Reporting

From AlertFox Website Monitoring

AlertFox offers various online and email reporting options. In addition, you can download all sensor data to create our own customized reports.

Performance Reporting

Performance Overview

Dashboard with uptime & performance overview chart

AlertFox Performance Report - This report shows the uptime and a performance overview (green, orange, red, brown) of all monitored sites and services on one page. White indicates no data (i.e., sensor turned off) and brown indicates an error. The black bars show up if not 100% of the test in one hour (= one box) are successful. So if you have 4 tests/hour and 3 are ok and one fails you will have a 75% success rate => The black bar will be 25% of the square. The logfile contains the details (e. g. what error happened).

Sensor Performance

Detailed performance graphs and error logs for each sensor

Detailed Sensor Performance over time for all global locations. Errors are annotated in the diagram and a screenshot can be viewed (click [S] to view the screenshot). All raw data can be exported in CSV for further processing by you (e.g., with Excel).

Multi-Step Performance

Detailed performance graphs for transactions that consist of several steps. (Currently, the number of steps is restricted to 5.)

Stacked runtime graph for the steps within a single transaction.

In order to use this feature, the relevant steps need to be marked within the macro. There is no limitation on the number of macro commands a step may contain (within the general limits for a single sensor).

As you see in the following example, it is the "STOPWATCH LABEL=name" command that defines the steps:

'Test: Fill web form, submit it and test the result
VERSION BUILD=6210317 RECORDER=FX
URL GOTO=http://www.iopus.com/imacros/demo/v6/f1/form.asp
STOPWATCH LABEL="Load URL"
TAG POS=1 TYPE=TEXTAREA FORM=NAME:TestForm ATTR=NAME:Remarks CONTENT=AlertFox<SP>Demo
STOPWATCH LABEL="Fill field"
TAG POS=1 TYPE=INPUT:SUBMIT FORM=ID:TestForm ATTR=NAME:SendButton&&VALUE:Click<SP>to<SP>order<SP>now
STOPWATCH LABEL="Submit"
'Checkpoint: Test the submission result
TAG POS=1 TYPE=B ATTR=TXT:*AlertFox<SP>Demo*
' (Note that there may be more than one macro command within a step. This is just a short example.)

Getting more information from the graph.

The graph displays the runtimes that each of the steps adds to the total. When hovering over a data-point, exact temporal information is displayed.

Hovering over a data-point shows detailed information.

Toggling the display of certain steps from the graph (by clicking the corresponding colored boxes below the graph) is very helpful in order to analyze a certain step's influence on the total runtime.

Not easy to see which step did add to the peak? Try toggling certain steps.

This step does add an extra second to the peak.

This step does not add a relevant amount of time. Note that "remaining lines" is an artificial step we add in order to show the total runtime even if there is no STOPWATCH command used at the very end of the macro.

Root Cause Analysis

AlertFox error reports include detailed information to diagnose and fix website uptime and performance problems.

Root cause analysis - each error message contains in-depth information on the error, down to each byte that was sent and received before the problem.

Browser Screenshots

Each error message includes a screenshot of the test browser at the time of the issue - you see the website exactly like a real human tester would have seen it.

Waterfall Diagrams

Get a grip on the load time of each and every element of your site. Perhaps there’s a certain external image slowing it down? AlertFox returns waterfall diagrams on each error.

Web Traffic Protocols (HAR)

Extending the idea of Waterfall Diagrams to a whole browser session is what HAR files (HTTP Archives) are about: the complete HTTP traffic in one protocol file including requests, responses and detailed timing information. So if you need to check how much load time your payment provider adds to your streamlined web shop, HAR files are the way to go!

HTTP traffic performance trace of a browser-based transaction check.

We support them for all browsers: iMacros Browser, Internet Explorer and Firefox.

HAR reports need to be enabled in the Expert Settings of for each sensor:

How to enable web traffic logs (HAR).

Performance Profiler

Interested in how fast each step of your transaction (macro) sensors is performed by the browser instance you selected? Then have a look at the performance logs, marked as [[PERF] in your log. For now, these are supported by the iMacros Browser and Internet Explorer. Firefox will follow soon.

Here is an example. You see the status and duration for each step of the transaction. The data is provided as XML file, thus it can easily parsed and processed further. The data is also available via our API.

Email Reports

You can opt to receive daily, weekly, monthly and yearly reports by email. On the same panel you can also opt-in/out of the AlertFox Newsletter.

Daily, weekly, monthly and yearly reports inform you about your websites' performance.

How to read the reports?

The report in split into two parts: the "classic" sensors that cover HTTP/DNS tests and the "iMacros" sensors where your macros are run on some site. The columns of these two parts, however, have the same meaning.

1. Uptime:
   • Ratio between successful tests and failures
   • Given in percent of total number of tests performed
   • E.g. "100%" uptime means that all tests were perfomed successfully (i.e. the site was "up" all the time)
2. Average (time):
   • How long did the test take?
   • Given in milliseconds
   • E.g. "98.27" means that on average, the site responded in ~98ms
3. OK:
   • Total number of successful tests
   • E.g. "1800" means that 1800 tests had a positive result
4. NOK (not OK):
   • Total number of failed tests
   • E.g. "200" means that 200 tests failed (which, together with the 1800 "OK" from above would result in an "Uptime" of 90%)
5. Finally, you will find a row called "Total Average" in both parts of the report, which gives the "average of averages", i.e. the average of the column above.

Enable/Disable Reporting

To enable or disable the email reports, go to Reports > Email:

Select which user account receives alerts (notifications), reports and the AlertFox Newsletter.

Data Export

All measurement data can be exported in CSV format. See the "Export to CSV" button below each diagram.

AlertFox Data Export

AlertFox API

We are currently developing a new Web API (Application Programming Interface) as the ideal solution to interface our service directly with your monitoring infrastructure.

If you want to access AlertFox data via the API please contact support to let us know you are interested and tell us your requirements!

Read-Only User Accounts

You can choose to create a read-only account for your team members. This allows them to view the reports and logs, but prevents them from editing the monitoring sensors. Go to Settings -> Logins -> Add New User -> and select "Read Only" for the User Type.

The login for our demo-readonly@alertfox.com account is "demo". You can use this account to see what kind of access a read-only user has.

Public Reports

You can make certain sensors graphical reports public. To do this, check the "public" checkbox on the sensor settings. The sensor list will then contain a link to the public report website.

Example: http://status-dashboard.com/32226/44295

See also: Status Dashboard and this blog post.

Make the graphical performance report public.

Get the link to the public graphical performance report.