Measuring mid tier performance with KITE scripting

Keynote Internet Testing Environment (KITE) is a desktop application for testing the performance of web sites that is available at no charge from Keynote Systems, Inc. KITE includes features that can be used to test and measure key performance metrics of the Mid Tier as a Rich Internet Application (RIA). KITE provides performance data and analysis tools that allow you to record and replay interactions with a web page.

Use the tools to test a particular web page by providing the URL and recording the user interaction with the web page as a script. When the script is replayed, it simulates the original interaction with the web page. The script can be tested locally from your desktop or from a number of sites on Keynote's global network.

These statistics can be analyzed as follows:

  • Transaction events log
  • Transaction performance details
  • Measurement repository

Related topics

Troubleshooting-Mid-Tier

HTTP-tracing-in-the-mid-tier

Capturing-application-performance-with-the-Mid-Tier-Profiler


KITE script creation features are designed to meet a variety of scenarios and use cases. If a script needs fine tuning, the Script Viewer and Script Properties Editor can be used to replay the script and modify it to create a successful test script. For information about KITE features, see the KITE online help.

For the download file, system requirements, and installation instructions for KITE, see http://kite.keynote.com/.

Before you begin

Before you begin using KITE with the Mid Tier, make sure you have:

  • Access to a working Mid Tier environment, with an accessible URL, so you can login to AR System.
  • KITE 4.0 running on a system that meets its system requirements.
  • A username and password for the KITE 4.0 application.

Using KITE scripting on the Mid Tierweb application

You can use the KITE scripting tool to develop, deploy, and run measurements on browser response time for various use cases running on the Mid Tier. Once the script is developed, it can be deployed on a KITE server (requires a KITE account) to measure browser response time in a production environment from various locations worldwide based on a configured schedule. 

BMC has successfully used KITE to record various scripts for performance test use cases. The information and case study scenarios that are included in this section describe how to use KITE to test the Mid Tier as an AJAX-based RIA. 

KITE works well against most web applications. However in some cases, especially against AJAX-based web applications, some fine tuning of the script is necessary to compensate for the asynchronous operations. Specific information is provided for these complex cases by using an approach that presents issues and their solutions when running KITE against the Mid Tier. For more information about AJAX, see The-mid-tier-AJAX-and-KITE. 

The following figure describes the KITE workflow:

196849-KITE-7603-5.gif

KITE script types

When transactions are recorded and replayed in a script file, users can create two types of scripts using the KITE client: Transaction perspective (TxP) and Application perspective (ApP). These scripts have the following characteristics:

  • Both TxP and ApP scripts are recorded using a browser.
  • TxP scripts are played on a web browser.
  • ApP scripts are played in an emulated browser.

The browser scripts included in this section are recorded as TxP scripts.

 

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