Monitoring a User Login Web Page

Users of Web sites often complain about difficulties with logging into those sites. The causes of those difficulties include user error and problems with Web server. Using up.time's HTTP (Web Services) monitor, you can monitor the page that users go to in order to login to a Web site.

NOTE: The HTTP (Web Services) monitor does not monitor the page that actually processes the login..

Anatomy of the Login Page

The login page will probably contain a form (denoted by the <form> tags) that describes how the fields on the page are used to process a user login. In a Web browser window, the login form will look something like this:

The following is the HTML code for the form illustrated above:

<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
     <form method="POST" action="login.aspx">
      <input type='hidden' name='state' value='LOGIN'>
        <tr>
               <td align='left' valign='top' nowrap>
                Username:
               </td>
              <td valign='top'>
                <input type='text' name='user' id='user' class='loginEntries' value='' maxlength='256'>
              </td>
           </tr>
          <tr'>
              <td align='left' valign='top' nowrap>
                Password:
                </td>
              <td valign='top'>
                <input type='password' name='password' id='password' class='loginEntries' value=''>
              </td>
            </tr>
 
             <tr valign='middle'>
                <td align='right' colspan='2'>
                  <input type='submit' name='login' value='Log In' title="Click this button to log in.">
              </td>
              </tr>
  </form> 
</table>

The variables that are needed to configure the monitor are enclosed in the blue <form> tags. The green POST variable indicates the HTTP POST function will be used in the service monitor instead of the GET function. The green login.aspx is the actual page on the Web server that will be monitored by the HTTP service monitor. The red variables are the POST variable settings that will be entered into the monitor template.

Monitoring the Login Page

To monitor a login page, do the following:

1. On the up.time tool bar, click Services.
2. In the Tree panel, click Add New Service Instance.

   The Add Service window appears.

3. In the Add Service window, click List agentless up.time monitors.
4. Select HTTP (Web Services) and then click Continue.
5. Select Advanced View from the dropdown list in the top right corner of the monitor template.
6. Enter a name for this monitor in the Service Name field -- for example, mySite.com Login.
7. Select the name of the server that you want to monitor from the Host dropdown list. For example, mySite.com.
8. Select the Use SSL option.
9. In the URI field, enter /login.aspx. This is the value of the 'action' field from the HTML source of the login page.
10. Enter the following in the Post String field:

    user=atestuser&password=atestpassword&login=Log%20In

    The post string is a combination of all of the input variables in the login form; these variables were colored red in the example above. Each input variable within the form should be listed in the post string with an ampersand separating the fields. For example, if the form has only two input variables, input_one and input_two, you would enter them like this into the Post String field:

    input_one=First%20Setting&input_two=Second%20setting

    Notice that %20 is used instead of a space. This ensures that the string can be safely parsed by a Web browser.

11. If the login was not processed correctly, the next page after the login will likely display an error. To track invalid logins, enter the text of the error message in the Warning or Critical fields of the Text to look for area of the monitor template.

    

    If the error message is found, then the monitor will fail and will send an alert if you configured it to do so.

12. Complete any of the other settings on the monitor template. For more information, see the section "HTTP (Web Services)" in the up.time 4 User Guide.