Help Menu

What is a monitor?

A monitor is the workhorse of the service. These technological marvels perform all the work of monitoring for defined conditions under which they must dispatch alerts.

We offer the following monitor types:

• At Ping: An alert is generated when a ping is received.
• Heartbeat: At least one ping is expected within a certain elapsed period. An alert is generated if a ping is not received with the elapsed period.
• Last Ping: Every ping specifies when the next ping must be expected. An alert is generated if a ping is not received at the expected time.
• Measured: Used to measure the elapsed time between stop and start pings. Alerts on anomaly in expected duration.
• Regular Interval: A ping is expected at regular intervals. An alert is generated if a ping is not received at the expected time.
• Scheduled Repeatable Alert: An alert is automatically generated on a specific date and time. The alert can optionally repeat on a preset time schedule (once every hour, once a month, once a year, etc.).
• Web Content: An alert is generated when specified content is present on, or absent from, a specific public web page.
• Web Response: An alert is generated when a specific public web page is inaccessible, or when it takes longer than a specified number of seconds to respond.

What is an At Ping monitor?

An At Ping monitor dispatches an alert every time it receives a ping, and that's the only time it would dispatch an alert.

This type of monitor is useful when the decision that an alert must be dispatched occurs outside of our service, and you just want to use our comprehensive email, SMS, chat, and push alerting infrastructure to dispatch the alerts.

What is a Heartbeat monitor?

A Heartbeat monitor expects to receive at least one ping within a defined elapsed period of time, and sends alerts when it does not receive the expected ping(s).

The ping interval clock starts ticking when you create the monitor, using the monitor start date that you supply.

Whenever you change the monitor start date or the expected ping interval, the ping interval clock is reset and recalculated.

Every time that a ping is received, the ping interval clock is reset and recalculated. For example, if a monitor expects at least one ping every 60 minutes, when it receives a ping, the next 60 minute period starts at the time when that ping was received.

With this type of monitor you can send a ping, with the word fail in the pingCustomCode field, to indicate that the monitored service failed. You can also send a ping with the word reset in the pingCustomCode field, to reset the status of the monitor to OK.

This type of monitor is useful to check that ongoing events are actually ongoing, such as the execution of long-running batch jobs, etc.

What is a Last Ping monitor?

A Last Ping monitor is similar to a Regular Interval monitor, except that the expected arrival of a ping is not determined by a set interval.

In this case, every ping carries with it the date and time when the next ping should be expected.

With this type of monitor you can send a ping, with the word fail in the pingCustomCode field, to indicate that the monitored service failed. You can also send a ping with the word reset in the pingCustomCode field, to reset the status of the monitor to OK.

Other than that, this type of monitor functions exactly like a Regular Interval monitor.

What is a Measured monitor?

A measured monitor measures the elapsed time between two different events, and it dispatches an alert if the duration was shorter or longer than an expected duration.

The measurement period clock is started by sending a ping to the monitor with the value of start in the pingCustomCode field. The clock is stopped by sending a ping with the value of stop in the pingCustomCode field.

An alert is dispatched when the stop ping is received and there was an anomaly in the measured duration.

With this type of monitor you can send a ping, with the word fail in the pingCustomCode field, to indicate that the monitored service failed. You can also send a ping with the word reset in the pingCustomCode field, to reset the status of the monitor to OK.

This usefulness of this type of alert is legion, because it can alert on too short durations and too long durations.

What is a Regular Interval monitor?

A Regular Interval monitor expects to receive a ping at regular intervals, and sends alerts when it does not receive the expected pings.

The ping interval clock starts ticking when you create the monitor, using the monitor start date that you supply.

Whenever you change the monitor start date or the expected ping interval, the ping interval clock is reset and recalculated.

You can specify a number of grace seconds to allow after the expected arrival time of a ping before deciding that an alert must be dispatched.

With this type of monitor you can send a ping, with the word fail in the pingCustomCode field, to indicate that the monitored service failed. You can also send a ping with the word reset in the pingCustomCode field, to reset the status of the monitor to OK.

This type of monitor is useful to check on the regular occurrence of events, such as the execution of batch jobs, arrival or departure events, etc.

What is a Scheduled Repeatable Alert monitor?

A Scheduled Repeatable Alert monitor automatically sends an alert at a predetermined (scheduled) date and time.

Optionally, you can configure the monitor to repeat the alert at predetermined intervals, for example, once every year, once every hour, etc.

This type of monitor is useful when you want to schedule and forget a future-dated alert.

What is a Web Content monitor?

A Web Content monitor visits a specific external web page at regular intervals and checks the content of the page for the presence or absence of one of the following:

• A simple text string anywhere on the text content of the page (HTML is not evaluated).
• An Xpath selected node anywhere in the HTML of the page.
• A text string inside the text content of an XPath selected node.

You can also trigger an unscheduled check of the web page by sending a simple ping (no parameters) to the monitor. This unscheduled check does not modify the regular check interval of the monitor.

Xpath is an incredibly powerful tool that you can use to check for anything on the web page.

We evaluate the content of the page when it is fully loaded and after all JavaScript has executed.

The monitor sends an alert when the specified text or node is either absent or present, depending on how you configure the monitor.

It also sends an alert if the target web page is unreachable.

The following are samples of the potential use cases:

• Verify the integrity of a web site by monitoring the home page (the first thing to be defaced by hackers).
• Check for the appearance of a desired retail item on the sales pages of an online retailer.
• Check for the disappearance of a specific item from the pages of a competitor, so that you can increase the price of your item.
• Receive an alert when a "discount" label appears on a specific item.
• Receive an alert when the text "out of stock" disappears from the description a specific item.
• Let your imagination run free...

Try the following Google searches for more information on XPath:

• Xpath Tutorials
• Xpath Cheatsheets
• Xpath Testers & Evaluators
• YouTube Xpath Tutorials

How can I test a Web Content monitor to make sure that it works?

If you create a monitor that uses XPath filters, you would probably want to test it to make sure that it will produce the desired result.

We suggest the following steps, if you want an alert when an item is absent:

1. Create the XPath filter on the monitor.
2. Set the monitor to alert you when the item is present.
3. Send a ping to the monitor and verify that you received an alert.
4. Change the monitor to send an alert when the item is absent.

To test a monitor that send an alert when an item is present, just do the inverse of above. First test for absent and then set the monitor to check for present.

What is a Web Response monitor?

A Web Response monitor visits a specific external web page at regular intervals and performs the following checks:

• Whether the web page is accessible and responds with a 20x HTTP response code.
• Whether the page responds within the number of seconds that you specified in the monitor configuration.

The monitor sends an alert when the either of the checks above fails.

You can also trigger an unscheduled check of the web page by sending a simple ping (no parameters) to the monitor. This unscheduled check does not modify the regular check interval of the monitor.

How do I pause and resume a monitor?

There are two ways to pause and resume monitors, namely:

• Modify the monitor and toggle the pause indicator.
• Send a ping with the value of pause or resume in the pingCustomCode field.

Whilst paused, a monitor does not consume any credits.

Can a monitor send more than one type of alert, such as an email and an SMS?

Yes, monitors can send the same alert to multiple external platforms at the same time. See the alert service article for a list of types of alerts that we support.

Each external platform account or destination is configured as an alert service, which is then connected to the monitor. That effectively tells the monitor, "When you send an alert, send a copy of the alert to all these alert services."

Why does my monitor not send alerts to some or all of the selected alert services?

The following could be the reason why that happens:

• If your account is at the Free Plan or the Built-In Resources Plan level, then alerts will not be sent via bespoke alert services, even though they might be selected as alert services of the monitor.
• If your account is at the Bespoke Resources Plan level, then alerts will not be sent via built-in alert services, even though they might be selected as alert services of the monitor.
• The monitor might be paused.
• Your account might be out of credits for the monthly period.
• Your account might be in arrears in the billing payments.

How do I create a monitor?

To create a monitor, use the steps below:

1. Use Configure, Monitors, Create Monitor in the menu.
2. Fill out the form.
3. Click the Save button.

How do I change or delete a monitor?

To change or delete a monitor, use the steps below:

1. Use Configure, Monitors in the menu.
2. Click the black menu bar icon of the monitor.
3. Choose the desired action from the drop down menu.

How many monitors can I create in my user account?

There is no limit to the number of monitors that you can create in your user account.

What happens when I delete a monitor?

Deleting a monitor will delete the monitor and any pings, alert logs, and monitor status logs that were attached to the monitor.

Can I move or copy a monitor to another partition?

No, monitors cannot be moved or copied between partitions.