Advanced Monitoring Web Transactions
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Knowing a website’s weak points is the key to maximum
uptime, and the only way to identify weakness is through comprehensive
monitoring of multiple web pages on a site. If a website is a chain, then each web page is
a link in that chain; and, as the adage goes, a chain is only as strong as its
weakest link.
Monitoring a website by stepping through a pre-recorded
transaction is the most comprehensive test one can perform on a website at the
application level. Monitoring
transactions provide coverage of the most important pieces of a website:
customer response forms, shopping carts, data-entry forms, etc.
Transactions are little more than a set of web pages that
are repeatedly executed in order. Each
“step” in the transaction is a web page that can be static or dynamic with web
forms, images, authentication and anything and everything else a web page
contains.
Transactions measure user experience through monitoring accuracy
of web page output and responsiveness of individual steps and the transaction
as a whole.
As data is collected over time, important metrics are
gathered: response time delays with individual steps, response time delays
between steps, identification of where and when bottlenecks occur, capturing
output from web pages that produce errors (HTTP 404, HTTP 500, etc.), and
content verification.
Transaction monitoring should begin during development of a
website and continue to evolve through the life of a website. As each new web page is developed it should
be added to the transaction for immediate and continued testing.
As the site grows, pages can be broken out into groups to
isolation potential problem areas. For
example, a group of “About Us” and “Contact Us” pages, which are normally
static, should be set up to monitor for content verification with less emphasis
on responsiveness. Also, a group of
shopping cart pages should be set up to monitor for content and error
verification and most importantly responsiveness. As the shopping cart is monitored over time,
a trend will emerge, pinpointing the slowest pages that may need to be
revisited for performance enhancements.
Strengthen each link in the chain by defining a monitoring
strategy that includes transaction monitoring.
Identify crucial areas of a website that need continuous transaction
monitoring that over time will provide metrics for improving website
performance and the user experience.
Start early in the development phase of a website and reap the benefits
of the information gathered.
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