Load Testing With Real Browsers Using Tricentis Flood Element

Prepare to Delve into Intelligent Performance Testing for DevOps with the aid of the Tricentis Flood Element Tool.

Performance Testing is a highly valued domain of testing that most testers might have come across.

Performance test considerations might have left you disillusioned with existing solutions, finding them intricate to write and maintain tests. Alternatively, for some, this might be your inaugural venture into performance testing.

Regardless, contemplating performance testing is a crucial initial step that many firms disregard, subsequently bearing the brunt of the ensuing repercussions.

Overview

Application performance has a crucial bearing on key business metrics, such as revenue, enrollment of new clients, or overall customer contentment.

It is imperative for all web-based establishments to ensure that their performance doesn’t have a detrimental impact on these pivotal metrics. Even if these metrics are improving, there’s always scope for the application to operate more efficiently, translating into savings for you and your users.

Whether you’re novices in the field of performance testing or seasoned experts, the broad spectrum of tools and methodologies available to accomplish the task is bound to catch your attention.

Flood Element – Superlative Performance Testing Tool

Today, I’d like to present a detailed analysis of a newly-emerged favorite performance testing tool, the Tricentis Flood Element.

Numerous prevalent tools operate at the protocol level, aiming to replicate the user interactions with your application by transmitting network requests.

However, with the growing complexity of modern web applications and their heightened reliance on an extensive range of browser features, it has become more critical than ever before.

Even simple applications, like online stores, depend on numerous browser features to deliver a seamless user experience for tasks like product selection, order placement, and online transactions.

Therefore, in this era of advanced web applications, solely testing at the protocol level can yield an incomplete overview of your application’s performance. In contrast, fresh tools like Flood Element replicate user behavior using authentic web browsers. This method is known as Browser Level Users (BLUs).

In Flood Element, the simulated user behavior is characterized using simplistic, intuitive actions such as clicking links and buttons, filling out web forms, and more. Once the behavior profile is ready, it’s incredibly easy to conduct large-scale tests using Flood, involving thousands of users from all over the planet!

Performance testing with Flood Element allows you to acquire a comprehensive, intuitive understanding of how your application performs as perceived by actual users. Initiating a BLU test using Element is also considerably easier compared to traditional protocol-level user (PLU) tools.

BLUs offer a realistic depiction of your application’s performance, across the entire depth, unlike PLUs which only evaluate the network and server infrastructure.

The All-Inclusive Outlook

Utilizing Flood Element to measure your application’s performance from the viewpoint of the end user is an exemplary way to develop a detailed understanding of its performance and address any inexplicable changes, whether they are momentary anomalies or code regressions.

Flood Element BLU tests yield insights closely aligned with the actual user experience.

They account for every aspect of performance a user comes across, such as network performance, on-page script performance, and third-party scripts like analytics or ad plugins (our tests are so authentic that care must be taken not to generate incorrect data for Google Analytics).

If running a BLU load test with Element provides a snapshot of your application’s performance at a specified time, regularly conducting tests allows you to grasp whether your application’s speed is improving or declining, particularly in scenarios like the sign-up widget.

Initiating Flood Element – Crafting a Test

Now, let’s delve into how easy it is to get started with Flood Element.

Element scripts are crafted in TypeScript or modern JavaScript. For an optimal experience, we recommend utilizing the splendid blend of TypeScript and VS Code, as it offers valuable support in developing your tests.

Initialize Flood Element:

Element can be installed by following the initiation instructions here. Once the installation is done, you can modify and validate your script locally. When you feel it’s ready, upload it to Flood to commence a thorough performance test by registering for a trial here.

A rudimentary Element BLU test for the sign-up scenario described earlier could have the following structure:

If you have prior experience with testing at the protocol level, you would know that all timings are based on request-response transactions.

When learning to test at the browser level, a few additional intricacies need to be considered when finetuning your tests. In particular, there aren’t any predefined timing bunches, which necessitates the inclusion of our own timings into the test structure.

The most straightforward approach to grouping timings is to waiting for the necessary elements to manifest on the page, similar to a user’s approach.

In the sign-up scenario discussed earlier, we are interested in measuring the user’s sign-up experience, but not as concerned about the page loading time. So, in the initial step, we simply navigate to the URL and wait for the page to attain a specific state – until the title is displayed.

Next, we carry out the action we desire to monitor, which entails filling out and finishing the sign-up form.

Now, save the script locally, enabling you to upload it to Flood and run it with hundreds, if not thousands, of concurrent users.

#1) (If you haven’t already done so) register for Flood.

#2) Set up a Project:

#3) Choose the “create flood” option within your selected project

#4) Build your test utilizing the Flood Element choice

#5) Assign a name to your test

#6) Upload the .ts script that you’ve created

#7) Indicate the number of browsers (users) and regions to calculate the total number of users (number of browsers * number of regions). Additionally, set the duration of the test.

#8) Initiate your test and peruse through the results as they come in.

#9) Once the test results are available, examine the graph and probe any problem areas it highlights.

Conclusion

We believe that by now, you’ve grasped how and why to perform performance testing with Browser Level Users utilizing Flood Element. This modern methodology simplifies the process of creating load tests and yields more authentic outcomes.

Tricentis Flood is a cloud-based decentralized load testing tool designed to integrate seamlessly into the DevOps pipeline workflow.

With this performance and load testing tool, the entire team can gauge and enhance the performance of applications.

Testing with thousands of users might seem formidable, but the process can be broken down into manageable steps:

1. Install Element.
2. Write a basic test on your local machine that encapsulates your primary scenario (e.g., checkout).
3. Locally Validate the test execution using ‘element run’.
4. Upload your validated test to Flood and run it with 5-10% of your peak load (for example, if your peak load is 5,000 users, initiate with 250-500 users).
5. Assess the results and make necessary alterations to your script or application.
6. Upload your refined test to Flood and execute it with 50-100% of your highest load (for instance, if your peak load is 5,000 users, carry out the test with 2,500-5,000 users).
7. Expand the test coverage to incorporate more scenarios until you achieve the degree of test coverage you need.

Depending on how complex your test scenario is, you might be able to run tests with thousands of users in less than a day.

Get started with Flood Element and begin exploring its immense performance testing capabilities.

We welcome you to share your experiences in the comments section below, to aid other testers in their learning journey!