Slices are used for building the statistic reports for separate users groups. Building of a slice is performed in several steps.
Here is an example, explaining the difference between filters and slices.
The field "Referrer" should contain the value "Google".
All requests containing the referrer with the substring "google" will be picked out by the filter. Upon using the filter, all the subsequent requests in the reports will be discarded; the reports "Pageviews per user", "Pageviews per host", "Trace browsing" will function incorrectly, because information of all the users requests is required for their building.
The table below illustrates the situation in details:
Request ID | User ID | Referrers Pages |
1 | 1 |
http://www.google.ru/search?hl=ru&q=site+statistics&lr= http://www.cnstats.com/ |
2 | 1 |
http://www.cnstats.com/ http://www.cnstats.com/ru/support/ |
3 | 2 |
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=site+statistics http://www.cnstats.com/ |
4 | 1 |
http://www.cnstats.com/ru/support/ http://www.cnstats.com/ru/support/faq.php |
5 | 2 |
http://www.cnstats.com/ http://www.cnstats.com/en/order/ |
6 | 2 |
http://www.cnstats.com/en/order/ http://www.cnstats.com/en/download.php |
7 | 1 |
http://www.cnstats.com/ru/support/faq.php http://www.cnstats.com/members/ |
8 | 2 |
http://www.cnstats.com/en/download.php http://www.cnstats.com/en/support/ |
After appliance of the filter only one request will be left:
Request ID | User ID | Referrers Pages |
1 | 1 |
http://www.google.ru/search?hl=ru&q=site+statistics&lr= http://www.cnstats.com/ |
Unlike the filter, after appliance of the slice all requests from the user ¹1 will be left:
Request ID | User ID | Referrers Pages |
1 | 1 |
http://www.google.ru/search?hl=ru&q=site+statistics&lr= http://www.cnstats.com/ |
2 | 1 |
http://www.cnstats.com/ http://www.cnstats.com/ru/support/ |
4 | 1 |
http://www.cnstats.com/ru/support/ http://www.cnstats.com/ru/support/faq.php |
7 | 1 |
http://www.cnstats.com/ru/support/faq.php http://www.cnstats.com/members/ |
Thus, upon using the filter the depth will contain 1 page, which is incorrect. Upon using the slice the result is correct - 4 pages.
To create a slice one should select a filter as a basis at the drop-down menu of "Slices" tab. Upon completion, the slice name will be displayed at "Slices" tab. Time period of the building process is indicated for each slice. If time period is changed, then the slice is rebuilt automatically.