Testing Tools

As with other specialized tools, many IDEs contain some sort of testing tool. Bundled test tools typically are focused at testing single applications only. Before deploying any sort of enterprise-wide application, however, you probably will want to perform some type of end-to-end network level application testing. Here are a few of our favorite testing tools.

Table15-4. Testing Tools

Tool Name	Languages Supported	Platforms	Comments
JavaScope Sun Microsystems	Java	Any Java platform	Code coverage and metrics, written entirely in Java
Pegasus Ganymede Software	Java, C, C++	Unix, Windows, Mac	End-to-end network testing
WebLoad Radview Software	Java, C, C++	Unix, Windows	Web server loading; includes most security protocols

JavaScope

JavaScope measures how thoroughly Java applications and applets have been tested . The tool provides a range of code coverage metrics, including method coverage, branch coverage, logical coverage, and relational coverage. The tool is written entirely in Java, generates editable Java scripts, and runs on all platforms with a conforming version 1.1 JDK. There are two companion products to this tool: JavaSpec for automating testing of non user -interface components, and JavaStar for testing of user interface components . JavaStar includes a complete record, playback, and compare facility and recorded scripts can be easily edited.

For more information on JavaScope, see the Sun Microsystems web page at http://sun.com.

Pegasus

Ganymede's testing tools provide the capability to perform end-to-end performance testing of networks at the application level. Given the increasing complexity of today's network-centric applications, the use of a tool such as this is almost a necessity for any enterprise-wide application. Pegasus provides trend analysis, reporting, and troubleshooting modules to help manage application operating and service level agreements. Its forte is in throughput and response time testing of complete application environments.

For more information on Pegasus, see the Ganymede Software web page at http://www.ganymedesoftware.com.

WebLoad

During the 1994 World Cup, in the early days of the Web, Sun Microsystems set a world record for web site traffic by recording five million "hits" to the World Cup web site during a six week period. Today, a number of busy web sites get over five million hits an hour . Furthermore, today's sites aren't just serving up static text and graphics. Many sites include complicated back-ends with database connections, CGI applications, and Java servlets. WebLoad does exactly what its name implies. WebLoad lets you simulate hundreds to millions of visits to your web site while monitoring throughput and response time. For ecommerce web sites, WebLoad supports all the common browser encryption schemes. WebLoad also lets you simulate new HTTP features such as running sessions with the HTTP keepalive option set (which allows the TCP connection to remain opened for the entire session, improving performance for most types of page loads).

For more information on WebLoad, see the Radview Software web page at http://www.radview.com.