You can use the Browser Based Replay interface to review in real time all pages in visitor sessions as they are displayed to the user. Or, you can quickly step through selected pages to identify issues that occurred during the session.
The cxImpact Browser Based Replay (BBR) feature enables users to replay visitor sessions directly through a web browser.
- Replay
- A replay is the display of the visitor's experience with your web application. By assembling all of the requests, responses, and related data in the sequence of the visitor session, the Tealeaf system can replay the session through Browser-Based Replay to accurately mimic the visitor experience.
- You can replay both active sessions and completed sessions.
Additionally, users with Admin authorization can view page load details in real-time to assist with diagnostics and to help identify specific files that might be the cause of discrepancies in fidelity.
- Active session
- An active session is a visitor session with the web application to which the visitor is adding pages right now by browsing the website.
- During replay of active sessions, BBR automatically refreshes active sessions on a periodic basis. When an active session is refreshed, the currently displayed page is not refreshed. When UI events are part of the current page, a refresh can cause replay to jump to the previous standard page and disrupt the replay.
- Completed session
- A completed session is a visitor session that the visitor has completed or abandoned or that has been timed out by Tealeaf.
Browser Based Replay runs entirely within the Portal and requires no additional software installation for Tealeaf users.
BBR is an alternative to the CX RealiTea Viewer (RTV) desktop application, which must be installed on each user's desktop.
Primary functions of Browser Based Replay
You can use BBR to complete the following functions:
- Replay visitor sessions or track live visitor sessions as they occur.
Replaying active sessions as they occur enables you to provide real-time customer support for customers and to diagnose web application issues.
- Show visitor input, such as entered text, selected menu options, and clicked links or buttons.
- Track activities that occur on different views of a dynamic page.
- View the raw request and response data.
- Drill down into session details.
Page load details
You can review the individual objects that are referenced and loaded for a page after session replay completes or interactively during session replay. Having access to real-time page-load details can give you insight into the workings of the HTTP interactions (as it pertains to getting the resources for a page) that occur in the client-server architecture.
You can review the page-load details during or after session replay.
The Page Load Details window can be used to review all of the content that is requested from an individual page and whether the replay client was successful in loading it. It displays all of the requests to get the resources for a page. If a resource fails to load, the page might not render correctly.
The details presented in the window are an account of the interaction between the renderer and Replay Server or the Remote Host.
The column definitions for the Page Load details window are as follows:
| Heading | Description |
|---|---|
| Page | A numeric identifier created by the Replay server. The number indicates the order in which the page was captured by Tealeaf during the visitor session.
The number corresponds to the number that is displayed in the Navigation panel in the BBR user interface. |
| State | Indicates the page load status in text and icon format. |
| Code | Indicates the HTTP status code of the request.
For HTTP status codes other than these three, the State column cell displays |
| Load Time | The time in seconds it took for the renderer to receive a particular resource. |
| Content | The Content column specifies the MIME or Content-type of the content received.
MIME is a standard identifier that indicates the type of data that a file contains. For example, the content might be |
| Method | Indicates the HTTP method type. This will almost always be GET or POST. |
| Source | The source of the loaded page (session, remote host, informative). |
| URL | The content URL or resource URL. |
| Error Message | Displays the error message text for a page when there are socket connection errors.
If the page load resulted in information logging only (as denoted by the value |
| Error code | Displays the error code if a socket connection error occurs when the page is loading.
If the page load resulted in information logging only (as denoted by the value |
In the Load Details window, the following commands are available in the right-click context menu.
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| Host/Port Remap |
Using host/port remapping, you can redirect BBR to retrieve content from a different host name and port from the origin server. This feature prevents unnecessary retrieval from the origin server during replay. |
| Copy URL to clipboard |
This option allows you to copy the URL to your clipboard so you can paste it elsewhere. |
| Open URL |
This option allows you to open the selected URL in a new browser. |
| QueryData |
If the URL contains query parameters, they are listed as name-value pairs in this sub-menu. For example, if the URL was
www.test.com/?type=JSON&reload=false, then the sub-menu displayed would be:
|
| Request Headers |
Mouse-over to view name-value pairs in the header of the request. Select one to open an edit window from which you can copy values. |
| Response Headers |
Mouse-over to view name-value pairs in the header of the response. Select one to open an edit window from which you can copy values. |
| View Response Text |
When the selected object is an AMF hit, this option decodes the binary object and displays it in text form in Notepad.exe. |
| Add Block URL Rule |
Use this command to remove a resource. Sometimes resources are not critical for the page to render correctly, and if the resource impacts page load performance in a negative manner, you can use this command to write a "Add block url rule". |
Configure the replay server or associated proxy server
Tealeaf administrators can create and configure Replay Server instances through the Portal Management page.
Multiple Replay Servers can be deployed to distribute the BBR rendering load among multiple servers. If a proxy server is used to broker connections between BBR users and the Replay Server and the origin server, review and complete the following configuration changes.
Tealeaf administrators can configure the replay rules that are applied to Browser-Based Replay through the Replay Server configuration in the Portal Management page.