The note I wanted to share in Google Reader was too long, so this blog was born. Don't have much ideas what will come of it, but who knows...
For some time now I've been thinking (together with Leon) about the best way to analyze IIS logs so we can better understand and improve some web apps in our workplace. Today I stumbled on a cool program that should be perfect for this, and many other jobs - Log Parser by Microsoft.
It uses a SQL-like syntax to parse almost any type of input and can produce an output in a variety of formats. Also, there's Visual Log Parser that provides a nice GUI to the program. For more details - read Jeff Atwood's post about Log Parser, with examples and many useful links.
How I found this app was interesting in itself - I decided to finally check out StackOverflow (a great programming Q&A site created by two famous bloggers - Jeff Atwood and Joel Spolsky). I was browsing questions posted by Moshe, and one of the answers mentioned the program.
I also experienced the magic of logging into a site without creating a new user and password - StackOverflow supports OpenID, and Google announced a couple of weeks ago that Google Account can be used as an OpenID identity to sign-in.
I did have a minor problem with this however - the site didn't have any specific support for signing with Google Account, entering my email to log-in failed, and I didn't know what else to do. Luckily, I was on a technical Q&A site after all - a quick search and I had my answer. Extra reputation points for StackOverflow (now I have to earn some myself).
All in all, an interesting hour on the web.
Update: Actually, creating this blog is a better solution to the problem I had with OpenID - the URL of this blog can be used to sign-in into any site that supports OpenID.
For some time now I've been thinking (together with Leon) about the best way to analyze IIS logs so we can better understand and improve some web apps in our workplace. Today I stumbled on a cool program that should be perfect for this, and many other jobs - Log Parser by Microsoft.
It uses a SQL-like syntax to parse almost any type of input and can produce an output in a variety of formats. Also, there's Visual Log Parser that provides a nice GUI to the program. For more details - read Jeff Atwood's post about Log Parser, with examples and many useful links.
How I found this app was interesting in itself - I decided to finally check out StackOverflow (a great programming Q&A site created by two famous bloggers - Jeff Atwood and Joel Spolsky). I was browsing questions posted by Moshe, and one of the answers mentioned the program.
I also experienced the magic of logging into a site without creating a new user and password - StackOverflow supports OpenID, and Google announced a couple of weeks ago that Google Account can be used as an OpenID identity to sign-in.
I did have a minor problem with this however - the site didn't have any specific support for signing with Google Account, entering my email to log-in failed, and I didn't know what else to do. Luckily, I was on a technical Q&A site after all - a quick search and I had my answer. Extra reputation points for StackOverflow (now I have to earn some myself).
All in all, an interesting hour on the web.
Update: Actually, creating this blog is a better solution to the problem I had with OpenID - the URL of this blog can be used to sign-in into any site that supports OpenID.
Yo,
ReplyDeleteCongrats for the blog. Interesting.
The funniest thing - you could have asked me about that log parser. I know it. Thanks to Stackoverflow of course.
If you want a long term index-ability of the logs, you should consider Splunk.
As for using blogspot as an openID provider, this is what I use. It's the best.
Congrats Mate!
ReplyDeleteActually I already read this week about LogParser along with a couple of other tools. We'll have to check it out...