Global settings - banner logging

Go to Configuration > Global Settings > Banner Logging Settings. The banner logging settings determine the different types of raw data that will be logged by OpenX. From this screen an administrator can control the following:

Banner Logging Settings:

• Log a request every time a banner is requested/viewed/clicked: these three settings control whether OpenX should log raw requests, impressions, and/or clicks.
  
  NOTE
  The logging of impressions is almost always required for OpenX to operate correctly. In particular, the Maintenance Statistics Engine (MSE) will not run if no impressions have been logged. Do not disable impressions logging unless you are very familiar with the OpenX architecture, and have a specific reason to do so.
• Reverse lookup the hostnames of viewers when not supplied: this setting performs a reverse DNS lookup of the user's IP address when delivering banners, if the hostname is already set, so that it can be logged to the raw data tables.
• Try to determine the real IP address of viewers behind a proxy server: this option is set as a default. It requests that OpenX examine the HTTP headers and check if the viewer/visitor is routed via a proxy server. If so, the viewer's real IP address is determined and used for logging, if possible.

Block Banner Logging Settings

These options allow the OpenX administrator to control which hosts/clients will or will not result in raw data being logged to the database:

• Click Block Logging Window (seconds): assign a length of time during which clicks on this banner will not be counted.
• Don't log any statistics for viewers using any of the following IP addresses or hostnames: if the request comes from onoe of the IP addresses entered, this setting will prevent raw data (requests/impressions/clicks) being logged to the database.

IP addresses can be entered in any of the following formats:

one IP address per line

comma separated

semi-colon separated

• Don't log statistics from clients with any of the following strings in their user-agent (one-per-line): this setting prevents raw data from being logged to the database if the user-agent contains any of the string values entered. (Note: string values are case-insensitive, and should be entered as one string per line.)
• Only log statistics from clients with any of the following strings in their user-agent: this setting prevents raw data from being logged to the database if the user-agent does not contain any of the string values entered. (Note: string values are case-insensitive, and should be entered as one string per line.)
  
  TIP
  The IAB produces a list of known spiders and bots for its members. This list is suitable for use in relation to the above settings. However, if you are not an IAB member you can find a database of different user-agent strings at user-agents.org

OpenX recommends that you use at least the following user-agent strings in the 'Don't log statistics from clients with any of the following strings in their user-agent' setting:

• slurp
• googlebot
• msnbot

However, it is recommended that you regularly review the user-agents that visit your site. This is to ensure that you are not excluding valid user-agents and/or allowing invalid user-agents to log raw data.