Monitoring the health of web page analytics code

• US 9,203,720 B2
• Filed: 10/30/2013
• Issued: 12/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ObservePoint, Inc.
• Original Assignee: ObservePoint, Inc.
• Inventors: Seolas, Robert K., Pestana, John, Broadbent, Tyler, Zinn, Richard A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zong, Ruolei
• Application Number:
  US14/067,758
• Publication Number:
  US 20140059219A1
• Time in Patent Office: 762 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224, 709/223, 709/225, 714/47.1, 714/47.2, 714/47.3, 714/48
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/362 Software debugging
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3692 for test results analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level

Abstract

A system for monitoring the “analytics health” or “tracking health” of a web page can include one or more modules that render analytics code on the web page. In one implementation, a monitoring service downloads one or more web pages from a web server. The monitoring service can attempt to render any analytics code on the web pages to see if the analytics code renders or executes as expected. The monitoring service can also perform basic text searches to identify analytics code, even if it cannot be rendered, and to determine if such code is present and correctly written in the web page. For web pages that require form input, the monitoring service can prompt the user for corresponding input, or retrieve pre-recorded user input from a store. The monitoring service can determine analytics health for web pages of interest in real-time.

Claims

1. In a computerized environment, a method for automatically monitoring whether a web page of interest is correctly configured to execute and track the number of user requests thereof, the method comprising:

receiving a web address associated with at least one webpage, wherein the at least one webpage comprises source code related to one or more website analytics objects;

identifying, within the source code of the at least one webpage, text associated with a website analytics objects;

analyzing the text to determine at least one predicted behavior of the website analytics object;

rendering the source code of the at least one webpage;

recording one or more behaviors of the rendered source code of the one or more website analytics objects; and

comparing the at least one predicted behavior of the website analytics object and the recorded one or more behaviors of the rendered source code of the one or more website analytics objects.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising identifying one or more settings for monitoring the presence and function of the one or more website analytics objects on the at least one webpage.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the one or more settings comprise a request to monitor the presence and function of the one or more website analytics objects in real-time, the method further comprising repeating receiving the web address associated with at least one webpage and rendering the source code of the at least one web page after an interval of 10 minutes or less.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

separately searching source code of the at least one web page for one or more website analytics objects;

wherein the search is performed without executing or rendering the source code.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising automatically determining that an expected website analytics objects on the at least one web page could not be executed.

6. The method as recited in claim 5, further comprising providing a low analytics health value for the at least one web page.

7. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the act of automatically determining that the analytics object could not be executed comprises:

identifying that the website analytics objects comprises one or more network requests for a file; and

determining that, when rendering the source code of the at least one web page, the request for the file was not made.

8. The method as recited in claim 5, further comprising:

automatically determining that user input is needed to complete processing of the at least one web page; and

sending one or more requests for pre-recorded user input in one or more forms.

9. The method as recited in claim 8, further comprising:

completing rendering of the source code of the least one web page with the user input; and

executing the website analytics objects.

10. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the website analytics objects comprises code for a tracking pixel.

11. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein:

the one or more website analytic objects comprises a signature for the at least one web page; and

the signature comprises a predetermined arrangement of web page source code content for the at least one web page.

12. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein source code of that at least one webpage comprises on one or more of a base domain, a transfer protocol, a file path, or a query string.

13. At a monitoring system in a computerized environment comprising one or more websites having one or more web pages and one or more sets of analytics code on one or more of the web pages, a method of automatically using stored workflow information to identify the presence and function of the analytics code on one or more web pages of interest, comprising:

receiving a web address associated with at least one webpage, wherein the at least one webpage comprises source code related to one or more website analytics objects;

analyzing the source code to determine at least one predicted behavior of a website analytics object;

identifying one or more forms in the at least one web page that need to be completed before at least one of the one or more web pages can be rendered completely;

automatically filling in the one or more forms with data corresponding to one or more stored workflows;

rendering the source code of the at least one webpage;

recording one or more behaviors of the rendered source code of the one or more website analytics objects; and

comparing the at least one predicted behavior of the website analytics object and the recorded one or more behaviors of the rendered source code of the one or more website analytics objects.

14. The method as recited in claim 13, further comprising identifying one or more settings for monitoring the presence and function of the one or more website analytics objects on the at least one webpage.

15. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein the one or more settings comprise a request to monitor the presence and function of the one or more website analytics objects in real-time, the method further comprising repeating receiving the web address associated with at least one webpage and rendering the source code of the at least one web page after an interval of 10 minutes or less.

16. The method as recited in claim 13, further comprising:

separately searching source code of the at least one web page for one or more website analytics objects;

wherein the search is performed without executing or rendering the source code.

17. The method as recited in claim 13, further comprising automatically determining that an expected website analytics object on the at least one web page could not be executed.

18. The method as recited in claim 17, further comprising providing a low analytics health value for the at least one web page.

19. The method as recited in claim 17, wherein the act of automatically determining that the website analytics object could not be executed comprises:

identifying that the website analytics object comprises one or more network requests for a file; and

determining that, when rendering the source code of the at least one web page, the request for the file was not made.

20. In a computerized environment comprising one or more websites having one or more web pages and one or more sets of analytics code on one or more of the web pages, a computer program product storage device comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors in a computerized system to perform a method comprising:

receiving a web address associated with at least one webpage, wherein the at least one webpage comprises source code related to one or more website analytics objects;

identifying within the source code of the at least one webpage text associated with a website analytics objects;

analyzing the text to determine at least one predicted behavior of the website analytics object;

rendering the source code of the at least one webpage;

recording one or more behaviors of the rendered source code of the one or more website analytics objects; and

comparing the at least one predicted behavior of the website analytics object and the recorded one or more behaviors of the rendered source code of the one or more website analytics objects.