Usage Statistics

It’s natural to have concerns about sharing your ROCK MAKER usage statistics with FORMULATRIX. This topic will explain the kind of data we are asking for and why.

Why Collect Usage Data?

When the ROCK MAKER product managers and software developers plan new features, one of the questions that comes up is how often ROCK MAKER users — that’s you — actually use certain features. And since we can’t sit there with you and watch you use ROCK MAKER, usage reporting is the next best thing. Once we have usage data, we can analyze it to determine which areas to continue development on.

We are not interested in your specific experiment data, but how you use ROCK MAKER. We want to know when you use the different areas and available features, and how often.

How It Works

Should you choose to participate in this program, the usability reports, which are stored as text files, are automatically emailed to usability@formulatrix.com.

What information is included:

  • When you drag and drop an object from one area to another

  • When you change views (such as when you enter Design mode) or change tabs

  • Which areas of the software you are interacting with, such as the Canvas tab, the Experiment tab, and the Navigator.

  • The active user

What information is never included:

Any data from the database, for example:

  • Experiment names

  • Protein names

  • Images

Rest assured, absolutely no data will be included in the usability reports.

Example Log File

The following is an example of what the information included in a usage report looks like.

1/13/2014 3:56:29 PM, INFO, [John Smith],[Administrator],[DesignerControl],[Changing View Mode to Design],[User is switching Canvas to Design Mode.]

1/13/2014 3:56:29 PM, INFO, [John Smith],[Administrator],[UnifiedExperiment],[Using Canvas],[Using Canvas tab in Experiment {ID:429}]

1/13/2014 3:56:29 PM, INFO, [John Smith],[Administrator],[DesignerControl],[Changing View Mode to Image],[User is switching Canvas to Image Mode.]

1/13/2014 3:56:29 PM, INFO, [John Smith],[Administrator],[UnifiedExperiment],[Using Navigator],[Using Navigator tab in Experiment {ID:429}]

1/13/2014 3:56:30 PM, INFO, [John Smith],[Administrator],[UnifiedExperiment],[Using Layer],[Using Layer tab in Experiment {ID:429}]

1/13/2014 3:56:30 PM, INFO, [John Smith],[Administrator],[UnifiedExperiment],[Using Navigator],[Using Navigator tab in Experiment {ID:429}]

1/13/2014 3:56:30 PM, INFO, [John Smith],[Administrator],[UnifiedExperiment],[Using Imaging],[Using Imaging tab in Experiment {ID:429}]

1/13/2014 3:56:30 PM, INFO, [John Smith],[Administrator],[UnifiedExperiment],[Using Capture Info],[Using Capture Info tab in Experiment {ID:429}]

1/13/2014 3:56:30 PM, INFO, [John Smith],[Administrator],[UnifiedExperiment],[Using Navigator],[Using Navigator tab in Experiment {ID:429}]

1/13/2014 4:00:56 PM, INFO, [John Smith],[Administrator],[NavigatorControl],[Navigator control view],[Updated view to: InspectionOverviewNavigatorControl]

1/13/2014 4:00:57 PM, INFO, [John Smith],[Administrator],[UnifiedExperiment],[Using Well],[Using Well tab in Experiment {ID:429}]

1/13/2014 4:00:58 PM, INFO, [John Smith],[Administrator],[UnifiedExperiment],[Using Drop],[Using Drop tab in Experiment {ID:429}]

1/13/2014 4:00:58 PM, INFO, [John Smith],[Administrator],[UnifiedExperiment],[Using Compare],[Using Compare tab in Experiment {ID:429}]

1/13/2014 4:01:11 PM, INFO, [John Smith],[Administrator],[DesignerControl],[Changing View Mode to Design],[User is switching Canvas to Design Mode.]

Viewing Your Usage Log Files

  1. Click the Application Menu button, point to Support Tools, and click View Log Files.

  2. Open the FeatureUsage directory.

Note

Your usage log files are always available in this directory, even if you have decided not to send usage statistics to FORMULATRIX. Your usage files are only sent to FORMULATRIX when you opt in to sharing them.

Enabling/Disabling Usage Reporting

  1. On the Explorer, double-click the Setup node to expand it.

  2. Double-click the General node.

  3. Check or uncheck the box next to “Help make ROCK MAKER better by automatically sending usage statistics to FORMULATRIX” at the bottom of the page.

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