Interpret API test results

How to understand and visualize results from API tests run in Splunk Synthetic Monitoring through the request result timeline or performance KPIs chart.

Every run of an API test in Splunk Synthetic Monitoring produces a set of diagnostics that help you understand the performance of your application in real time.

View API test history

On the Test History page, view a customizable summary of recent run results so you can assess the performance of your test at a glance.

  1. To open the Test History view for a test, select its row in the Tests list.

  2. You can take the following actions in the Test History page:

    • Select Edit test to edit your test configuration.

    • Select Create detector to create a detector based on your test. See Detectors and alerts to learn more.

    • Select Actions > Pause test to pause your test.

    • Select Actions > Duplicate test to make a copy of your test. This opens the New API Test page with the details of the test pre-filled.

Customize the Performance KPIs chart

See Test performance KPIs.

View results for a specific run

To navigate to the Run results view for a single run, select a data point in the Performance KPIs chart with the visualization interval at Run level and the segmentation set to Location.

If you’re viewing aggregate data (for example, at a 20-minute interval instead of run level), selecting a data point zooms you in to see run-level detail. Then you can select a specific run to see the Run results from there.

You can also select a row in the Recent run results table below the Performance KPIs chart.

Interpret API test run results

Every run of an API test generates a set of results and metrics.

Note: In API tests, non-200-level response codes do not automatically indicate the failure of a request step. A request is considered a failure when the request/response cycle cannot be completed. Use an Assert step to validate a response code. See API tests for endpoints to learn more.

Request result timeline

The request result timeline is an interactive tool you can use to explore and validate the results of each API test.

In the request result timeline, select the request you’re interested in viewing. You can take the following actions for each request:

  • Validate the setup of your test by checking that the assertions, JavaScript code, and extractions are correct.

  • View a detailed summary of the request:

    • Response header and body, and request info.

    • Response body size.

    • Response time, DNS time, TTFB and other metrics.

  • View connection information, such as certificate status and TLS handshake events.

  • Check alerts and warnings associated with each test.

Metrics for API tests

In addition to these diagnostics, every run of an API test produces a set of metrics that offer a picture of website performance. See API test metrics for a complete list of these metrics.

(Optional) Splunk RUM integration

Integrate with Splunk RUM so that you can automatically measure Web Vital metrics against your run results. Web vitals capture key metrics that affect user experience and assess the overall performance of your site. For more, see Compare run results to Web Vitals with Splunk RUM.