Record Load Tests in Flood Element Using qTest Explorer

New to load test scripting? If your team already has qTest Explorer, here's how you can use it to record load tests and automatically create Element scripts

qTest Explorer is a powerful tool that allows a user to carry out exploratory testing, test case creation, bug reporting and even general documentation directly from your browser.

These recordings or what the Explorer calls "Test Sessions" can be easily converted into automated functional test scripts for leading open source tools such as Protractor and Selenium.

We are very excited to announce we now have the capability to record Flood Element tests using qTest Explorer. You can download the script generator plugin and add it into your own qTest project here.

Here's a step by step guide on how to create a test session using the qTest Explorer browser plugin and turn it into a fully functional Flood Element load test scenario.

Installing the qTest Explorer Browser Plugin

First we need the qTest Explorer Extension - currently available for Google Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.  For the sake of this tutorial, we will stick with the most widely used version for Chrome, which can be downloaded here.

Once you have added this to Chrome it will appear as an additional icon in your Chrome Extensions list as follows.

Next, you will be prompted to log in to your qTest account.  If you are already a user of qTest, simply enter your credentials.  If you are not a user of qTest, you can sign up for a free 14 day trial to get your own credentials to try out the plugin.

Signing in to your qTest account will integrate the extension with your test session repository and all future recordings will be automatically synchronized across to your qTest Web Session repository when completed.

Recording A Load Test with qTest Explorer

Start to record your test session by first selecting the qTest project you'd like to save the session into. Select New Session. Enter a friendly title and description of the session you are about to record - such as:

Click Start Session

The qTest plugin will now record all your interactions with your target website using it’s intelligent capture engine.  You can even specify the specific web URL’s to record or ignore if you have multiple tabs open. These interactions will form the basis of the source data for generating the final Flood Element script.

Once you have completed your activities - you can click Stop Session and all recorded interactions will be automatically uploaded to your instance of qTest Explorer. The completed session window will appear after your recording session has completed.


This page shows you all interactions that were carried out during the recording session complete with exact object clicking activities as well as any data entered or options selected from different UI components. They will also be listed in the qTest Explorer Sessions main page.


Configuring the Flood Element Script Generator Plugin

Once our web session recording has been completed and saved, we are ready to convert it into a fully functional Flood Element script.

Currently, the Flood Element script generator plugin is in beta needs to be added to the plugin repository manually until full GA release is available later this year. This can be done by clicking on the settings icon on the top right hand corner of the qTest Explorer Sessions page.

Once on the Settings page, scroll down to the bottom of the page once you get to the Script Generator Plugin list.


To add it manually - Click on the 'Submit Plugin' button - fill out the simple details regarding the Plugin information, specify the name as Flood Element and confirm the plugin details.

This will now make it available as an option when generating a new script.

Close the Settings page and click on your newly recorded session from the list.

Converting the Test Session into a Flood Element script

Almost there! Now we are ready to generate the Flood Element script. Click in the Generate Script button in the top right menu bar.

This will bring up the Script Generator menu and a 'Plugin' listbox that shows all available Plugins. Select the newly added Flood Element plugin from the list.

In a matter of seconds your session will generate a ready-to-run Flood Element script which can be downloaded as a TypeScript file and run directly on the Flood platform.

Here’s a short demonstration of how easy it is to run a load test using your newly generated Flood Element script within the Flood platform.

https://imgur.com/g7KmbeE

While you can always run it locally with a single user, many customers will upload it into Flood to perform cloud load testing with 100’s or 1,000’s of concurrent users.  The free trial will provide you with 500 VUH, enough to execute 500 users of this Flood Element test outlined here for 1 hour.

Putting It All Together

So there you have it! Turning a simple web recording session into a fully fledged, scalable and reliable load test in just a few easy steps.

We have made the qTest to Flood Element Script generator available for you to add into your own qTest instance - here.  Please feel free to download this script and use it to load test your existing or new qTest Web Sessions.

If you created your load test scripts using this plugin, we’d love to hear from you.  Drop us a note and share any ideas that are working for you and feel free to ask our team any of your tough questions!

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