Hello,

I try to set up an exclude filter to exclude all visits that do not have the WT.mc_id parameter with a specific value in the entry page hit.

Setup is as follows:
-> Visit based Filter
-> Entry Page matches *
-> URL Parameter WT.mc_id Not Equal To "MyTestValue"
-> Match records that do not contain this parameter name: checked

I use this as exclude filter, but evidently it does not work.

My goal is to set up this filter to include only visits that have this campaign parameter in the entry page to test if my reports deliver the results I expect. I apply this filter to my reports and when testing I manually put the parameter WT.mc_id=MyTestValue to my entry page URL to make sure only data from my test is analyzed.

I can't always use an include filter for this purpose (which works fine) because some of my reports need other include filters (hit and visit based) as well.

Any help is highly appriciated!

By checking off the "match records that do not have this parameter name" you are telling webtrends to include all traffic that never specifies an mc_id.

If you want to ONLY have this test value, you need to uncheck that box, since not all traffic will come to that site with a predefined mc_id.

quote:

By checking off the "match records that do not have this parameter name" you are telling webtrends to include all traffic that never specifies an mc_id.

This is exaclty the behaviour I expected and it would be exactly what I want. My filter includes every visit without any mc_id specified as well as visits where the mc_id parameter does not equal MyTestValue. When I use this filter as exclude filter this should be reversed, so my expectation is that all these visits are excluded from my reports, thus leaving only visits where mc_id=MyTestValue has been specified.

But it is not working as expected, my reports still show a lot of visits although the filter is active as exclude filter.

I also set up an include version, which is working fine:

-> Visit based Filter
-> Entry Page matches *
-> URL Parameter WT.mc_id Equal To "MyTestValue"
-> Match records that do not contain this parameter name: unchecked

I know they (WT) have had trouble with that checkbox in the past. It seems likely that that check box does not work. Either the box doesn't work at all (the checkbox is ignored and the filter acts the same as if the box was not checked) or the box causes the whole thing to not work (possibly kills the filter entirely, so the results are the same as if no such filter was applied).

A point of clarification: switching to exclude does not always provide the inverse selection of your traffic, and it shouldn't be expected to. This situation is a really great scenario to show why.

With the following set-up:
-> Visit based Filter
-> Entry Page matches *
-> URL Parameter WT.mc_id Not Equal To "MyTestValue"
-> Match records that do not contain this parameter name: checked
Your include filter will count all entries of WT.mc_id <>"MyTestValue". Where an mc_id is not set, your filter will include those entries because the check box is telling the filter that blank entries are equal to the parameter being evaluated.

When you take that exact same set-up and switch it to an exclude filter, the report will include only entries that are not "not equal to 'MyTestValue'", meaning it will include entries equal to "MyTestValue". However, because you keep that check box selected, you are still telling the filter that blank entries are equal to the parameter being evaluated (which in this case is "not not equal to 'MyTestValue'").

This has been my observation in using this feature.