AJAX Testing General

[unsigned]

Can you outline what eValid offers to me in the way of support for
testing AJAX application?

[Ajax]

Regarding AJAX support, when testing Google maps, the issue is whether the
objective was "how to get a realistic desktop recording". Of course, the old
fashioned "absolute recording mode", or as you call it "analog recording,"
will work perfectly but as we are all well aware, this may not be your key
point. Anyway, it is available in your Winrunner and QTP product, and even
available over the web for Windows in various Open Source offerings.

eValid includes this "application mode" -- the absolute coordinate based
recording mode -- as a backup tool that can be used when all of the *other*
powerful capabilities inside the eValid browser suite can't apply for one
technical reason or another.

The thinking of this is, that if all else fails and an absolute mode recording
is the best you can do, then it's correct to have that capability present in
the product. It'll get you over rough places that otherwise would be needed
in a complete session emulation.

The Google Maps is a case in point: on the right hand side of the mapping
area it is very difficult to do position-independent, object-oriented
recording and playback because in fact what is visible there actually has no
object structure and is entirely position dependent. In many ways, that's an
anachronism harkening back to much earlier days.

Absolute (analog) recording in eValid is something that, in all honesty, is
largely to be avoided. If it is used, one looses the capability to do true
load testing. However, we know that this is not a real need for testing
complex AJAX applications.

There are many already-worked examples that pertain to AJAX testing. A first
example to consider is Morfik:

http://www.e-valid.com/Products/Documen ... notes.html

It is not a public page, but links immediately to the fuller public page.

There is a box on that page with a simple "recording protocol" message that
could be sent to you that gives you the right clues, and enables you to make
your own recording...doesn't spool feed a worked example.

On the Morfik site, our idea is that the "SyncOnSelectedObjectProperty" type
download synchronization would not work on the QTP because that command does
not exist there and if it were attempted via a JavaScript passage it would
interfere with the AJAX operation required by Morfik.

Another example is this Microsoft's Maps Live site:

http://maps.live.com

This site is similar to Google Maps, but the Microsoft implementation is quite
superior to the Google version, and appears to use the latest techniques all
the way, which makes it easier for eValid to test! We split the example up
into two parts: (a) What can be done without any absolute mouse clicks/drags
(quite a bit); and, (b) What can be done when you have to use a click/drag to
move the map picture around. Here is the top page, which points to the two
scripts:

http://www.e-valid.com/Products/Documen ... notes.html

Both scripts run quite reliably.

Note: There is a slight chance that these examples may have
problems on a non-USA machine or one with non-standard environment
setups; if you encounter any difficulties let me know.

It's important to admit that we might not have made it evident that creating
complex scripts (like to two examples above) has a degree of difficulty that's
seems to be in proportion to the complexity of the underlying website.

A description of eValid's methodology on AJAX testing can be found at:

http://www.e-valid.com/Products/Documen ... ology.html

Also, here is a page from the documentation that itemizes ALL of the available
synchronization modes...categorized to emphasize those which are exclusively
AJAX related:

http://www.e-valid.com/Products/Documen ... mmary.html

[websmart]

??? So it looks like eValid has these "modes" but how do you switch back and forth from one to the other?