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Record a Business Case
Once the browser is configured you are now ready to record a business case. A business case is defined as an interaction
the user has with the web-based application or site that has meaning in a business context. It could be as simple
as viewing a single page, or as complicated as performing an entire transaction. Examples of typical business cases:
- View Main Page
- Register for mailing list
- Make a purchase
- Search Site
The first step is to create a business case. First click on the Record
Tab, and Select Record->Start Recording. A new business case named "Case1" will be created. You could
have also clicked the start button, shown below in green. Note that the buttons are designed to be single-clicked.
You now can start your browser if it isn't started already, and view the web page(s)
that comprise your business case. This can be any combination of online forms, JavaScript, or applets. Points to
keep in mind:
- Your browser should appear to work as normal, i.e. viewing web pages. If the
browser does not appear to work please see the troubleshooting section, below.
- As you record, the tables below will fill up with the HTTP commands that were
sent to the server: The HTTP commands will be parsed into Web Pages and URLs. A web page is considered to be an
HTML file that contains GIF images and possibly calls to other back-end processes. In some cases calls to other
web sites will show up as separate URLs.
- If the browser works, but the web pages are being displayed slowly, be sure it
isn't the web site or the network that is causing the slowdown.
When you are finished, click on the Stop button to stop recording.
Browse Web Pages
Once there are web pages recorded you can browse through them,
examining the low-level headers that were sent between the browser
and web server. There are three main tables in the Recording Tab.
The first table lists all of the business cases. Clicking on the
name of a business case displays the contents of that business
case in the Web Page Table which is in the middle. Clicking on
a row in the Web Page Table displays the contents of that web
page in the URL Table. This approach lets Web Performance TrainerTM
support the most complex web pages which may contain links to
other web servers on a variety of ports.
What is the difference between a web page and a URL? Web Pages are files ending
in .htm or .html, and may contain images, or calls to back end processes. The .html file may be called a "web
page", but from a performance point of view, you want to know when all of the contents of the web page were
transferred from the web server, not just the text in the .html file.
Clicking on a row in the Web Page Table displays Request Header and Reply Header
and contents and in the box on the right side of the screen. For the complete specification on HTTP please refer
to the web site http://www.w3.org. The ability to view this information is included because it can be invaluable in configuring
a performance test in certain situations. For example, it may not be clear how a back-end web product functions,
and with the state of software documentation the quickest option can be to examine exactly what the software is
doing rather than what is supposed
to be doing.
An HTTP Request Header is what the browser sends to the web server when the user
clicks on a link on the browser. A typical HTTP Request Header is shown below. It is a series of name-value pairs
than describe to the web server what to return. For a discussion of how to edit this information please read the
section Editing Web Pages.
An HTTP Reply Header is what the web server sends back to the browser in response
to an HTTP Request. A typical Reply Header is shown below:
The web server returns the actual content of the URL after the Reply Header. This
can be HTML code, an image, or binary data. A typical HTML reply is shown below:
Options:
There are a couple of options for recording that are controlled from the Properties Page. To bring up the following
dialog select Edit->Properties.
The options control whether the actual HTML and GIF content will be recorded.
This is only necessary if you would like to examine the contents of the HTML and GIF pages; otherwise it just takes
up extra memory.
Importing Business Cases
from WPT Files
You can also simply import business cases from other WPT files other than recording. Select File->Import->Business
Cases, and you will be prompted to select a file ending in ".wpt". All of the business cases in the selected
file will be imported into the current file.
- My browser can't connect at all
Make sure the browser
is configured correctly
to talk to the exact machine and port that Web Performance TrainerTM
is using. If that appears to be correct, configure the browser
to not use a proxy, and confirm the net connection is working
under normal conditions.
- Web pages appear on the browser, but nothing is being recorded
If this happens either the browser
isn't configured to use Web Performance TrainerTM as a proxy server,
or the record button hasn't been pressed. Review the browser configuration
instructions to make
sure.
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