How Observer Works: A Behind-the-Scenes Look

Today, I’m thrilled to share some insider info that’ll give you a sneak peek into the machinery that powers Observer. If you’ve ever wondered what happens under the hood when you add your website to Observer, or how it impacts your site, you’re in for a treat. So, let’s dive into the world of microservices, optimization, and clean architecture that keeps Observer running smoothly.

At Observer, we’re not just about monitoring; we’re about optimizing and ensuring your website performs its best. That’s why we’ve embraced a microservice architecture, allowing us to fine-tune each aspect of our service without a hitch. With a team predominantly from a developer background, it’s no surprise we obsess over optimization and clean code.

Let me walk you through the various services that make Observer tick.

1. Dashboard App

Think of the Dashboard as your mission control for Observer. It’s here that you get to see all the crucial data about your website’s health and performance.

Built with Angular on the front end and .NET on the back end, and hosted on the Azure Container Service, it not only visualizes data from other services but also handles all the user interactions for managing and tracking websites.

2. Uptime Service

Our Uptime Service is like your website’s guardian angel, constantly checking to ensure it’s up and running. Through regular HTTP requests, it keeps an eye on your site’s heartbeat. Should anything change, it alerts you and other services immediately. Uptime service also has its own sub-services globally deployed to ensure comprehensive uptime checks.

When leveraging Observer’s Uptime Service, it dispatches an HTTP request to your website once every minute. However, it’s important to note that this service doesn’t download the resources, making it significantly lighter than a regular website visit. This ensures that monitoring your site’s availability won’t negatively impact your site’s performance or inflate your traffic numbers.

3. Page Performance Service

This handy service measures how swiftly your page and its resources load. It’s all about giving you insights into response times, resource sizes, and more, ensuring your website offers top-notch user experience.

The Page Performance Service performs what could be considered a regular visit every hour to check your website’s response time and the sizes of resources it loads. This ensures we’re always on top of how your site is performing from a speed and user experience perspective, with the impact being no more than that of an additional visitor each hour.

4. Lighthouse Service

Ever heard of Lighthouse? It’s an open source tool powered by Google for improving the quality of web pages. We run its tests daily using a Google Chrome browser simulator. This helps us ensure your site is optimized for speed, accessibility, and more.

Regarding our Lighthouse Service, we conduct a thorough test of your page daily. This process is equivalent to just two visits—one for mobile and one for desktop. This minimal impact approach allows us to gather essential performance and SEO insights without significantly affecting your site’s traffic or load.

5. Google Pagespeed Service

Understanding your website’s performance in the eyes of search engines is crucial, and that’s precisely where our Google Pagespeed Service comes into play. With Google Pagespeed’s direct impact on your site’s rankings and speed, we’ve harnessed the power of its API to bring you daily insights that are pivotal for your site’s online success.

But it’s not just about knowing your current Pagespeed score. On the Observer dashboard, you have access to an archive of your scores over time. This historical data is invaluable for spotting trends, identifying areas for improvement, and tracking how changes to your site affect its performance. Whether you’re tweaking your site’s design, optimizing content, or making other significant changes, you can directly observe how each action influences your Google Pagespeed score.

6. Domain Service

In the ever-evolving digital landscape, safeguarding your online identity is paramount. Our Domain Service meticulously monitors your domain’s WHOIS and DNS records, conducting daily checks to guard against unauthorized changes or potential security threats. This vigilant oversight ensures you’re immediately informed of any alterations, allowing for swift action to maintain your domain’s integrity.

7. Backup Service

The safety of your data is paramount, which is why our Backup Service takes comprehensive measures to ensure your websites and databases are always protected. By scheduling and executing regular backups, this service ensures you’re always prepared, no matter what. Beyond mere execution, our service meticulously tracks your scheduled backup jobs, performing them with precision and securely archiving the results for you. This not only guarantees the safety and availability of your data but also provides you with peace of mind, knowing your backups are managed efficiently and are easily accessible whenever you need them.

8. Report Service

Our Report Service goes beyond mere notifications; it’s your comprehensive insight into your website’s health and evolution. With options for both weekly and monthly reports, Observer offers a detailed overview of all changes and performance metrics within the selected period.

These reports not only document the modifications but also provide a performance comparison with previous periods, enabling you to track progress and identify trends. This functionality creates a valuable performance and change archive for users, serving as a critical tool for informed decision-making and strategic planning. With Observer, you’re not just monitoring your site; you’re mastering its development over time.

9. Notification Service

Our notification service manages all subscriptions and delivery process of notifications. We’re constantly working on expanding this service to include more customizable alert options. Stay informed with real-time alerts on any changes to your site via email and SMS.

10. User Service

Our User Service, a critical component designed to manage the intricacies of user interactions, memberships, and financial transactions. This service ensures that every aspect of your account, from registration to subscription management and payment processing, operates smoothly and securely.

11. Data Service

The Data Service stands as a beacon of innovation, harnessing the power of Machine Learning to transform vast amounts of website performance data into predictive insights. With the enormous size of data collected from the websites we track, Observer has the unique advantage of training ML models to foresee potential issues before they manifest.

This cutting-edge service aims to provide you with a deeper understanding and anticipatory alerts about your website’s health, going beyond the surface-level data to predict problems. By leveraging our Data Service, Observer offers you the chance to stay one step ahead, ensuring your website’s performance is not just reactive but preemptively optimized for the future.

Currently, this service is under development and is anticipated to be ready in the upcoming months, marking a significant milestone in proactive website management.

12. Obsy: Your AI-Powered Chatbot Assistant

Within the Observer ecosystem, Obsy stands out as a distinguished service, powered by the advanced capabilities of OpenAI. As an AI-driven chatbot, Obsy offers personalized guidance and insights into your website’s performance and optimization opportunities. It’s adept at analyzing your site’s data in real-time, providing tailored advice on enhancing speed, SEO, and overall user experience. Whether you’re navigating performance reports or seeking optimization tips, Obsy is your go-to source for immediate, intelligent assistance, making website management simpler and more effective.

13. Product Website

Last but not least, our product website, powered by a custom WordPress theme, showcases everything Observer has to offer. It’s where you can find all the information you need about our services.

Wrapping Up

And there you have it—a detailed look at the inner workings of Observer. By leveraging a clean architecture, we ensure each component of our service is performing optimally, providing you with reliable, comprehensive website monitoring and optimization. We’re committed to making your online presence as robust and efficient as possible.

Got any questions or need further details about how Observer can help your website? Feel free to drop us a line. We’re here to help and always excited to hear from our community. And remember, whether you’re a developer, marketer, or website owner, Observer is designed with your needs in mind.

Stay tuned for more updates and insights from Observer—your partner in digital excellence. Here’s to making the web a better place, one website at a time!