User_Guide_Script

Scripts

Scripts are accessed from the Scripts navigation link.

An Intuit Tank performance script is a preset of steps that virtual users will execute during a load test. A step can be composed from one of the following step types:

HTTP Request
Think Time
Sleep Time
Variable
Clear Session
Logic

In the Scripts section we will cover how to create and modify an Intuit Tank script. First we will go over the steps of creating a script by importing a proxy recording. The modifying portion will be broken into 2 parts. The first part will go through the general steps of editing a script (i.e. modifying requests, deleting requests and saving your changes). The second part will go over how to add one of the 5 request types to a script.

Importing a recorded script

There are two ways to generate a script: importing from a proxy recording or manually creating a script. This section will mainly focus on the importing method.

Note

Currently Intuit Tank only supports Intuit Tank's own proxy recording tool.

Click on the New Script icon which takes you to the Create Script form.
Fill in the name and select from the appropriate product name.
Click on the Browse button to select the recording file or the zip archive that contains the recording file. If Creating a blank script just select the Blank Script radio button and skip this step.

Note

If uploading a zipped recording, Intuit Tank will only extract the first one.tu
Select the appropriate Filter Groups and/or individual Filters. The Filters are used to transform the imported recording to a final Intuit Tank script. (See the Filters section for more details on Filters and Filters Group.)
Click on the Save button. Once the Intuit Tank script is created, you will be taken back to the Scripts section and your script will appear at the top of the list.

Modifying a script

Click on the name of the script of the edit icon of the script you wish to edit. This will take you to the edit script form.

Name

The name of the script. This is an in-place editor. Simply click the name once to enter edit mode.
Product

The name of the product this script belongs to.
Owner

The user who owns the script.
Comments

Comments are accessed by the comments button on the toolbar.

Note

Selection in script steps is different than other sections. Instead of check boxes, it uses a standard selection methods and highlights to indicate selection. To select Multiple use the shift key to select a range or the control key to select and de-select individual steps.

The toolbar has actions for inserting, deleting, and changing the order of the steps.

Note

When inserting a step, the new step will be inserted before the first selected step. if nothing is selected, it will be inserted at the end of the script.

Reordering Steps

To move a step you will need to click on the button labeled Reorder Steps. A pop up window labeled Reorder Steps will appear.
Use the buttons to move steps up or down in the list. You can also drag the steps to the new order.
Click on the Save button to save the new ordering.

Note

The script is not saved to the database until you click Save in the main toolbar. Changes can be discarded at any time by clicking cancel or by navigating to another panel. In general you should periodically save your updates.

Variables

Variables are used to store various values that can be used to parameterize requests (i.e. hostnames, query string, post data, etc.). You can define a variable to be set to a literal value or function. A variable can also be set by parsing the response or headers of a given request. When using variables in requests you need to add the @ symbol in front of the variable. This tells Intuit Tank to replace the variable with the actual value.

To add a variable, click on the button labeled Variable . The Variable dialog will pop up.
In the Key field you will define your variable name.
The Value field is where you define the actual value or function you use will associate with the variable.
Click on the Add or Save button when done.

Note

You can cause the agent to use a Proxy Server for requests by setting a variable named 'TANK_HTTP_PROXY' in the format proxyHost:proxyport. e.g. myProxyserver:80

Think Time and Sleep Time

Think Time is used to simulate a real user's page to page transitions in an application. In Intuit Tank a random think time is generated based on the min and max values given. Sleep time is used when you wish to wait for a specific amount of time.

Note

Think Time and Sleep Time are entered in milliseconds.

To add a Think Time or Sleep Time, click on the appropriate button or the link to edit an existing one. The insert or edit dialog will pop up.
In the Key field you will define your variable name.
For Think Time you will need to enter the Minimum and Maximum time in milliseconds. For Sleep Time you just need to enter a single value.
Click on the Add or Save button when done.

Http Request

In Intuit Tank a request is either a HTTP(S) GET or POST request. Before we go through the steps of adding a new request, we will go over what makes up the basic request. First we'll start with the fields that can make up a request:

Host

You can enter either the FQDN, IP address or variable for the hostname. When you use a variable you need to add the & symbol at the beginning of the variable. (e.g. @webserver) You can specify the port by appending a :[port] to the host. e.g. server.domain.com:9001
Protocol

Supported protocols HTTP or HTTPS
Path

The path to the requested resource. The path can also be parameterized with variables.

#{rootContext}/ajax/logEmail
Method

Supported methods GET or POST
Query String

The query parameters expressed as key value pairs that get appended to the url.
Post Data

Parameters expressed as key value pairs that get posted in the body of the request.
Group

Allows you to group requests under a label. Grouping is used with "On Failure". Note: This field is optional.
Logging

This field is used to gather response times on a specific request. Note: This field is optional.
On Failure

Defines what action to take next when a response validation has failed. The following are the 5 actions that can be taken by the tool when validation has failed: o Abort Script, goto next Script (Default) – The virtual user will skip to the next script defined in the project. If there is only one script the virtual user will start from over from the top of the script. o Continue to next request – Execute next request. o Skip remaining requests in a group – Will execute the next step after the last request with the group label o Goto Group – Jumps to the first step with the group label o Terminate user – The virtual user is terminated.
Name

Allows a user to uniquely label a request. (i.e. Login request, Signout request or Print Request). Note: This field is optional.

To add a Request, click on the appropriate button or the link to edit an existing one. The insert or edit dialog will pop up.
Fill in the appropriate top level attributes such as Host, Path, Name, etc.
For each of the tabs, you can add or modify the key value pairs.

Note

Key and Value are in-place edit components. click on them to change their value and click the check mark to accept the change or the 'X' to revert.
- Request Headers
  Note
  
  Not all Headers are re-played. The following are filtered out:
  - Host
  - Cookie
  - Connection
  - Referer
  - If-None-Match
  - If-Modified-Since
  - Content* (Content-Type, Content-Length)
- Response Header - Response Headers are read only. They are here to help you in creating validation or assignments.
- Request Cookies - Cookies lets you see which cookies were set when the request was made. However, only cookies that are set from variables are replayed.
- Response Cookies - Response Cookies are read only.
- Query String - Used primarily with GET requests.
- Post Data - Only valid for POST requests.
- Validation - Perform validation specified. If validation fails, the On Fail action is performed. Key is the xpath or expression for the value.
  Note
  
  Two Synthetic headers can be validated as well:
  - HTTPRESPONSEMESSAGE - The http response message. e.g. OK or Not Found
  - HTTPRESPONSECODE - The http response code. e.g. 200 or 404
- Assignments Assign values to variables for use in other script steps. Key is the variable name and value is the xpath or expression for the value.
  
  Note
  
  The Response body is added as the variable RESPONSE_BODY for requests that return a text-based response and can be used in expressions.
Click on the Save button when done.

Clear Session

Inserting this step clears the session, comparable to closing and re-opening the browser. This accomplishes the following:

Clears cookies
Clears the cache

Logic

Inserting this step allows the user to use javascript to control the flow of the script, change variable values, or perform any logic that is too complex for the normal operations.

Logic step scripts are written in javascript. They have access to the following objects:

Variables

The current variables in the test plan execution.
Request

The previous request in the test plan execution.
Response

The previous response in the test plan execution.

Note

There are functions that are added to each script for accessing these values.

Control flow is controlled by setting the 'action' output parameter in the ioBean. Handled values are:

goto:[groupName]

Jump to a group within the script with the specified name.
restartPlan

Restart the test plan from the start.
abortScriptGroup

Aborts the current script group and proceeds to the next script group.
abortScript

Aborts the current script and proceeds to the next script.
abortGroup

Aborts the current group within a script and proceeds to the next request after the current group.
terminateUser

Terminates the current user.

Note

There are functions that are added to each script for accessing these values.

The following functions are added to each script before it is run and are available for use.

// ######## Logging functions ##########

/**
 * prints the line to the output. will be log
 * 
 * @param line
 *            the line to print
 */
function logWithDate(line) {
    ioBean.println(new Date().toString + ": " + line);
}

/**
 * prints the line in info context.
 * 
 * @param line
 *            the line to print
 */
function log(line) {
    ioBean.println(line);
}
/**
 * prints the line in error context.
 * 
 * @param line
 *            the line to print
 */
function error(line) {
    ioBean.error(line);
}

/**
 * prints the line in debug context. Will be logged to console or test but not
 * to logs when in production.
 * 
 * @param line
 *            the line to print
 */
function debug(line) {
    ioBean.debug(line);
}

//######## Data Transformational functions ##########

function toJsonObj(text) {
    try {
        return JSON.parse(text);
    } catch(e) {
        error("Error parsing json: " + e);
    }
    return text;
}

function toJsonString(jsonObj) {
    try {
        return JSON.stringify(jsonObj, null, '\t');
    } catch(e) {
        error("Error converting json to string json: " + e);
    }
    return jsonObj;
}


//######## Data Retrieval functions ##########
/**
 * gets the com.intuit.tank.http.BaseRequest object of the last call made.
 * 
 * @return the request or null if no requests have been made
 */
function getRequest() {
    return ioBean.getInput("request");
}

/**
 * gets the com.intuit.tank.http.BaseResponse object of the last call made.
 * 
 * @return the response or null if no requests have been made
 * 
 */
function getResponse() {
    return ioBean.getInput("response");
}

/**
 * gets the request body as string if not binary
 * 
 * @return the body or empty string if null or binary
 */
function getResquestBody() {
    if (getRequest() != null) {
        return getRequest().getBody();
    }
    return "";
}

/**
 * gets the response body as string if not binary
 * 
 * @return the body or empty string if null or binary
 */
function getResponseBody() {
    if (getResponse() != null) {
    return getResponse().getBody();
    }
    return "";
}

/**
 * Returns the value of the variable or null if variable does not exist
 * 
 * @param key
 *            the variable name
 * @returns the variable value.
 */
function getVariable(key) {
    return ioBean.getInput("variables").getVariable(key);
}

/**
 * Sets the value of the variable.
 * 
 * @param key
 *            the variable name to set
 * @param value
 *            the value to set it to
 */
function setVariable(key, value) {
    ioBean.getInput("variables").addVariable(key, value);
}

//######## Result functions ##########

/**
 * jump to a group within the script with the specified name.
 * 
 * @param groupName
 *            the name of the group to go to. if the group does not exist, it
 *            skips to next script.
 */
function gotoGroup(groupName) {
    setAction("goto " + groupName);
}

/**
 * restart the TestPlan from the start.
 */
function restartPlan() {
    setAction("restartPlan");
}

/**
 * aborts the current ScriptGroup and proceeds to the next.
 * 
 * @returns
 */
function abortScriptGroup() {
    setAction("abortScriptGroup");
}

/**
 * aborts the current Script and proceeds to the next.
 */
function abortScript() {
    setAction("abortScript");
}

/**
 * aborts the current group and proceeds to the next request after the current
 * group.
 */
function abortGroup() {
    setAction("abortGroup");
}

/**
 * terminates this user.
 */
function terminateUser() {
    setAction("terminateUser");
}

/**
 * sets the action in the output.
 */
function setAction(action) {
    ioBean.setOutput("action", action);
}

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