Testing with WAPT Pro

Load testing with WAPT Pro is simple and straightforward. WAPT Pro can emulate the activity of hundreds or even thousands of real users from a single testing machine. The program replaces human users with virtual users. This lets you emulate the interaction of multiple, simultaneously acting users with your web site.

To perform a test, you should create a test scenario. New Scenario Wizard will help you create a new test scenario depending on your test goals. WAPT Pro test scenario defines parameters of test run: the number of virtual users, test duration and the list of included user profiles.

User profiles describe the behaviour of virtual users. You can create as many profiles as you need. This allows emulating the real workload on a tested server. For each user profile, you should specify web pages that will be requested (visited). This can be done by recording the real activity in WAPT Pro Recorder. WAPT Pro records pages as you navigate through a web site.

To add more reality to your tests, you can specify a number of properties for each user profile (user think time, user connection speed, HTTP headers). Most properties of user profile are used for all requests within that profile. However, some properties like user think time, HTTP headers and additional validation rules for server response can be specified separately for each request.

Testing of dynamic web sites and applications often requires the usage of dynamic values of request parameters. WAPT Pro can simulate this - different virtual users can make requests with different parameters. In addition, you can use either recorded URL, or get it dynamically at run-time. WAPT Pro provides you with a number of functions for dynamic calculation of request parameter values and URL paths at run-time.

WAPT Pro also has a number of operators that will help you manage the behaviour of virtual users.

WAPT Pro supports the streaming HTTP requests. Some web applications, such as video players or stock quote viewers, constantly receive streaming data in the background even while the client application stays inactive or performs other activities. You can create highly realistic tests for such web sites using the streaming HTTP requests.

You can edit your test scenario: the number of virtual users, test duration and scheduling options. This can be done in the Test Volume view. In the Report Options, Log Settings and Extended Results views you can define options for log files, reports and graphs, and CSV data output. You can configure WAPT Pro to create full logs or failed sessions logs. Log files will help you know what occurred during test run.

To perform a test, you should specify one or several Load Agents that will emulate the user activity and produce the test load. You can use as many servers running Load Agents in your tests as you need. This way you can emulate almost any number of simultaneously acting virtual users.

After you have created your test scenario, included user profiles to it, recorded the sequence of requests for each user profile and specified the list of agents that will emulate user load, you can start a test. Note that you should specify at least one Load Agent to start the test.

You can change the initially defined load parameters just during the test: the number of virtual users, test duration and other load options. Besides, you can choose other agents for your test on the fly if the load volume requires that. This can be done in the Current Load view which appears under the "Test Volume" when the test starts.

When WAPT Pro finishes the test, it displays the results of test run. Graphs and reports will give you the summary and detailed information on the performance of tested web server under specified load conditions. You can also view intermediate results at run-time while your test is being executed.

On test completion, you will see a web browser window with the generated HTML Report. This report enables viewing test run results just from a web browser. You can also save test run results in Microsoft® Excel compatible format.