Oct 15 2008

Load test Flex and LiveCycle Data Services enabled applications

Published by at 11:32 under Wayback Archive

[from my DrFlex blogpost]

Disease:
You have built an amazing cool and data intense Rich Internet Application with Adobe Flex and expect many users to work with your application. Suddenly you get concerned; how will the server behave when hundreds or even thousands of users visit your site?

Prescription:
Some more background on this problem first; You probably know that a server in production will behave differently when interacting with a RIA than compared to serving traditional HTML apps that you have been building before.  This is mainly because UIs are not generated on the server any more. Though on the other side, there is probably increased data exchange between the client and server and most of all…. ideally you use the ActionScript Message Format (AMF) and Data Management cause it is easier to develop or faster on the client.  But how does it impact the server, can it handle the load and do traditional load testing tools still work?

LiveCycle Data Services Stress Testing Framework admin UI screenshot

Adobe currently hosts the LiveCycle Data Services Stress Testing Framework on Adobe Labs which addresses lots of these questions. The framework helps developers that use LiveCycle Data Services ES 2.6 to load test the server-side implementation of their LCDS applications. The page is stuffed with information on how to use the Framework so definitely spend some time going through all the details. The Data Services Stress Testing Framework is currently in beta form, but available for testing and evaluation. You can download and test the framework and we obviously hope you will provide us your feedback through the Adobe Labs page.

Tips to stay healthy:
The stress / load testing problem itself has been around for long, and many software vendors have created solutions to help web developers test their servers for large rollouts. However, most of these solutions are still based on the traditional HTML web metaphor and do not work well with AMF. Also, the Data Services Stress Testing Framework currently does not support BlazeDS or other AMF server implementations. Adobe is currently working with a number of testing tool vendors to implement all of the data transport protocols available in Flash. It seems that Borland’s SilkPerformer is one of the first to have AMF3 support. I have not worked with it myself and would love your feedback. Obviously if you know of other tools that are useful for load testing your Flex applications, feel free to leave a comment!

ps: I heard internally that we are working on a new Capacity Planning Guide for LiveCycle Data Services ES 2.6 whitepaper, but it has not yet been finalized. I assume it will be posted in the coming weeks on the LiveCycle Development Center so stay tuned.

[For more DrFlex and DrLiveCycle related posts check www.drflex.eu and www.drlivecycle.eu.]

2 responses so far

2 Responses to “Load test Flex and LiveCycle Data Services enabled applications”

  1. Mike Brunt says:

    Waldo thank you for this information and link, we are currently working with a client with a large sophisticated Flex application and have had difficulty constructing meaningful load-test scripts so I will be looking at what you indicate here.

    I am very familiar with Silk Performer and other high end enterprise load testing tool, the drawback they all tend to have is cost (I think with Silk Performer a meaningful tool set with cost in excess of $50,000.00 for instance) and time needed to record scripts.

    I will let you know what I find.

  2. Paul Baratto says:

    Hi guys,

    My company, Neotys, has just released a new version of NeoLoad that supports this protocol (AMF3, Externalizable objects, polling, streaming channels, …)

    You can get more details and download the trial version on the Neotys website

    We would enjoy getting your feedback regarding AMF3 support!

    Paul

    ——————–
    Paul Baratto

    Neotys, Make sure it works!
    http://www.neotys.com