Thursday, November 14, 2013

Difference between web_submit_form and web_submit_data in LoadRunner?

WEB_SUBMIT_FORM():

The web_submit_form function is an action function that submits a form. The
web_submit_form function may be executed only in the context of a previous
operation.

web_submit_form is recorded only when VuGen is in HTML-based recording mode
(see VuGen's Recording Options).

WEB_SUBMIT_DATA():

The web_submit_data function is a action function that performs an
"unconditional" or "contextless" form submission. It allows you to generate
GET and POST requests as made by the HTML forms. You don't need to have a
form context to execute this request.

web_submit_data is recorded only when VuGen is in either URL-based recording
mode, or in HTML-based recording mode with "A script containing explicit
URLs only" option checked (see VuGen's Recording Options).

When does VuGen record a web_submit_data instead of a web_submit_form? Why? (Be as specific as possible)

A web_submit_data is recorded when VuGen cannot match the action, method, data fields, and/or hidden data values with the page that is stored in the record proxy cache. Comparison failures are typically caused by something other than HTML setting the properties of the HTTP request. Because VuGen can parse only HTML, it cannot find all the properties of the HTTP request in memory. This results in the hard-coding of all the request information in a web_submit_data statement.