Walkthrough: Creating a Coded Web Performance Test

Article
11/07/2012

In this walkthrough you will convert a recorded Web performance test into a coded Web performance test.

This walkthrough steps you through the conversion of an existing, recorded Web performance test into a coded Web performance test. A recorded Web performance test begins as a list of URLs that represent Web requests. A Web performance test can be converted to a code-based script. After a Web performance test has been converted to its coded format, looping and branching constructs can be added. After you convert the Web performance test to a coded Web performance test, you can edit that code like any other source code.

Note

You should add validation rules, extraction rules, and data binding to your Web performance test before you convert it to a coded Web performance test. You can add these to your coded Web performance test, but if you use the Web Performance Test editor to add them first, you will save you time and sample code will be generated for you when you convert the test.

In this walkthrough, you will perform the following tasks:

Create a coded Web performance test by converting a recorded Web performance test
Add new code to a Web performance test
Run the Web performance test to verify that it works correctly

Prerequisites

To complete this walkthrough, you need the following:

Visual Studio Ultimate
The Web application that you created in Walkthrough: Creating a Simple Web App
The Web performance test that you created in Walkthrough: Recording and Running a Web Performance Test.

Preparing for the Walkthrough

To prepare for the walkthrough

Open the Web application that you created in Walkthrough: Creating a Simple Web App.
Press CTRL+F5 to run the Web application in the browser. You should see the first page. Close the browser.

Note

This starts the ASP.NET Development Server that runs the Web application your Web performance test will test. You will see the ASP.NET Development Server icon in the notification area.
Open the Web application that you created in Walkthrough: Recording and Running a Web Performance Test.
In Solution Explorer, double-click ColorWebTest.webtest. The Web Performance Test Editor appears and the list of Web requests is displayed.

Creating a Coded Web Performance Test

To convert an existing Web performance test to a coded Web performance test

Choose the Generate Code button on the toolbar in the Web Performance Test Editor.
Accept the default name in the dialog box and choose OK.

Note

The default name will be the name of the test with the word Coded appended.

A new file is created. A new window opens and the source code for the test is displayed.
On the Build menu, choose Build Solution.

The new code compiles.

Adding Code to a Web Performance Test

To add code to a Web performance test

Locate the Run() method if your test is in Visual Basic or the GetRequestEnumerator() method if your test is in C#. You will see code that corresponds to each Web request in the test.

Scroll down to the end of the method, and after the code for the last Web request, add the following code:

if (DateTime.Today.DayOfWeek == DayOfWeek.Friday)
{
    WebTestRequest customRequest = new WebTestRequest("http://weather.msn.com/");
    yield return customRequest;
}
else
{
    WebTestRequest customRequest = new WebTestRequest("https://msdn.microsoft.com/");
    yield return customRequest;
}

If DateTime.Today.DayOfWeek = DayOfWeek.Friday Then
    Dim customRequest As WebTestRequest = New WebTestRequest("http://weather.msn.com/")
    MyBase.Send(customRequest)
Else
    Dim customRequest As WebTestRequest = New WebTestRequest("https://msdn.microsoft.com/")
    MyBase.Send(customRequest)
End If

On the Build menu, choose Build Solution.

Running the Web Performance Test to Verify that it Works Correctly

To verify the Web performance test

With the coded Web performance test selected in the code editor, open the shortcut menu and choose Run Coded Web Performance Test.

Warning

If you follow these steps in Solution Explorer instead of the code editor, all of the tests run instead of just the selected test.
The coded Web performance test runs and the results begin to appear in the Web Performance Test Results Viewer. For more information, see Web Performance Test Results Viewer Overview and Examining Web Performance Test Results Using the Web Performance Test Results Viewer.
In the Web Performance Results Viewer, you can run your coded Web performance test again by choosing the Choose here to run again link on the embedded status bar.

Tip

Before you run your test again, you can modify the number of iterations, network type, or browser type by changing the run settings. For more information, see How to: Change the Web Performance Test Run Settings in the Web Performance Result Viewer.