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Bill Selph recommends the following LoadRunner parameter and correlation label naming conventions for use in scripts:

All correlated values begin with “LRC_”
All parameters begins with “LRP_”

Bill finds this an easier way to edit and debug of complex scripts.

Do you have similar naming conventions that you use when coding Vugen script? How about giving out some recommendations to the community by commenting in the section below. Read Entire Entry

This post addresses a situation where part of a VuGen parameter value needed to be a hard coded value, and another part had to be totally random. This specific example had to do with a credit card where the total number of digits for the card was 16, but the first two digits needed to start with “47” to pass the business rules of the site for processing valid card numbers. If the number on the card did not start off with “47”, the card would automatically be rejected.
// DECLARE VARIABLES

char result[100], creditCardNum[1056];
in Read Entire Entry

This post examines a condition where data being returned in the VuGen parameter captured (in the web_reg_save_param function) included more characters than was needed and there no easy left/right boundaries to use to get only what was needed. In this case, it was capturing something like “2297,4648”, and we needed to extract the first four numbers and the last four numbers of the string, while stripping out the “comma” character.
//We need to grab the 1st four (ENTERPRISEID)
//and the last four digits (which is a tax return ) Read Entire Entry

The purpose of this VuGen code is so you have one place to enter the URL for the application and grab all the Load Generator and Controller information, and send it to the execution output logs for troubleshooting purposes. Variables are set at top of the action file that it can be changed by modifying one line of code instead of all the code within the script.

Put this code in the vuser_init() section of the script outside the vuser_init function
//*******************************************************************
//* GLOBA Read Entire Entry

Here is some old code I had laying around which simply illustrates how to randomize a VuGen parameter by using srand and randomizing a value used within the array. This assumes you are grabbing multiple values in the array using the web_reg_save_param() function with the ORD=ALL argument.
// Randomize based on total numbers of Beneficiaries and selecting one

srand( time(NULL) );
rnum1 = (rand () % atoi(lr_eval_string(“{pBeneficiary_count}”)) +1);

// Merge Parameter to include the random number just selected

spri Read Entire Entry

LoadRunner calculates hits per second in the “Hits per second” graph depending on the HTTP requests sent out each second. If there are no HTTP requests sent for some time, then a request is sent out, and the “hits per second” is computed for the entire interval since the last hit was received.

The measurement seen on the graph is per second, but the granularity of the graph is not 1 second. It is possible to have fractions of hits per second. If you change the granularity to 1 second, then only whole hits per second will b Read Entire Entry

This post will attempt to explain how VuGen SOAP calls look by comparing the WEB/HTTP protocol and the SOAP protocol. Below is an example of raw XML that is received from a request.
<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
<soap-env:Envelope xmlns:soap-env=”http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/”>
<soap-env:Header>
<Authentication soap-env:mustUnderstand=”1″>
<UserID>xxxx</UserID>
<Password>xxxx</Password>
</Authentication>
<Appl Read Entire Entry

We had a web application which was easy to script, but had an unusual situation dealing with the business rules that we had to work around. This was an application where users update their personal information, emergency contacts, and other forms.

The problem was the Emergency Contacts. Since this was a brand new application to the company, most users would not have anything listed and would need to input this information. The first time the user accesses the page, they would get a message that they are required to have at least on Read Entire Entry

I am surprised that many people who script with LoadRunner on a regular basis do know know that you can run external programs in Windows that are kicked off by code in Vugen scripts. The system() function allows you to do this. There have been times where I needed to run a portion of a script and then kick off a program that would run on my local machine for a few minutes. I created a Windows Batch (.BAT) file with it’s own set of instructions on running and how to exit out. When I am ready to kick this BAT file off, I just put one Read Entire Entry

Many times I want to set up Vugen scripts so that I can easily move from one environment to another. Often, the environment being tested if not the same one I script in because of logistics in getting the environments ready. Without getting into the issue of poor configuration management between environments screwing up your scripts – and most LoadRunner scripters know how bad of a problem this is –  I wanted to demonstrate the use of the “Additional Attributes” run-time setting to easily change environments without changing the Read Entire Entry