System Reports

The Site Status will give a detailed view of each aspect of Aspen and the level at which it is performing. This information is monitored by ByWater, but is available for partners to view as well.

Here, you can also find Solr reports on things like grouped works and lists. To view the full report, simply click on "Show full status" and the correlating code will be shown.

Within System Reports, you will see several different types of reports ranging from cron logs to information about the APIs connecting to Aspen.

• Site Status - The statuses of various Aspen components
• Usage Dashboard - Includes basic usage of Aspen. This tells us things like page views, page views by logged in users, sessions started, and the type of searches patrons are doing. The usage dashboard does break up the searches into resource based counts. 
• API Usage Dashboard - API usage report from Aspen's various connection points
• Usage By IP Address - Reports which IP addresses have used Aspen Discovery
• Nightly Index Log - The nightly index processes configuration changes, which could include adding e-resources, changes to facets, changes to location and library system settings, or updates to the status or format mapping. The nightly index log is run when we detect changes to settings related to indexing or when new Accelerated Reader data is available (and once a week). It can be forced to run by selecting Run full index tonight from the System Variables in the System Administration section.
• Cron Log - The cron process handles periodic cleanup tasks and updates reading history for users.
• Performance Report - Tracks page load times
• Error Log - Tracking errors that show up; we're automatically monitoring this and it is mainly for our support use
• PHP Information - Display configuration information for PHP on the server

  Within a few of these menus, you can click into Show Notes and/or the individual line item to get more information about the process that was run.

The Usage Dashboard shows general usage of Aspen, including page views and exceptions.

You are able to toggle the view of these reports to show the information in a graph format as well by hitting the graph icon next to the category you'd like to view. This will aslo provide you with the raw data underneath the graph.

• Page Views - Total number of pages shown that are not by a bot and not ajax requests (pop-ups). A user can have multiple page views during one session as they navigate through pages and search results.
• Page Views - by Authenticated Users - The exact same thing as above but by logged in users. Could be staff.
• Sessions Started - Close to number of visitors. If I go and access an Aspen site, if your cookies remember the site, then it will continue the previous session. If it is not remembered, it will create a new session. We're also trying to ignore ajax requests and visits from bots. Will also be less than page views.
• Page Views By Bot - We have a list of bots that we check against- Google bot, Bing bot, etc. that are out checking the web. We try to keep the list up to date but it is possible that we are missing some. If we are missing some, then these will be counted in page views.
• Asynchronous Requests - Showing a pop up or when we load menu data. When we load how many things you have checked out or on hold. Not something libraries are likely to report on.
• Covers Requested - Total number of book covers that we're showing on search result pages. Includes covers shown in the item record like "More Like This" and "Series".
• Grouped Work Searches - Total number of searches done.
• User List Searches - When a user searches from the "list" dropdown.
• Genealogy Searches - When a user searches from the "Genealogy" dropdown.
• Open Archives Searches - When a user searches from the "History/Archives" dropdown.
• Website Searches - When a user searches from the "Library Website" dropdown.
• Blocked Pages - Blocked pages from IP address configuration. Exp: if there was a bot causing an issue, you can block that IP address. 
• Blocked API Requests - If someone was trying to make calls to the API without approval. If you see a high number, it's probably worth investigating, should be low.
• Errors - Whenever there is an error that pops up in Aspen, those are logged. This number should be low. We are monitoring and have alerts set for these.
• Web Resources - Clicks within Aspen's web resources.

Shows usage by IP addresses to help determine if there is any usage that is slowing your site. All IP addresses that have accessed the site will show here along with the total requests and the latest request date.

Since the 23.04 release of Aspen, this dashboard is now turned off by default due to GDPR compliance.

To enable this dashboard, go to Aspen Administration > System Administration > System Variables > click into your settings > scroll all the way to the bottom > check Track IP Addresses. These will begin to track immediately. 

The nightly index updates all records in Aspen so as to show the most updated information. This will show you the nightly index log information.

The Cron Log will show a report of when crons have started, how long they lasted, and any associated notes. Crons will update user reading history and process periodic cleanup tasks.

The Performance Report will show how each of the pages of Aspen are loading and at what speed.

Shows any error that may have recently occurred and at what date and time they occured.

Information on PHP version information, configuration, modules, and more can be found here. Those who wish to contribute to the development of Aspen Discovery may find this information particularly useful.

Within Aspen Administation > ILS integration > Dashboard you can see how many patrons are logging into Aspen, submitting requests, and interacting with cataloged records. The main features of this Dashboard are:

• User Logins - Number of users that log in to Aspen
• Self Registrations - New users that register through Aspen
• Users Who Placed At Least One Hold - Users who placed at least one hold within Aspen
• Records Held - Unique number of titles or bib records with at least one hold placed on them

Aspen integrates with a number of different econtent providers. There are corresponding reporting Dashboards for Axis360, CloudLibrary, EBSCO EDS, Hoopla, and OverDrive. What's important to remember with these reports is that these just track user interactions with the econtent platforms done through Aspen. For full econtent reporting, you'd still want to check the data available within your econtent provider's reporting dashboards.

These econtent dashboards have similar data offerings, including:

• Active Users - Users within Aspen that have had successful check out or placed a successful hold
• Records With Usage - Records with usage is total number of unique titles that have been checked out or placed on hold. So that number should be less than the number of holds and loans combined.
• Loans - All successful checkouts in Aspen
• Renewals - Number of successful renewals in Aspen. Because a renewal is essentially a hold, some of those (the holds that were fulfilled and accessed via Aspen) are included in all time loans.
• Downloads - Downloads is the number of times the download button was clicked. So, if you have a user that is using Aspen to access the read online version, there would be one click for each time they opened the book OR if a user downloaded a title on one device but then needed it downloaded on another, that would result in 2 downloads for the same title.
• Options Updates - Updating their user preferences in Aspen's My Account
• API Errors - Anytime there is an error back when accessing a record; like when placing a hold or checking out and user receives an error; if you're noticing a lot of them, let us know; we're not automatically monitoring these
• Connection Failures - OverDrive entire APIs are down; should be zero for everyone

How Long Report Information is Stored in Aspen

For privacy purposes, none of the reporting information available in Aspen is personally identifiable. For example, you may see information that a patron accessed OverDrive, but Aspen will not save information on what they viewed or searched. The various dashboards and logs in Aspen are automatically cleared at varying points. Here is information on how long they are stored:

• Dashboards like the Usage Dashboard are kept forever from the date of install
• Dashboards for econtent providers are also forever from the date the econtent provider was connected
• Usage by IP address is stored for 30 days
• Indexing logs are stored for 45 days
• Performance report stored for a month; clears at the beginning of every month
• Error log clears every 30 days (previously stored forever)