Chapter 5. Application Technology and Its Impact on Performance Testing
IDIC, infinite diversity in infinite combinations.
As mentioned in the Preface, this book is designed to provide a practical guide to application performance testing. However, certain application technologies require us to refine our testing strategy to ensure that we achieve maximum benefit.
It therefore seems appropriate to offer some guidance on how different technologies may alter your approach to performance testing. I’ll try to cover all the important technologies that I’ve encountered over many years of performance testing projects together with some of the newer offerings that have emerged alongside NET.
Asynchronous Java and XML (AJAX)
This is not the Greek hero of antiquity but rather a technology designed to make things better for the poor end users. The key word here is “asynchronous,” which refers to breaking the mold of traditional synchronous behavior where “I do something and then I have to wait for you to respond before I can continue.” Making use of AJAX in your application design removes this potential logjam and can lead to a great end-user experience. Unfortunately, most automated performance tools find this sort of technology difficult to handle.
The crux of the problem is that automated test tools are by default designed to work in synchronous fashion. Traditional applications make a request and then wait for the server to respond. In the AJAX world a client can ...
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