Flex Load Testing
Flex applications impose challenges for load testing, because they can communicate with the back-end systems using the binary AMF protocol. For realistic testing, the load testing tool should be able to intercept and decode AMF data, so that you can parameterize requests and dynamically correlate them.
SmartBear LoadComplete is a superior solution for Flex load testing with dedicated support for the AMF protocol. Using LoadComplete, you can thoroughly test the performance of your Flex applications under load so that you can confidently deploy them into production.
Recording and Playing Back AMF Traffic
You can easily create load tests for AMF-based Flex applications by recording AMF traffic between the client Flex application and the server, and then play it back using hundreds and thousands of unique virtual users. Test recording and playback are non-intrusive and do not require any special setup nor changes in the client Flex application or its server back-end.
LoadComplete supports both versions of the AMF protocol:
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AMF0 (used in applications created with ActionScript 1 and 2)
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AMF3 (used in applications created with ActionScript 3)
Visualizing AMF Data
LoadComplete automatically decodes the recorded binary AMF traffic and presents it in a human-readable tree-like structure for easy viewing and customization. You can view the AMF data structure, change parameter values in requests as well as extract values from AMF responses for later use in the scenario. During the test run, data is automatically encoded back to the AMF binary format.
Parameterizing AMF Requests
You can replace the recorded AMF data with to run the test with different parameter values. You can also bind AMF request parameters to data sources so that different virtual users use different parameter values. For example, you can simulate virtual users logging in with different user names and passwords to increase the scope of your Flex application load testing.
Dynamic Parameter Handling and Data Correlation
LoadComplete allows you to extract values from AMF responses received from the server and use them in subsequent requests. This lets you variablize the simulated traffic as well as handle dynamic parameters that are generated and tracked back by the server. For example, you can correlate the DSId and clientId parameters in the AMF traffic to implement AMF session handling.
Out-of-the-Box Flex Load Testing
Flex load testing capabilities are included in LoadComplete out-of-the-box. There are no additional expensive plug-ins to purchase, and no configuration to be done — you just install LoadComplete and get up and running immediately!
Supported Technologies
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Browser-based Flex, Flash and Flex-based AIR desktop applications.
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AMF0 and AMF3 protocols.
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HTTP, SOAP and JSON.
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Flex Remoting with any back-end (Java, PHP, .NET etc).
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Flex Messaging.
Validating Response Contents
The server part of Adobe Flash and Flex applications typically return the response code 200 (success) for most requests. Information on errors, if any, goes within the response body. With LoadComplete you can easily verify the response data by creating custom validation rules.