[Webtest] load tests with WebTest

[Christian Sell]

> 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.

Mercury is a Mega-$$$ commercial product, right? Not an option for me 
right now.

> 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.

it seems reasonable to me that I use some significant application 
scenario (involving some backend load as well). That can be configured 
well in WebTest (or HttpUnit).

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

well, I dont know how you are ;-). I need what I need now, so I may just 
hack some extension into the TestSpec configuration, which creates 
multiple copies and runs them in separate threads. Of course still 
easier said than done. I'll report my progress.

One thing that doesnt fit the load test use case well in my taste is the 
ANT frontend - but heck..

Christian