Author Archives: Ivan Lisitsyn

WAPT 8.1 and WAPT Pro 3.1 beta versions

It has been a while since we last updated our products, and now we plan to do this very soon. This time we decided to provide beta versions to our users couple weeks before the official release, as there are several highly requested new features. So, I am happy to let you know that new versions are available for download.

These versions are fully functional and hopefully not too raw to try. However if you find a bug, you are welcome to report it as usual. We will do our best to provide a fix as soon as possible.

New versions are compatible with the current official builds of all extension modules [..]
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Extreme online shopping with WAPT Pro

Recently we have discovered that our load testing solution can be applied in a quite unusual way. One of our users has shared his “success story” with us. It perfectly shows how widely you can apply the product if you know its features very well and have a good fantasy.

The story is actually about Cyber Monday online shopping. You know, some web sites run very special actions to attract customers. They sell limited number of items at exceptionally low prices. In theory you can make a very good deal if you participate. In practice this is almost impossible, because each new item is ordered by someone immediately after it becomes available. Here is where WAPT Pro appeared to be a great automation solution. Continue reading

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Cloud load testing with WAPT Pro

Clouds are very popular these days, because they provide a convenient virtual environment for a number of tasks from web hosting to scientific computing. In a cloud you can get a fresh ready to use system with almost any predefined parameters in a matter of minutes without need to purchase hardware and setup the OS. Besides that, clouds usually provide very fast and wide Internet connection. That is why it is usually a very good idea to use clouds for load testing of a web site. This is especially useful if the target site is hosted in the same cloud.

Since WAPT does not require any unusual hardware, it can be easily setup on any virtual system. There is no special license for this type of use. Continue reading

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Module for GWT Testing

We have recently released a new extension module for WAPT and WAPT Pro products. As its name suggests, it is targeted at handling web applications developed with help of GWT (Google Web Toolkit).

Till now we have had 4 extension modules. Two of them are optional (ASP.net and JSON), meaning that you can use them to facilitate testing (in many cases this means a significant improvement), but still there are no applications for which these modules are mandatory.

Two other modules (Flash and Silverlight) are used to convert binary data to XML and back again. So, if you have an application developed in Flash or Silverlight, you will not be able to load test it properly without the corresponding module. Continue reading

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Stop feeding fat cats

I believe that when you see something completely wrong and cannot correct it, you should at least share your view with other people. This is the only way to change anything in this world.

This article is about load testing, but if you read it to the end, you will see that it is about the whole IT industry, about the whole economic reality and about our life. I will use an example which I know very well to demonstrate something very common, yet not very well understood.

A short technical introduction. Imagine that you are about to release a new web site. Will it work well when accessed by multiple concurrent users? This question can be answered if you perform a load testing. Obviously, this task cannot be accomplished manually by your staff members or beta testers [..] Continue reading

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WAPT Pro 3.0 released!

I wish I could make this post half a year ago. This is a really long awaited release, but it has finally happened. So, let’s see what’s new. Here is the list of added features. Sorry for so short descriptions. I will probably add more comments on some of these features in the next post.

Highly configurable test load

You can specify all load parameters separately for each virtual user profile. For example, you can join constant, growing and periodic load in the same test. You can also choose a specific load agent for each profile, if you do not want to use the automatic allocation [..] Continue reading

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Choosing the best software for your business

When you spend $1 for a new mobile game, you don’t care about the price and you want the game right now. There is no need to check competitive products, so, the immediate decision looks reasonable. The situation is different when you choose a software product for your business. In this case you cannot rely on your first impression. You probably have certain expectations regarding the product and you want to make sure that these expectations are met.

The tool you choose should be reliable. You should be confident that it will never stop working suddenly on a changed data input or in other new conditions.

Should meet your business goals now and (at least) in the near future. Note that it is not always possible to fully estimate this in a reasonable time using a demo version or a manual. […]
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Testing Silverlight Applications

If you are going to load test a Silverlight web application with WAPT, first of all you need to install the corresponding extension module that you can download here.

This is a very easy task; you should simply download the file and run it. The module enables support for MSBIN1 format used by Silverlight applications to pass data between the client and server parts.

This format is binary. It can represent any complex data structure containing objects of various types, which can, in turn, contain other objects and so on until we come to some elementary objects like text strings or numbers. […] Continue reading

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WAPT Module for ASP.net testing

All ASP.net web applications use two specific parameters: __VIEWSTATE and __EVENTVALIDATION. When the client part of such application communicates with the server side, every produced HTTP request includes these two parameters.

Their values are essentially dynamic. In fact, they are changing for each request within a session. Of course, they are also different for different sessions.

This means that you cannot repeat the recorded requests “as is” to produce a copy of the recorded session.

Initially the values are produced by the server part of the application and transferred to the client inside the body of each response. After receiving the updated values the client should include them as parameters in the next request. […] Continue reading

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