Upgrading repositories from 6.5 to 6.6
I’m more than a little proud that we have been able to keep our repository format backwards-compatible for the entire life of the product, with only a few minor bumps along the road. Unfortunately, that streak has come to an end. Thanks an oversight on my part in reviewing the compatibility of a 3rd-party library, some 6.5 repositories cannot be upgraded to 6.6 without some effort on your part.
TLDR: If you don’t use real-browser testcases, you get a pass – just upgrade as usual. Otherwise, before installing 6.6, open your repositories in 6.5 and delete all replays and load test results for real-browser testcases that contain errors. Then you may upgrade to 6.6 and your repositories will be upgraded without incident.
Details: looking for the gory details? A change in the serialization format for exceptions thrown by the Selenium/WebDriver library makes it impossible for newer versions to be read from old replays and test results. So if a replay or load test result stored in the repository has an error that originated in WebDriver (specifically, a WebDriverException and subclasses), we can’t read it with 6.6.
We apologize for the inconvenience. Fortunately, the workaround is pretty easy 🙂
Chris Merrill, Chief Engineer.
When his dad brought home a Commodore PET computer, Chris was drawn into computers. 7 years later, after finishing his degree in Computer and Electrical Engineering at Purdue University, he found himself writing software for industrial control systems. His first foray into testing software resulted in an innovative control system for testing lubricants in automotive engines. The Internet grabbed his attention and he became one of the first Sun Certified Java Developers. His focus then locked on performance testing of websites. As Chief Engineer for Web Performance since 2001, Chris now spends his time turning real-world testing challenges into new features for the Load Tester product.