Unusual Characters and Anchors in Single URL Monitors

     When creating a Single Endpoint Monitor in AlertSite, it is important to remember that these website monitors use an emulated browser and not a full browser window to load the page being tested. Because of this, a URL that references an anchor on the page within the URL string may fail with a 'Bad Request' or 'Not Found' error from the server, even though the same URL works fine in normal browser and DejaClick.

     For example; the URL for the page "https://support.smartbear.com/alertsite/docs/alerts/delivery/index.html#email" has an anchor reference.

 

 

     This page actually directs to "https://support.smartbear.com/alertsite/docs/alerts/delivery/index.html"and then the server tells the browser to move the window to the "#email" anchor lower down on the page. In some cases, the server can handle the anchor in the URL and will respond with a 200 OK. Often, however, the server cannot handle the request correctly because there is no real browser window to move lower, it’s an emulated request, and thus an error is triggered.

     The solution for this is to either test only the main page without any anchors or references in the URL, or to use DejaClick or Selenum to test the full URL instead of using a Single URL Monitor.