Identifying Issues in Session Replays: Real UI or Rendering Errors?

Eliott C. · 2024-12-31 10:05:53.976047+00

Our product is web based, and Some of Session replays show broken web UI. Is it real-user-experienced UI or just replay's rendering is gone somehow wrong?

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Identifying Issues in Session Replays: Real UI or Rendering Errors? | Mixpanel Community

4 comments

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kapa.ai
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Based on the information provided in the knowledge sources, I can address your question about broken web UI in Session Replays for web-based products.The broken UI you're seeing in some Session Replays could be due to a few factors: 1. Reconstruction issues: Session Replay works by reconstructing the changes made to the code that represents your app, rather than literally recording the screen. As explained in How does session replay work?, the replay is a code-generated rebuilding of what the HTML, CSS, and JS looked like at the time of the session. This reconstruction process might sometimes lead to rendering issues that weren't present in the actual user experience.2. Ad blockers or browser settings: According to the Session Replay (web) documentation, Mixpanel runs session replays in an isolated domain through an iframe for security reasons. This domain may sometimes be blocked by ad blockers or certain browser settings, which could result in broken UI in the replay.3. Performance impact: While Mixpanel's Session Replay is designed to have minimal impact on website performance, as stated in Session Replay (web) documentation, more complex and interactive pages may generate more data for rrweb and Mixpanel to handle. This could potentially lead to some discrepancies in the replay.To determine if the broken UI is a real user-experienced issue or a replay rendering problem, you should: 1. Cross-reference the replays with other data points in Mixpanel, such as error logs or user feedback. 2. Check if the issue is consistent across multiple replays or specific to certain browsers/devices. 3. Test your website with the Session Replay feature enabled to see if you can reproduce the broken UI.If you're still unsure, it might be worth reaching out to Mixpanel's support team for further assistance in diagnosing the issue.
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Eliott C.
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kapa.ai Is it normal that "Session Recording Checkpoint" event occurring 10 times at the same timestamp on a certain user?
kapa.ai
APP
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Let me check the knowledge base for you again. One moment! 📚
kapa.ai
APP
·
·
Based on the information provided in the knowledge sources, it is not normal for the "Session Recording Checkpoint" event to occur 10 times at the same timestamp for a single user. This situation appears to be an example of a technical hiccup in event tracking, specifically a case of successive event repeats.According to the Product analytics implementation hiccups that are easy to spot article, successive event repeats occur when an event is inappropriately tracked two or more times in a row from the same device. In your case, having 10 "Session Recording Checkpoint" events at the exact same timestamp is a clear indication of this issue.The article states: "If you see multiple songs by multiple users being played multiple times in a row (beyond a reasonable threshold), it's more likely the result of a bug than a sudden shift in user behavior. As well, if you look at the timestamp of all three events and they are within the same second of one another, thats because the events were tracked all at once by code rather than being spaced out by the amount of time it would realistically take to play a song three times."While this example refers to song plays, the same principle applies to your situation with the "Session Recording Checkpoint" event.The Mixpanel SDKs: Javascript Session Replay > Tips & Tricks While Implementing> documentation mentions that the "Session Recording Checkpoint" event is automatically emitted by the SDK when you capture Mixpanel session replays. It should not be firing multiple times at the exact same timestamp.To address this issue: 1. Check your implementation of the Mixpanel SDK, particularly how session recording is initialized. 2. Look for any duplicate calls to mixpanel.start_session_recording() in your code. 3. Consider reaching out to Mixpanel's support team for further assistance in diagnosing and resolving this issue.Remember, as the article suggests, if you're seeing patterns that seem too good to be true or just don't feel right, it's worth investigating further with the help of your engineering team.
kapa.ai is still learning and improving, please let me know how I did by reacting below.
ℹ️ Tip: Mention @kapa.ai in the thread for follow-ups or DM the app for 1-to-1 help.

kapa.ai
APP
·
·
Based on the information provided in the knowledge sources, I can address your question about broken web UI in Session Replays for web-based products.The broken UI you're seeing in some Session Replays could be due to a few factors: 1. Reconstruction issues: Session Replay works by reconstructing the changes made to the code that represents your app, rather than literally recording the screen. As explained in How does session replay work?, the replay is a code-generated rebuilding of what the HTML, CSS, and JS looked like at the time of the session. This reconstruction process might sometimes lead to rendering issues that weren't present in the actual user experience.2. Ad blockers or browser settings: According to the Session Replay (web) documentation, Mixpanel runs session replays in an isolated domain through an iframe for security reasons. This domain may sometimes be blocked by ad blockers or certain browser settings, which could result in broken UI in the replay.3. Performance impact: While Mixpanel's Session Replay is designed to have minimal impact on website performance, as stated in Session Replay (web) documentation, more complex and interactive pages may generate more data for rrweb and Mixpanel to handle. This could potentially lead to some discrepancies in the replay.To determine if the broken UI is a real user-experienced issue or a replay rendering problem, you should: 1. Cross-reference the replays with other data points in Mixpanel, such as error logs or user feedback. 2. Check if the issue is consistent across multiple replays or specific to certain browsers/devices. 3. Test your website with the Session Replay feature enabled to see if you can reproduce the broken UI.If you're still unsure, it might be worth reaching out to Mixpanel's support team for further assistance in diagnosing the issue.
kapa.ai is still learning and improving, please let me know how I did by reacting below.
ℹ️ Tip: Mention @kapa.ai in the thread for follow-ups or DM the app for 1-to-1 help.
Eliott C.
·
·
kapa.ai Is it normal that "Session Recording Checkpoint" event occurring 10 times at the same timestamp on a certain user?
kapa.ai
APP
·
·
Let me check the knowledge base for you again. One moment! 📚
kapa.ai
APP
·
·
Based on the information provided in the knowledge sources, it is not normal for the "Session Recording Checkpoint" event to occur 10 times at the same timestamp for a single user. This situation appears to be an example of a technical hiccup in event tracking, specifically a case of successive event repeats.According to the Product analytics implementation hiccups that are easy to spot article, successive event repeats occur when an event is inappropriately tracked two or more times in a row from the same device. In your case, having 10 "Session Recording Checkpoint" events at the exact same timestamp is a clear indication of this issue.The article states: "If you see multiple songs by multiple users being played multiple times in a row (beyond a reasonable threshold), it's more likely the result of a bug than a sudden shift in user behavior. As well, if you look at the timestamp of all three events and they are within the same second of one another, thats because the events were tracked all at once by code rather than being spaced out by the amount of time it would realistically take to play a song three times."While this example refers to song plays, the same principle applies to your situation with the "Session Recording Checkpoint" event.The Mixpanel SDKs: Javascript Session Replay > Tips & Tricks While Implementing> documentation mentions that the "Session Recording Checkpoint" event is automatically emitted by the SDK when you capture Mixpanel session replays. It should not be firing multiple times at the exact same timestamp.To address this issue: 1. Check your implementation of the Mixpanel SDK, particularly how session recording is initialized. 2. Look for any duplicate calls to mixpanel.start_session_recording() in your code. 3. Consider reaching out to Mixpanel's support team for further assistance in diagnosing and resolving this issue.Remember, as the article suggests, if you're seeing patterns that seem too good to be true or just don't feel right, it's worth investigating further with the help of your engineering team.
kapa.ai is still learning and improving, please let me know how I did by reacting below.
ℹ️ Tip: Mention @kapa.ai in the thread for follow-ups or DM the app for 1-to-1 help.