Set up SessionSight
Mode: SessionSight and its configuration page are shown in Expert mode (sidebar footer toggle Mode: Basic / Expert).
Overview
SessionSight records what real visitors do in your application and turns it into something you can analyse: dashboards, heatmaps, funnels, session replays and navigation paths you can export as load-test scripts. Every page in the module reads the same session data, so almost all of the work is in the setup, and almost none of it is in the individual analysis pages.
Three objects carry the whole module:
| Object | What it is | Where it is configured |
|---|---|---|
| Tenant | The account scope that owns containers and channel grouping rules | Configuration: SessionSight: SessionSight |
| Container | One monitored web application within a tenant. Determines which pages, sessions and recordings you see | Configuration: SessionSight: SessionSight |
| Datasource | The store that receives session data, linked to a container | Configuration: Datasources, linked on Configuration: SessionSight: SessionSight |
Everything else - segments, goals, funnels, channel grouping, recording retention, the GA4 connection - is configured against a container on the same page, and then consumed by one or more analysis pages.
Before you begin
- The SessionSight module is licensed and visible in Expert mode.
- You can add the tracking to the web application you want to observe, and you know which application each container will represent.
- A datasource is available for SessionSight data. See Configuration: Datasources.
- You know which questions you need answered. The analysis pages have different prerequisites, and setting up only what you will use keeps the configuration small.
Steps
Step 1
Open Configuration: SessionSight: SessionSight. This single page is the configuration surface for the whole module: tenants, containers, the datasource link, segments, goals, funnels, channel grouping, session-recording retention and the GA4 connection all live here. Every analysis page in the module points back to it when something is missing.
Step 2
Create a tenant and, inside it, a container for each web application you want to observe, and link the container to its SessionSight datasource. Until a container exists and its datasource is linked, the Tenant and Container dropdowns on every analysis page stay empty and no page shows data. The container is also the scope for everything that follows: switching container switches the page list, the sessions, the funnels and the GA4 property.
Step 3
Instrument the application so session data reaches the container, then wait for real traffic. Pages, sessions and visitors appear only after genuine sessions have been collected: until then SessionSight: Heatmaps reports 0 pages and the dashboard panels stay empty. This is the one step in the module that cannot be hurried by configuration.
Step 4
Configure only what the pages you intend to use require. Each of these is defined on the configuration page from Step 1, against a container:
- Segments - saved filters (device, geography, a custom property) that narrow every panel to a subset of sessions. Used by the dashboard, heatmaps and visitor views.
- Goals - needed before the Goal Conversions section of the dashboard reports anything.
- Funnels - a named, ordered sequence of steps, each identified by a page URL pattern or a tracked event, with a choice of whether the steps must be completed in order. Without a funnel, SessionSight: Funnels shows "No funnels defined yet."
- Channel grouping rules - per tenant, these map raw traffic sources onto named marketing channels. Without them both breakdown panels on SessionSight: Attribution are empty.
- Session-recording retention - decides which containers are recorded and how long replays are kept, which is what SessionSight: Replay can offer you later.
Step 5
Connect Google Analytics 4 only if you want GA4 metrics beside your own. Store a Google service-account credential with read access to the GA4 property on Configuration: Credential Profiles, then complete the GA4 connection in the configuration page's GA4 section. The metrics on SessionSight: GA4 are scoped to the container active in the breadcrumb, so that container must be the one the GA4 connection was configured for.
Step 6
Start reading. SessionSight: Dashboard is the entry point: six KPI cards, a sessions-and-visitors time series, an event distribution panel and a realtime visitor counter. Pick a tenant, a container, an optional segment and a date range from one hour to seven days or a custom window. From there the module branches by question:
| Question | Page |
|---|---|
| What did this one visitor do? | SessionSight: Replay and SessionSight: Visitors |
| Where do people click, scroll and stall? | SessionSight: Heatmaps |
| Where do people drop out of a flow? | SessionSight: Funnels |
| Which channel or campaign drove conversions? | SessionSight: Attribution |
| What changed week over week? | SessionSight: Insights |
| What paths should my load test simulate? | SessionSight: Journeys |
Step 7
Turn observed behaviour into a load test. SessionSight: Journeys mines recorded page-view sessions for the navigation paths visitors actually followed, ranks the ones that meet a minimum support threshold, and exports a chosen path as a LoadGen Script. The exported script is then imported on Testing: Load Profiles and run like any other. This is the shortest route from real traffic to a representative test.
Verify the result
Open the dashboard, select the tenant and container, and set the date range to the last hour. Sessions and visitors should be non-zero and the realtime counter should move. The Visitors count is always less than or equal to Sessions, because one visitor can return across several sessions.
Then confirm that each feature you configured has data behind it. Heatmaps should list pages under the container rather than 0 total, a funnel should show one row per step, and Replay should offer recordings for the date range.
Expect a delay before some pages are useful. Heatmaps and funnels need enough sessions for the aggregate to mean anything, and Insights are generated periodically, so a container set up today has no insight to show at first.
Troubleshooting
- The Tenant or Container dropdown is empty on every page. The datasource is not linked to a container yet. Finish Steps 2 and 3 before anything else.
- Heatmaps shows 0 pages. No real sessions have been recorded for the container in the chosen date range. Widen the date range first; if it is still empty, the application is not sending data.
- Funnels says "No funnels defined yet." Funnels are defined on the configuration page, not on the Funnels page.
- Attribution's breakdown panels are empty although sessions exist. Channel grouping rules are missing for that tenant. Use Configure channel grouping, or add them on the configuration page.
- Goal Conversions is empty on the dashboard. No goal is defined for the container.
- The GA4 page shows no metrics. Either the connection was never completed, or the container active in the breadcrumb is not the one the GA4 property was connected for. Switch container and check again before re-doing the connection.
- A funnel's right panel shows a load error with a Retry button. The container's datasource is unreachable. Check it on Configuration: Datasources.