← Back to Tutorials

How to take and embed auto-updating website screenshots in CloudWatch dashboards

Learn how you can take scheduled screenshots of web content and automatically display the latest image in your CloudWatch dashboard with PagePixels.

Introduction

PagePixels is a screenshot automation tool that you can use to automatically take screenshots and dynamically display the latest image in a website, app, or dashboard platform, including CloudWatch.

You can accomplish this by scheduling a screenshot in PagePixels and using an Embed URL in a CloudWatch Text widget.

A PagePixels' Embed URL is a single web address that always displays the most up-to-date image for a scheduled screenshot configuration.

PagePixels is free to start, and this tutorial demonstrates how you can take daily screenshots of a random XKCD comic and display the image in your CloudWatch dashboard.

Example

Prerequisites

Before you start, you'll need:

  • A PagePixels account
  • A link to a web page you want to screenshot

    • For this example, we're going to use XKCD's random comic page:

      https://c.xkcd.com/random/comic/

How to capture and embed website screenshots in a CloudWatch dashboard

To take daily screenshots of a web page and display the latest image in a CloudWatch dashboard:

1

Create a screenshot

Log in to your PagePixels account, and click the +Create Screenshot button.

2

Schedule your screenshots

By default, recurring screenshots are taken every 5 minutes.

For a daily screenshot, use the input and dropdown fields to change the default values to: 1 Days

3

Add URL

Copy and paste the web page URL you want to screenshot into the Website URL to Capture field.

For example: https://c.xkcd.com/random/comic/

4

Configure your screenshot

Use over 20 different setting options in PagePixels to get your screenshot to look just right.

For example, using the CSS Selector field, you can capture just the comic element on the XKCD page with the following selector: #comic

5

Save Screenshot

Click the green Save Screenshot button (top-right).

6

Copy Embed URL

Click the clipboard icon to copy your configuration's Embed URL.

7

Add Text widget in CloudWatch

In your CloudWatch dashboard, click the Add button.

Click Other content types and select the Text/image widget.

Click Next.

8

Configure Text widget

Add an image to your widget using Markdown syntax with the Embed URL as the value.

For example:

![xkcd random comic](https://pagepixels.com/app/screenshots/8488d69c-673a-484b-99cb-dae538b9ed27/embed)

Click the Add widget button.

Click the Save button (top-right).

Your screenshot automation is set and the latest screenshot will automatically display in your CloudWatch dashboard when your browser refreshes.

What else can PagePixels do?

When you use PagePixels for automating screenshots, you can:

  • Leverage PagePixels' Screenshot API to programmatically take scheduled and instant screenshots.
  • Schedule screenshots by time interval, days of the week, time of day, and time zone using PagePixels' built-in scheduling system.
  • Automate clicking buttons, filling out forms, performing a search and more with Multi-Step Screenshot functionality.
  • Convert data from third-party APIs, HTML emails, and other HTML content into screenshots using the Custom HTML Screenshots feature.
  • Automatically take screenshots and have an AI analyze the resulting images with the AI Analysis Screenshot feature.
  • Have AI compare and contrast multiple screenshots and other images with the Multiple Image AI Analysis endpoint of our Screenshot API.
  • Send scheduled screenshots to a public or private Slack channel, a Custom Webhook address, or save your screenshot images to your Dropbox account.
  • Connect PagePixels to no-code integration platforms Zapier, Make, Power Automate, or n8n to automatically send, save, and email screenshots to thousands of services, such as Gmail, Microsoft Teams, and Google Sheets.
  • Use proxies to capture website screenshots from different locations around the world with the Real Location Screenshots feature.
  • Take scheduled screenshots of online content that requires advanced authentication using the PagePixels Screenshots Chrome Extension.
  • Capture screenshots of only a specific element on a web page with CSS Selector Screenshot capabilities.
  • Automate structured data extraction and AI-powered text analysis for your marketing, sales, and lead generation needs with PagePixels' Website Domain Research feature.

See even more possibilities of what you can do on our Features page →

Support

Questions? Contact us anytime by email:

support-tickets@pagepixels.com

Or send us a message through our Support page.