WebSocket Load Testing with WebLOAD’s Latest Version

Wednesday, September 06, 2023

The continual technological advancements in the past decade have made the world more connected than ever. But along with this also comes the increased expectation for individuals to get more information instantaneously. This is why WebSocket became a crucial tool for developers over the years, as it provides bidirectional and asynchronous communication between a server and a client. This eliminates the need for multiple HTTP requests to perform long polling.

With the growing number of people using WebSocket-based applications, it is essential for developers to thoroughly test the performance of their programs, taking into account the WebSocket performance as part of the whole application performance. Load tests should encompass WebSocket and HTTP traffic to ensure that the app can handle sudden spikes in traffic.

By doing so, developers can guarantee that their applications can manage multiple real-time requests, avoiding potential data loss. Furthermore, this comprehensive testing approach enables them to identify and address possible performance bottlenecks, ultimately helping them achieve optimal performance across the entire application.

However, testing WebSocket-based applications presents unique challenges that can make it harder for developers to conduct. First, the asynchronous nature of WebSockets adds another layer of complexity to scripting them. Second, if your load testing tool does not support WebSocket technology, you can’t script them.

The New WebLOAD Update

With load-testing real-time applications becoming more crucial, we at Radview are committed to delivering our clients a more efficient and scalable load-testing experience. The latest version of our flagship product, WebLOAD 12.6, is designed to streamline your load-testing experience and help optimize your web applications.

Several new features make WebLOAD 12.6 the best automated load testing tool in the market. This includes the introduction of Docker load generators, the addition of Meta Discovery Rules, and improvements in the dashboard. But one of the main developments with this new update is the significant improvements made in our WebSocket support.

In most cases, the web socket message protocol is conversational – so request and response – but async. Our new methods make coding such conversations painless and straightforward.  The new mode makes developers more fluent in scripting, primarily if the WebSocket interacts with other HTTP requests. This allows for more realistic load testing scenarios that they can apply for real-time applications. Some of the example codes include:

  • ws1 = new WebSocket( “wss://someurl” );
  • ws1.storeMessages=true;
  • ws1.connect()
  • ws1.expectMessage(“Connected!”);
  • ws1.extractMessageValue(“sessionid <“, “>”, “mySessionId”);
  • ws1.dynamicReplaceCorrelation(“mySessionId”);
  • ws1.send(“sessionid=${mySessionId”);

Some WebSocket applications are not conversational – for example, stock market or sports status information or file streaming. WebLOAD elegantly supports async websockets in that mode as well.

Advantages

Streamline Scripting – One of the prime benefits of this new improvement is simplifying the way developers script simulations for testing WebSocket-based applications. This helps automate the testing process and reduce the time needed to code.

Efficiency – The new mode can allow testers to execute more comprehensive load tests in less time. This can enable testers to simulate the behavior of real people using the application.

Flexibility and Better Test Coverage – The ‘dynamicReplaceCorrelation’ function will allow testers to handle dynamic values, including session IDs or timestamps. This can reduce the need for manual coding and makes modifying test scenarios simpler. Moreover, the ability to extract specific data from WebSocket messages will allow testers to create more complex scenarios if needed.

Conclusion

As WebSocket-based applications become more and more utilized in the modern age, ensuring their reliability has become more critical. And by using the best web performance load testing solutions like WebLOAD, testers can streamline their processes and expand their load testing capabilities.

So, if you are looking for an efficient tool to help identify bottlenecks in your program, check out WebLOAD by Radview Software today. Our flagship product has assisted some leading brands worldwide in conducting sophisticated tests that helped them get meaningful insights about their application’s performance. And together with the other features of the app, the all-new WebLOAD 12.6 can significantly streamline load-testing processes and quickly scale the testing if needed.

Get a demo today by visiting www.radview.com/schedule-demo to learn how our product works and see the right choice for your needs.

This post was originally published in https://www.radview.com/blog/websocket-load-testing-with-webloads-latest-version/

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