Diagnostics (EC70)

The EC Diagnostic (EC70) program analyses the following data and removes:

  1. Products from the Favourites List that are inaccessible.
    • If a product has been removed from all the category indexes.

  2. Session Data that is one day old.
    • Session data is data that exists for the life of a single browser session. For example, when a user closes their browser, that session ends. Log in/log outs also end browser sessions.
    • Session data contains only scratch-pad data that is used while the session is active. None of this data is useful for later statistical analysis, so it can be removed as soon as it is expired.

  3. Session IDs that expired more than the number of days entered in the Purge Session IDs that expired more than xx days field.
    • Session ID records contain possibly useful information about a particular session. Session IDs contain:
      • Machine ID
      • Contact ID
      • Contact's language preference for that session
      • Contact's IP Address for the session
      • The Http user agent value for the session
      • Number of page hits for that session
      • Date/time of first page hit
      • Date/time of last page hit
      • Date/time session expires/expired
      • Whether or not the session remained public
      • Hits/second since last hit change
      • Last page that the session hit
      • Original Http referrer
      • Last Http referrer

  4. Cart Data processed more than the number of days entered in the Purge Carts processed more than xx days field.
    • "Processed carts" are carts that the Cart Conveyor (EC33) program has processed (i.e. EC33 has attempted to generate a sales order from the cart information). Some lines, or the entire order, may not have generated due to various issues. Those issues are written to the EC33 log.
    • A cart that has failed order generation will still be flagged as "processed" by the system, and is therefore eligible for deletion by this EC70 routine.

  5. Archives, Exports and Purges Evolve Advertising Statistics (logs\EC70).

    • Archives:

        Creates a date-based file containing all ad statistic records for each of the following statistic files with all the data up to the day before the purge was executed:

          ECALC - Ad Clicks
          ECALD - Ad Displays
          ECALO - Ad Click Offs

        If run every day for 1 month (i.e. 30 days), then 90 archive files will exist in the logs/11ec70/ directory (3 for each day). (The log directory can be /0/<client>/logs/11ec70 assuming that you are running Company 11).

        For example, Company 11 log files created will be:

          11ecalc_20091201.log
          11ecald_20091201.log
          11ecalo_20091201.log
          .
          .
          .
          11ecalc_20091230.log
          11ecald_20091230.log
          11ecalo_20091230.log

        The files are created in text tab-delimited format.

    • Exports:

        Creates and maintains 3 files corresponding to the following statistics files:

          ECALC
          ECALD
          ECALO

        Every time EC70 runs, the data that is selected is appended to the following log files in the logs directory. The log files are created automatically if they do not exist.

        For example, Company 11 log files created will be:

          11ecalc_import.log
          11ecald_import.log
          11ecalo_import.log

        These files are created in the following directory: /0/<client>/logs/11ec70/

        These files are intended for ease of export to external reporting systems for analysis/revenue collection. The files are created in text tab-delimited format.

        Note: There are only 3 files per company - ever.

    • Purges:

        The records are purged from the following live files up to the day before the EC70 program runs:

        • All of the archived log files: 11ecalc_ccyymmdd.log, 11ecald_ccyymmdd.log, 11ecalo_ccyymmdd (remember there will be many of these files; if you run EC70 daily for 30 days, 90 files are generated)
        • All 3 of the export log files: 11ecalc_import.log, 11ecald_import.log and 11ecalo_import.log.

  6. Product Hit statistics that expired more than the number of days entered in the Purge Product Hit statistics older than xxx days field.

EC70 is designed to be executed on a regular basis. Data files and directories associated with the e-Commerce module continue to accumulate over time. Running EC70 regularly allows you to manage these files/directories so that the e-Commerce module remains in a healthy state.

The frequency of execution depends greatly on the rate at which data builds up in the files affected by EC70, and the amount of data that you decide is valuable for later statistical analysis. Below are some guidelines/indicators to help you to decide how often to execute EC70 for your own company:

  • If you remove items from their web categories every month in order to make them inaccessible for web purchasing, then that would be a reason to run EC70 every month to ensure these products are purged from the various favourites lists that they are linked to. This ensures that the items are no longer accessible via a favourites list.

  • If it takes 30 days to build up 200,000 records in your session data file (i.e. 00ecsd), then you should run EC70 at least every 30 days.

  • If you want to keep (at minimum) 60 days worth of session ids in your session id file for statistical analysis, but no more than 90 days at any given point in time (because otherwise the file would become bloated), then you should run EC70 every 30 days and ensure that the field called “Purge Session Ids that expired more than XX days” is set to 60 each time.

  • If you want to keep (at minimum) 6 months worth of processed carts, but no more than 12 months of processed carts, then that would be a reason to run EC70 at least once every 6 months.

  • If you have to analyze advertising statistics every 60 days so that you can submit them to your vendors for payment according to your advertising contracts, then that would be a reason to run EC70 at least once every 60 days.

The following list defines the fields on EC70:

  • Purge Carts processed more than xx days - using the up and down arrows, indicate the number of days that must have passed before processed Carts are purged.

  • Purge Session IDs that expired more than xx days - using the up and down arrows, indicate the number of days that must have passed before Session IDs are purged.

  • Purge Product Hit statistics older than xxx days – defaults to 365 days. Using the up and down arrows, indicate the number of days that must have passed before Product Hit statistics are purged.

  • In the Progress list box, details of the diagnostic display as the diagnostic progresses. The following information is contained in the list box:

    • Date
    • Time
    • Message

The following table outlines the functionality of each button on the EC70 window:

Button Label Icon Functionality
Start Start Starts the diagnostic process.
Stop Stop Stops the diagnostic process. Note: You can stop the Contact Diagnostic process before completion without any negative side effects.
Exit Exit Closes the diagnostic program.

EC70
EC Diagnostic (EC70)