Forum Discussion

chrismag's avatar
chrismag
New Contributor
10 years ago

Concurrent tests in TestComplete Desktop

Hi, though I have seen this question asked and answered, I am not sure if it is possible on the desktop version of TestComplete. I basically want to create a test and then re-run it multiple times...
  • Colin_McCrae's avatar
    Colin_McCrae
    10 years ago

    Concurrently?

     

    You mean threaded. You want the same test running in multiple threads simultaneously?

     

    In which case, no. Sounds like you're trying to do some sort of load testting? TestComplete has no concept of concurrency.

     

    So unless you meant consecutively, then I suspect you're out of luck. Putting things in a very fast loop to write to a DB will get you lots of consecutive entries, but not concurrent ones.

     

    I do something similar to load test using real browsers, but I don't use TestComplete for it.

chrismag's avatar
chrismag
New Contributor
Thank you.

I have designed a test where you can achieve concurrent hits to the database from the UI.

However I assume from your last comment that having multiple loggings (or processes) at the same time isn't achievable. As the object is blocked in some way?

Thanks
Colin_McCrae's avatar
Colin_McCrae
Community Hero
10 years ago

Concurrently?

 

You mean threaded. You want the same test running in multiple threads simultaneously?

 

In which case, no. Sounds like you're trying to do some sort of load testting? TestComplete has no concept of concurrency.

 

So unless you meant consecutively, then I suspect you're out of luck. Putting things in a very fast loop to write to a DB will get you lots of consecutive entries, but not concurrent ones.

 

I do something similar to load test using real browsers, but I don't use TestComplete for it.

  • chrismag's avatar
    chrismag
    New Contributor
    10 years ago

    Hi Colin,

    I agree, TestComplete is an automated testing tool and not a stress/load tool after all. Thanks for clearing that up.

    Do you know if Smartbear have a product that can load stress desktop software? I know they have a loadtesting product for the web, however, the application I am testing with is strictly .NET winforms.  

    Thanks

    Chris

    • Colin_McCrae's avatar
      Colin_McCrae
      Community Hero
      10 years ago

      So I'm guessing your .NET application will be installed on multiple sites so you're trying to load test the server they all connect to?

       

      I suspect I'd be looking to take the GUI out of the equation here and simply spoof traffic from multiple sites with something like jMeter.

       

      I use a Python/Selenium/Cloud VM combination to run multiple browsers concurrently for real browser load tests but this solution wouldn't work for a desktop application. Python would be able to run multiple threads (it does support threading but not sure about within TestComplete?) so, theoretically, you could have multiple threads all trying to hit a single instance of a desktop application, but I doubt that would work in practice.

       

      Back to square one. Simulate traffic from multiple instances, rather than trying to actually drive multiple actual instances ...

      • AlexKaras's avatar
        AlexKaras
        Champion Level 3
        10 years ago

        Hi Chris,

         

        In addition to Colin's reply:

        Desktop applications cannot be used concurrently by definition. Just because it is not possible to use single keyboard and single mouse to concurrently work with more than one application at a time.

        But if you are looking for concurrent usage of the server part of the tested application, there are two options available:

        a) For the massive concurrent load you may use something like mentioned JMeter (or LoadComplete by SmartBear if the tested application communicates with the backend via http(s))- some tool that makes it possible to capture the traffic between the client and the backend and replay the captured traffic (with some customizations) so it looks like if it is generated by different clients;

        b) For the limited load, you may consider Network Suite functionality of TestComplete (https://support.smartbear.com/viewarticle/69630/ and https://support.smartbear.com/viewarticle/68214/). The potential benefit of the Network Suite is that it supports synchronization between running tests, so it is possible to implement tests that try to do something concurrently (e.g. try to concurrently edit the same record) and check the result.