Alex Higgins Blog

Although the next version of my IIS Log File Parser is still under development, I have decided to release the current binaries as an alpha version, which you can download here,  to get some feed back on the new features in the new GUI. The download for these binaries is available at the bottom of this page.

Another reason I have decided to release the incomplete binaries is I have been receiving a surge of traffic for users looking for a GUI based Log File Parser that is capable of acting as an IIS FTP Log File Viewer, IIS SMTP Log File Viewer, IIS NNTP Log File Viewer, as well as an IIS Log File Parser

Since the current development version has these features, I thought it might be a good time to release the alpha binaries so visitors don’t come to my site and feel duped because I forgot to add that functionality in my previous release.

What’s New

So far there are many new features.  I don’t want to spend to much time here, since this is an Alpha release and many features are likely to change.  I would rather get back to work developing the production version, but here’s some screens shots of the current release.

Here’s what the new IIS Log File Viewer GUI looks like:

In the last release I had hard coded what a local request was.  After using it on several different servers and several different Web sites, I released that I needed to be able to set these filters on a per server basis.  The version now allows you to configure “Global Filters” that will be applied to every log file you open.  For example, nothing is more annoying than seeing 15 images, 2 style sheets, and three JavaScript requests for every page load. the “Global Filters”  allows you to define what not to include in your results.

You can now select multiple files from you SMTP, FTP, HTTP, or NNTP log directories:

The IIS Choose Site Dialog is now a Visual Studio 2005 themed auto hide dock panels:

Add additional content menu has been add to the status code column so you can find the meaning of an a Status Code where it is an HTTP, FTP, SMTP or NNTP status code:

And finally here’s a screen shot of the entire application running on my desktop:

Want to help make this application even better?

Developers: Get Involved

There are a lot of features I will be including in this version, including a command line interface for scripting, SQL based querying, and a report generator as well as built in documentation.  Just post a comment letting me know you want to get involved and I’ll email you instructions on how to get the latest source.

End Users

QA is one of the most important parts of the development process.  Your suggestions and feedback is needed.  The original release has had hundreds if not thousands of downloads, and I have only received one comment from Microsoft MVP Chris Rowe on how to make it better.  Just let me know what features you would like to see or any quirks you come across.

Dependencies: Asp.Net Framework 2.0 must be installed on your computer, and all files included in the download must be in the same directory as the IISLogFileParser.Exe.