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January 17, 2000

Web-Site Testing Tools:
Is Your Web Site Scalable Enough?
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e-Load 4.0
Like RadView's product, RSW's e-Load 4.0 controller runs under Windows 95 and 98 as well as NT 4.0. RSW permits no low-level access to its workload scripts, which is a drawback. However, its GUI representation of the workload scripts is easy to navigate, and it's possible to insert VBScript scriptlets into the GUI representation to manipulate the script's object model.

The e-Load real-time charts were the best of the bunch, smoothly outlining the progress of load tests while they were happening. The report generator produces reports that display performance data down to the page level so that multitier performance effects can be combined in a single graph.

Where e-Load 4.0 really shines is with its workload controller. The controller interface has the most common testing parameters laid out so script parameters can be modified and rerun quickly without having to exit the controller application.

The software offers four client modes: a thick client similar to LoadTest's Internet Explorer 5 COM object, a thin client that's an HTTP recorder with additional code so that it handles session IDs correctly, and two minimal client modes for fast stress-testing with no data validation.

In its thin- and thick-client modes, e-Load tests the important data objects returned on the Web page to make sure it matches the original Web page the script requested. The thin mode is an excellent compromise between a pure low-level HTTP recorder and a thick COM object. RSW uses the object abstraction to gain some of the advantages of the thick client, but uses HTTP recorder technology so that the client isn't so resource-heavy.

Currently, e-Load lacks IP spoofing capability, which can be useful for creating virtual users with unique IP addresses. The next update should include this capability, RSW says.

Also included in e-Load is a time-saving tool called e-Spider that maps out the links of your Web application so that you can choose paths through the applications without having to traverse them manually. Unfortunately, we found that e-Spider stalled on many of the dynamically generated links, and thus wasn't useful for our testing.

Overall, we found that e-Load was the easiest and most powerful application to use and put the fewest limitations on the customer.

Software testing has historically been either a job done poorly or a costly undertaking using "consultantware," meaning software or services requiring lots of outside help. The convergence of key-standard and de facto-standard technologies has made possible products that simplify testing of Web applications.

Later this year, expect to see improved offerings from these vendors, and, hopefully, some ways of incorporating server logs into workloads. Also, a new low-cost stress-testing tool, Web Performance Trainer, which will compete with the tested products, is slated to appear this spring from Web Performance Inc.

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