Sunday 9 June 2013

How to record a file saving, performed by user from browser page?

The problem:
This is a frequently asked question - why file downloading from a browser page (right mouse click, then "Save Target As...") was not recorded in LoadRunner VuGen script?

The difference between functional and load testing:Actually, LoadRunner records a file transferring only, not downloading!
This is the principal difference between functional and load testing! I will describe it.
Functional testing is done from a user's viewpoint.

What does a user see? It sees windows, dialogs, UI cotrols.
For example, user can see downloaded html-page in a browser, or as plain text in a telnet session.
In this case, data transferring is the same (HTTP protocol), while data representation varies (browser or telnet session).
LoadRunner performs Load testing, i.e. it records and emulates data transferring between client and server. Data transferring only, not data displaying for user!
For the above example, html-page can be downloaded directly from web-server. Another variant - page can be downloaded from FTP-server (even using Secured FTP protocol - FTPS), and then data will be passed to browser. User will see the same page.
In this case, data representation is the same (browser page), while data transferring varies (HTTP or FTPS protocols).

So, remember the simple rule:

LoadRunner does not record client side activities!

Tips: That's why LoadRunner does not show browser windows during load testing.
Note: Please, do not tell me, that VuGen shows Run-Time Viewer during replay :)
The run-time viewer was developed specifically for script debugging. There is no dependency between data representations in Run-Time Viewer and in a real browser (for detailed info read Mercury Support Knowledge Base (http://kb-web.mercury.com, requires login), topic 14094 "What are the limitations of the Run-Time Viewer").

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can capture file download scenario. Please read below blog:

https://perfmatrix.blogspot.in/2016/12/pdf-download-issue-LR.html

Anonymous said...

You can capture file download scenario as well. Please read below blog:

https://perfmatrix.blogspot.in/2016/12/pdf-download-issue-LR.html