More VSTS 2008 Team Test Edition Tips and tricks.

It has been about a month since I posted any VSTS Test edition tips or tricks. Here is a few I think are particularly important.

BEST PRACTICE: Can we copy/paste (and rename) web tests if we want to? What effect does this have on the data source? Is it advisable from a source control standpoint?

Doing a copy, paste, or rename operation is totally fine. The data source will have to be added again to copied tests. Consider using extract web test rather than copy. Extracting a webtest is a way of grouping a request or requests into another callable web test. This is a very powerful feature. If you make 3 copies of a web test and the test has to change, you will have to modify all three copies of that test. Rather than doing a copy paste, use the extract web test functionality.

• Go to the test editor window
• Select the first request you want to include in the test
• Right click and select Extract Web Test…
• Enter a meaningful name in the text box
• The top drop down will contain the first request to include in the test
• Use the second drop down to select the final request you want to include in the test
• Check both check boxes at the bottom of the dialog
• Select OK

In the Test Editor you will see that the requests that you extracted are removed and replaced with a single request that points to another web test.

Now if you need to change that test you change it in one single place. This test may also be included in any other web test by right clicking in the test editor and selecting Insert Call to Web Test…

Can a web test record pop-ups?

If you are having difficulty recording pop-ups using the web recorder, try using Fiddler to capture the HTTP traffic. Once you are done executing your test and capturing the http traffic in fiddler,

• highlight the requests,
• Right click and select save select Session(s) select as Visual Studio Web Test (http://blogs.msdn.com/vstsqualitytools/archive/2006/12/21/testing-web-applications-with-pop-ups.aspx)

BEST PRACTICE: Use validation levels

During a standalone web test you want to run all validations but during a load test you want to only run the most critical validations so you can leave the client or agents to do the work they are intended to do – load the server. Execution of validation rules in a load test has impact on performance.

The default validation rule level of a request is “high”. When you create a load test you can specify what level of validation rules you want to execute under the Run Settings node. The default rule validation level of the load test is “low” therefore if you do nothing with validation levels no validations will be executed during a load test.

If you want to run a validation rule during a load test you want to change the validation level on the most critical rules to ‘‘low’’. In this case low means that it is a low-level, or fundamental, verification; low does not refer to the priority of the verification. Setting the level to ‘‘high’’ means that it will only be run if the load test has been set to a validation level of ‘‘high’’.

Load test level	Validations that will run
Low	Low
Medium	Low, Medium
High	Low, Medium, High