How do I create a Real Browser Check?

A Real Browser check allows you to monitor the user experience around performance for a single page or a multi-step user flow. For each page checked in a Real Browser check, Rigor captures a HAR file, or waterfall chart, that helps us see the performance of specific resources within the page.

You can use this type of check to monitor conversion paths or any path that requires multiple steps and must execute JavaScript.

Here are some ways to create Real Browser Checks in Rigor:

• From Scratch (single page)
• From Scratch (multi-step)
• Via Import (multi-step from Selenium IDE source code)

From Scratch (single page)

To create a new Real Browser Check from Scratch:

Navigate to Real Browser + New > From Scratch
OR
From the side navigation, click + New > Real Browser > From Scratch

On the Basic tab:

1. Name the check. Be sure to pick a unique, descriptive name so that you can determine the check’s function at a glance.
2. Supply a starting URL. The check will begin by going to this URL and the first step in the check will be within the context of this page.
3. Frequency. Define how often the check should run.
4. Check Active / Inactive. Use this slider to activate or pause the check.

On the Notifications tab:

1.  Select who is notified. Tell Rigor who, how, and when to alert users or groups if the check fails.
2. Location-specific alerts. Enable this to send additional alerts if a check fails consecutively from the same location multiple times. Alerts will send at the same frequency as configured in the main notifications settings.
3. Group alerts. Create groups to alert teams simultaneously.
4. Notification window. Select a specific timeframe to be notified of alerts. Some users set this to limit noise outside of business hours.
5. Escalations. Notify additional users if an alert goes unacknowledged.
   
   

From Scratch (multi-step)

You can easily add multiple steps to a Real Browser check. If you'd like to build a multi-step check, you should first open the initial URL (the same URL that you set on the Basic tab) in your browser.

For each step you would like to add to the user flow, you can ‘Inspect Element’ in your browser to identify an id, class, name, CSS Path, or XPATH to target each element. Once you know the correct way to target a specific element you can + Add Step in Rigor to configure the Real Browser check to interact with the element or wait for the element to be present on a page.

Rigor Real Browser checks can go to URLs, click links, fill out form fields, and select values from dropdown lists. They can also accept or dismiss alerts, run JavaScript and save values from JavaScript, and switch to an iframe or switch back to the main source code for a page.

Note: The most secure way to enter a password during your Real Browser Check is to create a Concealed Global Variable and use it in a Fill in field step, rather than using the Fill in password step.

See the following links to learn about advanced settings in Real Browser Checks:

• How do I include Authentication credentials in Real Browser Checks?
• What advanced settings are available for Real Browser Checks? 

To add steps, click Steps tab while editing a Real Browser Check and do the following:

1. Use + Add Step to create steps for your check that simulate user flow. There are two types of steps: actions and waits.
2. Use the hamburger icon to drag and re-order steps; use the trashcan icon to delete steps.
3. Click the Test button to queue up a test run in the Rigor system. Tests won’t affect reporting or trigger alerts but they can help diagnose whether test steps need to be edited to successfully simulate a path or user flow.
4. When you Test a before and after screenshot of each step will be created.

When a test comes back with a green ‘Test Result: OK’ you know that you can save the Real Browser check and expect to see ‘available’ results on runs unless some performance issue prevents the check steps from executing successfully.

Download Rigor Scripting Guide for more help creating multi-step Real Browser Checks from scratch.

Via Import (multi-step from Selenium IDE source code)*

If Selenium IDE is able to replay all of the steps without any errors (steps will be highlighted in green) then we can save & import. Please reference our full scripting guide here if first time! 

1. Save the Selenium IDE test case (command + S) or by clicking the disk icon in the upper right-hand corner.
   
   
2. Checks > Real Browser + New >  From File
   
   
3. Select your file to import > Import Rigor will automatically create the steps that correspond with the Selenium test and remove any steps that are duplicated by our system.
   
   

Note: Please make sure to hit the test button at the end all steps, this will be another way to make sure this will run within the Rigor ecosystem. After all the steps run without issue, we recommend that you save and manually trigger a live run as well. For further troubleshooting steps please refer here!