Major New Features

• Custom Variables – it is now possible to set and store up to five custom properties on all tracking events (pageviews, sessions, clicks, action events, etc.). Custom variables can be set for a single tracking request, across all requests that make up a single session/visit, or across all visits for a single visitor.
• Segmentation – it is now possible to generate data result sets for a specific segment of your visitors. Segmentation is applied to the result set prior to any filtering or grouping functions – delivering a true segmented data set for you to work with. Segments can only be applied to result sets via the data access API as of this release.
• Live View – it is now possible to turn any reports into “live” dashboards that will continually update themselves as new tracking events occur.
• Result Set Filtering – filtering result sets has always been possible by applying constraints via the data access API but it is now possible for analysts to filter the data contained in any data table displayed on any report via the GUI.
• Lots More Metric and Dimension Combinations – the number of dimensions and metrics that can be combined to generate result sets has been greatly expanded in this release.
• Independent Tracking Modes – it is now possible to use only a subset of OWA’s tracking modes. For example,  you can now choose to just use OWA for tracking clicks and generating heatmaps, or for only recording and playing back mouse movements/dom streams, or even just use OWA for tracking site actions. Prior to this release you needed to track all page views and sessions in order to use any of the other tracking modes. Now you can choose to track whatever combination of tracking events that you want.
• IP Address Exclusion – it is now possible to exclude specific IP addresses for being tracked via the general configuration UI or via the new excluded_ips config setting.
• IP Address Anonymization – it is now possible to anonymize IP addresses by removing the last octet prior to storing them in the database. Anonymization can be controlled via the general configuration UI and the anonymize_ips config setting.
• 20+ new dimensions – lots of new dimensions have been added. See the release notes for the full list.
• Site/User Access Controls – you can now limit access to reports and data by user by site.

Bug Fixes

In addition to al the new features, there were also more than 59 bugs fixes in this release. See the 1.5.0 Trac milestone for more details

Updating

Please see the 1.5.0 release notes for how to update your OWA instance to the new version. There are a few extra steps if you re updating from a prior 1.5.0rc or SVN trunk.

Thanks

I’d like to thank the entire OWA community for their help and support of this release. The OWA community continues to grow and we had a record number of patches submitted by community members in the 1.5.0 cycle. Please consider getting involved by submitting a patch, files tickets for enhancements and bugs, or by making a donation to the project using the Paypal donate buttons on this site.

Please see the release notes for details on what’s changed since RC2.

If you are updating from a prior 1.5.0 RC, you will need to re-run the base.007 update. See the release notes for instructions on how to do that.

Major New Features

• Custom Variables – it is now possible to set and store up to five custom properties on all tracking events (pageviews, sessions, clicks, action events, etc.). Custom variables can be set for a single tracking request, across all requests that make up a single session/visit, or across all visits for a single visitor.
• Segmentation – it is now possible to generate data result sets for a specific segment of your visitors. Segmentation is applied to the result set prior to any filtering or grouping functions – delivering a true segmented data set for you to work with. Segments can only be applied to result sets via the data access API as of this release.
• Live View – it is now possible to turn any reports into “live” dashboards that will continually update themselves as new tracking events occur.
• Result Set Filtering – filtering result sets has always been possible by applying constraints via the data access API but it is now possible for analysts to filter the data contained in any data table displayed on any report via the GUI.
• Lots More Metric and Dimension Combinations – the number of dimensions and metrics that can be combined to generate result sets has been greatly expanded in this release.
• Independent Tracking Modes – it is now possible to use only a subset of OWA’s tracking modes. For example,  you can now choose to just use OWA for tracking clicks and generating heatmaps, or for only recording and playing back mouse movements/dom streams, or even just use OWA for tracking site actions. Prior to this release you needed to track all page views and sessions in order to use any of the other tracking modes. Now you can choose to track whatever combination of tracking events that you want.
• IP Address Exclusion – it is now possible to exclude specific IP addresses for being tracked via the general configuration UI or via the new excluded_ips config setting.
• IP Address Anonymization – it is now possible to anonymize IP addresses by removing the last octet prior to storing them in the database. Anonymization can be controlled via the general configuration UI and the anonymize_ips config setting.
• 20+ new dimensions – lots of new dimensions have been added. See the release notes for the full list.

Please discuss issues relating to this release over at the OWA forums, and file validated bug reports over at OWA Trac. Regardless of where you do it, please be sure to report any issues that you come across as that will help us get the 1.5.0 final out as soon as possible.

Enjoy!

Thank you DreamHost!

Major features of this release include:

• Conversion Goal Tracking – define and track up to 15 conversion goals per web site.
• Goal Funnels – visualize the set of steps (or funnel) that users experience before hitting your goals.
• Campaign Tracking – add campaign tracking parameters to your inbound links and see how effective your traffic driving efforts are.
• E-commerce Tracking – track and report on revenue and products purchased.
• First Party Cookies – track and report on an unlimited number of web sites from a single OWA instance.
• 60+ new metrics – all accessible via the data export API.
• 20+ new dimensions – all accessible via the data export API.
• 10+ new standard reports.
• Clustered Deployment – deploy OWA across a cluster or tier of servers for better redundancy and scalability.

See the OWA wiki for the latest documentation, and please join the OWA community and file tickets for any bugs or oddities that you find.

Also, support open source web analytics by spreading the word about this release and OWA in general. Tweet, blog, smoke signals, whatever. The more we can get the word out that there is a robust open source alternative to commercial web analytics services/software, the better OWA will become.

And lastly, a big thanks to everyone that contributed to this release by filing tickets, writing code, and offering up an instance or two for debugging purposes. We had a record number of submissions and contributions to the 1.4.0 release milestone.

Next up is release 1.5.0 which you can view development plans for here.