Testing Tools Switch Sights To Web Applications

Empirix Inc., a maker of testing software for network and voice applications, is aiming the second generation of its tools at testing and monitoring applications used in Web services.

Both e-Test Suite 6.8 and OneSight 4.8 include a scripting wizard for building scripts used to test Web-services applications. Testers typically build complex, multistep transaction scripts by hand, seeking to mimic anticipated user behavior on a Web site. The scripts, sometimes referred to as "headless users," then are rapidly fired at the Web site's server to see how well site apps perform. Empirix's tools automate the process by letting their wizards coax necessary entries and information out of the tester while building much of the necessary code.

Measured Progress, an educational testing firm, used e-Test Suite to help it build an elementary-school testing system for a statewide system. The e-Test Suite wizard made it "remarkably easy to create very complex testing scripts," says Edmund Ashley, the firm's managing principal for software development. "We were able to conduct rich, deep tests in a short time frame, meeting our client's deadline," he says.

Empirix' e-Test Suite tool is designed not only to generate application tests but also to store the testing scripts for use in testing response times once the application goes into production. By firing tests at the running application and recording the time it takes it to respond, administrators monitoring Web services can see how well the application is performing, says Joe Alwan, VP of marketing.

E-Test Suite also can monitor the performance of back-end servers to identify potential bottlenecks as traffic builds. An e-Test script can be used not only for testing a new Web-services application but also stored and used as a test of a production Web service application. By periodically firing the script at the service and measuring the response time, administrators have an automated way of monitoring performance levels being witnessed by users, Alwan says.

OneSight provides a monitoring console for watching the results of virtual or headless user testing of a group of production Web services.

E-Test Suite 6.8 and the optional wizard are available immediately; Alwan says OneSight 4.8 will be available in the fourth quarter.