Unparalleled protocol support – Bringing API and Performance Tester together

You’re a performance tester and you want to test against the latest and greatest platform that your organization is deploying. There’s just one problem; it uses a communications protocol not supported by Performance Tester!

You know it is possible to test this protocol though, your API testing colleagues down the hall are doing it just fine. Is there some way you can take advantage of their work flow?
 
As of Test Workbench 9.1.1 you can do just that. Using Performance Tester and Integration Tester together, you can now import tests from Integration Tester to Performance Tester. These Integration Tester tests can be added to a performance schedule or compound test and then run them as though they were native protocols.
 
There are two ways to make this happen. First, you can connect to an existing Integration Tester project. Once connected, you can select the test from the project, select an existing schedule or compound test (or create new ones) then add that Integration Tester test to that schedule or compound test.
 
The other way is to open Integration Tester resources from the Test Navigator.  To make this happen you must have Integration Tester installed on the same computer where Performance Tester is installed. If it’s not, no problem. You can import the Integration Tester Project from the Test Navigator.
 
With the Integration Tester tests now in the Performance Tester workbench, you can work with them. For example, in the schedule or compound test, it’s easy to select an Integration Tester test and change its details such as the Test path, Environment, or Test description. You can also change the Environment for a collection of tests too.
 
By the way, with the Integration Tester tests now in the Performance Tester workbench, so you can easily use the Datapool Mapper to map tags in the Integration Tester tests with the variable values of Performance Tester.
 
Now you’re ready to run the schedule or compound test that contains the Integration Tester test. When the run completes, a report opens automatically but you can look at the test progress while it is running in the Test Navigator too.
 
The report has lots of information to help you analyze the test results. There is overall information about the state of the run, a summary about the run such as the number of users and elapsed time, a sequence throughput summary that shows the average throughput for each sequence, sequence throughput detail that shows the average throughput for all combined sequences during the last recorded interval, and the sequence performance page that shows the response time of the sequences as the test progresses.  It’s easy to filter the reports too to see different views of the information.
 
So now you have it, the capabilities at your disposal to bring Performance Tester to bear on the new application platform. Have the developers managed to achieve their SLAs? Let’s find out!

Chris Haggan
Product Manager
Functional & Performance Test
Connect with me on LinkedIn

---

---

Chris Haggan is the HCL Product Manager, Functional & Performance Test Automation and a member of the World Wide Testing team with over 14 years in the integration testing and service virtualization space. He has worked with numerous clients ensuring that when they modernize and connect their disparate IT systems be it through EAI, SOA or API's, they are successful and efficient.