Dr. CanaryA little bird wrote it all down.
How to read a report: the grade, each finding, its capture, its page and the inspection date.
A check that publishes becomes a graded report, dated the day of the inspection. Each finding shows the screen or message a customer saw and the page it happened on, so you can see the problem for yourself and send it to whoever fixes it.
Five things to read first
The grade
A letter for the site’s health, with a line in words beside it. On the example it is a D: poor, two tools down.
A finding
A title in plain words for what a customer ran into, such as a trade-in tool that never shows a value.
Its capture
The screen the customer saw, with a red box on the part that went wrong. A finding can carry more than one.
Its page
The address of the page where it happened, beside the site it was on, so anyone can open the same page.
The inspection date
The day of the inspection, printed in the masthead. A report describes the site as it was on that day.
What a finding is
A finding is something a customer would have run into, shown with the evidence. Under its title and its page, the example report lays a finding out in up to five rows.
- Complaintwhat a customer ran into
- Causewhy it happened, where the evidence shows it
- Correctionopen, re-checked on the next inspection
- Evidencethe captures, one press each
- Observedwhat the bird saw happen
Around the findings, the report lists the vendor tools the bird found on the site and whether each one worked, and the customer journeys it tried and whether each one passed.
Queued, running, published
- Queuedthe check is accepted and waiting to start
- Runningthe bird is on the site
- Being put togetherthe check is done, the report is not
- Publishedthe report is ready to read
A queued check is not a finished one, and a finished check is not yet a published report. A check that finished is not a verdict about your site either: the verdict is in the published report.
Evidence the bird could not get stays unknown. It is not proof of a pass and is not reported as a fault.
Versions over time
With monitoring, every check that publishes adds a new version of the report, so the history shows when something broke.
A finding stays open until a later check tries the same thing again and it works. In your account, a passing re-check closes the issue. On the example report each open finding reads: open, re-checked on the next inspection.
Where reports live
- A store with a published inspection has a public page under
/dealers/, named for its website. - The directory at
/dealers/lists them, beside directories for providers, loan officers and consumer sites. - A monitoring customer reads each report, and its earlier versions, in their own Dr. Canary account.
- The example report shows a whole report, on a fictional store.
How to tell if something was fixed
Open both reports
The one with the finding, and a later one from the same site.
Find the same observation
The same page and the same thing a customer tried, in both.
Check it was tried again
A fix is confirmed when the later check tried the same thing and it worked.
Do not count a missing finding
A finding that is absent from the later report is not proof on its own. The later check may not have reached that page.
What it does not do
- A report is point-in-time. It states what the bird observed and could verify on the recorded date, not how the site behaves later.
- A check is automated. It can miss things and it can be wrong.
- A report is not a security audit, a legal or regulatory compliance certification, or a guarantee that a site is free of errors.
- Coverage is adaptive and non-exhaustive. A report covers what the bird reached, not every page and control on the site.
- Evidence the bird could not get stays unknown. A page that challenged the bird is reported as unverified, not as a fault.
- An absent finding does not prove that something works.
Ask your assistant
More examplesExplain the latest published report for my site and its evidence.
list_reportsget_report
Compare my last two reports. Was the trade-in finding fixed?
list_reportsget_report
It reads both reports and compares the same observation. A finding that is simply absent does not count as a fix.
Re-check my site and log it on the trade-in finding.
get_reportrequest_finding_recheck
It requests the ordinary site check, not a test of that one finding, and records the request on the finding. It can use your allowance and send the test inquiries your shopper has turned on. It needs monitoring.
Questions
What is a finding?
Something a customer would have run into on your site, with the evidence: a title in plain words, the page it happened on, and a capture of the screen the customer saw.
What does the letter grade mean?
It is the report’s health label for the site, with a line in words beside it that says why. On the example report the grade is a D, with two tools down.
My check finished. Why is there no report yet?
A finished check still has to be put together into a report before it is published. Until then the report reads as being put together. A finished check is not yet a published report.
A finding is gone from my new report. Is it fixed?
Not on that alone. Look for the same observation in the new report and check that the bird tried the same thing again and it worked. An absent finding is not proof.
Can I share a report?
Yes. Every plan includes the health label and a share link, so you can send the finding and its capture to the people who fix it.
Is a report a compliance certification?
No. A report is a good-faith technical assessment from an automated, point-in-time check. It is not a security audit or a legal or regulatory compliance certification.
Can I ask for a re-check of one finding?
With monitoring you can request a re-check from a finding. It runs the ordinary site check and records the request on the finding. It does not test that one finding alone.
