First Steps

From AlertFox Website Monitoring

AlertFox is a revolutionary new website monitoring service that is leading the next generation of website monitoring technology. The AlertFox regression and performance monitoring engine is powered by iMacros technology.

This page describes a few things that you need to keep in mind when uploading your iMacros macros to the AlertFox service.

Getting Started

If you have never used iMacros before, we recommend the following:

• Install the iMacros Firefox add-on
• Record the transaction that you want to monitor ( How to get started with iMacros )
• Replay the macro to make sure it works on your local system
• Log in to AlertFox and copy & paste the macro as a new iMacros sensor
• Click "Test Sensor Now" to test the macro. This triggers a real web browser on the server that runs your macro. The return code is displayed once the macro is completed. A return code of "1" means that all is ok.
• Click "Update" to store the macro
• You are all set now. AlertFox will execute the macro periodically and alert you if the macro fails.

Add new sensor

Create iMacros transaction monitoring sensor

You can use simply copy & paste to "upload" the test macro iMacros into the new transaction monitoring sensor.

Test your iMacros sensor. This triggers a full test run, not just a simple syntax check!

Test completed. Return code = 1, which means the macro completed ok. Press UPDATE to store your new sensor.

In case of problems, make sure the macro runs ok locally. If you have any problems, email support@alertfox.com

Supported Commands

Since AlertFox runs the original iMacros software, it replays the test macros the same way that they run on your desktop. Therefore, all iMacros commands are supported, except a few that require user interaction.

• For file upload tests, dummy test files are available on the server. The path is c:\uploadtest\. The file names are file_1k.zip, file_10k.zip, file_100k.zip file_1M.zip and file_10k.png. The value "_1k" indicates the file size (_1k = 1kbyte, _1M = 1 MB). If you need other file types or sizes, please contact AlertFox support.

• Download tests are supported, too. You can create macros that download any kind of data. The download directory is purged automatically every ten minutes.

Note that the maximum macro runtime is currently limited to 120 seconds, so the up- or download must be completed during this time. PRO3 customers can contact tech support for individual adjustments.

Public Graphs

AlertFox allows you to mark your performance monitoring graphs for public access. This offers several benefits:

• Add a website link to the AlertFox data and show your users that you take quality seriously.

 * Your users can see directly how responsive and reliable your web application is.
 * Or use it only for yourself to skip the AlertFox login.

• There are two options:

 * Display current day (default):  begin=now&end=now
 * Display last seven day (week): begin=last7days&end=now 

• PRO account users can display a wider range of data. Please email support@alertfox.com to discuss.
• PRO account users can display a corresponding Status Page for each sensor. It is a simple website for each sensor with only one word on it: OK, ERROR, WARNING-ORANGE, WARNING-RED or NODATA. The status page is updated whenever the sensor status changes. This status page allows for extremely easy integration of your iMacros sensors with any other system software, such as Nagios or Zenoss. Please email support@alertfox.com to discuss.

Demo Account

You can log into our demo account as a "read only" user. The login details are: user name = demo-readonly@alertfox.com, password = demo.

There you can see sample DNS, HTTP and iMacros sensors. One iMacros sensor is set up to trigger an error, so you can see the useful "browser screenshot on error" feature of iMacros.

Support

Please email support@alertfox.com or post questions in the iMacros for Firefox forum. (We monitor that forum, too). If you post in the forum, please put [AlertFox]... in your subject line.

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