topic Re: Difference Between Browser Monitors vs. Browser Clickpaths in Synthetic Monitoring

Difference Between Browser Monitors vs. Browser Clickpaths

genesius_jaroms — Mon, 14 May 2018 19:19:37 GMT

Hello,

Based on Dynatrace documentation, I am a bit confused on the difference between Browser monitors and Browser clickpaths.

Types of synthetic monitoring

Dynatrace offers two types of synthetic monitoring: browser monitors and browser clickpaths.

Browser monitors

A browser monitor
is the equivalent of a simulated user visiting your application using a
modern, updated web browser. Browser monitors can be configured to run
from any of our global locations at a frequency of up to once every 5
minutes. Browser monitors alert you when your application becomes
inaccessible or when baseline performance degrades significantly.

Browser clickpaths

Browser clickpaths
are simulated user visits that monitor your application’s business
critical workflows. You can use the Dynatrace recorder to record an
exact sequence of clicks and user input that you are interested in
monitoring for availability and performance. Once you’ve captured the
mouse clicks and additional user actions that you want your browser
clickpath to include, your browser clickpath will run automatically at
regular intervals to test your site’s availability and functionality.

Both are simulating users visiting my application.

Thanks and God bless,

Genesius

Re: Difference Between Browser Monitors vs. Browser Clickpaths

maciej_gorski — Tue, 15 May 2018 09:59:08 GMT

Hello @Genesius J.,

Thank you for bringing this up. Let me clarify, the main difference between these two types of monitors.

Indeed, both monitor types do simulate user visiting your application, however Browser monitors execute a single step visit (e.g., visiting home page or visiting login page) with no further steps - it’s like checking the availability, of visited application page. While Browser clickpaths execute a whole “scenario” of steps (e.g., Visit login screen, then pass login details, then click on login button, then visit the logged in page, then...).

Which one to use, should be a decision based on what exactly you want to measure, a single visit and overall availability, of application and its resources, vs. the whole user experience, of customer journey (or its part, i.e., a specific funnel) in your application.

Please let me know if that helped to clarify the main difference?

Re: Difference Between Browser Monitors vs. Browser Clickpaths

genesius_jaroms — Tue, 15 May 2018 11:51:06 GMT

@Mack G.

Thanks Mack. I've found the members of this forum are better at articulating a function or procedure than Dynatrace's vague documentation.

Thanks and God bless,

Genesius