Introduction to scripted browser monitors

Scripted browsers emulate a custom user experience by scripting browsers that navigate your website, take specific actions, and ensure specific elements are present. Selenium WebDriver drives scripted monitors. Each time your script runs, New Relic creates a fully virtualized Selenium-driven Chrome or Firefox browser that navigates your website and follows each script step. Synthetic monitoring includes an IDE-style script editor that suggests functions, locators, and other elements to simplify scripting. See Scripted browser reference for a list of all available functions.

How to create a scripted browser monitor

Go to one.newrelic.com > All capabilities > Synthetic monitoring.
Click Create monitor.
Select the User flow / functionality tile to test the availability and functionality of your site in different locations.
Configure the monitor. Fill in the fields you want. Add a name for your monitor. Select the browsers and emulated devices you would like to test.
Click Select locations to select the location you want to test the monitor.
Click Write script to add your script describing the actions you want the monitor to take. The monitor pre-fills the editor with an example script you can work from, or you can remove this and start from scratch.
Click Validate if you want to test your script. This may take a few minutes depending on the script.
Click Save monitor.

Visit a URL

All scripts begin by specifying which URL the monitor should navigate to. To specify a URL, call $webDriver.get("url"):

await $webDriver.get("https://mywebsite.com");

Sequence actions

Because WebDriverJS is asynchronous, scripting actions can sometimes execute out of order. To force script actions to execute in order, use the await keyword:

await $webDriver.get("https://my-website.com");
await $webDriver.findElement($selenium.By.linkText("Configuration Panel"));

You can also wrap each action in a then(function(){}) call. But, in that case, the wrapped function must return each asynchronous function to ensure they complete before the script moves on:

$webDriver.get("https://my-website.com").then(function(){
    return $webDriver.findElement($selenium.By.linkText("Configuration Panel"));
});

To connect multiple actions in sequence, wrap each action in a then(function(){}) call, and chain the calls together:

$webDriver.get("https://my-website.com").then(function(){
    return $webDriver.findElement($selenium.By.linkText("Configuration Panel"));
}).then(function(){
    return $webDriver.findElement($selenium.By.partialLinkText("Configuration Pa"));
});

Locate elements

Once you've specified a URL to monitor, you'll usually want to locate a particular element on the page. Locating an element verifies its presence on the page, and also allows you to interact with page elements.

You can locate elements by their class, id, link text, name or even XPath. To find these attributes, use your browser's developer tools or view your website's source code. For a list of all locator functions, see Locators: Find page elements.

Locate an element by its HTML class, for example class="button". A class is usually specified for CSS styling. When locating an element by class, the monitor will select the first element on the page that has that class:

await $webDriver.findElement($selenium.By.className("button"));

Locate an element by its exact HTML id, for example id="edit-submit". This is a straightforward way to locate page elements, but be careful to specify an id that isn't likely to change.

await $webDriver.findElement($selenium.By.id("edit-submit"));

For an example of locating an element by its id, see Wait for a specific element section.

Locate an element by its displayed link text, for example <a href="http://example.com>your link text here</a>. You can locate by the exact link text $selenium.By.linkText or by partial match $selenium.By.partialLinkText:

await $webDriver.findElement($selenium.By.linkText("Configuration Panel"));

await $webDriver.findElement($selenium.By.partialLinkText("Configuration Pa"));

Locate an element by its exact HTML name, for example name="search-query-field". This is most commonly used with input fields such as a search box:

await $webDriver.findElement($selenium.By.name("search-query-field"));

For an example of locating an element by its name, see Log in to a website.

For more complex page structures, you can use XPath to locate the target element:

await $webDriver.findElement($selenium.By.xpath("//input[@placeholder = 'search-query-field']"));

XPath selectors can break when your website's structure changes. For tips on building good XPath selectors, see Optimizing XPath selectors.

Tip

To quickly find the XPath for a particular element, use your browser's developer tools. For example, from Chrome:

Navigate to the target website from Chrome.
Right-click the target element, then select Inspect element.
From the Developer Tools panel that opens automatically, look for the highlighted target element.
Right-click the target element, then select Copy XPath.

Interact with elements

Because a scripted monitor drives a real, Selenium-powered Chrome or Firefox browser, scripted monitors can interact with page elements in the same way a user would. For example, the monitor can click a link, enter text in a search box, etc. For a list of available actions, see ActionSequence: Link multiple actions.

First, locate the page element, then call an interaction function:

To click on a link or other page element, locate the element and call the click() function:

await $webDriver.findElement($selenium.By.linkText("Configuration Panel")).click();

await $webDriver.findElement($selenium.By.className("config-panel-02")).click();

For an example of clicking a located element, see Locate by link text.

Tip

You can control the mouse in other ways with the doubleClick(), dragAndDrop(), mouseDown, mouseUp, and mouseMove functions.

To enter text in a field, locate the field and call the sendKeys() function:

await $webDriver.findElement($selenium.By.name("search-query-field")).sendKeys("EXAMPLE USER NAME");

await $webDriver.findElement($selenium.By.id("search-q-box")).sendKeys("EXAMPLE USER NAME");

Some fields may have default text in them. Clear these fields before sending text to them:

await $webDriver.findElement($selenium.By.name("search-query-field")).clear();

await $webDriver.findElement($selenium.By.id("search-q-box")).clear();

For an example of entering text in a field, see Locate by link text.

Tip

You can add modifier keys, such as ALT and SHIFT with the keyDown() and keyUp() functions.

Waiting and timeouts

Large page elements, such as images or complex dynamic content, can take a long time to load. Your script may fail if the monitor tries to interact with or find an element that has not yet loaded.

To avoid these issues, set wait conditions that will pause the script until the specified page element is present, or sequence actions manually. For a list of conditions, see Conditions: Pause and wait for conditions.

Important

After a maximum run time of three minutes, New Relic manually stops the script.

Instruct the monitor to wait for the page title to match a certain value. This ensures that the browser has at least received some data from the target page. To wait for page title, specify an expected title and a timeout value in milliseconds:

//Call the wait function
await $webDriver.wait(async function() {
  //Tell the monitor to get the page title.
  var title = await $webDriver.getTitle();
  //Specify the expected page title.
  return title === "Your Page Title Here";
//If the condition is not satisfied within a timeout of 1000 milliseconds (1 second), proceed anyway.
}, 1000);

For an example of waiting for page title, see Wait for page title.

Instruct the monitor to wait for a page element to be present. This is useful when an element your script depends on takes a long time to load, or simply to ensure that a page element is present before your script clicks on it.

Use any of the locate functions with the wait function below. Use your desired function instead of the $selenium.By.linkText function used below:

// Tell the monitor to wait up to 7,500 milliseconds (7.5 seconds) for a link whose text is `Your Link Text Here`.
var linkText = "Your Link Text Here"

var element = await $webDriver.wait(
  $selenium.until.elementLocated(
    $selenium.By.linkText(linkText),
  ),
  7500,
  'Timed-out waiting for element to be located using link text: "' +linkText+ '"',
);
// Wait for the element to be visible
await $webDriver.wait(
  $selenium.until.elementIsVisible(element),
  7500,
  "Timed-out waiting for element to be visible using ${element}",
);

Important

elementIsVisible() will fail to find an element if it's entirely behind another element or if it has a size of 0. It will still find elements with 0 opacity.

Manually log results to the script log

You can also manually log monitor results to the script log. Use logging to troubleshoot a script: to discover which step of your script is failing, include a log function along with each key step in your script.

Important

The maximum log length is 50,000 bytes. Script logs larger than 50,000 bytes are truncated.

To log a line of static text, call console.log():

//Send `Hello world.` to the console log.
console.log('Hello world.');

This results in the output:

// ----------------------------------- Console log
Hello world.

In addition to logging static text, you can also pass variables to console.log():

//Declare the variable `WEBSITE_URL`
var assert = require('assert'),
  WEBSITE_URL = 'https://my-website.com/';

console.log('Hello world.');
//Load the website specified in `WEBSITE_URL`
await $webDriver.get(WEBSITE_URL);
//Log our success to the console
console.log('Success for', WEBSITE_URL);

Look for these results:

// ----------------------------------- Console log
Hello world.
Success for https://my-website.com/

Unblock analytics services

Synthetics blocks popular analytics services' scripts from running by default. You can allow scripts to run for a specified service(s). This allows the service's scripts to run and collect data like it would for a real user.

//Allow Google Analytics scripts to run
await $urlFilter.addToAllowList(['google-analytics.com']);

//Visit https://my-website.com
await $webDriver.get('https://my-website.com');

Customize the user agent

You can customize the scripted browser's user agent to ensure any browser-specific fixes in your app are working properly, or to bypass a security mechanism in order to filter an internal site.

//Simulate Internet Explorer 10.6
$headers.add('User-Agent', 'Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 10.6; Windows NT 6.1; Trident/5.0; InfoPath.2; SLCC1; .NET CLR 3.0.4506.2152; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 2.0.50727) 3gpp-gba UNTRUSTED/1.0');

//Visit http://httpbin.org/user-agent
await $webDriver.get('http://httpbin.org/user-agent');

Important

This only spoofs the user-agent HTTP header for the request to the server. It doesn't change the value of navigator.userAgent.

Import optional modules

You can also import many popular Node.js modules to enhance your test suite, automate the insertion of test data, and simplify complex functions. For more information, see Importing Node.js modules.

Important

For Non-Legacy Runtimes

The script environment contains write protected directories. If your script requires storing files, prepend any of the following paths to the filename:

runtime/input-output/input/
runtime/input-output/output/

Introduction to scripted browser monitors

How to create a scripted browser monitor

Visit a URL

Sequence actions

Locate elements

Locate by CSS class

Locate by HTML ID

Locate by link text

Locate by name

Locate by XPath

Tip

Interact with elements

Click page elements

Tip

Enter text

Tip

Waiting and timeouts

Important

Wait for page title

Wait for a specific element

Important

Manually log results to the script log

Important

Log static text

Pass a variable to the log function

Unblock analytics services

Customize the user agent

Important

Import optional modules

Important

Introduction to scripted browser monitors

How to create a scripted browser monitor .css-21sua1{background:none;border:none;width:0;padding:0;}

Visit a URL

Sequence actions

Locate elements

Locate by HTML ID

Locate by link text

Locate by name

Locate by XPath

Interact with elements

Click page elements

Enter text

Waiting and timeouts

Important

Wait for page title

Wait for a specific element

Manually log results to the script log

Important

Log static text

Pass a variable to the log function

Unblock analytics services

Customize the user agent

Important

Import optional modules

Important

How to create a scripted browser monitor