We just released Xceptance LoadTest 4.0.5. It is a minor update and recommended for everyone. But you might have special interests if you use the Script Developer heavily.

Besides a few defect fixes, release 4.0.5 delivers four great improvements to speed up test case creation and maintenance with Script Developer and make your work more productive.

• The XLT Script Developer runs on Firefox 4 and 3 now.
• Test variables are now resolved recursively, so you can use variables within resolved content.
• There is no need to open modules anymore if you want to edit a line or two of it. Also enabling/disabling of module code can be done easily from the main test case. This saves time and aids script maintenance.
• During script debugging and script execution, you can now evaluate assertions instantly to see whether or not your verification expression will match.

The full set of release notes can be viewed directly in the release area. You will also find documentation and the download link there. As usual, th

Today we released update 4 of XLT 4.0. You will find all the details about it at the usual place: https://lab.xceptance.de/releases/xlt/4.0.4/. Check out the release notes too. This release addresses minor script developer defects.

As always, updates are free for all customers and all people using XLT despite the license.

There are new public Amazon EC2 images (AMI) available each running 4 agentcontrollers of XLT 4.0.0.r6019 on ports 8500 to 8503. Feel free to use them for your load testing purposes.

• EU-West: ami-9b5064ef
• US-East: ami-5647b63f
• US-West: ami-539dcd16

The usage of the images is free or charge but you have to pay your AWS usage costs of course. Please keep in mind that you need a valid license to run a load test with more than 5 virtual users.

We just released Xceptance LoadTest 4.0. This release of our load test software got some really nice feature enhancements to make your regression testing easier. So we stick to our general software approach: One tool for regression and load testing. One set of scripts for both purposes.

Script Developer

As an alternative to writing test cases in Java, you can now use the XLT Script Developer to create script test cases. Script test cases are based on a simple syntax and a reduced set of operations, which makes them a perfect fit for non-programmers. Only the Script Developer, which is an extension to Firefox, is necessary to create, edit, and manage basic script test cases.

To create a new script test case, the test designer simply uses the application under test. All interactions with the application are recorded in the background and stored to an XML script file as a sequence of script commands. While recording, assertion commands to validate the web pages may be inserted manually. From the Script Developer, script test cases can be replayed in Firefox at any time to quickly check whether the test case still runs successfully.

Existing script test cases can be modified later on, for example, to add new or delete obsolete commands. Common command sequences, which could be reused in other test cases as well, can be refactored to parameterizable script modules. Finally, any recorded value can be extracted out of the script into a test data file to separate test data from script code.

Script files can also be run outside of the browser, via the XLT framework, which simulates a head-less browser. This mode is suitable for unattended test case execution, during functional or load tests. When saving scripts, the Script Developer also creates JUnit test case classes as “wrappers” around script test cases, which serve as a bridge between the XLT framework and the script world. This way, from the framework’s point of view, script test cases are in no way different from test cases written in Java.

More Data to Query

For improved tests accuracy, you can now query the request and response data and run assertions on it. This permits checks on the communication because not all requests are reflected in the DOM tree.

Improved EC2 Handling

AWS (Amazon Web Services) added the ability to tag EC2 resources to simplify the administration of your cloud infrastructure. As a form of meta data, tags can be used to create user-friendly names and improve coordination between multiple users. The XLT EC2 administration tool ec2_admin features an additional menu which lets you select your EC2 resources based on the tag name.

Better Automation

To improve automation of tests, we added the ability to pass properties on the mastercontroller command line. Additionally the test definition file for the test suite can be redefined on the command line as well.

Faster Work Flow

When test goes wrong or a logging is turn up, the data to download from all agents can be pretty big. To get a fast or selective result, you can now decide how much data you want to download.

JDK Compatibility

Beginning with v4.0, XLT requires a Java virtual machine 6 or above to run. Java 5 is not supported any longer. The reason is the end-of-life announcement for JDK 5.

Misc

We refreshed HtmlUnit and updated it to version 2.8, Ruby got updated to 1.5.1, and WebDriver is now v2.0a6. The event API got simplified and is now easier to use.

Where to get it

More information about the release, the quick start guide, and the manual can be found in the release area. Of course, the full download of XLT 4.0 is available there too. 

We are looking forward to your feedback, comments, and of course… Happy testing!

People asked for a rough guide for running load tests against their live site and whether this is a good idea at all.

Well, let me first say that test environments exist for exactly that purpose. So if you already have something live, of course you used it before going live for load testing, and now you cannot run another test there… yes, you need a test environment. This is well spent money for several reasons:

• Created data will not pollute your installation aka log entries, analytics data, orders in the database, created users, and so on.
• You do not have to take your live site down for testing.
• Problems during testing will not leave your live site down or take it down.
• Your hosting company or IT department might charge for all test traffic against the live site as it would have been real traffic (revenue share, bandwidth utilization), so having your own testing realm makes expenses more predictable.
• You can easily change code and retest when changes are necessary. You can profile, you can debug.
• You do not risk problems with traffic going to live systems, such as payment due to configuration or testing errors. If you already had items from test orders piling up in your office, you know what I mean.

So, get yourself a test environment. Spend the money and enjoy the freedom to measure, debug, and tune.

P.S. Of course, there are situations, where you cannot replicate a live environment or you cannot find application problems in a test setup due to totally different timing behavior… Well, this indicates only that your live environment is already screwed.

Heute mal wieder etwas aus der Reihe “Erfolgreiche Fehler” oder “Unsinnige Dialoge”. Gefunden im Nautilus von Ubuntu 9.10.

Google hat sich entschieden, Problemen bei der Entwicklung von Webapplikationen aus dem Weg zu gehen und kündigt die Unterstützung des Internet Explorer 6 auf. Auch der Support vom Firefox 2 läuft aus, aber den nutzen ja die wenigsten Leute, weil das Update auf Version 3 einfach ist. Zudem war der FF2 nicht schlecht bei der Einhaltung von Webstandards und dürfte locker dem IE7 das Wasser reichen können.

Das ist ein gutes Signal, denn wenn der Marktführer es vormacht, dann werden viele Leute und Firmen nachziehen.

Many other companies have already stopped supporting older browsers like Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers. We’re also going to begin phasing out our support, starting with Google Docs and Google Sites. As a result you may find that from March 1 key functionality within these products — as well as new Docs and Sites features — won’t work properly in older browsers.

Mehr dazu im Google Enterprise Blog.

Einige aktuelle Zahlen zur Nutzung verschiedener Webbrowser finden sich bei Bivingsreport.

Mein Windows XP meinte heute, dass diese Datei eine Intel IPhone kompatible Datei sei… kommt das iPhone von Intel und Apple hat es nur lizenziert? Oder hat man sich hier bei Microsoft vertippt? Eventuell hat hier Intel auch nur Rechte an einer IPhone-Applikation, die nie große Verbreitung fand. Komisch…

Heute habe ich einen schönen Artikel bei CNET gefunden: Google shifts software value to operations, away from IP. Der Artikel führt prima aus, wie sich Google definiert und warum Google große Teile seiner Software einfach mal gratis weggeben kann:

Google is what Google does with the software, and not the software itself.

Einfach mal lesen und sich seine eigene Meinung dazu bilden.

Ich bin mir nicht sicher, was Skype mir damit sagen will…