Specifications

Chapter 8: Monitor Transactions Based
on Keystrokes
Application Response is designed to use windowing activity and other types of
typical application activity to recognize transactions and measure their
response times. For example, Application Response can detect when a user
presses a key on the keyboard, and it can identify non-printing characters,
such as Enter and Ctrl. (In the application rule, you define these events using
the Windows KeyPress event action.) To maintain security, however,
Application Response does not indicate specifically which printable keys
(letters, numbers, and punctuation) are pressed.
For some applications, however, you may want to be able to determine the
specific keys that users press (the printable text that they type) to help
recognize transactions. Consider the following examples:
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A transaction may involve a user entering a particular text string in a text-
entry field of a form. For example, you want to make sure that all
customer support representatives are able to log into Remedy quickly.
(Their login response time threshold is shorter than the login threshold for
other types of users.) All support representatives' login names begin with
CS. So you define a transaction that involves the user typing the letters
"CS" (and other letters) in the Login User Name field, followed by clicking
OK.
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An application requires the user to enter text commands in an entry field.
To monitor the response times of these text commands, Application
Response needs to be able to recognize the text commands as they are
typed. For example, suppose that, whenever a user enters a formula in a
Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, you want to monitor the response time
required to complete the calculation. To do this, you define a transaction
that begins when the user performs a mouse click or types Tab or Enter,
then types the equal sign (=) in a cell (along with other text defining the
formula), and then presses Enter.
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In these cases, to be able to recognize transactions to monitor, Application
Response must be able to determine the keys that users press. To allow
Application Response to monitor these applications: you must enable the
AR agent to monitor individual keystrokes. Then you can write rules that
recognize transactions based on the specific keys that users press.
Warning: This technique may introduce a security hole in your infrastructure.
By examining an event log file and reconstructing the keystrokes entered by a
user, unauthorized users may be able to learn passwords and other text-based
security mechanisms, thereby compromising system security. This security
issue exists only when you use the recording agent to generate an event log
file or when you enable transaction logging to view transaction details through
Monitor Transactions Based on Keystrokes 93