Obtaining the Latest Release Notes
System Requirements
What's New
Technical Notes
Known Issues
Contacting Compuware Customer Support
If you accessed this document from the product CD or from the program shortcuts on your desktop, you may not be reading the latest release notes. For the most recent information, go to FrontLine, Compuware's customer support Web site. The first time you access FrontLine, you are required to register and obtain a password. After logging onto FrontLine, select your product from the drop-down list and click Go. On the left side of the page, click the Documentation link. You will find the latest release notes listed with the other product documentation.
QALoad has the following minimum system requirements:
The system requirements for each individual QALoad component follow:
The QALoad Player and associated utilities are supported on AIX, Linux, HP-UX, and Solaris. The system requirements for each operating system follow:
In addition, your Windows system may need to meet specific requirements to support the middleware you will be testing. The following middlewares do not have any additional QALoad Windows Player requirements: WAP, Winsock, and NetLoad.
QALoad supports load testing under Oracle when the following requirements are met:
QALoad supports load testing under Oracle Net8 when the following requirements are met:
QALoad supports load testing under Sybase when the following requirements are met:
QALoad supports load testing under MS SQL Server when the following requirements are met:
QALoad supports load testing under IBM DB2 when the following requirements are met:
QALoad supports load testing under ODBC when the following requirements are met:
QALoad supports load testing under TUXEDO when the following requirements are met:
QALoad supports load testing under UNIFACE when the following requirements are met:
QALoad supports load testing under Citrix when the following requirements are met:
QALoad supports load testing under SAP when the following requirements are met:
QALoad supports load testing under ADO when the following requirements are met:
QALoad supports load testing under Oracle Forms Server when the following requirements are met:
QALoad supports load testing of J2EE components when the following requirements are met:
QALoad supports load testing under WWW when the following requirements are met:
QALoad supports Streaming Media under WWW when the following requirements are met:
The following environments and middlewares, though supported in this release of QALoad, will not be supported in the next major release:
You can now load test Citrix MetaFrame 1.8 or XP environments using EasyScript for Citrix in the Script Development Workbench. QALoad's support for Citrix also enables you to test load-balanced environments, i.e. server farms.
QALoad now supports recording and playback of SSL-enabled Oracle Forms Server 9i applications. This enhancement continues to expand support for OFS 9i, which was introduced in Version 5.0 of QALoad.
You can now load test SAP 6.20 applications in addition to Versions 4.0B, 4.5, 4.6D. Refer to the online help for more information about how to load test SAP 6.20.
Some subrequests, such as those contained in applets, ActiveX components, and other objects that are not automatically requested at playback, are now listed in a new AdditionalSubRequests tree item in the Visual Navigator. Each additional subrequest item appears in the script as a pre-loaded subrequest just before the main action. As a result, the playback engine requests the main page, regular subrequests, and then the pre-loaded subrequests. For more information, refer to the QALoad online help.
From the QALoad Conductor, you can record a load test as it runs, and then play back the test later. While the test plays back, you can control the speed to better see what events occurred during the test. This feature can help you identify important events and act accordingly.
Error handling has been improved in this release. Now, more test initializations are handled, most error dialog boxes include an option to continue the test, and error messages no longer appear in pop-up windows.
There are no major enhancements to QALoad Player in this release.
Analyze now includes a Session Report, which provides summary information about the load test. View this report in QALoad Analyze or in a Web browser.
The online help for all components, including the Language Reference, has been combined into a single source of information for QALoad. You can now access the combined online help from the Help menu in any component and perform fast, product-wide searches.
Analyze now includes context-sensitive help, which is online help that you can access right from a dialog box by pressing the F1 key or clicking the Help button.
certdb.txtFor the SSL support provided in this release, QALoad modifies the client machine's JInitiator certdb.txt file to include QALoad's CA certificate during the initial SSL recording process for an Oracle Forms Server application. This certificate authority information is internally validated by Oracle during the OFS-SSL session. If you want to remove the QALoad CA certificate, delete the following text from the certdb.txt file:
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----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-----END CERTIFICATE-----
#qaload
If you are using the version of QALoad available on the product CD, the SAP and Citrix middlewares are only compatible with the Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 compiler. For Visual C++ .NET support, install QALoad 5.1 Service Pack 1, which is available on FrontLine. Additionally, ensure that the VC++ MFC and Template Libraries option is selected when you install Visual C++. This option installs the headers, libraries, sources, and browser database for MFC and ATL, which are required for both the SAP and Citrix middlewares.
To prevent performance issues, Compuware recommends that you increase your system paging file size to a fixed size of:
When mouse move consolidation is enabled via the Combine Mouse Input option on the Convert Options dialog box, not all events that were captured appear during replay. As a result, the placement of wait points for window moves and window resizing is important.
When a window is moved on the desktop, a window move event is created for each mouse move. However,
during replay of a consolidated script, only one mouse move is made (to the final destination), and
subsequently only one window move event occurs. Because of this consolidation of consecutive mouse and window moves, the WaitForWindowMove
command in your script should target the final window move in the series.
This issue also applies to the WaitForWindowResize command and the resizing of windows on
the desktop.
If a window's title changes while the window is being created (such as a browser window's title bar
changing once the default Web page begins to load), the WaitForWindowCreate command may time out. If this
occurs, remove the wait point or insert a WaitForScreenUpdate command to preserve the wait in the script.
To ensure that the entire Citrix interface is visible during recording, set the Resolution field in the Citrix recording options to a lower value than that of the desktop. Also, the screen resolution must be the same as the screen resolution specified in the Citrix ICA file.
For Citrix scripts, the default sleep factor (0%) for validation in the Script Development Workbench is interpreted as 100%. The lowest possible sleep factor for Citrix is 1%. Compuware recommends using a 100% sleep factor for accurate playback.
When recording a Citrix script on a restricted desktop, you must take extra steps to ensure proper playback. Dynamic windows may be created and destroyed with no user interaction at both logon and logoff. To prevent unexpected results during playback, do not click on any of these dynamic windows. For example, the script might attempt to click on a destroyed window or a window that has not been created yet.
The appearance of dynamic windows often depends on the speed of the server or the load on the farm during playback.
This section describes known issues related to the current release of QALoad.
In Chapter 10 (Advanced Scripting Techniques for Citrix) of the QALoad Script Development Guide, several paragraphs incorrectly refer to the SetWindowMatchTitle command, which does not exist. Those sections should refer to the SetWindowMatchName command. This command is described in the Language Reference section of the QALoad online help.
Window names in Citrix window object constructors in Citrix scripts can contain embedded quotation marks, which cause compilation errors. Quotation marks from user input can also cause compilation errors. To avoid compilation errors, insert a backslash character (\) before the quotation mark in the script to prevent the compiler from interpreting the character as a string terminator rather than a quotation mark.
Similarly, embedded backslashes in a Citrix window name must include a preceding backslash to prevent the compiler from interpreting the single backslash as an escape character.
When a capture file is converted to a script, occasionally the wrong Citrix Window Information object ID
is referenced. For example, a Click, MouseDown, MouseUp, or WaitForWindowCreate action might be using the wrong
CWI ID. The correct CWI ID can be determined by inspecting the capture file to find the window handle that
has focus.
SetTitle MethodDuring the conversion process, calls to the SetTitle method are sometimes placed at an incorrect line
in the script. Determine the correct line by inspecting the capture file and moving the call to that
position in the script.
The SetTitle method is added by QALoad during conversion and should otherwise not be modified or manually added to a script.
Uppercase characters are not captured when the CAPS LOCK key is on. Manually modify the script to
use uppercase characters or hold down the SHIFT key during recording.
Similarly, the Windows logo key is not supported. Do not use the Windows logo key to start applications
while recording a Citrix script.
If you receive a type mismatch error when compiling an SAP script, you must remove the
quotation marks around the last parameter of the affected command. For example:
error C2664: '<FuncName>' : cannot convert parameter n from 'char [n]' to 'long'
This compiler error, which can occur in commands that manipulate column widths, indicates a data type error and
can be corrected by removing the quotation marks around the last parameter. The following example
shows the lines in a script that could cause an error, and the corrected version of the same lines.
Script that produces the error:
SAPGuiPropIdStr("wnd[0]/shellcont[1]/shell");
SAPGuiCmd2(GuiCtrlTree, SetColumnWidth, "REPNAME", "218");
Corrected script:
SAPGuiPropIdStr("wnd[0]/shellcont[1]/shell");
SAPGuiCmd2(GuiCtrlTree, SetColumnWidth, "REPNAME", 218);
During validation of SAP scripts, do not minimize the SAP window. If the window is minimized, the validation may fail. This problem does not occur if you select the Hide Graphical User Interface for SAP Users option by clicking the browse [...] button in the Type column of the Script Assignment tab in the Conductor. This SAPGUI option runs SAP on an alternate desktop that is not visible.
You cannot start recording from Netscape while other Netscape browser windows are running. If you attempt to start recording with Netscape browser windows running, QALoad Script Development Workbench will display the error message, "Please shut down open browser before capturing".
Close any running Netscape browsers prior to clicking the Record button in the QALoad Script Development Workbench.
When loading a class by name in the QALoad Player during runtime, do not use a class name on the Enterprise Java Bean (EJB) InitialContext call. Instead, use a class instance as follows:
Note: Replace the InitialContext properties and JNDI names with the values that are appropriate for your application.
Before: java.util.Hashtable ht = new java.util.Hashtable();
ht.put(javax.naming.Context.INITIAL_CONTEXT_FACTORY,
"org.jnp.interfaces.NamingContextFactory");
ht.put(javax.naming.Context.PROVIDER_URL, "fh12623:1099");
javax.naming.InitialContext ic = new javax.naming.InitialContext(ht);
Object ref = ic.lookup("AddressMSvc");
After: org.jnp.interfaces.NamingContextFactory nf = new
org.jnp.interfaces.NamingContextFactory();
java.util.Hashtable ht = new
java.util.Hashtable();
ht.put(javax.naming.Context.PROVIDER_URL,
"fh12623:1099");
javax.naming.Context ic = nf.getInitialContext(ht);
Object ref = ic.lookup("AddressMSvc");
On the Windows XP operating system, QALoad EasyScript for UNIFACE requires UNIFACE Service Pack s603 or later. On Windows NT and 2000, UNIFACE Service Pack s601 or later is required.
MS XML version 4.0 parser is required to view pre-defined or custom reports (relying on XML translations). Internet Explorer 5.5 ships with the MS XML version 3.0 parser. Compuware provides the MS XML 4.0 parser with this version of QALoad so that an upgrade to IE 6.0 is not required. It is automatically installed by QALoad but does not override any other version that may exist on the machine. QALoad Analyze looks for and loads this parser when using pre-defined or custom reports.
The Errors and Server Monitoring pre-defined reports and any views that rely on XML translations cannot be viewed in Netscape. If you use the QALoad Analyze menu option View>as Web Page to view pre-defined reports, you can only view them outside Analyze with Microsoft Internet Explorer. Compuware recommends using and installing IE 5.5 with Service Pack 2 (build 5.50.4807.2300), which is the browser that is shipped with QALoad.
If you are using the QALoad Conductor on a machine that has Microsoft Office 2000 or XP installed, when launching Conductor, you may be prompted repeatedly to insert a Microsoft Office installation CD. This problem is a known issue with Microsoft Office and occurs during use with an account that is different from the account that was used during the Office installation, and if none of the Office components have been launched since installation. To avoid receiving the prompts, launch any Microsoft Office component under the user account that was used during installation, and close it. For more information about this Microsoft Office issue, refer to the Microsoft knowledge base article Q298385.
If you are using QALoad Conductor with Microsoft Windows NT, a full installation of the Windows NT Resource Kit is required on the QALoad Conductor machine for the QALoad Conductor's Remote Monitoring SNMP option to be enabled.
QALoad supports load testing of Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Web applications that use Double Byte Character Sets (DBCS). Viewing timing files and Summary reports with International versions of Microsoft Windows is only possible if the timing file is viewed on the same Windows language platform on which the timing file was created.
When using the Server Analysis Agent to monitor the "Process->% Processor Time" counter on a multi-processor machine, values greater than 100% for any instance of the counter are reported as 100%. To ensure accurate results, Compuware recommends that you use Remote Monitoring or Top Processes Monitoring when monitoring any instance of the "Process->% Processor Time" counter.
To use the Application Expert component, an installation of the Application Vantage Agent is required on the machine with the QALoad Conductor. You can install the Agent as an option available with the QALoad installation, or you can install it directly from the Application Expert or Application Vantage installation disk. If you are using Windows XP, the Agent does not appear as an option with the QALoad installation. Instead, you must install the Agent from the Version 9.0 or higher Application Expert or Application Vantage installation disk.
The result of the Application Expert/Application Vantage integration is an *.opt (Vantage Agent Version 8.0) or *.opx (Vantage agent Version 9.0) file. To open an *.opt or *.opx file, you must have a full installation of Application Expert or Application Vantage on the same machine as the Conductor. If you uninstall either application, and then try to open the *.opt or *.opx file, it will not open. Reinstall the application to restore the ability to open the *.opt or *.opx file. If you do not have either application installed, you could instead copy the *.opt or *.opx file to a machine that has one of the applications installed, import the file, and generate reports.
If the scroll wheel on your mouse is not functioning while working in the QALoad Script Development Workbench, download and install the latest driver from the mouse hardware vendor and try again.
If you are running QALoad on Microsoft Windows NT 4 and viewing an EasyScript for WWW RIP file in the QALoad Script Development Workbench or QALoad Analyze, the lower half of the RIP file view (where you see the HTML code) may be blank. This is usually a result of resizing part of the surrounding frames. If you resize the edit window, it will redraw. This is not an issue with Windows 2000 or Windows XP.
A file descriptor limit exists on the Solaris platform if a script is running in threaded mode, logfile generation is turned on, and there are more than 250 virtual users. To avoid this limitation, modify the Logfile Generation parameters so that logfiles are not generated by all virtual users:
QALoad now supports the use of non-Administrator users on the Windows 2000 and Windows XP Professional Edition platforms. Administrative rights are still required to install the software and appropriate user privileges are required for QALoad to write files to its own directory (which by default is in the Program Files directory). Administrative rights are also required when using middlewares that require the Capture Initialization Phase option. This requirement applies to middlewares other than WWW and WAP.
An advanced setting in Internet Explorer can cause the page previews that appear when you click on a page item in the Visual Navigator tree to incorrectly display an error page. To prevent this problem, follow these steps:
Compuware Customer Support can assist you with all your technical problems, from installation to troubleshooting.
Prior to contacting customer support, gather the following information:
800.538.7822
Refer to Compuware's FrontLine support web site for fast access to critical information about your QACenter product. You can read and print documentation, download product fixes, review frequently asked questions, or directly e-mail Compuware with questions or comments. The first time you access FrontLine, you are required to register and obtain a password.
Refer to Compuware's corporate Web site at http://www.compuware.com for information about Compuware customer support policies and problem resolution process.
Customer Support
Compuware Corporation
One Campus Martius
Detroit, MI 48226-5099
End of QALoad Release Notes
(C) 2004 Compuware Corporation. All
rights reserved. Unpublished rights reserved under the Copyright Laws of the
United States.