Configure User Monitoring and Session Replay

ComponentsRUM JSRUM ExtRUM Windows

Availability2017.1 or later

Configure User Monitoring & Session Replay

Setup steps for monitoring

Data Privacy & Exclusions

Mask and exclude sensitive data

Advanced Configuration

Fine-tune monitoring settings

Advanced Session Replay Customization

Tailor replay capture behavior

Configure User Monitoring & Session Replay

Overview

GermainUX User Monitoring & Session Replay can be configured globally or for individual UX Monitoring Profiles.

AI summaries: GermainUX can AI-summarize any individual session, so you know what the user did without replaying it. It can also summarize a bulk set of sessions at once (for example 1,000 or 100,000 sessions) to surface the top recurring frictions. See AI-Generated Session Summaries.

Configuration controls:

Whether Session Replay is enabled
Which applications and users are monitored
When sessions end
Maximum recording duration
How changes in username affect sessions
Which events and transactions appear in Session Replay

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How user activity periods are identified
Dead, error, and rage click monitoring
Privacy, masking, and data exclusions
Bot, crawler, IP address, username, and headless-browser exclusions
Phrases of Interest
Custom Session Replay insights and timeline events

Configuration depends on the RUM component used:

GermainUX RUM JS
GermainUX RUM Extension
GermainUX RUM Windows

For application-specific configuration, first check the applicable GermainUX Integration guide.

Before You Begin

Before configuring User Monitoring & Session Replay:

Deploy the appropriate RUM component

Verify that monitoring data is reaching GermainUX

Identify the applications and users to monitor

Review your organization's privacy, security, consent, and data-retention requirements

Check whether a dedicated GermainUX Integration guide exists for the monitored application

Use the Integration Guide When Available

Many applications and technologies have dedicated GermainUX Integration guides. These guides can include application-specific configuration for:

RUM JS
RUM Extension
RUM Windows
User identification
Application and page identification
Session Replay

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Privacy and masking
Application-specific KPIs
Business transactions and workflows

When an Integration guide is available, follow its application-specific configuration instructions in addition to the general settings described on this page. View GermainUX Integrations

Access UX Monitoring Profiles

Most application-specific User Monitoring settings are configured through: Germain Workspace -> Settings -> Analytics -> UX Monitoring Profiles

UX Monitoring Profiles management view- GermainUX

Select the UX Monitoring Profile for the application or user population you want to configure. Global User Monitoring and Session Replay settings are available under: Germain Workspace -> Settings -> System -> UX and Session Replay Settings Global settings apply across applicable UX Monitoring Profiles.

Session Replay Configuration

Enable or Disable Session Replay for a Profile

Session Replay is enabled by default for each UX Monitoring Profile. To change this setting:

Go to Germain Workspace -> Settings -> Analytics -> UX Monitoring Profiles

Select the profile

Enable or disable Session Replay Monitoring

Click Save

This setting affects only the selected UX Monitoring Profile.

Disable Session Replay Globally

To stop collecting Session Replay data across all profiles:

Go to Germain Workspace -> Settings -> System -> UX and Session Replay Settings

Disable Session Replay Data

Click Save

The global setting takes precedence over individual UX Monitoring Profile settings.

Configure Session Timeout

By default, an ongoing session times out when GermainUX receives no new event for one hour. The session is then marked Timed Out and closed. The next event starts a new session. To change the timeout:

Go to Germain Workspace -> Settings -> System -> UX and Session Replay Settings.
Locate the Session Replay section.
Update Session Timeout, in minutes.
Click Save.
UX and Session Replay Settings - GermainUX

Recording Configuration

Configure Maximum Recording Duration

By default, GermainUX does not impose a maximum Session Replay recording duration. For applicable RUM configurations, use:

settings.constants.maxSessionDurationMillis

For example, to limit a recording to one hour:

settings.constants.maxSessionDurationMillis = 3_600_000; // One hour

The value is specified in milliseconds.

Start a New Session When the Username Changes

Use:

settings.constants.createNewSessionIfUsernameChanges

to control how GermainUX handles multiple user logins from the same monitored browser or desktop.

Behavior	Setting
Create a separate session when the username changes	`settings.constants.createNewSessionIfUsernameChanges = true;`
Keep activity in the same session when the username changes	`settings.constants.createNewSessionIfUsernameChanges = false;`

Add the appropriate setting to the applicable monitoring configuration. Use separate sessions when a shared browser or desktop can be used by multiple authenticated users and their activity should remain distinct.

Session Replay Player Configuration

Configure Events & Transactions

The Session Replay player displays correlated events and transactions alongside the recording. By default, it includes every KPI configured as a child of the User Session Replay KPI. To control which KPIs appear:

Go to Germain Workspace -> Settings -> Analytics -> KPIs.
Select User Session Replay.
Update Child KPIs.
Click Save.
Events and Transactions Stream - GermainUX

This allows Session Replay to correlate the user’s visual experience with relevant business, application, and technology events. Examples can include:

Errors
User Feedback
Business transactions
Conversion events
Application events
Performance events
Custom KPIs

Configure User Activity Periods

Orange bars at the top of the Session Replay player identify periods of user activity.

Each period represents a sequence of user events within the monitored application. To configure which event types contribute to activity periods:

Go to Germain Workspace -> Settings -> System -> UX and Session Replay Settings

Locate the Session Replay section

Update User Activity

Click Save

This setting applies to all applicable UX Monitoring Profiles.

User Interaction Monitoring

Configure Dead, Error & Rage Click Monitoring

GermainUX can identify:

Signal	Description
Dead Clicks	— interactions where the expected response does not occur.
Error Clicks	— interactions associated with an application error.
Rage Clicks	— repeated interactions that may indicate user frustration.

These signals can help identify unresponsive controls, application failures, and UX friction. See ConfigureDead, Error & Rage ClickMonitoring for detailed configuration.

Data Privacy & Exclusions

GermainUX provides controls over the user and application data captured by User Monitoring & Session Replay. Depending on your organization’s requirements, data can be:

Excluded
Masked
Anonymized
Encrypted

Configure privacy controls before broad production deployment. See the applicable Data Privacy Configuration documentation for detailed masking, exclusion, and privacy settings.

Exclude Bots & Crawlers

Bots and crawlers can be excluded from User Monitoring & Session Replay to prevent automated activity from affecting UX analytics or consuming unnecessary storage. Default exclusions include:

Baiduspider
Bingbot
DuckDuckBot
Exabot
Facebot and FacebookExternalHit
Googlebot

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ia_archiver
Sogou
Slurp
YandexBot

Default bot and crawler exclusions can be enabled during initial RUM JS deployment using the Bot/Crawler Agent Exclusion option. To update exclusions for an existing profile:

Go to Germain Workspace -> Settings -> Analytics -> UX Monitoring Profiles.
Select the profile.
Update Excluded User Agents.
Click Save.

Include or Exclude IP Addresses

IP ranges can control which clients are eligible for User Monitoring.

Option	Description
Excluded IP Ranges	Prevent selected IP addresses or ranges from being monitored.
Included IP Ranges	Restrict monitoring to selected IP addresses or ranges.

Included ranges take precedence over excluded ranges. Both lists are empty by default. An empty Included IP Ranges list means all IP addresses are eligible for monitoring. To configure IP filtering:

Go to Germain Workspace -> Settings -> Analytics -> UX Monitoring Profiles

Select the profile

Add or modify Excluded IP Ranges or Included IP Ranges

Click Save

IP filtering can be useful for excluding:

Synthetic users
Test environments
Internal traffic
Administrative systems

Configure User Monitoring and Session Replay: Include or Exclude IP Addresses

Exclude Usernames

Specific users can be excluded from monitoring. Typical examples include:

Automated accounts
Synthetic users
Administrative accounts
Test accounts

The monitoring component must first identify the username. If the extracted username matches an entry in Excluded Usernames, GermainUX stops collecting monitoring data for that user. To configure excluded users:

Go to Germain Workspace -> Settings -> Analytics -> UX Monitoring Profiles.
Select the profile.
Update Excluded Usernames.
Click Save.

Exclude Headless Browsers

Headless browsers can be excluded to prevent automated or synthetic scenarios from being recorded as real-user activity. To configure this setting:

Go to Germain Workspace -> Left Menu → Settings -> Analytics -> UX Monitoring Profiles.
Select the profile.
Enable or disable Exclude Headless Browsers.
Click Save.

Advanced Configuration

Phrases of Interest

Phrases of Interest allow GermainUX to detect specified text or regular expressions displayed in a monitored application. When a match occurs, GermainUX creates a record under the Phrase of Interest Appeared KPI and identifies the event in the recorded session. Phrases of Interest can identify events such as:

Application errors
Warnings
Promotional discounts
Out-of-stock messages
Confirmation messages
Business-process states
Compliance-related language

Add a Phrase from Session Replay

To create a Phrase of Interest directly from a recorded session:

Open Session Replay.
Highlight the text to monitor.
Right-click the selected text.
Select Add text to Phrases-of-Interest.
Add text to Phrases-of-Interest - GermainUX
Review the new entry under Analytics -> UX Monitoring Profiles -> [Profile].

The phrase is monitored in subsequent sessions associated with the profile.

Use a Regular Expression

Regular expressions can be used when the text being monitored varies. To configure one:

Go to Analytics -> UX Monitoring Profiles -> [Profile] -> [Phrase of Interest].
Verify Phrase-of-interest is added - GermainUX
Enable Regex.
Enter the regular expression.
Click Save.

For example, the following expression can detect discounts from 60% through 99%:

\([6-9][0-9]%\sOFF\)

Create a Watch from a Phrase of Interest

A Watch can notify users when a Phrase of Interest appears. From Session Replay, select Add Watch on this Phrase-of-Interest.

A Watch can be configured to notify:

The next time the phrase appears
Every time the phrase appears
Every time it appears until a specified date

Configure User Monitoring and Session Replay: Create a Watch from a Phrase of Interest

This allows an observed user experience to become a continuously monitored condition.

Advanced Session Replay Customization

Add a Custom Insight or Timeline Event

Custom Insights can add organization-specific events to the Session Replay player. For example, an eCommerce organization can add an Add to Cart timeline event that identifies every product-addition event during the session. To configure a custom timeline event:

Go to Germain Workspace -> Settings -> System -> System Settings -> UI Config.
Navigate to: Analysis Dashboards -> User Session Replay -> portlets -> Replay of User Session -> timelineEvents
Click Add.
Configure the timeline event.
Click Create.

Configuration Reference

Field	Example	Purpose
`Name`	`Add to Cart`	Name of the custom configuration.
`targetFramework`	`shopify`	Target framework, such as Salesforce, Shopify, or Generic.
`kpiName`	`Shopify Product Added to Cart`	KPI containing the events to display.
`kpiFilter`	`name == 'Product Added'`	Filter selecting the relevant KPI events.
`eventModel`	JSON configuration	Controls how the event appears on the Session Replay timeline.

eventModel Example

{
  "label": "Add to Cart",
  "tooltip": "Product added",
  "color": "black",
  "height": 10,
  "icon": "fa-solid fa-cart-shopping",
  "zIndex": 1,
  "timelinePosition": "above"
}

After the configuration is saved, the custom insight becomes available across applicable recorded sessions and the configured marker appears on the timeline whenever a matching event occurs.

Validate the Configuration

After changing User Monitoring or Session Replay configuration:

Start a controlled test session.
Perform representative user actions.
Confirm that the session reaches GermainUX.
Open the Session Replay.
Verify that expected user activity is captured.
Verify the Events & Transactions stream.
Confirm configured activity periods.
Verify applicable Dead, Error, and Rage Click detection.
Verify Phrases of Interest when configured.
Confirm custom timeline events when configured.
Verify that excluded users, IP addresses, bots, and headless browsers are handled correctly.
Confirm that privacy, masking, and exclusion rules are applied as expected.

Security & Privacy

User Monitoring & Session Replay can capture detailed information about user interactions with monitored applications. Before production deployment:

Action	Recommendation
Capture only information required	Capture only information required for the intended use case.
Configure masking and exclusions	Configure masking and exclusions for sensitive information.
Exclude sensitive areas	Exclude sensitive application areas where required.
Restrict access	Restrict Session Replay access to authorized users.
Review users & IP ranges	Review included and excluded users and IP ranges.
Data retention	Apply appropriate data-retention policies.
Review compliance	Review applicable privacy, consent, security, and compliance requirements.
Validate privacy	Validate privacy settings using controlled test sessions.

Additional Resources

Configure Session Replay Player
KPIs related to User Monitoring and Session Replay
API of User Monitoring and Session Replay
Session Replay Player
Troubleshoot User Monitoring and Session Replay
AI Insights & Recommendations
More Analytics Features
More Automation Features
Dashboard & Reports
Management Features.

Get Help

Contact GermainUX Support

The GermainUX team helps you get up and running faster, empower your team, turn data into actionable insights, and optimize performance to deliver measurable business outcomes.

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The content of this document is proprietary to GERMAIN SOFTWARE.

Configure User Monitoring & Session Replay

Data Privacy & Exclusions

Advanced Configuration

Advanced Session Replay Customization

​Configure User Monitoring & Session Replay

​Overview

​Before You Begin

​Use the Integration Guide When Available

​Access UX Monitoring Profiles

​Session Replay Configuration

​Enable or Disable Session Replay for a Profile

​Disable Session Replay Globally

​Configure Session Timeout

​Recording Configuration

​Configure Maximum Recording Duration

​Start a New Session When the Username Changes

​Session Replay Player Configuration

​Configure Events & Transactions

​Configure User Activity Periods

​User Interaction Monitoring

​Configure Dead, Error & Rage Click Monitoring

​Data Privacy & Exclusions

​Exclude Bots & Crawlers

​Include or Exclude IP Addresses

​Exclude Usernames

​Exclude Headless Browsers

​Advanced Configuration

​Phrases of Interest

​Add a Phrase from Session Replay

​Use a Regular Expression

​Create a Watch from a Phrase of Interest

​Advanced Session Replay Customization

​Add a Custom Insight or Timeline Event

​Configuration Reference

​eventModel Example

​Validate the Configuration

​Security & Privacy

​Additional Resources

​Get Help

Contact GermainUX Support

Can't find what you need?

Configure User Monitoring & Session Replay

Overview

Before You Begin

Use the Integration Guide When Available

Access UX Monitoring Profiles

Session Replay Configuration

Enable or Disable Session Replay for a Profile

Disable Session Replay Globally

Configure Session Timeout

Recording Configuration

Configure Maximum Recording Duration

Start a New Session When the Username Changes

Session Replay Player Configuration

Configure Events & Transactions

Configure User Activity Periods

User Interaction Monitoring

Configure Dead, Error & Rage Click Monitoring

Data Privacy & Exclusions

Exclude Bots & Crawlers

Include or Exclude IP Addresses

Exclude Usernames

Exclude Headless Browsers

Advanced Configuration

Phrases of Interest

Add a Phrase from Session Replay

Use a Regular Expression

Create a Watch from a Phrase of Interest

Advanced Session Replay Customization

Add a Custom Insight or Timeline Event

Configuration Reference

eventModel Example

Validate the Configuration

Security & Privacy

Additional Resources

Get Help