Tips and Tricks creating Load Testing Scripts

Posted July 17, 2015 by Michael Dunagan 0

Overview A script is a browser recorded HAR file that you can modify in LoadStorm. Parameterizing scripts for a load test can seem like a daunting task, but we have a few tips on making it go more smoothly. 1. Keep load testing scripts simple. Making the script perform dynamically for each virtual user will depend greatly on the complexity of the application and the recording behavior. Generally we recommend keeping each script as simple as possible because the goal is to test the target server’s scalability, but testing functionality at scale is also good within reason. Sometimes this simple […]

Load Testing Mobile Apps

Posted February 12, 2015 by Michael Dunagan 0

As mobile app usage increases, load testing mobile apps is becoming a key part of the software development lifecycle to make sure your application is ready for traffic. If your mobile app interacts with your application server via REST or SOAP API calls, then LoadStorm PRO can load test mobile app servers like yours. LoadStorm PRO uses HTTP archive (HAR) recordings to simulate traffic, and we normally create these recordings using a browser’s developer tools on the network tab to record all requests sent to the target server. In this article, I’m going to introduce you to two ways to […]

Super Bowl Ads = Lots of Traffic. Are Sites Ready?

Posted January 30, 2015 by Arwen Price 0

Super Bowl ads crashing websites isn’t a new story. But it is one that deserves a bit of attention about this time every year. Back in 1999, Victoria’s Secret made a big splash with their Super Bowl Ad. The ad was one of the very first ever to tie in TV and web. It promoted an online lingerie fashion show and over a million viewers logged on to watch. . . crashing the site. Since then, using Super Bowl ads to drive traffic to a website has become a very popular marketing technique. Many companies use the massive marketing power […]

Can load testing help stop hackers?

Posted January 22, 2015 by Amanda Gonzales 0

In light of the recent Sony hack, security should be on every web developer’s mind. This cyber attack, which is being called “the worst cyber attack in U.S. history” by Sony’s CEO, is a perfect example of why security is something we all need to take seriously. An enormous amount of personal and financial information was revealed for millions of customers. As we grow increasingly aware of these occurrence, we as developers need to go forward with the mindset that people will be trying to access our data. As the internet and technology permeates throughout physical stores, our information is […]

Introducing QuickStorm

Posted December 17, 2014 by Amanda Gonzales Comments Off on Introducing QuickStorm

Here at LoadStorm, we’re happy to announce one of our newest, free features! Are you interested in web development? Have you creating your own site? QuickStorms are a great tool to get initial insight into site performance, and can also be used as a tool to benchmark performance before making performance enhancements on your site. What is a QuickStorm? QuickStorms are small, short load tests that can be used to evaluate site performance. All you have to do is enter your site’s URL. LoadStorm will generate a load test against the URL, scaling from 1 – 10 virtual users over […]

Cyber Monday Performance Evaluations

Posted December 12, 2014 by Amanda Gonzales 0

From Amazon to Argos, online retailers are experiencing more traffic than ever this holiday season. This Cyber Monday reached a record high of $2.68 billion! Competition is fierce, and in this game, seconds = $$$. This year, we selected 29 major e-commerce sites and used LoadStorm to run several tests to compare their performance on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving with Cyber Monday. We created scripts for each site to model typical e-commerce user activity. Each script would hit the homepage, search for a product, add a product to the cart, and then visit the cart. Then we ran our performance […]

Tips and Tricks to Troubleshooting PRO Scripts

Posted October 13, 2014 by Michael Dunagan 0

Overview When a recording is first uploaded, it behaves the same as when it was recorded; That is, it makes all the same requests, with no differentiating qualities. Until you parameterize it, our application will simply repeat all of the GETs, POSTs, and occasional PUT requests the same way they were recorded, but we handle a few things automatically such as cookies and most form tokens. Often new scripts can have a bundle of requests and only a few of which that need parameterization to work as expected for every VUser that makes that request. These problems are often found […]

Cyber Monday and the Impact of Web Performance

Posted September 17, 2014 by Arwen Price 0

Cyber Monday is a pretty big deal for online retailers. In fact, the previous statement is much too modest. Cyber Monday is the biggest day of the year for ecommerce in the United States and beyond. As the statistics show, Cyber Monday has become a billion dollar juggernaut since 2010 – and it has only continued to grow. Last year alone, Cyber Monday was responsible for over $1.7 billion spent by online consumers in the US, a shocking 18% jump from the year before! Since its inception in 2005, the Monday after Thanksgiving has become a potential goldmine for those […]

Stress Testing Drupal Commerce

Posted April 17, 2014 by Scott Price 0

I’ve had the pleasure of working with Andy Kucharski for several years on various performance testing projects. He’s recognized as one of the top Drupal performance experts in the world. He is the Founder of Promet Source and is a frequent speaker at conferences, as well as a great client of LoadStorm. As an example of his speaking prowess, he gave the following presentation at Drupal Mid Camp in Chicago 2014. Promet Source is a Drupal web application and website development company that offers expert services and support. They specialize in building and performance tuning complex Drupal web applications. Andy’s […]

E-Commerce Benchmark – Drupal Commerce

Posted March 18, 2014 by Esteban Martinez 2

  This post is part of a series: First – Previous Introduction Drupal Commerce is the last stop on our tour of e-commerce platforms. Drupal is a free content management system, and Drupal Commerce is an extension that allows you to build a web store with Drupal. This setup is similar to WooCommerce and Virtuemart, which both rely on their own content management systems. If you missed our previous posts, we are load testing six different e-commerce platforms and scoring them based on web performance. We continue our e-commerce benchmarking series by giving you a glimpse of out-of-the-box Drupal Commerce […]