[Webtest] load tests with WebTest

[Dierk Koenig]

Hi Christian,

> I have just started looking into WebTest, and found it quite handy. As I
> see it, I would define it as an ANT-based XML scripting frontend to
> HttpUnit (correct?).

Yes.

> However, I would like to use it not only to test my web pages
> functionally, but also with respect to throughput and behavior under
> load. I am therefore thinking of an extension that would allow me to
> specify the number of concurrent sessions to create, and some
> load/throughput-based reporting features.
>
> Question: does the above sound resonable? Has anything already been done
> in that direction (or have I overlooked something that is already
> there)?. Any hints?

Well, I like the idea and rumors are that some users already use it like
this, looking at the times reported.
Anyway, a more extensive support sounds reasonable.

I'd like to add that there are other tools on the market that explicitely
focus on that issue, e.g. Mercury LoadRunner. I doubt that WebTest would
be able to compete with their impressive feature set as load testing
is concerned.
Additionally, I'm not sure, whether extensive functionality test like
WebTest
provides make a good basis for load testing. But I'm looking forward to be
proven wrong on this.

If you are anything like me, you will profit from first gathering some more
experience with WebTest before stepping into making extensions.

cheers
Mittie