Overview


Real browser monitoring is a technique used to assess the performance and user experience of web applications by simulating real user interactions through an actual web browser. It employs scripts that mimic user interactions, such as logging in, navigating through pages, and submitting forms, to accurately represent how the application performs from an end-user perspective. This approach provides a comprehensive view of how an application behaves under real-world conditions. The Real Browser Monitor supports Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Google Chrome browsers for playback.

Why Applications Manager's Real Browser Monitoring?

  • Applications Manager's Real Browser Monitoring simulates actual user interactions with a web application using real browsers. This provides an accurate representation of how users experience the application, including rendering times, JavaScript execution, and content loading.
  • It captures detailed performance metrics such as page load times, response times, and resource loading times, allowing you to identify bottlenecks and performance issues that could affect users.
  • It gives a full view of how well a webpage performs by loading the page, organizing its content, and running scripts. It also includes checking elements like styles, images, and links from other sources.
  • By deploying Real Browser Monitor instances in different geographic locations, you can monitor how your web application behaves for users worldwide. This helps identify location-specific issues, such as increased latency or connectivity problems.
  • Performance data from different locations can be reported back to a central site, allowing for comprehensive analysis and centralized management of application performance across various regions.

Working of Real Browser Monitor

Real browser monitoring in Applications Manager involves using a real web browser to simulate user interactions with a web application. This approach provides a detailed view of how the application performs from the end user's perspective. The available capabilities include:

  • Simulation of User Actions: Real browser monitoring uses scripts to simulate user interactions with the application. These scripts replicate common tasks such as logging in, navigating through pages, filling out forms, and clicking buttons. By running these scripts, the monitoring system can mimic real user behavior and capture how the application responds.
  • Data Collection and Analysis: As the scripts run, the real browser monitor collects various performance metrics, including page load times, resource loading times, and JavaScript execution times. It can also capture errors like failed transactions or delayed responses. This data is analyzed to identify performance bottlenecks, slow-loading pages, and other issues that might affect the user experience.
  • Geographic Distribution: Real browser monitoring can be set up to run from multiple geographic locations, providing insights into how the application performs in different regions. This helps identify any location-specific issues, such as increased latency or regional outages.
  • Alerts and Reporting: The monitoring system generates alerts when it detects performance issues or anomalies, allowing IT teams to respond quickly. Detailed reports and dashboards display the collected data, enabling teams to track performance trends over time and make informed decisions to optimize the application.

Configuring the Real Browser Monitor

For a step by step guide on how to set up an RBM monitor, click here.