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Please see the WORKING WITH ... pages for further information of how the http timer can be used to monitor and diagnose your system.

Configuration

Configuration

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basics

Using the UI configuration interface no configuration is required at all as method sensor types are activated automatically if a profile defines such sensor assignment. 

Configuration using configuration file(s)

The http sensor needs to be defined in order to use it. This definition is already available within the sample inspectIT configuration file. In addition to just defining the sensor type, you can configure which data the http sensor should capture.

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method-sensor-type http info.novatec.inspectit.agent.sensor.method.http.HttpSensor MAX

Enabling session attribute capturing

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The HTTP session capturing setting is available under Sensor options part in the Environment configuration.

Configuration using configuration file(s)

 In order to activate this capturing you need to specify the "sessioncapture" configuration setting to true. 

Code Block
method-sensor-type http info.novatec.inspectit.agent.sensor.method.http.HttpSensor MAX sessioncapture=true

Sensor assignment

Usually you do not need to change the assignment of the http sensor as inspectIT provides an out-of-the-box assignment for the http sensor. You can have a look at this instrumentation at the file http.cfg in the Out-of-the-box instrumentation or in the HTTP Common profile if you are using UI configuration. If you want to make additional assignments, please be aware of the following rules:

  • The http sensor assumes that it is attached to methods that provide a ServletRequest object as first parameter. It will check if the given parameter is in fact also realizing HttpServletRequest as only this will provide the necessary http information. If the object does not realize this interface, nothing will be done
  • If you attach the sensor to a method that does not provide a HttpServletRequest (as runtime class of the object) within the first parameter, the sensor will never provide any information at all.

Other options

Regular expression URI modification

from version 1.5

Warning

Not available under UI based configuration interface.

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Expand
titleOld configuration settings...

The HTTP sensor definition brings the possibility to define the regular expression that can be used to transform the URI during the analysis in the User interface. The following example extracts the second part of the URI

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Code Block
method-sensor-type http info.novatec.inspectit.agent.sensor.method.http.HttpSensor MAX stringLength=500 regEx=/[\w]+/([\w]+).* 

With following settings, when activated in the User interface, following URI transformation occur:

Without RegEx transformationWith RegEx transformation

/dvdstore/browse
/dvdstore/checkout
/dvdstore/complete
/dvdstore/confirm
/dvdstore/dvd
/dvdstore/dvd/104
/dvdstore/dvd/112
/dvdstore/dvd/114
/dvdstore/dvd/118
/dvdstore/dvd/123
/dvdstore/dvd/129
/dvdstore/home

browse
checkout
complete
confirm
dvd
home

From above we can conclude that all the dvd actions have been grouped to one single group.

Warning
titleNo white-spaces allowed in RegEx

 Although matching white spaces is allowed in the regular expression, due to the limitations in reading the configuration file in this case it's not allowed.

Defining Templates

[DEPRECATED] Configuration using configuration file(s)

It is also possible to define the template that will be displayed in combination with the transformed URI. For example, the following settings:

Code Block
method-sensor-type http info.novatec.inspectit.agent.sensor.method.http.HttpSensor MAX stringLength=500 regEx=/[\w]+/([\w]+).* regExTemplate=Action:$1$ 

will substitute the $1$ marker with the first extracted group from the regular expression transformation. The same set of URI from the previous example, would now look like this:

Without RegEx transformationWith RegEx transformation

/dvdstore/browse
/dvdstore/checkout
/dvdstore/complete
/dvdstore/confirm
/dvdstore/dvd
/dvdstore/dvd/104
/dvdstore/dvd/112
/dvdstore/dvd/114
/dvdstore/dvd/118
/dvdstore/dvd/123
/dvdstore/dvd/129
/dvdstore/home

Action:browse
Action:checkout
Action:complete
Action:confirm
Action:dvd
Action:home

It is also possible to extract more groups with the regular expression and combine them into more meaningful transformation output. Since the first part of the example URIs we have

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is dvdstore, it is clear that that represents the name of our application. Thus, with following settings:

Code Block
method-sensor-type http info.novatec.inspectit.agent.sensor.method.http.HttpSensor MAX stringLength=500 regEx=/([\w]+)/([\w]+).* regExTemplate=Application:$1$,Action:$2$ 

We would extract both first and second part of the URI and with defined template, the example results would look like this:

Without RegEx transformationWith RegEx transformation

/dvdstore/browse
/dvdstore/checkout
/dvdstore/complete
/dvdstore/confirm
/dvdstore/dvd
/dvdstore/dvd/104
/dvdstore/dvd/112
/dvdstore/dvd/114
/dvdstore/dvd/118
/dvdstore/dvd/123
/dvdstore/dvd/129
/dvdstore/home
/someotherapp/home
/someotherapp/search

Application:dvdstore,Action:browse
Application:dvdstore,Action:checkout
Application:dvdstore,Action:complete
Application:dvdstore,Action:confirm
Application:dvdstore,Action:dvd
Application:dvdstore,Action:home
Application:someotherapp,Action:home
Application:someotherapp,Action:search

Warning
titleNo white-spaces allowed in RegEx Template

As for defining the regEx configuration, the regExTemplate configuration also can not have any white spaces, due to the limitations in reading the configuration file.

Tip

Check the Working with the HTTP sensor page for information on how to trun regular expression URI modification on/off in the UI.

Tip
titleCorrect regular expression

Make sure that you have defined the correct regular expression to be used. If the expression can not be compiled, transformation option will not be available on the UI. It's recommended that prior to defining the expression, same is tested against the URIs in monitored application.

Other options

String length

from version 1.3

This sensor enables the limitations of the string values collected. The HTTP sensor concretely can limit the maximum size of the strings collected as request parameters, attributes and headers, as well as session attributes collected.. The following definition will, for example, limit all the strings collected by the sensor to 500 characters:

Code Block
titleString length option configuration
method-sensor-type http info.novatec.inspectit.agent.sensor.method.http.HttpSensor MAX stringLength=500

You

Configuration using UI configuration interface

The string length configuration for all sensors is available in the Environment configuration. You can read more about string length limitations on Sensor type definition page.https://jira.novatec-gmbh.de/browse/INSPECTIT-439limitations Environment configuration page.