Chain HTTP requests
Persist cookies, extract values from JSON, headers, or regular expressions, and substitute them into later steps.
Synthetic transaction monitoring
Monitor multi-step login, checkout, and API flows.
Run ordered HTTP or browser steps, carry cookies and extracted values forward, and stop at the exact failed assertion so responders know where the journey broke.
Business includes transaction monitoring. Eligible first trials run for 14 days with no card required.
Why this check matters
Infrastructure can be healthy while the customer journey is broken.
A login can fail after the homepage loads. A cart can work until checkout calls a payment dependency. Synthetic transactions exercise the ordered steps and assertions that represent a completed journey.
What ServiceAlert checks
Drive a real browser
Use browser actions such as fill, click, press, wait, select, and navigation for JavaScript-heavy flows.
Stop at the failed assertion
Review per-step duration, response context, and the assertion that ended the run instead of receiving only a generic outage.
How to set it up
- 1
Choose an HTTP workflow or browser-login starter template.
- 2
Add ordered actions, value extraction, and assertions for each meaningful checkpoint.
- 3
Schedule the transaction and route the failed step into incident response.
What the results tell you
| Signal | Validation | Operational question |
|---|---|---|
| Session state | Cookies and extracted variables | Can later steps use the state created earlier? |
| HTTP contract | Status, body, header, JSON, and latency assertions | Did every API step return the expected result? |
| Browser journey | URL, title, text, and selector assertions | Did the user-facing flow reach the expected screen? |
| Failure location | Ordered per-step results | Which exact checkpoint failed first? |
Synthetic transaction monitoring FAQ
What can a synthetic transaction monitor test?
It can run multi-step API workflows or browser journeys such as login and checkout, with assertions after each meaningful step.
Can later steps reuse data from an earlier response?
Yes. HTTP steps can extract values from JSON, headers, or regular expressions and substitute those values into later URLs, headers, or bodies.
Which plan includes transaction monitoring?
Transaction monitoring is a Business and Enterprise feature. Basic single-endpoint HTTP and API monitors begin on Starter.
Getting started
Monitor completion, not just reachability.
Start with the login, checkout, or API workflow whose failure creates the most customer impact.