Applications
Applications within DESK are logical constructs onto which customer applications—web sites, mobile apps etc.—are mapped for monitoring with regard to traffic from real users. It is implied therefore that such customer applications have an end-user interface. Typical end-user interfaces include browser-based interfaces of web applications or web sites and iOS- or Android-based interfaces of mobile apps running on smartphones or tablets.
The end-user interface determines the type of the application that is created within DESK. How DESK will obtain the monitoring data and which data will be collected differ for each application type. For example, for a web application running in a browser, a JavaScript code—the DESK RUM JavaScript—needs to be added or injected into the applications' HTML pages. See more details below for each application type.
For all application types except for web applications, the definition of the DESK application is generated when a customer creates the application and starts setting up the DESK monitoring. These application types are not monitored in an automated way. For web applications, this definition is automatically generated. More specifically, if your web applications are running on systems where you can install DESK OneAgent, DESK will automatically inject the RUM JavaScript code into the HTML pages. Therefore, every monitoring environment obtains automatically a default application named “My web application”. All RUM data are assigned to this application by default.
Application types supported by DESK
DESK supports different application types: web, mobile, AMP as well as rich client applications over apps running in a car up to IoT applications with user interactions. Each type is associated with different monitoring capabilities as well as a different UI within DESK. However, all types are permeated by common concepts like user sessions and user actions.
All HTML pages like static web pages or single page applications running on a browser are regarded as web applications. AMP applications are also web applications, but they follow the AMP (Google Accelerated Mobile Pages) specification, which doesn't allow the full deep monitoring, and therefore you don't get the same data. Mobile apps can be native mobile apps on iOS or Android, or hybrid apps accessed through a browser. The rest applications regard all digital touchpoints in your environment from traditional rich client applications to smart IoT applications or even Alexa skills. Such applications are supported through DESK OpenKit.
In the following, more information is provided for each application type.
- Web applications
| User interface | JavaScript enabled browser (mobile or desktop) |
| Monitoring approach | DESK RUM JavaScript |
| Injection type | Injection of the DESK RUM JavaScript can be done automatically by OneAgent or manually for agentless monitoring or by using the DESK browser extension. |
| How to get started | Define your applications via the "My web application" placeholder |
- AMP applications
| User interface | JavaScript enabled browser (mobile or desktop) – pages are following the AMP specification |
| Monitoring approach | DESK RUM JavaScript |
| Injection type | Injection is done manually by the customer by passing special AMP settings to the AMP pages. |
| How to get started | Set up AMP monitoring |
- Mobile apps
| User interface | Native mobile apps on iOS or Android |
| Monitoring approach | OneAgent for iOS or Android; for hybrid apps the browser part is monitored by the DESK RUM JavaScript |
| Injection type | No injection is required—lifecycle events, user actions and web requests are monitored out of the box. |
| How to get started | Get started with Android monitoring Get started with iOS monitoring |
- Applications empowered by OpenKit (custom applications)
| User interface | Any digital touchpoint a customer wants to monitor with Real User Monitoring from rich client applications over apps running in a car up to IoT applications with user interactions. The user interface could even be a hardware like Amazon Alexa. |
| Monitoring approach | DESK RUM JavaScript |
| Injection type | Injection is done by the customers themselves by using DESK OpenKit for their technology. |
| How to get started | Instrument your application using DESK OpenKit |