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Advanced Log Parser Charts Part 3 - Missing Office Web Components for Charting

25 May 2012 • by Bob • IIS, LogParser

In Part 3 of this series, I'll explain what to do when you're missing the Office Web Components that are required for creating the charts that I have been demonstrating in this series.

Here's a brief explanation of the symptoms: you try a simple query that will create a chart like the following example:

logparser.exe "SELECT Date,COUNT(*) AS Hits INTO HitsByDay.gif FROM *.log GROUP BY Date ORDER BY Date" -i:W3C -o:CHART -chartType:Line -legend:off -chartTitle:"Hits By Day"

And you get the following error message:

Error creating output format "CHART": This output format requires a licensed Microsoft Office Chart Web Component to be installed on the local machine

More often than not, this simply means that you have Office 2007 or Office 2010, which do not contain the Office Web Components that are used by Log Parser to create charts. Fortunately, you can download the missing components from the following URL on Microsoft's website:

Office 2003 Add-in: Office Web Components
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=22276

When you run the installation, you will see the following license agreement:

When you check the box to accept the license agreement and click Install, you will eventually receive the following dialog box to let you know that the Office 2003 Web Components have been installed:

Once you have the Office 2003 Web Components installed, you can run the same query successfully:

logparser.exe "SELECT Date,COUNT(*) AS Hits INTO HitsByDay.gif FROM *.log GROUP BY Date ORDER BY Date" -i:W3C -o:CHART -chartType:Line -legend:off -chartTitle:"Hits By Day"

Statistics:
-----------
Elements processed: 123330
Elements output: 14
Execution time: 0.57 seconds

Note: The above query generates the following somewhat uninteresting chart:

That being said, the point of this blog was to let you know how to get charting back, not how to make pretty charts. I'll save pretty charts for a future blog. ;-]

Note: This blog was originally posted at http://blogs.msdn.com/robert_mcmurray/

Configuring FTP Client Certificate Authentication in FTP 7

26 April 2012 • by Bob • FTP, Scripting

We had a customer question the other day about configuring FTP Client Certificate Authentication in FTP 7.0 and  in FTP 7.5. It had been a while since the last time that I had configured those settings on an FTP server, so I thought that it would be great to re-familiarize myself with that feature. To my initial dismay, it was a little more difficult than I had remembered, because there are a lot of parts to be configured.

That being said, there are a few primary activities that you need to know about and configure correctly:

• Configuring the FTP Service
• Configuring Active Directory Mapping
• Configuring your FTP Client

I will explain each of those in this blog, although I will defer some of the details for Active Directory mapping to an excellent blog series that I discovered by Vivek Kumbhar.

Configuring the FTP Service

There are several settings that you need to configure for the FTP server; unfortunately there is no user interface for those settings, so you might want to familiarize yourself with the following settings:

• FTP Client Certificate Authentication <clientCertAuthentication>
• FTP over SSL <ssl>
• FTP SSL Client Certificates <sslClientCertificates>

At first I had made a batch file that was configuring these settings by using AppCmd, but I eventually abandoned that script and wrote the following VBScript code to configure all of the settings at one time - the only parts that you need to change is your site name and the hash value your SSL certificate, which are highlighted in yellow:

Set adminManager = CreateObject("Microsoft.ApplicationHost.WritableAdminManager")
adminManager.CommitPath = "MACHINE/WEBROOT/APPHOST"
Set sitesSection = adminManager.GetAdminSection("system.applicationHost/sites", "MACHINE/WEBROOT/APPHOST")
Set sitesCollection = sitesSection.Collection

siteElementPos = FindElement(sitesCollection, "site", Array("name", "ftp.contoso.com"))
If (addElementPos = -1) Then
   WScript.Echo "Element not found!"
   WScript.Quit
End If
Set siteElement = sitesCollection.Item(siteElementPos)

Set ftpServerElement = siteElement.ChildElements.Item("ftpServer")
Set securityElement = ftpServerElement.ChildElements.Item("security")

Set sslClientCertificatesElement = securityElement.ChildElements.Item("sslClientCertificates")
sslClientCertificatesElement.Properties.Item("clientCertificatePolicy").Value = "CertRequire"
sslClientCertificatesElement.Properties.Item("useActiveDirectoryMapping").Value = True

Set authenticationElement = securityElement.ChildElements.Item("authentication")
Set clientCertAuthenticationElement = authenticationElement.ChildElements.Item("clientCertAuthentication")
clientCertAuthenticationElement.Properties.Item("enabled").Value = True

Set sslElement = securityElement.ChildElements.Item("ssl")
sslElement.Properties.Item("serverCertHash").Value = "57686f6120447564652c2049495320526f636b73"
sslElement.Properties.Item("controlChannelPolicy").Value = "SslRequire"
sslElement.Properties.Item("dataChannelPolicy").Value = "SslRequire"

adminManager.CommitChanges

Function FindElement(collection, elementTagName, valuesToMatch)
   For i = 0 To CInt(collection.Count) - 1
      Set element = collection.Item(i)
      If element.Name = elementTagName Then
         matches = True
         For iVal = 0 To UBound(valuesToMatch) Step 2
            Set property = element.GetPropertyByName(valuesToMatch(iVal))
            value = property.Value
            If Not IsNull(value) Then
               value = CStr(value)
            End If
            If Not value = CStr(valuesToMatch(iVal + 1)) Then
               matches = False
               Exit For
            End If
         Next
         If matches Then
            Exit For
         End If
      End If
   Next
   If matches Then
      FindElement = i
   Else
      FindElement = -1
   End If
End Function

Once you have configured your FTP settings, you should have an FTP site that resembles the following in your ApplicationHost.config file:

<site name="ftp.contoso.com" id="2">
   <application path="/">
      <virtualDirectory path="/" physicalPath="c:\inetpub\ftproot" />
   </application>
   <bindings>
      <binding protocol="ftp" bindingInformation="*:21:" />
   </bindings>
   <ftpServer>
      <security>
         <ssl serverCertHash="57686f6120447564652c2049495320526f636b73"  ssl128="false"  controlChannelPolicy="SslRequire"  dataChannelPolicy="SslRequire" />
         <authentication>
            <basicAuthentication enabled="false" />
            <anonymousAuthentication enabled="false" />
            <clientCertAuthentication enabled="true" />
         </authentication>
         <sslClientCertificates  clientCertificatePolicy="CertRequire"  useActiveDirectoryMapping="true" />
      </security>
   </ftpServer>
</site>

More details about these settings can be found in the configuration reference articles that I mentioned in the beginning of this blog post, and additional information about configuring FTP over SSL can be found in the following walkthrough:

• Using FTP Over SSL in IIS 7

Configuring Active Directory Mapping

The next part of this process is kind of tricky; you need to accomplish all of the following:

• Obtain and install a client certificate on the system where your FTP client is installed. Hare some additional notes to consider:
  • This may involve setting up your client system to trust the CA that issued your client certificate.
  • This may also involve setting up your FTP server to trust the CA that issued both your client certificate and the server certificate that you are using for your FTP site.
• Configure Active Directory to map the client certificate to an Active Directory account.
• Configure your FTP client to use a client certificate when connecting to your FTP server.

That makes it all sound so easy, but it can be very tricky. That being said, as I mentioned earlier, as I was putting together my notes to write this blog, I stumbled across a great blog series by Vivek Kumbhar, where he goes into great detail when describing all of the steps to set up the Active Directory mapping. With that in mind, instead of trying to rewrite what Vivek has already documented, I will include links to his blog series:

• Configure Client Certificate Mapping in FTP 7.5 - Part 1
  Describes how to set up your Active Directory server, IIS server, and FTP client systems.
• Configure Client Certificate Mapping in FTP 7.5 - Part 2
  Walks you through obtaining and installing a server certificate, which you will use later for your FTP site.
• Configure Client Certificate Mapping in FTP 7.5 - Part 3
  Walks you through setting up an FTP site with SSL.
• Configure Client Certificate Mapping in FTP 7.5 - Part 4
  Describes how to configure Active Directory mapping for a user account.

I have to give Vivek full credit where it's due - he wrote a truly great blog series, and he included a lot more detail in his blog series than I had originally planned to include in this blog. (In my humble opinion, Vivek's blog series is the best documentation that I have seen for this feature.)

Configuring your FTP Client

To test out client certificates, I used both the SmartFTP GUI-based FTP client and the MOVEit-Freely command-line FTP client; both of which I discussed in my FTP Clients blog series some time ago.

Using the SmartFTP Client

To configure the SmartFTP client, I just needed to enable and specify the correct client certificate in the properties for my connection:

Using the MOVEit-Freely FTP Client

For the MOVEit-Freely FTP client, I just needed to specify the correct parameters on the command line:

ftps.exe -z -e:on -pfxfile:administrator.pfx -pfxpw:"P@ssw0rd" -user:anonymous -password:"someone@contoso.com"

The important settings are the pfxfile and pfxpw values, where pfxfile is the name of the PFX file that holds your client certificate, and pfxpw is the password for the PFX file. (The username and password values will be ignored for the most part, because you will actually be logged in through your client certificate, so you can leave those as anonymous.)

Client Recap

For more information about these two FTP clients, see the following blog posts:

• FTP Clients - Part 8: SmartFTP Client
• FTP Clients - Part 5: MOVEit Freely Command-Line Secure FTP Client

Summary

FTP client certificates are definitely a bit of a challenge to configure correctly, but it's not an impossible task to get this feature working.

Note: This blog was originally posted at http://blogs.msdn.com/robert_mcmurray/

Extensibility Updates in the FTP 8.0 Service

20 April 2012 • by Bob • IIS, FTP, Extensibility

A few years ago I wrote a blog that was titled "FTP 7.5 Service Extensibility References", in which I discussed the extensibility APIs that we added in FTP 7.5. Over the next couple of years I followed that initial blog with a series of walkthroughs on IIS.net and several related blog posts. Here are just a few examples:

• How to use Managed Code (C#) to create an FTP Home Directory Provider that is based on the Remote Client IP Address
• How to Use Managed Code (C#) to Create an FTP Home Directory Provider for the Days of the Week
• FTP and LDAP - How to Use Managed Code (C#) to Create an FTP Authentication Provider that uses an LDAP Server
• How to Create an Authentication Provider for FTP 7.5 using BlogEngine.NET's XML Membership Files
• Merging FTP Extensibility Walkthroughs - Part 1
• Merging FTP Extensibility Walkthroughs - Part 2
• Automatically Creating Checksum Files for FTP Uploads
• Changing the Identity of the FTP 7 Extensibility Process
• etc.

In today's blog I'd like to discuss some of the extensibility features that we added in FTP 8.0, and show you how you can use those in your FTP providers.

Custom FTP Authorization

In FTP 7.5 we provided interfaces for IFtpAuthenticationProvider and IFtpRoleProvider, which respectively allowed developers to create FTP providers that performed user and role lookups. In FTP 8.0 we added a logical extension to that API set with IFtpAuthorizationProvider interface, which allows developers to create FTP providers that perform authorization tasks.

With that in mind, I wrote the following walkthrough on the IIS.net web site:

• How to Use Managed Code (C#) to Create an FTP Authentication and Authorization Provider using an XML Database

The title pretty much says it all: the provider that I describe in that walkthrough will walk you through the steps that are required to create an FTP provider that provides custom user authentication, verification of role memberships, and authorization lookups on a per-path basis.

Custom FTP Event Handling

In FTP 7.5 if you wanted your provider to respond to specific user activity, the best way to do so was to implement the IFtpLogProvider.Log() interface and use that to provide a form of pseudo-event handling. In FTP 8.0 we add two event handling interfaces, IFtpPreprocessProvider and IFtpPostprocessProvider, which respectively allow developers to write providers that implement functionality before or after events have occurred.

With that in mind, I wrote the following walkthrough on the IIS.net web site:

• How to Use Managed Code (C#) to Create an FTP Provider that Prevents Leeching

Once again, the title says it all: the provider that I describe in that walkthrough will walk you through the steps that are required to create an FTP provider that prevents FTP clients from downloading more files per-session than you have allowed in your configuration settings.

Happy coding!

Note: This blog was originally posted at http://blogs.msdn.com/robert_mcmurray/

FTP Logon Restrictions in IIS 8

19 March 2012 • by Bob • FTP, IIS

One of the biggest asks from our customers over the years was to provide a way to prevent brute-force password attacks on the FTP service. On several of the FTP sites that I host, I used to see a large number of fraudulent logon requests from hackers that were trying to guess a username/password combination. My first step in trying to prevent these kinds of attacks, like most good administrators, was to implement strong password requirements and password lockout policies. This was a good first step, but there is an unfortunate downside to password lockout policies - once a hacker locks out a user account, that means that a valid user is locked out of their account. What's more, a hacker can continue your server.

The FTP service has had a feature to block IP addresses, but this required something of a manual process to discover malicious behavior. To accomplish this, you had to query your log files for excessive activity, and then added the IP addresses from potential hackers to your blacklist of banned IP addresses. Besides the manual nature of this process, another big drawback to this approach is the fact that it isn't real-time, so a malicious client could be attacking your system for some time before you discover their activity.

With that in mind, my next step was to go after the hackers and block their IP addresses from accessing my server. To that end, I created the custom authentication provider for the FTP 7.5 service that I documented in the following walkthrough:

How to Use Managed Code (C#) to Create an FTP Authentication Provider with Dynamic IP Restrictions

That was pretty effective, but it was really intended to be a stop-gap measure while we were working on a built-in feature for the FTP service that ships with IIS 8, which allows you to block malicious logon attempts.

Here's the way this feature works - at the server level, you configure the maximum number of failed logon attempts that you will allow within a given time period; if someone fails to logon within that time frame, the FTP service will drop the connection, and the client will be blocked from accessing your server until the time frame has passed.

Additional details are available in the walkthrough that I wrote at the following URL:

IIS 8.0 FTP Logon Attempt Restrictions

If you'd like to try out the new FTP Logon Restrictions feature, you can download the Windows Server 8 Beta from the following URL:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/windows-server/v8-default.aspx

Note: This blog was originally posted at http://blogs.msdn.com/robert_mcmurray/

Microsoft IIS 8.0 Express Beta is Released!

05 March 2012 • by Bob • IIS Express

Earlier today the IIS Express team released the IIS 8.0 Express Beta, and there are some great new features in this release! Here are just a few of the highlights:

64-bit Support

IIS 8.0 Express now fully supports 64-bit application development. When you install IIS Express on a 64-bit system, you actually get both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of IIS 8.0 Express installed, which allows you to use the version that matches your project's needs.

Customizable Home Directory

The default home directory for IIS Express is "%UserProfile%\Documents\IISExpress", but with IIS 8.0 Express you can start the iisexpress.exe process with the "/userhome" parameter to specify the home directory for your projects; this makes it easier for you to use IIS 8.0 Express with multiple development applications.

AppCmd Support for Multiple ApplicationHost.config Files

As a complement to allowing users to customize their IIS Express home directory, IIS 8.0 Express contains a new version of AppCmd.exe that supports a new "/AppHostConfig" parameter, which makes it possible to use AppCmd.exe to edit multiple ApplicationHost.config files. By default AppCmd.exe for IIS 7 or IIS 7.5 Express will only edit the ApplicationHost.config file in your "%WinDir%\System32\InetSrv\Config" or "%UserProfile%\Documents\IISExpress" folder, but the AppCmd.exe command-line utility that ships with IIS 8.0 Express allows you to edit ApplicationHost.config files anywhere on your system.

You can read more about this release at the following URL:

http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/1266/iis-80-express-beta-readme/

Note: This blog was originally posted at http://blogs.msdn.com/robert_mcmurray/

Adventures with the Tooth Werewolf

09 February 2012 • by Bob • Humor

My oldest daughter just reminded me of something that I hadn't considered in years: when my children were young, my wife and I raised our kids somewhat differently than other parents. If you know me personally, then you're well aware that I'm not revealing anything surprising by that admission.

But let me explain what I mean: every parent has to choose which traditions they want their children to experience, and which traditions they want to skip. For example, some parents let their children celebrate Christmas, while other parents might not let their kids participate in Halloween festivities. My wife and I decided that Christmas and Easter were great, albeit with no Santa Claus and no Easter Bunny.

Now I know what many parents are thinking, and you can put the phone down - my children are all grown and you can't call Child Protective Services just because my children didn't set cookies by the Christmas tree in hopes that St. Nick would drop by.

But we had one tradition that we didn't skip, we just changed it a little; instead of the Tooth Fairy, we had the Tooth Werewolf. That's right, instead of Tinkerbell, we had Timberwolf.

I don't know why I chose to raise my kids with the belief that a big, hairy wolf snuck into their room and absconded with their baby teeth, but what's even more surprising is that my wife let me do it.

In all actuality, my children knew that it was me - I made sure of that. But it was pretty amusing when they would tell their friends that the Tooth Werewolf was coming to take away their teeth.

By the way, after a few successful years of the Tooth Werewolf, I decided that he needed a friend, and I invented the Easter Vampire.

Years from now, someone might need therapy.

Programmatically Flushing FTP Logs

03 February 2012 • by Bob • IIS, Scripting, FTP, Extensibility

I had a great question from Scott Forsyth earlier today about programmatically flushing the logs for an FTP site. Scott had noticed that there was a FlushLog method listed on the following page in the IIS Configuration Reference:

http://www.iis.net/ConfigReference/system.applicationHost/sites/site/ftpServer

Unfortunately there wasn't a code sample for that method; but as luck would have it, I had already written some code to do just that. (I love synchronicity...) With that in mind, I though that I'd post the code in a blog. In keeping with the cross-language samples that I wrote for the topics in the Configuration Reference, I thought that's I'd include several languages in this blog to make it easier for someone else to copy and paste.

C#

using System;
using System.Text;
using Microsoft.Web.Administration;

internal static class Sample
{
   private static void Main()
   {
      using (ServerManager serverManager = new ServerManager())
      {
         Configuration config = serverManager.GetApplicationHostConfiguration();
         // Retrieve the sites collection.
         ConfigurationSection sitesSection = config.GetSection("system.applicationHost/sites");
         ConfigurationElementCollection sitesCollection = sitesSection.GetCollection();

         // Locate a specific site.
         ConfigurationElement siteElement = FindElement(sitesCollection,"site","name",@"ftp.contoso.com");
         if (siteElement == null) throw new InvalidOperationException("Element not found!");

         // Create an object for the ftpServer element.
         ConfigurationElement ftpServerElement = siteElement.GetChildElement("ftpServer");
         // Create an instance of the FlushLog method.
         ConfigurationMethodInstance FlushLog = ftpServerElement.Methods["FlushLog"].CreateInstance();
         // Execute the method to flush the logs for the FTP site.
         FlushLog.Execute();
      }
   }

   // Locate and return the index for a specific element in a collection.
   private static ConfigurationElement FindElement(ConfigurationElementCollection collection, string elementTagName, params string[] keyValues)
   {
      foreach (ConfigurationElement element in collection)
      {
         if (String.Equals(element.ElementTagName, elementTagName, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
         {
            bool matches = true;
            for (int i = 0; i < keyValues.Length; i += 2)
            {
               object o = element.GetAttributeValue(keyValues[i]);
               string value = null;
               if (o != null)
               {
                  value = o.ToString();
               }
               if (!String.Equals(value, keyValues[i + 1], StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
               {         matches = false;
                  break;
               }
            }
            if (matches)
            {
               return element;
            }
         }
      }
      return null;
   }
}

VB.NET

Imports System
Imports System.Text
Imports Microsoft.Web.Administration

Module Sample
   Sub Main()
      Dim serverManager As ServerManager = New ServerManager
      Dim config As Configuration = serverManager.GetApplicationHostConfiguration
      ' Retrieve the sites collection.
      Dim sitesSection As ConfigurationSection = config.GetSection("system.applicationHost/sites")
      Dim sitesCollection As ConfigurationElementCollection = sitesSection.GetCollection

      ' Locate a specific site.
      Dim siteElement As ConfigurationElement = FindElement(sitesCollection,"site","name","ftp.contoso.com")
      If (siteElement Is Nothing) Then
         Throw New InvalidOperationException("Element not found!")
      End If

      ' Create an object for the ftpServer element.
      Dim ftpServerElement As ConfigurationElement = siteElement.GetChildElement("ftpServer")
      ' Create an instance of the FlushLog method.
      Dim FlushLog As ConfigurationMethodInstance = ftpServerElement.Methods("FlushLog").CreateInstance()
      ' Execute the method to flush the logs for the FTP site.
      FlushLog.Execute()

   End Sub

   ' Locate and return the index for a specific element in a collection.
   Private Function FindElement(ByVal collection As ConfigurationElementCollection, ByVal elementTagName As String, ByVal ParamArray keyValues() As String) As ConfigurationElement
      For Each element As ConfigurationElement In collection
         If String.Equals(element.ElementTagName, elementTagName, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) Then
            Dim matches As Boolean = True
            Dim i As Integer
            For i = 0 To keyValues.Length - 1 Step 2
               Dim o As Object = element.GetAttributeValue(keyValues(i))
               Dim value As String = Nothing
               If (Not (o) Is Nothing) Then
                  value = o.ToString
               End If
               If Not String.Equals(value, keyValues((i + 1)), StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) Then
                  matches = False
                  Exit For
               End If
            Next
            If matches Then
               Return element
            End If
         End If
      Next
      Return Nothing
   End Function

End Module

JavaScript

// Create a Writable Admin Manager object.
var adminManager = new ActiveXObject('Microsoft.ApplicationHost.WritableAdminManager');
adminManager.CommitPath = "MACHINE/WEBROOT/APPHOST";

// Retrieve the sites collection.
var sitesSection = adminManager.GetAdminSection("system.applicationHost/sites","MACHINE/WEBROOT/APPHOST");
var sitesCollection = sitesSection.Collection;

// Locate a specific site.
var siteElementPos = FindElement(sitesCollection,"site",["name","ftp.contoso.com"]);
if (siteElementPos == -1) throw "Element not found!";

// Retrieve the site element.
var siteElement = sitesCollection.Item(siteElementPos);
// Create an object for the ftpServer element.
var ftpServerElement = siteElement.ChildElements.Item("ftpServer");
// Create an instance of the FlushLog method.
var FlushLog = ftpServerElement.Methods.Item("FlushLog").CreateInstance();
// Execute the method to flush the logs for the FTP site.
FlushLog.Execute();

// Locate and return the index for a specific element in a collection.
function FindElement(collection, elementTagName, valuesToMatch) {
   for (var i = 0; i < collection.Count; i++) {
      var element = collection.Item(i);
      if (element.Name == elementTagName) {
         var matches = true;
         for (var iVal = 0; iVal < valuesToMatch.length; iVal += 2) {
            var property = element.GetPropertyByName(valuesToMatch[iVal]);
            var value = property.Value;
            if (value != null) {
               value = value.toString();
            }
            if (value != valuesToMatch[iVal + 1]) {
               matches = false;
               break;
            }
         }
         if (matches) {
            return i;
         }
      }
   }
   return -1;
}

VBScript

' Create a Writable Admin Manager object.
Set adminManager = CreateObject("Microsoft.ApplicationHost.WritableAdminManager")
adminManager.CommitPath = "MACHINE/WEBROOT/APPHOST"

' Retrieve the sites collection.
Set sitesSection = adminManager.GetAdminSection("system.applicationHost/sites","MACHINE/WEBROOT/APPHOST")
Set sitesCollection = sitesSection.Collection

' Locate a specific site.
siteElementPos = FindElement(sitesCollection,"site",Array("name","ftp.contoso.com"))
If siteElementPos = -1 Then
   WScript.Echo "Element not found!"
   WScript.Quit
End If

' Retrieve the site element.
Set siteElement = sitesCollection.Item(siteElementPos)
' Create an object for the ftpServer element.
Set ftpServerElement = siteElement.ChildElements.Item("ftpServer")
' Create an instance of the FlushLog method.
Set FlushLog = ftpServerElement.Methods.Item("FlushLog").CreateInstance()
' Execute the method to flush the logs for the FTP site.
FlushLog.Execute()

' Locate and return the index for a specific element in a collection.
Function FindElement(collection, elementTagName, valuesToMatch)
   For i = 0 To CInt(collection.Count) - 1
      Set element = collection.Item(i)
      If element.Name = elementTagName Then
         matches = True
         For iVal = 0 To UBound(valuesToMatch) Step 2
            Set property = element.GetPropertyByName(valuesToMatch(iVal))
            value = property.Value
            If Not IsNull(value) Then
               value = CStr(value)
            End If
            If Not value = CStr(valuesToMatch(iVal + 1)) Then
               matches = False
               Exit For
            End If
         Next
         If matches Then
            Exit For
         End If
      End If
   Next
   If matches Then
      FindElement = i
   Else
      FindElement = -1   End If
End Function

Summary

Hopefully this gives you an idea of how to call the FlushLog method. You can also use these examples to call the Start and Stop methods for FTP sites; you just need to substitute the correct method in place of the FlushLog method.

Note: This blog was originally posted at http://blogs.msdn.com/robert_mcmurray/

Using URL Rewrite to Insert Different Scripts Based on Browser Type

03 February 2012 • by Bob • IIS, Scripting

I just stumbled across a piece of sample code that I had written several months ago for a coworker, and I thought that I'd share it with everyone.

Here's the scenario: my coworker asked me if it was possible to have different client-side scripts inserted dynamically depending on the type of web browser that is being used. If the application was written in ASP.NET or some other dynamic language, then it would be trivial to determine the browser type and return the correct HTML <script> block to the client. Unfortunately, he needed the script for both static and dynamic pages, and he didn't want to modify all of his pages unless absolutely necessary.

This sounded to me like a job for a pair of outbound rules in URL Rewrite.

With the above design requirements in mind, I wrote the following sample configuration for URL Rewrite that accomplishes the following tasks:

• If you’re using Internet Explorer, it inserts VBScript to display a popup message.
• If you’re not using Internet Explorer, it inserts JavaScript to display a different popup message.

In order to use this sample code, you need to open the web.config file for your application and add the following code for the URL Rewrite rules. (Note: You need to disable compression in order to avoid an HTTP 500.52 error, and the following sample code does just that.)

<system.webServer>
  <rewrite>
    <outboundRules>
      <rule name="Add JavaScript" preCondition="IsNotInternetExplorer" patternSyntax="ExactMatch">
        <match filterByTags="None" pattern="&lt;/body>" />
        <action type="Rewrite" value="&lt;script language=&quot;javascript&quot;>alert('You are not using Internet Explorer!');&lt;/script>&lt;/body>" />
      </rule>
      <rule name="Add VBScript" preCondition="IsInternetExplorer" patternSyntax="ExactMatch">
        <match filterByTags="None" pattern="&lt;/body>" />
        <action type="Rewrite" value="&lt;script language=&quot;vbscript&quot;>MsgBox &quot;You are using Internet Explorer!&quot;&lt;/script>&lt;/body>" />
      </rule>
      <preConditions>
        <preCondition name="IsInternetExplorer">
          <add input="{RESPONSE_CONTENT_TYPE}" pattern="^text/html" />
          <add input="{HTTP_USER_AGENT}" pattern=".*MSIE" negate="false" />
        </preCondition>
        <preCondition name="IsNotInternetExplorer">
          <add input="{RESPONSE_CONTENT_TYPE}" pattern="^text/html" />
          <add input="{HTTP_USER_AGENT}" pattern=".*MSIE" negate="true" />
        </preCondition>
      </preConditions>
    </outboundRules>
  </rewrite>
  <urlCompression doStaticCompression="false" doDynamicCompression="false" />
</system.webServer>

The above example is what I sent to my coworker, and I intended it as an easy place to start when you just want a simple chunk of script to be inserted. It works well, but a better example would be to have it dynamically insert code for an external script file based on the browser type. This is illustrated in the following example:

<system.webServer>
  <rewrite>
    <outboundRules>
      <rule name="For Other Browsers" preCondition="IsNotInternetExplorer" patternSyntax="ExactMatch">
        <match filterByTags="None" pattern="&lt;/body>" />
        <action type="Rewrite" value="&lt;script language=&quot;javascript&quot; src=&quot;other.js&quot;>&lt;/script>&lt;/body>" />
      </rule>
      <rule name="For Internet Explorer" preCondition="IsInternetExplorer" patternSyntax="ExactMatch">
        <match filterByTags="None" pattern="&lt;/body>" />
        <action type="Rewrite" value="&lt;script language=&quot;javascript&quot; src=&quot;msie.js&quot;>&lt;/script>&lt;/body>" />
      </rule>
      <preConditions>
        <preCondition name="IsInternetExplorer">
          <add input="{RESPONSE_CONTENT_TYPE}" pattern="^text/html" />
          <add input="{HTTP_USER_AGENT}" pattern=".*MSIE" negate="false" />
        </preCondition>
        <preCondition name="IsNotInternetExplorer">
          <add input="{RESPONSE_CONTENT_TYPE}" pattern="^text/html" />
          <add input="{HTTP_USER_AGENT}" pattern=".*MSIE" negate="true" />
        </preCondition>
      </preConditions>
    </outboundRules>
  </rewrite>
  <urlCompression doStaticCompression="false" doDynamicCompression="false" />
</system.webServer>

The above sample dynamically inserts an HTML <script> block, and specifies one script file ("msie.js") for Internet Explorer a different script  file ("other.js") for all other browsers.

A simple script for a simple task - just the way I like it. ;-]

Note: This blog was originally posted at http://blogs.msdn.com/robert_mcmurray/

Advanced Log Parser Charts Part 2 - Using Gradient Colors for Area Charts

29 January 2012 • by Bob • IIS, LogParser, Scripting

In Part 2 of this series, I'll show you how to customize the area chart from Part 1 to show the chart area with a gradient. More specifically, there are three different chart gradient methods that we'll take a look at in this blog post:

• SetOneColorGradient
• SetTwoColorGradient
• SetPresetGradient

Before I continue, there is one quick Log Parser convention that you should realize: there are two objects that Log Parser will create and pass to your script. As you look at the sample scripts in this post, you will see these objects in use:

// Set the border style for the chart.
chartSpace.Border.Color = "#000000";
chartSpace.Border.Weight = 2;

// Change the background color.
chart.PlotArea.Interior.Color = "#ffffff";

Before I get started, here's a quick review of VBScript that uses Log Parser COM objects:

Option Explicit

' Declare the variables.
Dim objLogQuery, strSQL
Dim objInputW3CFormat, objOutputChartFormat

' Create the Log Parser objects.
Set objLogQuery = WScript.CreateObject("MSUtil.LogQuery")
Set objInputW3CFormat = WScript.CreateObject("MSUtil.LogQuery.W3CInputFormat")
Set objOutputChartFormat = WScript.CreateObject("MSUtil.LogQuery.ChartOutputFormat")

' Define the SQL query.
strSQL = "SELECT Date, COUNT(*) AS Hits " & _
    " INTO _Part2.gif " & _
    " FROM *.log " & _
    " GROUP BY Date " & _
    " ORDER BY Date"

' Specify the chart options.
objOutputChartFormat.groupSize = "800x600"
objOutputChartFormat.fileType = "GIF"
objOutputChartFormat.chartType = "Area"
objOutputChartFormat.categories = "ON"
objOutputChartFormat.values = "ON"
objOutputChartFormat.legend = "OFF"

' Execute the SQL statement to create the chart.
objLogQuery.ExecuteBatch strSQL, objInputW3CFormat, objOutputChartFormat

As I mentioned in Part 1 of this series, you don't have to use the COM objects, but I chose to do so for this blog series because it makes it a little easier to script. That being said, if I use one month's worth of log files from one of my low-volume websites, Log Parser and this VBScript creates the following rather ugly daily hits chart:

With all of this in mind, let's take a look at some simple configuration scripts.

Setting Fonts and Titles and Such...

The above chart really needs some help, so the first thing that we'll do is change a few things. First things first, we need to specify the name of the chart configuration script in the VBScript sample:

Option Explicit

' Declare the variables.
Dim objLogQuery, strSQL
Dim objInputW3CFormat, objOutputChartFormat

' Create the Log Parser objects.
Set objLogQuery = WScript.CreateObject("MSUtil.LogQuery")
Set objInputW3CFormat = WScript.CreateObject("MSUtil.LogQuery.W3CInputFormat")
Set objOutputChartFormat = WScript.CreateObject("MSUtil.LogQuery.ChartOutputFormat")

' Define the SQL query.
strSQL = "SELECT Date, COUNT(*) AS Hits " & _
    " INTO Part2.gif " & _
    " FROM *.log " & _
    " GROUP BY Date " & _
    " ORDER BY Date"

' Specify the chart options.
objOutputChartFormat.groupSize = "800x600"
objOutputChartFormat.fileType = "GIF"
objOutputChartFormat.chartType = "Area"
objOutputChartFormat.categories = "ON"
objOutputChartFormat.values = "ON"
objOutputChartFormat.legend = "OFF"
objOutputChartFormat.config = "Part2.js"

' Execute the SQL statement to create the chart.
objLogQuery.ExecuteBatch strSQL, objInputW3CFormat, objOutputChartFormat

Next, we need to create the actual chart configuration script, which I wrote in JavaScript; you will need to save this as "Part2.js" in order to use my samples:

// Set the title above the chart.
chart.HasTitle = true;
chart.Title.Caption = "Hits by Day"

// Set the border style for the chart.
chartSpace.Border.Color = "#000000";
chartSpace.Border.Weight = 2;

// Change the background color for the plot area.
chart.PlotArea.Interior.Color = "#f0f0f0";

// Set the font size for the chart values.
chart.SeriesCollection(0).DataLabelsCollection(0).Font.Size = 6;

// Get the start and end dates from the X axis.
var startDate = chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.Item(0).Caption;
var endDate = chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.Item(chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.ItemCount-1).Caption;

// Set the caption below the chart.
chartSpace.HasChartSpaceTitle = true;
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Caption =
    "This chart shows the hits by day from "
    + startDate + " to " + endDate + ".";
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Font.Size = 10;
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Position = chartSpace.Constants.chTitlePositionBottom;

// Set the style and caption for the Y axis.
chart.Axes(0).Font.Size = 8;
chart.Axes(0).HasTitle = true;
chart.Axes(0).Title.Caption = "Dates";
chart.Axes(0).Title.Font.Size = 9;

// Set the style and caption for the X axis.
chart.Axes(1).Font.Size = 7;
chart.Axes(1).HasTitle = true;
chart.Axes(1).Title.Caption = "Hits";
chart.Axes(1).Title.Font.Size = 9;

This chart configuration script does several things:

• Sets the title above the chart to "Hits by Day"
• Sets a black border style for the chart
• Sets the background color for the plot area to a light gray
• Sets the font size for the chart values to 6-point
• Sets the caption below the chart for the start and end date
• Sets the font styles and captions for the Y and Y axes

When you run the VBScript, the resulting chart looks like the following:

This looks a little more legible, but now let's look at setting some colors.

Setting a One-Color Gradient

Using the same JavaScript sample from earlier, we just need to make a couple of changes to the chart configuration script in order to use the SetOneColorGradient method:

// Set the title above the chart.
chart.HasTitle = true;
chart.Title.Caption = "Hits by Day"

// Set the border style for the chart.
chartSpace.Border.Color = "#000000";
chartSpace.Border.Weight = 2;

// Change the background color for the plot area.
chart.PlotArea.Interior.Color = "#f0f0f0";

// Specify the chart gradient styles.
chart.SeriesCollection(0).Interior.SetOneColorGradient(
 chartSpace.Constants.chGradientHorizontal,
 chartSpace.Constants.chGradientVariantEnd,
 1.0,
 "#ff0000");

// Set the font size for the chart values.
chart.SeriesCollection(0).DataLabelsCollection(0).Font.Size = 6;

// Get the start and end dates from the X axis.
var startDate = chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.Item(0).Caption;
var endDate = chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.Item(chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.ItemCount-1).Caption;

// Set the caption below the chart.
chartSpace.HasChartSpaceTitle = true;
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Caption =
    "This chart shows the hits by day from "
    + startDate + " to " + endDate + ".";
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Font.Size = 10;
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Position = chartSpace.Constants.chTitlePositionBottom;

// Set the style and caption for the Y axis.
chart.Axes(0).Font.Size = 8;
chart.Axes(0).HasTitle = true;
chart.Axes(0).Title.Caption = "Dates";
chart.Axes(0).Title.Font.Size = 9;

// Set the style and caption for the X axis.
chart.Axes(1).Font.Size = 7;
chart.Axes(1).HasTitle = true;
chart.Axes(1).Title.Caption = "Hits";
chart.Axes(1).Title.Font.Size = 9;

When you run the VBScript, this renders a chart that looks like the following:

There are four parameters for the SetOneColorGradient method to look at:

Let's make some quick changes to parameters that we are passing to the SetOneColorGradient method and alter a few of the colors:

// Set the title above the chart.
chart.HasTitle = true;
chart.Title.Caption = "Hits by Day"

// Set the border style for the chart.
chartSpace.Border.Color = "#000000";
chartSpace.Border.Weight = 2;

// Change the background color for the plot area.
chart.PlotArea.Interior.Color = "#333333";

// Specify the chart gradient styles.
chart.SeriesCollection(0).Interior.SetOneColorGradient(
    chartSpace.Constants.chGradientHorizontal,
    chartSpace.Constants.chGradientVariantStart,
    0.0,
    "#00ff00");

// Set the font size for the chart values.
chart.SeriesCollection(0).DataLabelsCollection(0).Font.Size = 6;
chart.SeriesCollection(0).DataLabelsCollection(0).Font.Color = "#ffffff";

// Get the start and end dates from the X axis.
var startDate = chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.Item(0).Caption;
var endDate = chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.Item(chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.ItemCount-1).Caption;

// Set the caption below the chart.
chartSpace.HasChartSpaceTitle = true;
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Caption =
    "This chart shows the hits by day from "
    + startDate + " to " + endDate + ".";
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Font.Size = 10;
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Position = chartSpace.Constants.chTitlePositionBottom;

// Set the style and caption for the Y axis.
chart.Axes(0).Font.Size = 8;
chart.Axes(0).HasTitle = true;
chart.Axes(0).Title.Caption = "Dates";
chart.Axes(0).Title.Font.Size = 9;

// Set the style and caption for the X axis.
chart.Axes(1).Font.Size = 7;
chart.Axes(1).HasTitle = true;
chart.Axes(1).Title.Caption = "Hits";
chart.Axes(1).Title.Font.Size = 9;

When you run the VBScript, that results in the following considerably cooler-looking chart:

Setting a Two-Color Gradient

The SetTwoColorGradient method offers more color flexibility than the one-color gradient method, and we only need to make a couple of changes to the JavaScript for the chart configuration script in order to use the new method:

// Set the title above the chart.
chart.HasTitle = true;
chart.Title.Caption = "Hits by Day"

// Set the border style for the chart.
chartSpace.Border.Color = "#000000";
chartSpace.Border.Weight = 2;

// Change the background color for the plot area.
chart.PlotArea.Interior.Color = "#FFFF99";

// Specify the chart gradient styles.
chart.SeriesCollection(0).Interior.SetTwoColorGradient(
 chartSpace.Constants.chGradientVertical,
 chartSpace.Constants.chGradientVariantStart,
 "#0066FF",
 "#00FFCC");

// Set the font size for the chart values.
chart.SeriesCollection(0).DataLabelsCollection(0).Font.Size = 6;

// Get the start and end dates from the X axis.
var startDate = chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.Item(0).Caption;
var endDate = chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.Item(chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.ItemCount-1).Caption;

// Set the caption below the chart.
chartSpace.HasChartSpaceTitle = true;
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Caption =
    "This chart shows the hits by day from "
    + startDate + " to " + endDate + ".";
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Font.Size = 10;
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Position = chartSpace.Constants.chTitlePositionBottom;

// Set the style and caption for the Y axis.
chart.Axes(0).Font.Size = 8;
chart.Axes(0).HasTitle = true;
chart.Axes(0).Title.Caption = "Dates";
chart.Axes(0).Title.Font.Size = 9;

// Set the style and caption for the X axis.
chart.Axes(1).Font.Size = 7;
chart.Axes(1).HasTitle = true;
chart.Axes(1).Title.Caption = "Hits";
chart.Axes(1).Title.Font.Size = 9;

When you run the VBScript, this will create the following chart:

There are four parameters for the SetTwoColorGradient method to consider:

Using a Preset Gradient

There is an additional gradient method that uses a collection of preset color palettes; this method is appropriately named SetPresetGradient. Once again, we need to make a couple of changes to the JavaScript for the chart configuration script in order to use the new method:

// Set the title above the chart.
chart.HasTitle = true;
chart.Title.Caption = "Hits by Day"

// Set the border style for the chart.
chartSpace.Border.Color = "#000000";
chartSpace.Border.Weight = 2;

// Change the background color for the plot area.
chart.PlotArea.Interior.Color = "#EEFFDD";

// Specify the chart gradient styles.
chart.SeriesCollection(0).Interior.SetPresetGradient(
 chartSpace.Constants.chGradientHorizontal,
 chartSpace.Constants.chGradientVariantStart,
 chartSpace.Constants.chGradientFire);

// Set the font size for the chart values.
chart.SeriesCollection(0).DataLabelsCollection(0).Font.Size = 6;

// Get the start and end dates from the X axis.
var startDate = chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.Item(0).Caption;
var endDate = chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.Item(chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.ItemCount-1).Caption;

// Set the caption below the chart.
chartSpace.HasChartSpaceTitle = true;
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Caption =
    "This chart shows the hits by day from "
    + startDate + " to " + endDate + ".";
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Font.Size = 10;
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Position = chartSpace.Constants.chTitlePositionBottom;

// Set the style and caption for the Y axis.
chart.Axes(0).Font.Size = 8;
chart.Axes(0).HasTitle = true;
chart.Axes(0).Title.Caption = "Dates";
chart.Axes(0).Title.Font.Size = 9;

// Set the style and caption for the X axis.
chart.Axes(1).Font.Size = 7;
chart.Axes(1).HasTitle = true;
chart.Axes(1).Title.Caption = "Hits";
chart.Axes(1).Title.Font.Size = 9;

When you run the VBScript, this will create the following chart:

There are three parameters for the SetPresetGradient method to look at:

There are several of preset gradients in the ChartPresetGradientTypeEnum enumeration, and a little experimentation will yield the best results.

Using 3-D Area Charts

For one last sample, I'd like to show you what gradients can do for your 3-D area charts. To do so, we first need to make a couple of small changes the VBScript that will create the chart:

Option Explicit

' Declare the variables.
Dim objLogQuery, strSQL
Dim objInputW3CFormat, objOutputChartFormat

' Create the Log Parser objects.
Set objLogQuery = WScript.CreateObject("MSUtil.LogQuery")
Set objInputW3CFormat = WScript.CreateObject("MSUtil.LogQuery.W3CInputFormat")
Set objOutputChartFormat = WScript.CreateObject("MSUtil.LogQuery.ChartOutputFormat")

' Define the SQL query.
strSQL = "SELECT Date, COUNT(*) AS Hits " & _
    " INTO _Part2.gif " & _
    " FROM *.log " & _
    " GROUP BY Date " & _
    " ORDER BY Date"

' Specify the chart options.
objOutputChartFormat.groupSize = "1024x768"
objOutputChartFormat.fileType = "GIF"
objOutputChartFormat.chartType = "Area3D"
objOutputChartFormat.categories = "ON"
objOutputChartFormat.values = "ON"
objOutputChartFormat.legend = "OFF"
objOutputChartFormat.config = "Part2.js"

' Execute the SQL statement to create the chart.
objLogQuery.ExecuteBatch strSQL, objInputW3CFormat, objOutputChartFormat

Next, we need to update the JavaScript for the chart configuration script to work with the new VBScript; for the most part, I'm just updating font sizes and chart colors:

// Set the title above the chart.
chart.HasTitle = true;
chart.Title.Caption = "Hits by Day"

// Clear the caption for the chart series.
chart.SeriesCollection(0).Caption = "";

// Set the border style for the chart.
chartSpace.Border.Color = "#000000";
chartSpace.Border.Weight = 2;

// Change the background color for the plot area.
chart.PlotArea.Interior.Color = "#FFFFCC";

// Specify the chart gradient styles.
chart.SeriesCollection(0).Interior.SetTwoColorGradient(
    chartSpace.Constants.chGradientHorizontal,
    chartSpace.Constants.chGradientVariantEnd,
    "#00CCFF",
    "#FFFFFF");

// Set the font size for the chart values.
chart.SeriesCollection(0).DataLabelsCollection(0).Font.Size = 7;

// Get the start and end dates from the X axis.
var startDate = chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.Item(0).Caption;
var endDate = chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.Item(chart.Axes(0).CategoryLabels.ItemCount-1).Caption;

// Set the caption below the chart.
chartSpace.HasChartSpaceTitle = true;
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Caption =
    "This chart shows the hits by day from "
    + startDate + " to " + endDate + ".";
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Font.Size = 10;
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Position = chartSpace.Constants.chTitlePositionBottom;

// Set the style and caption for the Y axis.
chart.Axes(0).Font.Size = 10;
chart.Axes(0).HasTitle = true;
chart.Axes(0).Title.Caption = "Dates";
chart.Axes(0).Title.Font.Size = 11;

// Set the style and caption for the X axis.
chart.Axes(1).Font.Size = 9;
chart.Axes(1).HasTitle = true;
chart.Axes(1).Title.Caption = "Hits";
chart.Axes(1).Title.Font.Size = 11;

When you run the VBScript, this will create the following chart:

Summary

In this blog post, I've written a lot of code samples in order to show you four different ways to set gradients for your Log Parser area charts. In future posts, I'll show you how to do some more cool things with some other types of charts.

;-]

Note: This blog was originally posted at http://blogs.msdn.com/robert_mcmurray/

Advanced Log Parser Charts Part 1 - Working With Configuration Scripts

28 January 2012 • by Bob • IIS, LogParser, Scripting

I recently had a situation where I wanted to customize the chart output from Log Parser, and after a bunch of research I eventually arrived at the conclusion that configuration scripts to create customized charts are probably the least-documented feature of Log Parser. After a lot of experimentation, (and a bit of frustration), I finally managed to achieve the results that I wanted. With that in mind, I thought that it would make a great blog series if I documented some of the settings that I used.

Log Parser and Chart Configuration Scripts

When you look in the Log Parser help file, it makes mention of using configuration scripts to customize charts, and it provides the following small JavaScript sample:

// Add a caption
chartSpace.HasChartSpaceTitle = true;
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Caption = "Generated by Log Parser 2.2";
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Font.Size = 6;
chartSpace.ChartSpaceTitle.Position = chartSpace.Constants.chTitlePositionBottom;

// Change the background color
chart.PlotArea.Interior.Color = chartSpace.Constants.chColorNone;

Unfortunately, this sample isn't very useful, although I found dozens of forum posts that quote this sample as a way to do things - but it's the only sample that most people cite. The Log Parser help file mentions looking at the MSDN ChartSpace Object Model documentation, but that documentation is only slightly more useful. These two references are what led me to my earlier conclusion that chart configuration scripts are not well-documented, and especially when you are trying to do something with Log Parser.

What I found to be particularly helpful was to use the Log Parser COM interface and write scripts by using Adersoft's VbsEdit and JsEdit. In case you haven't used either of those applications, they are great IDEs for writing scripts; they both give you a great debugging environment, and they have a great object browser that I used to discover what options were available to me. In the end, these two editors made it possible to create the chart configuration scripts that I will discuss in this blog series.

By the way, chart configuration scripts can be written in VBScript or JavaScript, but for this blog I will use VBScript for the Log Parser COM samples and JavaScript for the configuration script samples. I didn't have to do it that way, but it seemed like a good idea to help differentiate between the samples.

Using COM versus the Command-Line

For the samples in this blog series, I will use Log Parser's COM interface and VBScript to create my charts, but this is not necessary; everything that I am documenting can be done from the command-line version of Log parser, and I'll give you some quick examples to see the differences.

The following examples generate some simple area charts that plot the total number of hits by day, and both examples do exactly the same thing:

Command-Line:

logparser.exe "SELECT Date, COUNT(*) AS Hits INTO HitsByDay.gif FROM *.log GROUP BY Date ORDER BY Date" -i:W3C -fileType:GIF -groupSize:800x600 -chartType:Area -categories:ON -values:ON -legend:OFF

COM Interface:

Option Explicit

Dim objLogQuery, strSQL
Dim objInputW3CFormat, objOutputChartFormat

Set objLogQuery = WScript.CreateObject("MSUtil.LogQuery")
Set objInputW3CFormat = WScript.CreateObject("MSUtil.LogQuery.W3CInputFormat")
Set objOutputChartFormat = WScript.CreateObject("MSUtil.LogQuery.ChartOutputFormat")

strSQL = "SELECT Date, COUNT(*) AS Hits " & _
    " INTO HitsByDay.gif " & _
    " FROM *.log " & _
    " GROUP BY Date " & _
    " ORDER BY Date"

objOutputChartFormat.groupSize = "800x600"
objOutputChartFormat.fileType = "GIF"
objOutputChartFormat.chartType = "Area"
objOutputChartFormat.categories = "ON"
objOutputChartFormat.values = "ON"
objOutputChartFormat.legend = "OFF"

objLogQuery.ExecuteBatch strSQL, objInputW3CFormat, objOutputChartFormat

Ugly Charts

Using some of the log files from one of my websites, the above samples created the following basic chart:

Taking a look at this chart makes it easy to see why you would want to customize your output; that light blue is pretty awful, and those values are pretty hard to read.

Specifying Configuration Scripts

If you remember the incredibly basic configuration script from earlier, you only need to add one parameter to each example in order to specify the configuration script:

Command-Line:

logparser.exe "SELECT Date, COUNT(*) AS Hits INTO HitsByDay.gif FROM *.log GROUP BY Date ORDER BY Date" -i:W3C -fileType:GIF -groupSize:800x600 -chartType:Area -categories:ON -values:ON -legend:OFF -config:HitsByDay.js

COM Interface:

Option Explicit

Dim objLogQuery, strSQL
Dim objInputW3CFormat, objOutputChartFormat

Set objLogQuery = WScript.CreateObject("MSUtil.LogQuery")
Set objInputW3CFormat = WScript.CreateObject("MSUtil.LogQuery.W3CInputFormat")
Set objOutputChartFormat = WScript.CreateObject("MSUtil.LogQuery.ChartOutputFormat")

strSQL = "SELECT Date, COUNT(*) AS Hits " & _
    " INTO HitsByDay.gif " & _
    " FROM *.log " & _
    " GROUP BY Date " & _
    " ORDER BY Date"

objOutputChartFormat.groupSize = "800x600"
objOutputChartFormat.fileType = "GIF"
objOutputChartFormat.chartType = "Area"
objOutputChartFormat.categories = "ON"
objOutputChartFormat.values = "ON"
objOutputChartFormat.legend = "OFF"
objOutputChartFormat.config = "HitsByDay.js"

objLogQuery.ExecuteBatch strSQL, objInputW3CFormat, objOutputChartFormat

Simple Output

Taking a look at the resulting chart, you can see why I mentioned earlier that the configuration script wasn't very useful; all it does is add a centered title to the bottom of the chart:

Yup - that's a pretty useless sample configuration script for chart customization.

Next...

In my subsequent posts, I'll show how to make this chart (and several other types of charts) look a lot better.

Note: This blog was originally posted at http://blogs.msdn.com/robert_mcmurray/

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