Create / Edit Service Test - Web Transaction (Browser Simulation Mode)

A Web transaction is a service test that allows a beacon to emulate a Web client while testing a Web enabled service. The status of a Web transaction is determined by the successful execution of each user action, and by the validation of success and failure strings on the pages of the transaction.

Note: This mode requires a beacon version that is 10.2.0.4 or above.

You can use the Web Transaction Recorder to record a transaction. Use this page to create and edit the various parameters for a Web transaction.

Field	Description
Name	The name you enter here is used to identify the transaction when you view information about the transaction or select the transaction for analysis. Try to use a name that uniquely identifies the purpose of this transaction.
Description	The description field is optional. However, the description can be useful if you are sharing duties with other administrators. In those cases, include a brief description of the pages accessed by the transaction and why it is important to monitor this particular transaction.
Collection Frequency	Specify the frequency at which the beacon will replay the transaction and collect metrics.
Record a Transaction	Click Go to record a transaction. The Record Web Transaction page is displayed. Follow the instructions on the Record Web Transaction page to record your Web transaction.
Playback Mode	Select the playback engine that should be used to play back the recorded transaction. This can be: Request Simulation : In this mode the beacon will play back the Web transaction by constructing a series of HTTP requests executed sequentially, which simulates the recorded transaction. This mode is recommended as it is more scalable and platform independent. But transactions recorded in this mode are not suitable for applications with AJAX requests. In this mode, only the server response time is measured; browser rendering time is not measured. Browser Simulation : In this mode the beacon will play back the Web transaction using a browser based engine, simulating each keyboard and mouse action such as data entry in a text field, or a mouse click. This mode is suitable for applications with extensive AJAX like interactions. In this mode, the complete end user time is captured, which includes the server response time, as well as any browser side rendering time. This mode works only with Internet Explorer 6.0 or above and requires a beacon that is 10.2.0.4 or later running on Windows to play back the transaction. Setting up the Recorder in this mode requires additional steps. For a detailed description of these steps, refer to the Advanced Configuration Guide. Note: At the end of the recording, a suitable playback mode is automatically selected based on the content of your transaction. You can manually change the mode to that which is suitable for your deployment. Refer to the Advanced Configuration Guide for details.
Collection Granularity	The amount of data collected by the beacon. This can be: Transaction: Data is collected for the overall transaction only. If you select this option, data will not collected for the step groups and steps in the transaction. Step Group: Data is collected for the overall transaction and the step groups in the transaction. Step: Data is collected for the overall transaction, step groups and each individual step in the transaction.

Usage Tips

A Web transaction consists of a series of steps. Each step consists of one or more user actions. A user action consists of a command and its attributes. For example, in the user action click text="logout", click is the command and text="logout" is the attribute. You can either record a transaction or create one or more steps which in turn will create a Web transaction. To create a step, select the Step tab and click Create. The Create Step page is displayed. After creating the step, you can play back the step using the playback engine.
You can combine a set of steps into a step group. Click the Step Group tab and click Create. The Create Step Group page is displayed. On this page, you can select the steps that are to be included in the group. You can set thresholds at the transaction, step and step group level.
You can change the sequence in which the steps should be executed by using the Move Up, Insert Before, Insert After and Move Down buttons. This is not recommended for recorded transactions.

Advanced Properties

You can define various properties for the Web transaction. To define these properties, click the Advanced Properties tab.

Test Parameters

Parameter	Description
Browser Visibility	Sets the browser visibility during playback on the beacon. If this parameter is set to Yes, the browser is visible during transaction playback.

Validation

Parameter	Description
Success / Failure Strings	Success and Failure Strings are used to validate the content of the pages downloaded by the beacon. A Success / Failure String can be one of the following: Regular Text: The literal string is compared against the content of a page. Regular Expression: The string is treated as a regular expression that is matched against the content of a page. Each Success String must appear at least once within a transaction. Failure Strings should not appear within a transaction or a step. If a Failure String appears within a transaction, or a Success String does not appear within a transaction, it is considered to be unsuccessful. Click the symbol to add more Success and Failure Strings. Note: Only beacons that are 10.2.0.4 and above support Regular Expression mode.

Parameter

Description

Success / Failure Strings

Success and Failure Strings are used to validate the content of the pages downloaded by the beacon. A Success / Failure String can be one of the following:

Regular Text: The literal string is compared against the content of a page.
Regular Expression: The string is treated as a regular expression that is matched against the content of a page.

Each Success String must appear at least once within a transaction. Failure Strings should not appear within a transaction or a step. If a Failure String appears within a transaction, or a Success String does not appear within a transaction, it is considered to be unsuccessful. Click the symbol to add more Success and Failure Strings.

Note: Only beacons that are 10.2.0.4 and above support Regular Expression mode.

Metric Collection

Parameter	Description
Transaction Timeout	The timeout period for the entire transaction.
Number of Retries on Failure	The maximum number of times that the beacon will attempt to play a transaction before it is considered down.
Time Between Retries	The amount of time that the beacon will wait between attempts to play a transaction.

Miscellaneous

Parameter	Description
Recorder Version	Indicates the version of the Recorder by which a transaction has been recorded.

Collected Metrics

Field	Description
Status	Indicates whether the Web transaction was successful.
Total Time	The amount of time that it would take a Web browser to play the transaction. This is a good metric for setting thresholds because it is the closest active measurement of what the user-experience is likely to be. User Action Use this metric to identify problem transactions. After you identify a transaction that is slow to respond to user requests, you can drill down and analyze each phase of the transaction to isolate and repair the problem.
Status Description	If the beacon is unable to run the transaction successfully, this metric returns a description of the error that prevented the transaction from running.

Related Topics

About Web Application Management

About Web Transactions

About Services

Enterprise Manager Information Roadmap