eValid™ -- Automated Web Quality Solution Browser-Based, Client-Side, Functional Testing & Validation, Load & Performance Tuning, Page Timing, Website Analysis, and Rich Internet Application Monitoring. © Copyright 2000-2008 by Software Research, Inc.

Summary
The basic idea of this option is to create, at script playback time, a complete derived URL trace, in a format ready to be submitted to the eValid eVlite Limited Fidelity Playback Option for non-session based server load creation.

Overview
When used in the eVlite playback engine the derived URL trace file will visit all of the URLs that an actual playback will visit -- but without any browsing of pages (i.e. no rendering, creation of DOM, etc).

Such a URL trace playback will therefore replicate the full sequence of URLs that are downloaded in browser playback -- including intra-command wait times -- but with "reduced fidelity". The derived URL trace script can be expected to play back at a faster speed than the full, normal mode, playback because the eValid browser is doing significantly less work.

Operational Procedure
The procedure to use this feature in eValid is as follows:

1. Select the script that you want to process, e.g. script.evs.
2. Turn on the eValid Detailed Timings option and also turn on the Create URL Trace option.
3. Play back the original script. The conversion process is accomplished during actual playback to assure the accuracy of the URL sequence extraction.
4. The resulting derived URL trace script will be saved as "URL.script.evs".
5. The URL trace script has the usual eValid headers, has a "Serve URL" at the front of the script, and has a "Serve FULL" at the end.
6. Load the derived URL trace script in eValid in this form to confirm the results.
7. An eVlite run of "URL.script.evs" now will mimic the same sequence of URL downloaded in the original "script.evs".

After conversion the derived URL.script.evs will run in eValid, in eValid/THIN, or in eVlite equivalently.

Example of Script Conversion
Here is an example of the effect of the transformation of a regular eValid script into a derived URL trace script.

• Original Script

  ######################################################################## # Original Script ProjectID "FunctionalTests" GroupID "Illustrations" TestID "test" LogID "AUTO" ScreenSize 1280 1024 FontSize 0 DeleteCache DeleteCookies ResetTimer InitLink "http://www.e-valid.com/eValid/Products/Documentation.8/Playback/URL.trace.html" ElapsedTime # End of script.

• Derived Script

  ######################################################################## # URL trace script derived from script.evs. Serve URL ProjectID "FunctionalTests" GroupID "Illustrations" TestID "URL.test" LogID "AUTO" ScreenSize 1280 1024 FontSize 0 DeleteCache ResetTimer GetURL "http://www.e-valid.com/eValid/Products/Documentation.8/Playback/URL.trace.html" GetURL "http://www.e-valid.com/eValid/Parts/newevalid.css" GetURL "http://www.e-valid.com/eValid/Images/evalid_logo_white_trsp_top_100x52.gif" GetURL "http://www.e-valid.com/eValid/Images/evback.gif" ElapsedTime Serve FULL # End of script.

Intended Application & License Requirements
The URL Trace Feature is intended to be used to create nearly-real script playbacks for purposes of functional testing [necessarily without any detailed validation or browser interaction], or for providing non-coherent (memoryless) activity generation during server loading experiments.

The URL Trace Feature requires a LOAD license feature. The URL Trace Feature also works on an EVAL license feature.