METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR REAL USER MONITORING

• US 20080114875A1
• Filed: 10/24/2007
• Published: 05/15/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dynatrace LLC (Dynatrace, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Gomez Acquisition Corp.
• Inventors: Cheng, Yuan, Breen, William Ryan, Mouline, Imad, Anastas, Paul, Lieberman, Allen
• Granted Patent: US 7,765,295 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/986 Document structures and storage, e.g. HTML extensions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

A system monitors browser operation on a web page to identify objects referenced by the web page. For objects referenced by the web page, the system tracks a performance metric associated with each object. The system performs post-processing on the performance metrics of objects referenced by the web page to create a performance record for that web page, and transfers the performance record to a remote server for analysis of performance of web page operation in the browser.

Claims

1. A method for identifying performance of web page operation in a browser, the method comprising:

monitoring browser operation on the web page to identify objects referenced by the web page;

for objects referenced by the web page, tracking a performance metric associated with each object;

performing post-processing on the performance metrics of objects referenced by the web page to create a performance record for that web page; and

transferring the performance record to a remote server for analysis of performance of web page operation in the browser.

2. The method of claim 1 comprising:

determining if the browser operation on the web page is subject to monitoring.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein determining if the browser operation on the web page is subject to monitoring comprises:

obtaining performance collection information from a computer system on which the browser is operating;

transmitting the performance collection information to the remote server to determine if the computer system on which the browser is operating is subject to monitoring; and

receiving a response from the remote server.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein receiving a response from the remote server comprises:

identifying a filter; and

receiving notification that performance collection information from the computer system has been compared against the filter to determine that the browser operation on the web page is subject to monitoring.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein determining if the browser operation on the web page is subject to monitoring comprises:

determining the browser operation on the web page is subject to monitoring based on performance collection information residing on a computer system on which the browser is in operation;

determining that the performance record has been transmitted to the remote server; and

terminating the monitoring of the web page if the performance record has been transmitted.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein for objects referenced by the web page, tracking a performance metric associated with each object comprises:

parsing the web page to identify objects subject to tracking the performance metric.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein parsing the web page to identify objects subject to tracking the performance metric comprises:

identifying objects including at least one of;

i) an image;

ii) a cascading style sheet identifier;

iii) a portion of executable code;

iv) a frame;

or

v) a user identified tracking tag.

8. The method of claim 6 comprising:

notifying an object handler that the parsing of the web page is completed, the object handler associated with an interface that allows access to the objects on the web page; and

receiving notification to terminate parsing the web page.

9. The method of claim 8 comprising:

capturing a timestamp associated with the parsing of the web page.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein notifying the object handler that the parsing of the web page is completed comprises:

detecting an event status associated with the web page, the event status including at least one of;

i) a successful download of the web page;

ii) an error incurred by the web page a download of the web page; and

iii) an aborted download of the web page.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein for objects referenced by the web page, tracking a performance metric associated with each object comprises:

for each object referenced by the web page, adding an object handler to an interface that allows access to the objects on the web page.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein for each object referenced by the web page, adding the object handler comprises:

creating an event status associated with the object; and

capturing a timestamp for the event status associated with the object.

13. The method of claim 12 comprising:

determining a status associated with the object based on an analysis of the event status and the timestamp, the status associated the object including at least one of;

i) cached;

ii) blocked;

iii) successfully downloaded;

iv) unsuccessfully downloaded;

or

v) aborted.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein performing post-processing on the performance metrics of objects referenced by the web page to create a performance record for that web page comprises:

obtaining at least one characteristic associated with the computer system on which the browser is in operation; and

storing performance collection information on the computer system, the performance collection information including at least one of;

i) the at least one obtained characteristic associated with the computer system on which the browser is operating; and

ii) the performance record.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein performing post-processing on the performance metrics of objects referenced by the web page to create a performance record for that web page comprises:

creating a graphical representation of the performance record; and

providing a graphical user interface in which to render the graphical representation of the performance record.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein performing post-processing on the performance metrics of objects referenced by the web page to create a performance record for that web page comprises:

calculating a load time associated with at least one of;

i) at least one object on the web page; and

ii) the web page.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein performing post-processing on the performance metrics of objects referenced by the web page to create a performance record for that web page comprises:

determining an action performed by a user based on at least one of;

i) a time stamp associated with the web page; and

ii) an object handler associated with the web page.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein performing post-processing on the performance metrics of objects referenced by the web page to create a performance record for that web page comprises:

detecting that an error occurred on the web page;

identifying a level of reporting associated with monitoring of the web page; and

modifying the level of reporting associated with monitoring of the web page, based on the error that occurred on the web page.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein transferring the performance record to a remote server for analysis of performance of web page operation in the browser comprises:

comparing at least one characteristic associated with the performance record with a threshold that determines an acceptable performance record;

determining the at least one characteristic associated with the performance record exceeds the threshold;

transmitting an alert to the remote server, the alert indicating that the performance record exceeds the threshold; and

discarding the performance record.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein transferring the performance record to a remote server for analysis of performance of web page operation in the browser comprises:

detecting that the performance record has been created; and

determining that the performance record has not been transmitted to the remote server.

21. A computer readable medium encoded with computer programming logic that when executed on a process in a computerized device monitors performance, the medium comprising:

instructions for monitoring browser operation on the web page to identify objects referenced by the web page;

for objects referenced by the web page, instructions for tracking a performance metric associated with each object;

instructions for performing post-processing on the performance metrics of objects referenced by the web page to create a performance record for that web page; and

instructions for transferring the performance record to a remote server for analysis of performance of web page operation in the browser.

22. A computerized device comprising:

a memory;

a processor;

a communications interface;

an interconnection mechanism coupling the memory, the processor and the communications interface;

wherein the memory is encoded with an performance monitoring application that when executed on the processor is capable of monitors performance on the computerized device by performing the operations of;

monitoring browser operation on the web page to identify objects referenced by the web page;

for objects referenced by the web page, tracking a performance metric associated with each object;

performing post-processing on the performance metrics of objects referenced by the web page to create a performance record for that web page; and

transferring the performance record to a remote server for analysis of performance of web page operation in the browser.