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Lyna's avatar
Lyna
Occasional Contributor
13 years ago

TestComplete increase the memory taken by my application

Hi,



I saw something weird happening with the version 8 of TestComplete and Windows 7, when i run my tests with TestComplete, the memory taken by my application keeps increasing. When i do exactly the same test but without TestComplete, the memory is released. The effect is not so strong with the version 7.52 of TestComplete and Windows XP. I don't know if it comes from TestComplete version or Windows version.

It maybe also come from my conversion of my project from TestComplete 7.52 to TestComplete 8.0.



Did you notice this behaviour ? The only way i found to prevent this problem is to close and re-open my application (so the memory goes back to normal and then restart to increase and increase and increase with my TestComplete tests...).



Maybe there is an option to set to prevent that ?



Thanks for reading my thread,



Ell

11 Replies

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  • irina_lukina's avatar
    irina_lukina
    Super Contributor
    13 years ago

    Hi Ell,


    The fact is that TestComplete loads special modules to the application when you record or play back a test for this application. This behavior may cause the amount of memory taken by the application to grow.


    To solve the problem, try switching off the Open Application support. For this purpose, select File | Install Extension from TestComplete's main menu and clear the following check boxes:


     * .NET Open Application Support

     * Adobe Flex Controls Support

     * Delphi and C++Builder Open Applications Support

     * Java Open Application Support

     * JavaFX Open Application Support

     * MSAA Open Application Support

     * Microsoft Visual C++ Open Application Support

     * Open Applications Support

     * Qt Library Controls Support Plug-in

     * Qt Library Support Plug-in

     * Silverlight Open Application Support

     * Visual Basic Open Applications

     * Web Testing Plug-in

     * WPF Controls Support Plug-in


    Click OK to close the dialog and then click the Save All button to apply the changes.

  • guillaume's avatar
    guillaume
    Contributor
    13 years ago
    Can anyone confirm that the solution works ?

    I had exactly the same issue as the AUT memory used was growing to 3GB.
  • Lyna's avatar
    Lyna
    Occasional Contributor
    13 years ago
    I tried the idea of Irina to solve my problems but without these extensions, my tests didn't work anymore... So it was not a solution for me. Instead, i use the method Sys.Process('myprocess').MemUsage and when it reach 200000, I restart my application. But i keep the memory leaks (of TestComplete on my application), and it's very frustrating because i can't test the real memory leaks of my app because of that. 
  • irina_lukina's avatar
    irina_lukina
    Super Contributor
    13 years ago

    Hi Ell,


    my tests didn't work anymore


    I'm sorry for confusing you. You don't need to disable support for the application type you're testing. For example, if you test a Delphi application, you don't need to disable plug-ins required for testing Delphi applications, and so on. To see the list of required plug-ins for the needed application type, please refer to the TestComplete help.


    But i keep the memory leaks (of TestComplete on my application), and it's very frustrating because i can't test the real memory leaks of my app because of that.


    To solve this problem, I recommend that you contact our Support Team and send them the following information:

    1. Your TestComplete project.

    2. The tested application that they can use to reproduce the behavior.


    Thanks.

  • tristaanogre's avatar
    tristaanogre
    Esteemed Contributor
    13 years ago
    I don't think, necessarily, that what y'all are experiencing are memory "leaks" per se.  As mentioned, TestComplete enables and activates certain things in the debug information and in the information within the application in order to be able to execute tests.  That information is kept in memory so that, when TestComplete needs to access the sames stuff again, it is readily available.  At least, this is my understanding as to how it works.  It's not a memory leak, it's simply how it works.



    TestComplete, to be honest, is not the best tool for testing memory leaks.  For that, try AQTime Standard which is the free version of the application profiling tool provided by SmartBear.  There is a paid/licensed version as well that has more features but AQTime standard should work well for most memory leak searches.
  • guillaume's avatar
    guillaume
    Contributor
    13 years ago
    As far as I am concerned, I am not trying to find memory leaks in the application I am testing. No yet though.

    I am running a pretty simple test which simply opens and closes some tabs.

    I iterate over this operation and my application crashes.

    When I am trying to reproduce this manually, I can see that the memory is not growing that fast .

    My conclusion was that TestComplete keep some pointers that prevent my application to free them.



    If you have any idea about how to be sure that TestComplete has nothing to deal with, and the problem comes from the application itself, I would be glad to hear them.



    Regards,



    Guillaume.
  • irina_lukina's avatar
    irina_lukina
    Super Contributor
    13 years ago

    Hi Guillaume,


    If you have any idea about how to be sure that TestComplete has nothing to deal with, and the problem comes from the application itself


    You can try using AQtime Standard as Robert recommended. Do you have any problems with using this product?

  • ite's avatar
    ite
    New Contributor
    13 years ago
    Hello,

    I have the same problem. I am testing for some years now with TC6 and I am trying to run the tests with the trial version of TC8 to see, if my company will buy the new version.



    With TC6 the application needs about 300MB of memory, with TC8 it needs about 1500MB only while loading the login form of my application. I have deselected almost all plugins, but that did not decrease the needed amount of memory.
  • irina_lukina's avatar
    irina_lukina
    Super Contributor
    13 years ago

    Hi Stephan,


    I've consulted with our developers and they say that, most likely, the situation is specific to your application. So, I'd recommend that you contact Our Support Team and provide them with the following information:

    1. The compiler that was used to build your application (for example, C++, Delphi or something else).

    2. The controls your application contains.

    3. The screenshot of the Install Extensions dialog after you've disabled the plug-ins.


    Thanks.

  • ite's avatar
    ite
    New Contributor
    13 years ago
    I don't know why but the issue does not appear any more.



    I have loaded the Test Suite again into TC8 and now it needs the same memory as before.



    I have no idea why this happened but for now I am happy ;)



    Thanks for your answers.