This tutorial will show you how to automate dynamic parameter handling using framework parameters.
To get the most out of this tutorial, it is recommended to have read the following tutorials beforehand :
Handling an Application's Dynamic Parameters, in order to understand the steps involved in defining a variable extractor.
The HTML pages generated by applications usually contain dynamic elements, that is to say components whose values vary from one call to the next. Typically, these include unique identifiers that cannot be replayed "as is", and which must be managed individually.
When dynamic parameter handling fails:
requests may show an error (typically,
Error 500) when checking the virtual user's validity;the Virtual User displays an unexpected behavior (entries not created in the database for example).
NeoLoad automatically handles the most common parameters, such as the framework .Net __VIEWSTATE parameter. However, NeoLoad cannot automatically handle parameters that are specific to an application. These need to be handled individually, that is to say by placing an extractor on the value returned by the server and injecting the extracted value into the appropriate requests.
NeoLoad provides the necessary tools to handle a dynamic parameter manually. See the section called “Handling an Application's Dynamic Parameters”.
Handling a dynamic parameter manually involves extracting the value from the server response using a variable extractor and replacing it in the appropriate requests. In our example, we'll use the extractor to declare a framework parameter.
Here, we can use the variable extractor to extract the
"id" parameter from the server response.
The parameter we're looking for appears in numerous requests, which
is why the search must be systematized. The multiple occurrences of the
"id" parameter in the scenario (identified by the blue
flags ) can be seen in the following screenshot.
By adding a rule to the framework parameter, we can handle all the occurrences of a parameter automatically.
When searching for dynamic parameters NeoLoad uses the rules defined for the framework parameter to automatically create variable extractors in the appropriate requests. Furthermore, NeoLoad automatically injects the corresponding variables into the parameters of the requests that require the variables.
The dynamic parameter search is carried out:
at the end of the recording, using the Post-Recording Wizard;
using the virtual user's Dynamic Parameter Search Wizard. Select the appropriate virtual user in the "
Design / Virtual Users" tab, then click on the "Search" button to launch the wizard.
There are three ways to create a framework parameter: manually, using a variable extractor set on a request, or using a variable extractor set on a parameter.
In this example, we'll explain how to create a framework parameter using a variable extractor set on a request.
Create and validate a variable extractor for the parameter to be handled. Then go to the list of variable extractors for the request by clicking on the "
Advanced..." button and selecting the "Variable extractors" tab.
Click the "
Move as framework parameter" button to launch the Framework Parameter Creation Wizard.Enter the name of the framework parameter ("
id" in this example) and select the framework name (existing or specify a new framework name). Click "Next".
Set the dynamic parameter's replacement policy (automatically preconfigured by default). In our example, NeoLoad has detected that the extracted dynamic parameter is used later on only for the value of the "id" parameter. Click "
Next".
This window allows you to apply the parameters to the requests in the current recording. Click "Finish" to validate and start the search. The result of the scenario analysis is displayed after the search step shown below.
Apply the changes (default option): this will set the variable extractors and inject the variables into the parameters of the appropriate requests
The framework parameters can be accessed via NeoLoad's
"Edit\Preferences\Dynamic Parameters" menu item.
You can see here the list of existing parameters containing the
default .NET framework parameters and the recently-created
"id" parameter.
To conclude our case study, we just need to check that the changes
have been implemented in the virtual user's requests. In the next window,
you can see that the values of the requests' "id"
parameters no longer contain the numerical values recorded, but the
variables created using the framework.
1251988153222",
we now have "${id}".Remember that you may start a new automatic dynamic parameter search
by clicking on the "Search" button in the
"Virtual Users" tab. Select the virtual user in the
virtual user profiles tree. This makes NeoLoad carry out a new search,
including the new framework parameters.