Forum Discussion

mgroen2's avatar
mgroen2
Super Contributor
9 years ago

Measure performance (Windows application)

I would like to keep track of how much time a specific action on our application takes. This action is triggered by a button on our UI. The application that needs to be tested is a windows applicati...
AlexKaras's avatar
AlexKaras
Champion Level 3
9 years ago

Hi,

 

I would be second to Robert's suggestion about AQTime (https://smartbear.com/product/aqtime-pro/overview/). Been a specialized profiler it can provide you with a lot more details about your application in terms of performance and resources.

You can profile application with AQTime without TestComplete, or TestComplete integrates with AQTime, so that TestComplete drives your application while AQTime profiles it.

  • Colin_McCrae's avatar
    Colin_McCrae
    Community Hero
    9 years ago

    Never used AQTime personally.

     

    But I agree with the others. You have to allow for the work TC needs to do to find the object before stopping the clock. Which can be thrown off kilter if:

     

    A new section is added to the application. The object model grows as a result. TC then takes a little longer to find the object. Timings from this point on increase slightly. This could also happen as a result of the application being in a different state at the point you decide to take the timing.

     

    If you change the hardware it's running on, your application may run faster or slower. But so will TC while tring to find the "stop" object. So times between hardware setup cannot always be considered representative.

     

    So yeah, as the other said, use more specialised profiling software.

     

    Or, the other option, is to have the devs insert a timestamp at some point their code which is stored as a property of your target "stop" object. Then it doesn't matter how long TC takes to find it. As long as it finds it, the timestamp will be stored within it and you can extract and use it at your leisure.

     

    This relies of having a helpful dev team on hand of course. And them inserting their timestamp at the correct point.

    • mgroen2's avatar
      mgroen2
      Super Contributor
      9 years ago

      Gentlemen,

       

      thank you for all the usefull replies. I'll download the evaluation version of AQTime and evaluate what it can do for us.

       

      Thanks.

      Mathijs

       

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

        mgroen2

        Any time, Mathijs... :)

         

        P.S.

        I am pretty sure that you know that:

        -- As any product by SmartBear, AQTime includes pretty good documentation that is worth extensive consulting with;

        -- Depending on the used profiler and in order to improve performance, stability and the quality of the collected results, proper setup for Areas, Triggers and Actions might be required. Again, documentation might help to get an understanding of their difference and how they can be used to help you with profiling;

        -- Questions on Aqtime can be asked at https://community.smartbear.com/t5/AQtime/bd-p/AQTime (or in this thread:) );

        -- https://support.smartbear.com/articles/aqtime/ and https://support.smartbear.com/screencasts/aqtime/ are worth skimming and watching / reading what might be relevant for your task.

         

        P.P.S.

        No, I am not an expert with AQTime but this area is interesting to me and I try not to lose an opportunity to refresh my little knowledge about AQTime. :)