You can replay sessions with mobile app screen captures in Browser Based Replay.
Screen capture requires configuration of the Tealeaf Logging Framework.
- Android Logging Framework
- iOS Logging Framework
Replay screen capture limitations
As the visitor steps through different views of the native application, a screen capture can be captured and submitted to Tealeaf for display. During display of mobile native apps, static screen captures of each view are displayed.
Screens are captured as soon as the view is initialized and before data is populated in any fields. It limits the exposure of sensitive data to Tealeaf.
For Android-based sessions, images that are captured from the web server are stored at the beginning of the session. Images that are captured from the local instance of the native application are stored in the appropriate locations throughout the session.
Mobile native application sessions are not replayed by using the mobile skin.
There is a known issue in which the PCA fails to properly recognize UTF-8 encoding in data that is submitted from client frameworks. The data can be mangled in the stored session, causing issues in eventing and search.
User agent requirement
The user agent string must match a user string in the public standards that was deployed into your Tealeaf solution.
Your client framework must be configured to report a user agent string in the HTTP_USER_AGENT request header. If the framework is configured differently, the extended user agent parsing information that is displayed in BBR is reported as unknown in the toolbar at the top of replay view.
How browser-specific features are rendered in BBR replay
Sessions that are requested by a BBR user are passed by the Replay Server to a renderer that is appropriate for the source of the session. For example, Firefox sessions are passed to the Gecko renderer, while Chrome/WebKit sessions are passed to the Chrome renderer.
To render sessions that are captured from mobile devices for display in the web browser, the Replay server uses an embedded renderer that is based on the Chromium engine. For best results in replay of mobile-based sessions, use the Chrome browser in Browser-Based Replay. The Chrome renderer must be enabled.
Browser-specific styling cannot be appropriately applied to sessions that are delivered to a different type of browser. For example, WebKit-specific styles cannot be applied to a session that is rendered for and delivered to a Firefox browser.
Image capture screen dimensions for mobile devices
If the CX Mobile license and extended user agent parsing is enabled, captured images are displayed in the screen dimensions that are used on the mobile device.
This device is the same device from which the native application session was captured.
For mobile native application sessions, image display is determined by the Logging Framework, which always screen captures the currently configured resolution for the device. The dimensions cannot be configured in BBR for mobile native application sessions.
For the Android logging framework, the screen capture dimensions are represented in the left navigation bar, and the image is resized in BBR. If the Android device has a width or height fewer than 320 pixels, the image is not scaled.
BBR session replay
In BBR, you can review screen images by selecting the appropriate items in the Navigation List. These entries signify that a new view is loaded but not populated with data yet.
In the Navigable Pages List, mobile native application views and user interface changes are not numbered.
Interaction timing
If your mobile native application enables web-based interactions with a web server that is monitored by Tealeaf, these web interactions are transmitted as soon as they occur.
Mobile native application interactions are batched and submitted periodically. They are timestamped by the PCA after web interactions, which are submitted in real time. During replay, the web interactions can be listed and displayed before the mobile native application interactions that occurred beforehand.
Depending on how data is captured by the Logging Framework and client application, user data can be available in the Navigable List entries between the screen capture entries.
Recommended Browser-Based Replay configuration
For best results in displaying sessions through BBR, make the specified configuration settings in BBR.
Options that are not referenced here can be specified based on your Tealeaf environment.
| Setting | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| View > User Agent Info | Do not select. | By default, user agent information is not populated for mobile native applications. |
| Options > Page Numbering > Use Hit Numbers | Select. | When the list of pages is displayed by hit number, then items are numbered in the following format:
where:
|
| Options > Page Naming > Use Page Title | Select. | When selected, you can easily see which pages are marked as Tealeaf
Target. Some of the Tealeaf Target pages identify the screen captures to review.
When deselected, pages are displayed by URL, which may require you to widen or scroll the Navigable Page List to review. |
| Options > Advanced > Merge Session Fragments | Do not select. | Because mobile native applications are sessioned in a different manner, this option does not work for mobile native application display. |
| Options > Advanced > Report Javascript Errors | Do not select. | Does not apply. |
| Options > Resize View to Match Session | Do not select. |
A toggle option, Resize View to Match Session is set to enable (indicated by a check mark) by default. When enabled, the Resize View to Match Session option allows specific functions (if present) to be replayed and accommodated in BBR. When enabled, this option resizes the pane in BBR automatically to accommodate the screen dimensions that are used by the visitor's user agent. Resizing the view optimizes and improves the mobile session viewing experience. This setting requires user agent information to apply. |