DeviceTypes.cfg and Spiders.cfg files in the Config subfolder of the WebLog Expert data folder (usually C:\Program Files\WebLog Expert under Windows XP/2003 or older and C:\ProgramData\WebLog Expert under Windows Vista/2008/7 or later).

Processing Order

Rules are to be specified one per line. Each rule contains matching string and name like

String = Name

Example: WebTV = MSN TV (WebTV)

If a rule matches value, an appropriate name is shown in the table. By default the program finishes processing rules when it finds the first matching rule. However, you can enable the Match all rules option  for some data types to continue processing after finding a matching rule. In this case there may be multiple names that correspond to the same value and will be shown in the report. You can also use the # character to mark some rules as final even when using this option (see below).

The Keep original value if no rules match it option is useful if you need to modify some values and show other ones unchanged.

If there are no matching rules and the Keep original value if no rules match it option is disabled, or if a matching rule contains an empty name, no information on the value is shown in the report.

Rules Syntax

Simple rules look like String = Name. If the String is found in the value, the rule matches the value.

Wildcard rules look like Pattern $= Name. The "*" wildcard corresponds to any number of any characters (or no characters at all) and "?" corresponds to any single character.

Example: /dir/* $= /dir/

While simple rules search for substring matches, wildcard rules require full value to match the pattern. E.g. the following rules will work the same way: substr = name and *substr* $= name

Regular expressions. You can also use regular expressions in the rules like RegExp ~= Name. In this case the Name can contain back references like \0, \1, \2, etc. \0 matches the whole string found, \1, \2, etc. match the same strings that match the appropriate marked sub-expression in the regular expression.

Examples:
Mozilla.*?MSIE (\d+) ~= Internet Explorer \1.x
.*robot.* ~= \0

Negative matches. You can use the ! character in case if a string/regular expression must not match the value.

Examples:
Opera != Non-Opera Browser
^DA \d !~= Non-Download Accelerator User Agent

Final rules. If you use the Match all rules option you can still instruct the program to finish rule processing if a specific rule matches the value. You need to use the # character in this rule.

Example:
Mozilla.*?MSIE.* \.NET CLR #!~= No .NET Framework
This rule means: if a value doesn't match the Mozilla.*?MSIE.* \.NET CLR regular expression, finish processing rules and show No .NET Framework in the report.

Character order is important. The following rule specifiers are valid: =, !=, $=, !$=, ~=, !~=, #=, #!=, #$=, #!$=, #~=, #!~=.

Rules for file and directory names match values without domain and protocol, e.g. /dir/file.htm.