Custom User Agent
CheckView allows you to set a custom user agent string for each test flow. This can help bypass bot detection mechanisms that block requests based on the default browser user agent.
When to Use a Custom User Agent
- Bot detection bypass: Some security plugins or CDN services block automated browser traffic based on the user agent string. Setting a custom user agent that mimics a standard browser can help avoid these blocks.
- Testing specific user agents: Verify how your site behaves when accessed by specific browsers or devices.
When Your Host Can’t Whitelist CheckView’s IPs
Some managed hosts and CDNs, such as BigScoots, don’t whitelist IP addresses for their bot protection. Instead, they skip their bot rules for requests whose user agent contains a word they give you. If your host offers this:
- Ask your host’s support for the exact word or string to use.
- Start from a normal Chrome user agent and add your host’s word to the end, rather than replacing the whole user agent with it. Your site still sees an ordinary browser that way. For example:
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/147.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 YourHostString - Set it on every test flow the host blocks, since the setting is per test flow.
This only changes the browser that runs your tests. It does not cover CheckView’s connection to your site’s REST API, so if connecting your website fails, you still need to whitelist CheckView’s IPs.
How to Configure
- Open the Test Flow you want to configure.
- Click the Settings gear icon.
- Navigate to Advanced Settings.
- In the Custom User Agent field, enter the user agent string you want to use.
- Click Save changes.
Important Notes
- The custom user agent replaces the default Chrome user agent for all requests in the test.
- If left blank, CheckView uses the default Chrome user agent.
- The custom user agent is specific to each test flow and does not affect other test flows.