Configuration for User Monitoring and Replay
Step-by-step configuration of Germain UX's User Session Monitoring and Session Replay.
Enable
By default, User Session Replay is enabled for each User Monitoring Profile. If it has been disabled, you can re-enable it by following these steps:
Go to Germain Workspace > Left Menu > Analytics > UX Monitoring Profiles
Select a profile
Check Session Replay Monitoring and click :save: Save to apply your changes
Disable
You can disable User Session Replay for each UX Monitoring Profile by following these steps:
Go to Germain Workspace > Left Menu > Analytics > UX Monitoring Profiles
Select a profile
Uncheck Session Replay Monitoring and click :save: Save to apply your changes
You can also disable User Session Replay for all profiles at once by turning off Session Replay Data in the general UX and Session Replay Settings. Please follow the steps below:
Go to Germain Workspace > Left Menu > System > UX and Session Replay Settings
Disable Session Replay Data and click :save: Save to apply your changes
Session Timeout
By default, any ongoing session will time out if no event has been collected one hour after the last received event. The session will be marked as 'Timed Out,' and the ongoing session will be closed. The next event received after this timeout threshold will start a new session.
To configure the Session Timeout threshold, follow the steps below:
Go to Germain Workspace > Left Menu > System > UX and Session Replay Settings
Update the Session Timeout (in minutes) field in the Session Replay section to the desired value
Click :save: Save to apply your changes
Session Recording
Length
You can configure Germain UX so that the user session is recorded for a fixed length, e.g., 1 hour. By default, there is no limit on the session recording duration.
Use settings.constants.maxSessionDurationMillis
in the Init Script to set the maximum session recording duration.
The following code sample demonstrates how to configure it for 1 hour:
settings.constants.maxSessionDurationMillis = 3600; // 1 hour value in milliseconds
Mode
Germain UX gives you the option to
Record separate session for each user login. Add this line in the initScript of the Germain UX - RUM Js (or RUM Ext):
JSsettings.constants.createNewSessionIfUsernameChanges = true;
Record a single session for any logins that are issued from the same browser/desktop
Add this line in the initScript of the Germain UX - RUM Js (or RUM Ext):CODEprofile:settings.constants.createNewSessionIfUsernameChanges = false;
Events and Transactions Stream
The list of events and transactions available on the right-hand side of the user session replay player is configurable. By default, we show all KPIs that can be correlated with the User Session Replay; however, you can disable some from the player by following the steps below:
Go to Germain Workspace > Left Menu > Analytics > KPIs
Select User Session Replay KPI
Update the Child KPIs multi-select list
Click :save: Save to apply your changes
Dead, Error and Rage Click Monitoring Configuration
More details on Dead, Error and Rage Click Monitoring
User Activity
User activity periods are represented by orange bars at the top of the Session Replay player. These periods of time represent multiple consecutive events done by the end user on the monitored application.
To configure what type of events you want to take into account to generate these activity periods and what shouldn’t, follow the steps below. This configuration applies to all UX Monitoring Profiles:
Go to Germain Workspace > Left Menu > System > UX and Session Replay Settings
Update the User Activity multi-select field in the Session Replay section (all events selected in the list will generate user activities)
Click :save: Save to apply your changes
Data Privacy (GDPR, PCI)
Similar to any other data collected by Germain, you have full control over the data captured by Germain's JS or browser extension. You decide what data is collected, what isn't, and whether the data is encrypted or anonymized. All of these configurations are customizable according to your preferences.
Bot/Crawler Agent Exclusion (Googlebot, Yandex bot, etc)
You can disable User Experience Monitoring for selected user agents. Use this feature if you don’t want UX monitoring data from particular bots, crawlers, or end users' browsers.
By default, we exclude the following bots:
Baiduspider
Bingbot
DuckDuckBot
Exabot
Facebot and Facebookexternalhit
Googlebot
Ia_archiver
Sogou
Slurp
YandexBot
Configuration:
You can enable or disable default Bot/Crawler Agent Exclusion settings when deploying RUM JS monitoring for the first time by activating the Bot/Crawler Agent Exclusion option on the wizard.
To update the Bot/Crawler Agent Exclusion list, follow the steps below:
Go to Germain Workspace > Left Menu > Analytics > UX Monitoring Profiles
Select a profile
Add/Modify/Remove user agents under Excluded User Agents
The following example displays all enabled default excluded user agents.
User/IP Exclusion
Blacklist and Whitelist IP Configuration
You can enable or disable User Monitoring and Replay for selected IPs or IP ranges.
Use the blacklist feature if you don’t want UX monitoring data, e.g., from your automated or synthetic users.
Use the include feature if you want UX monitoring data only from certain desktops/users (whitelist settings will override blacklist settings).
By default, the blacklist and whitelist are empty. An empty whitelist means that UX monitoring is enabled for all IP addresses. You can provide either a single IP or a comma-separated start IP and end IP.
Configuration:
To configure Blacklist/Whitelist IP, follow the steps below:
Go to Germain Workspace > Left Menu > Analytics > UX Monitoring Profiles
Select a profile
Add a new IP exclusion under Excluded IP Ranges
Add a new IP whitelist under Included IP Ranges
The following example shows one excluded IP (10.0.1.1) and one whitelisted IP range (all IP addresses between 192.168.0.0 and 192.168.255.255, including start and end, will be included).
Exclude User Names Configuration
You can disable User Monitoring for selected named users. Use this feature if you don’t want UX monitoring data from your automated or synthetic users.
Note: User Monitoring and Replay will be deployed for all users as it needs to extract the username first, but the monitoring will not start if the extracted user belongs to the Excluded Usernames list.
Configuration:
To configure User Exclusion, follow the steps below:
Go to Germain Workspace > Left Menu > Analytics > UX Monitoring Profiles
Select a profile
Add/Modify/Remove usernames under Excluded Usernames
The following example shows three users who are going to be excluded, and the User Monitoring data will not be collected for them.
Exclude Headless Browsers Configuration
You can disable User Monitoring for all headless browsers . Use this feature if you don’t want UX monitoring data from your automated synthetic scenarios.
Configuration:
To configure, follow the steps below:
Go to Germain Workspace > Left Menu > Analytics > UX Monitoring Profiles
Select a profile
Enabled/Disable under Exclude Headless Browsers