You use the test editor to
inspect or customize a socket API test that you recorded.
The test editor lists the connections and data exchanges for a
test as they occurred during the recording.
The test editor window has two main areas. The area on the left, Test Contents, displays the flow of the socket events
that constitute the test. The area on the right, Test Element
Details, displays details about the currently selected
test element in the test hierarchy.
Values can sometimes be highlighted in green. This highlighting
indicates that these requests contain one or both of the following
types of information:
- A datapool candidate: This is a value, usually one specified
by the tester during recording, that the test generator determined
is likely to be replaced by values in a datapool. An example of a
datapool candidate is a string that you search for in a recorded test.
The string is highlighted as a datapool candidate on the assumption
that, before playback, you might want to associate the string with
a datapool column that contains appropriate substitute values.
- Correlated data: These are values in a test, usually one
of them in a response and the other in a subsequent request. An example
is a product price returned to the browser by a test that searches
a product database. You can use these values as references that can
be reused later in the test. Suppose that, before running the test
with many virtual users, you replace the product name searched for
in the recorded test with names in a datapool. Because the test correlates
the data, each virtual user searches for a different product, and
the server returns an appropriate price.
To see an illustration of color coding in performance tests or
to change the color settings, click .
Click Add to add elements to the selected
test element. Alternatively, you can right-click a test element, and
select an action from a menu. The choices that you see depend on what
you have selected. For example, after you select a test, you can add
a new event.
The Insert button works similarly. Use it
to insert an element before the selected element.
Use the other buttons (
Remove,
Up,
Down) primarily when you substantially
modify a test.
Tip: Performing actions with these buttons
or choices are likely to break a recorded test.
Sometimes, the area of the editor where you need to work is obscured.
To enlarge an area, move your cursor over one of the blue lines until
your cursor changes shape to a vertical line with an up arrow at the
top and a down arrow at the bottom, and drag up or down while holding
the left mouse button.
Displaying binary data
With the Socket Details view, you can display the binary data for
send and receive elements in the test. The text area of the Socket Details view supports many international character
encoding standards. To open the Socket Details view, right-click a
socket send or receive element, and click Show Socket Details.
In the test log, the Socket Details view also displays actual the actual binary data sent and received
during a test run.
Manipulating elements in the socket test editor
Socket tests are often made of a long series of send and receive
elements to or from various connections. The test editor helps you
to locate specific elements and to manipulate certain types of elements
in the test editor. The following examples demonstrate how you can
select and manipulate large sets of test elements:
- To select all the send or receive elements in the test: Click
the Select button and click Socket
Send or Socket Receive.
- To locate all the connections in the test: Click the Select button and click Socket Connection.
- To disable or remove all send and receive actions to or from a
specific connection: Right click a test element, click Manage Socket Connections, click Only disable
them, and select the connections that you want to disable
or remove.
- To reenable all disabled send and receive actions to or from a
specific connection: Right click a connection element, click Select All Related Actions, right-click again, and click Enable.