Monthly Archives: March 2011

JavaScript in load testing

Posted on March 30, 2011 by Ivan Lisitsyn

Sometimes people ask if a web load testing tool supports JavaScript. They basically want to know if it is possible to apply the tool to test a web application implemented with JavaScript. The answer is usually obvious. Most load testing tools do not need to execute JavaScript code contained on web pages. This code is executed by the browser when the test is recorded.

So, the only requirement for the load testing tool is that it should be able to record all AJAX requests produces by the JavaScript code on the loaded page. These requests are used to update the page content in the browser. Since they carry additional data, they should be reproduced during the test when the user session is replayed. […]
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Posted in Testing practice | Tagged extract value, JavaScript, parameterization, RegExp, regular expression, response validation, session variables, test execution log, virtual user profile | 1 Comment

Variables and parameters

Posted on March 22, 2011 by Ivan Lisitsyn

In the previous post I demonstrated how to parameterize a simple profile. That profile consisted of only three requests. First request opened the main page of a web forum with sub-forums listed on it. Second request opened one of the sub-forums. Third one opened a topic inside that sub-forum.

The goal of the parameterization was to make WAPT open a random sub-forum on the second step and a random topic on the last step. Initially both were recorded as constant values.

The main idea was that when we want the value of a certain request parameter to be dynamic, we can use special functions to extract it from server response to the previous request. […] Continue reading →

Posted in WAPT usage | Tagged extract value, parameterization, response processing, session variables, user session | 37 Comments

Extracting values from server responses

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Ivan Lisitsyn

In this post I will continue using the profile mentioned here as an example. It contains a user session recorded at the following web forum: http://www.loadtest…

The session is very simple: the user opens the main forum page, enters into a sub-forum by clicking a link on that page and then clicks another link to display a topic. I made a small modification to that profile: I removed requests to iframes, because they are static and do not play any role in the session. So, the whole session now consists of 3 requests […] Continue reading →

Posted in WAPT usage | Tagged extract value, parameterization, search function, test execution log, test verification | 1 Comment

Response validation rules

Posted on March 11, 2011 by Ivan Lisitsyn

In the previous post I wrote about the test verification. The main idea was that before you launch a test you need to check that all your virtual user profiles can be executed correctly. In other words, the execution of a profile should produce a valid user session. It should not end with an error because the profile is incorrectly parameterized. Otherwise instead of the real testing you will simply load the web site with tons of incorrect requests.

One important thing that I also mentioned was that sometimes when a web site receives incorrect data in the request, it replies with the 200 status code contained in the response header, which means success. However at the same time it includes an error message in a human readable form in the body of the same response. […] Continue reading →

Posted in Testing practice | Tagged error type, HTTP status code, response validation, test execution log, virtual user profile | Leave a comment

Verifying a test before run

Posted on March 9, 2011 by Ivan Lisitsyn

Designing a test for a web site with essentially dynamic content may be a rather complex and time consuming task. It is similar to programming in some respect. Even though there are good testing tools that let you automate the … Continue reading →

Posted in Testing practice, WAPT usage | Tagged error type, parameterization, test execution log, test verification, user session | Leave a comment

Using variables for parameterization

Posted on March 1, 2011 by Ivan Lisitsyn

In the previous post I wrote about web forms containing hidden controls. The purpose of these controls is to pass some data from the server to the client and then receive it back in the next request (along with the … Continue reading →

Posted in WAPT usage | Tagged extract value, parameter value, parameterization, request parameters, response processing, session variables | 1 Comment