Dedicated Cloud Devices

All paid plans include Dedicated Cloud Devices.

When you configure a monitor in Distill, you decide whether checks run on your local machine using extensions, Distill’s cloud servers, or now, using your own Dedicated Cloud Device. These devices are a new type of client that act like local browsers hosted in Distill’s infrastructure. They preserve browser data such as cookies, local storage, proxies, etc., so that you can maintain consistent page state across checks.

Pro Tip: Think of each Dedicated Cloud Device as your personal browser in the cloud.

Benefits

• Multi-Site Support: Works with any number of websites, a benefit over profiles. If you want to access multiple accounts for one website, you can create multiple devices.
• Persistence: Each device keeps its own browser profile to save cookies, local storage, proxies, etc. You can configure cloud monitors to use these devices to perform checks.
• Multi-Tab Support: The dedicated cloud devices view supports tabs. You can open multiple tabs while configuring a device.
• On-Demand Debugging: When an issue occurs while performing a check, such as unexpected popups, Captchas, or layout changes, you can open the page in your Dedicated Cloud Device to review and adjust settings or authorize actions.

Why use a dedicated cloud device?

• Configure preferences like “currency”, “location” for any number of websites.
• Store login session to access authorized content.

Creating a Dedicated Device

To create a new device, follow these steps:

1. Go to your Watchlist. Click the hamburger icon ☰ in the toolbar and click Devices.

   

2. This page lists the Local Devices and Dedicated Cloud Devices. Enter the device name and click the Add New Cloud Device button.

   

3. Distill creates a new device.

   

4. Click the Configure button. This opens the remote browser with a new tab. Open the site for which you want to save data. I’ll use monitor.distill.io as an example.

   

   4.1 It opens accounts.distill.io as I am not logged in.

   4.2 The Watchlist page opens after login.

   

5. Close the device once you’ve set up your profile. This will close the browser too.

How to use Dedicated Devices with Monitors?

• When you are adding a new monitor, select the device you want to use from the device list.

  

• Open the site you want to monitor, I’ll be opening the watchlist page.

  

• Configure the selectors and click the Save button in the Navigation Bar

  

• On the Edit options page, the Device is already selected. Configure the changes you want to make and click the Save button.

  

• Distill creates the monitor and shows the selected content after the first run.

  

If you have already created a monitor:

1. Go to the Watchlist
2. Click the caret icon and select Edit Options.
3. The Options page opens. Here, select the device you want to use from the dropdown.

   

How to clear browsing data of a dedicated device?

• Open the Browser for the device you want to clear by clicking the Open Remote Browser button.

  

• Click the Clear Device Data button in the toolbar.

  

Limitations

If a cookie for a saved page expires, you will need to re-configure it.