Perhaps the most contentious issue in load testing today is whether to test with real or virtual browsers. Read through the issues and then leave a comment to let us know how you feel.
Which is More Real?
Load Tester PRO’s virtual browser recreates the HTTP data stream exactly as a real browser would, so from the server’s point of view it is identical to a real browser. For example, it automatically configures session tracking, cookies, and application state, just to name a few. The server is not aware that the HTML, images, and javascript it’s sending out are not actually … Continue reading »
Load Testing a mobile website has a few key differences from testing the full desktop-oriented version of a website. In this article, I will review those differences and show you how to use Load Tester to create testcases using the stock browser on Android 4 / ICS (the Ice-Cream Sandwich release).
This article does not cover the entire load testing process – I recommend checking out our videos and tutorials for more information on using Load Tester to run and analyze load tests.
Before I jump in, I want to give a quick introduction on how a load test is … Continue reading »
Overview
AJAX technologies present some special challenges for testing software – since it blurs the distinction between a traditional page-based web application and a rich client-server application. Most testing tools are specific to one or the other – and for very good reasons. This tutorial demonstrates one approach to handling AJAX callbacks in an AJAX-enabled web application using Web Performance Load Tester.
Prerequesites: This guide assumes a solid understanding of the Load Tester product. The Load Tester videos are a good introduction to the main features. It is assumed can record a testcase and exeute load tests using some of the … Continue reading »
Most of us are relieved that web applications are starting to behave more like desktop applications – i.e. smarter and easier to use. A little wow factor here and there doesn’t hurt either. Ease of use always has a cost, so it should come as no surprise that the AJAX applications are more difficult to develop. But you may be surprised that they can also be more difficult to load test.
The reason is fairly simple. Traditional web applications are relatively easy to model and simulate. The state of a user session, at any given time, is a combination of the … Continue reading »
Fast on the heels of the initial 5.0 PRO release, 5.1 is a major upgrade that includes support for mobile load testing, a completely resigned load test design and control system, improved support for dynamically scalable websites, Internet Explorer 10 support, and portal license manager integration.
Mobile Load Testing
The increasing web traffic from mobile devices has been noticed for years, but how much does it really affect a website? A recent study shows that 7% of web traffic is from mobile devices, which includes both phones and tablets. Because these devices use different browsers, and sometimes access different versions of a … Continue reading »
Because load testing tools are usually priced by the number of simultaneous users it can generate, it is tempting to lower the think time or increase the simulated bandwidth and run the test with a lower number of VUs than needed. Then, estimate the number of users the system can handle based on this scaling this (flawed) data.
There is a subset of systems for which this is acceptable. These are primarily sites serving stateless static content or very atomic web services on systems extensively engineered for scalability. Unless your system falls into one of these very narrow categories, then DO … Continue reading »
There was a time when the common wisdom accepted that testing a production system was a bad thing. The reasons vary and many still follow that belief. We, however, test production systems for our clients more often than not. Not only can it be successful, we believe it is critical!
We have heard lots of reasons for NOT testing production systems. For example:
It is a 24/7 system, so we can’t take it down.
We can not risk degrading the performance of real users.
We cannot test it live because test data will corrupt the database.
System has to be available 24/7? No need to … Continue reading »
With the rapid growth of tablets and smart phone purchases, the popularity of mobile browsers have increased significantly. Our own site has seen an increase in mobile traffic from 0.2% of two years ago, to 2.5% mobile traffic today. Due to the increase in popularity of mobile browsers, it is becoming essential to test the performance of your website on a mobile device as well.
Web Performance Load Tester records all the HTTP traffic between the browser and server through a transparent proxy, this allows for Load Tester to be flexible with the types of browsers that can be emulated during a … Continue reading »
Because load testing tools are usually priced by the number of simultaneous users it can generate, it is common to use fewer VUs (virtual users) than called for by the test plan. To compensate, testers may lower the think time (the time between pages) in order to move VUs more quickly through the testcases and achieve a higher transaction rate than actual users would produce. The transaction rate may also be increased by raising the simulated per-user bandwidth – again to speed the lower number of VUs through the testcases more quickly. The system capacity must then be extrapolated based … Continue reading »
Short version:
The pricing for Load Tester 5 has been simplified down to a single price for Load Tester 5, along with a handful of options. Easy to understand, easy to afford, easy to buy!
Long version (or, how I learned to stop worrying and love simple pricing):
We have always tried to make Load Tester easy to understand and easy to buy. Part of that effort was to offer flexible pricing based on what customers needed. Over the years, we increased the number of price tiers, added a variety of permanent, floating and temporary licenses. Somewhere along the way, our price … Continue reading »