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<!DOCTYPE document[
<!ENTITY sect-num '10'>
]>

<document prev="build-ldapext-test-plan.html" next="build-jms-point-to-point-test-plan.html" id="$Id: build-ws-test-plan.xml 1210229 2011-12-04 21:31:00Z pmouawad $">

<properties>
  <title>User's Manual: Building a WebService Test Plan</title>
</properties>

<body>

<section name="&sect-num;. Building a WebService Test Plan" anchor="building">
<p>In this section, you will learn how to create a 
<a href="build-test-plan.html">Test Plan</a> to test a WebService. You will
create five users that send requests to One page.
Also, you will tell the users to run their tests twice. So, the total number of
requests is (5 users) x (1 requests) x (repeat 2 times) = 10 HTTP requests. To
construct the Test Plan, you will use the following elements:
<a href="test_plan.html#thread_group">Thread Group</a>,
<complink name="WebService(SOAP) Request"/>, and
<complink name="Graph Results"/>.</p>

<p>If the sampler appears to be getting an error from the webservice, double check the
SOAP message and make sure the format is correct. In particular, make sure the
xmlns attributes are exactly the same as the WSDL. If the xml namespace is
different, the webservice will likely return an error. <a href="http://www.xmethods.net">
Xmethods</a> contains a list of public webservice for those who want to test
their test plan.</p>

</section>

<section name="&sect-num;.1 Adding Users" anchor="adding_users">
<p>The first step you want to do with every JMeter Test Plan is to add a
<a href="test_plan.html#thread_group">Thread Group</a> element.  The Thread Group tells
JMeter the number of users you want to simulate, how often the users should send
requests, and the how many requests they should send.</p>

<p>Go ahead and add the ThreadGroup element by first selecting the Test Plan,
clicking your right mouse button to get the Add menu, and then select
Add --&gt; ThreadGroup.</p>

<p>You should now see the Thread Group element under Test Plan.  If you do not
see the element, then "expand" the Test Plan tree by clicking on the
Test Plan element.</p>

<p>Next, you need to modify the default properties.  Select the Thread Group element
in the tree, if you have not already selected it. You should now see the Thread
Group Control Panel in the right section of the JMeter window (see Figure &sect-num;.1
below)</p>

<figure image="webtest/threadgroup.png">
Figure &sect-num;.1. Thread Group with Default Values</figure>

<p>Start by providing a more descriptive name for our Thread Group. In the name
field, enter Jakarta Users.</p>

<p>Next, increase the number of users (called threads) to 10.</p>

<p>In the next field, the Ramp-Up Period, leave the the default value of 0
seconds.  This property tells JMeter how long to delay between starting each
user. For example, if you enter a Ramp-Up Period of 5 seconds, JMeter will
finish starting all of your users by the end of the 5 seconds.  So, if we have
5 users and a 5 second Ramp-Up Period, then the delay between starting users
would be 1 second (5 users / 5 seconds = 1 user per second).  If you set the
value to 0, then JMeter will immediately start all of your users.</p>

<p>Finally, clear the checkbox labeled "Forever", and enter a value of 2 in
the Loop Count field.  This property tells JMeter how many times to repeat your
test. If you enter a loop count value of 0, then JMeter will run your test only
once. To have JMeter repeatedly run your Test Plan, select the Forever
checkbox.</p>

<note>In most applications, you have to manually accept
changes you make in a Control Panel.  However, in JMeter, the Control Panel
automatically accepts your changes as you make them.  If you change the
name of an element, the tree will be updated with the new text after you
leave the Control Panel (for example, when selecting another tree element).</note>

<p>See Figure &sect-num;.2 for the completed Jakarta Users Thread Group.</p>

<figure image="webtest/threadgroup2.png">
Figure &sect-num;.2. Jakarta Users Thread Group</figure>

</section>

<section name="&sect-num;.2 Adding WebService Requests" anchor="adding_requests">

<p>In our Test Plan, we will use a .NET webservice. Since you're using
the webservice sampler, we won't go into the details of writing a
webservice. If you don't know how to write a webservice, google for
webservice and familiarize yourself with writing webservices for
Java and .NET. It should be noted there is a significant difference
between how .NET and Java implement webservices. The topic is too
broad to cover in the user manual. Please refer to other sources to
get a better idea of the differences.</p>

<note>JMeter sends requests in the order that they appear in the tree.</note>

<p>Start by adding the sampler <complink name="WebService(SOAP) Request"/>
to the Jakarta Users element (Add --&gt; Sampler --&gt; WebService(SOAP) Request).
Then, select the webservice Request element in the tree and edit the following properties
(see Figure &sect-num;.5):
<ol>
<li>Change the Name field to "WebService(SOAP) Request".</li>
<li>Enter the WSDL URL and click "Load WSDL".</li>
</ol>
</p>

<figure image="webservice_sampler.png">
Figure &sect-num;.3. Webservice Request</figure>

<p>If the WSDL file was loaded correctly, the "Web Methods" drop down should 
be populated. If the drop down remains blank, it means there was a problem
getting the WSDL. You can test the WSDL using a browser that reads XML.
For example, if you're testing an IIS webservice the URL will look like this:
http://localhost/myWebService/Service.asmx?WSDL. At this point, SOAPAction, URL
and SOAP Data should be blank.</p>

<p>Next, select the web method and click "Configure". The sampler should
populate the "URL" and "SOAPAction" text fields. Assuming the WSDL is valid,
the correct soap action should be entered.
</p>

<p>The last step is to paste the SOAP message in the "SOAP/XML-RPC Data"
text area. You can optionally save the soap message to a file and browse
to the location. For convienance, there is a third option of using a
message folder. The sampler will randomly select files from a given
folder and use the text for the soap message.</p>

<p>If you do not want JMeter to read the response from the SOAP Webservice,
uncheck "Read Soap Responses." If the test plan is intended to stress test
a webservice, the box should be unchecked. If the test plan is a functional
test, the box should be checked. When "Read Soap Responses" is unchecked,
no result will be displayed in view result tree or view results in table.</p>

<p>An important note on the sampler. It will automatically use the proxy host
and port passed to JMeter from command line, if those fields in the sampler are
left blank. If a sampler has values in the proxy host and port text field, it
will use the ones provided by the user. If no host or port are provided and
JMeter wasn't started with command line options, the sampler will fail
silently. This behavior may not be what users expect.</p>

<p><b>Note:</b> If you're using Cassini webserver, it does not work correctly and is not a reliable webserver. Cassini is meant to be a simple example and isn't a full blown webserver like IIS. Cassini does not close connections correctly, which causes JMeter to hang or not get the response contents.</p>
<p>Currently, only .NET uses SOAPAction, so it is normal to have a blank SOAPAction for all other webservices. The list includes JWSDP, Weblogic, Axis, The Mind Electric Glue, and gSoap.</p>

</section>

<section name="&sect-num;.3 Adding a Listener to View Store the Test Results" anchor="adding_listener">
<p>The final element you need to add to your Test Plan is a
 <a href="component_reference.html#listeners">Listener</a>. This element is
responsible for storing all of the results of your HTTP requests in a file and presenting
a visual model of the data.</p>

<p>Select the Jakarta Users element and add a <complink name="Graph Results"/> listener (Add --&gt; Listener
--&gt; Graph Results).  Next, you need to specify a directory and filename of the
output file.  You can either type it into the filename field, or select the
Browse button and browse to a directory and then enter a filename.</p>

<figure width="915" height="686" image="graph_results.png">
Figure &sect-num;.7. Graph Results Listener</figure>

</section>

</body>
</document>
