Accurate simulation of real user activity
WAPT uses a number of advanced techniques to simulate real load conditions. This approach is much more efficient than producing stress test by sending many identical requests to the server. WAPT creates a simulation of many different users coming from different IP addresses, each with their own parameters: cookies, input data for various page forms, name and password, connection speed and their own specific path through the site. WAPT can even simulate random time between user clicks to make each virtual user as similar as possible to a human user.
Different types of users in one test
If you want to simulate thousands of users, you do not need to specify separate behavior for each of them. Practice shows that usually site visitors can be divided into certain types, and this approach is used in WAPT. You specify behavior for each type of users and add to the test as many users types as you need.
For example, users of an online shop can be divided into those who browse through the catalog, and those brought to a certain page through a marketing campaign to purchase a specific item. Each type of users has specific path through the site and other customizable parameters. For each type you create a separate profile all this data can be specified. In the test you can use as many virtual users of each type as you need. You can create more profiles to represent users browsing different areas of the site or making specific purchases. This will make your test more accurate.
Testing of dynamic web applications
HTTP requests can include parameters that are specific for each user. The values of such parameters can even be different for different users of the same type and can change throughout the session. For example, the server can send a session variable in the reply to the first request from a new user. This variable is added to the subsequent requests from that user to identify them. You can specify how to use these changing parameters.
This feature can be used to test web sites implemented with any modern technologies including AJAX, ASP, ASP.NET, ColdFusion, Java, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, etc.
Flexible load level definition
You can either choose constant load level for the whole test time or increase the load after specified time intervals during the test. You can specify the overall test time and the number of virtual users for each profile. Overall load also significantly depends on the type of users, so you can change it by introducing new types of users, making them "slow" or "fast".
Testing of HTTPS/SSL content
WAPT supports testing of web sites and applications secured by SSL. You do not need to perform any additional actions and can easily work with HTTPS sites just as you do with any others.
Descriptive test reports and graphs
WAPT displays test results through descriptive reports and graphs. They are available even during the test, so you can monitor key parameters of web application performance on the fly and see how your site responds to the increasing load volume. Summary reports and graphs are useful to determine the presence of any problems in overall performance. Then you can check through more detailed reports down to the level of separate user profiles and pages to find specific bottlenecks. All reports are created in HTML format, so you can easily share them with your colleagues. You can also save test results in MS Excel compatible format. During the test WAPT collects complete test data including server replies to each request. You can use this information to research site behavior in all details.
Other Features
Support
of different language encodings
Support
of all types of proxy servers: HTTP(S), SOCKS4(5)
Additional
command-line interface
Scheduled
run option to commence testing at a specified time
Ability
to add custom strings to HTTP headers
Support
for redirects, including redirects to another server