Using the AquaLogic Interaction Analytics 2.0 OpenUsage API

by Jennifer Shipman
09/13/2006

Abstract

BEA AquaLogic Interaction Analytics 2.0 collects information about the activity taking place within your portal and in Web applications, so you can respond better to your users' needs. Analytics 2.0 delivers detailed information about the use of specific content items and portlets, as well as community activity such as document downloads and discussion postings; it can even track activity by group or individual user. These usage details help ensure you develop and deliver the best content and applications for your users.

With the Analytics OpenUsage API you can leverage Analytics functionality in custom applications. This tutorial presents an introduction to OpenUsage and provides basic use cases and a simplified example. The sample application includes examples of calling the OpenUsage Java API and using the OpenUsage event tag.

Introduction

You can use the OpenUsage API to raise Analytics events from custom portlets and applications and store them in the Analytics database. The only requirement for using this API is to have the OpenUsage libraries and a connection to a network that allows UDP traffic. The basic architecture of the Analytics system is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Analytics architecture

The OpenUsage API sends portal usage tracking metrics from the Interaction component on the portal server, as well as custom portal and non-portal events from external applications, to the Analytics Collector Service via the Portal Message Bus (PMB). Analytics services are installed on a stand-alone Analytics Services Server. The Analytics database stores all the metrics gathered and returns them to the Analytics Services Server or external application. The Analytics Service provides Analytics data to end users through the Analytics Console or Analytics portlets on the portal server.

For details on installing and configuring Analytics components, see the Installation and Upgrade Guide for BEA AquaLogic Interaction Analytics in the product documentation.

Analytics 2.0 introduces new OpenUsage methods to define and set event types at run-time. The Analytics Administration utility in the AquaLogic Interaction portal provides a simple interface for defining custom events, parameters, and dimensions. Event data can then be queried using SQL for reporting to a non-portal application.

You would typically get started with Analytics and the OpenUsage API by following these steps:

• Step 1: Define Your Event Model: Decide which events you want to capture and how they should be defined in the Analytics database. This section includes four simple examples: User interest statistics, Customer follow-through statistics, Content repository usage statistics, and Advertising campaign statistics.
• Step 2: Register and Configure Events in Analytics Administration: Use Analytics Administration to configure custom events and parameters to be collected and stored in the Analytics database.
• Step 3: Add Analytics Events to Your Application: Use OpenUsage to raise events from your custom application. This section includes examples of using the OpenUsage event tag and the OpenUsage Java API.
• Step 4: Configure and Launch Analytics: Configure your server to communicate with Analytics and start the Analytics Collector Service. This section provides simplified instructions. For detailed information on configuring Analytics, see the Installation and Upgrade Guide for BEA AquaLogic Interaction Analytics in the product documentation.
• Step 5: Query Analytics and Display Statistics: Retrieve data from the Analytics database and display reports to illustrate statistics. This example uses JFreeCharts and cewolf tags to display results.

Let's get started.