SoapUI - Performance Testing

Performance testing is one of the most common important checkpoints in Web Service testing. Performance Testing is defined as artificially creating or simulating the load and measuring how the environment handles it.

This means it doesn’t necessary have to be how a system performs under high load, it can also be how it performs under base load or expected load. It doesn’t even have to be structured, automated, or created in TestWare such as SoapUI; simply refreshing the web browser over and over again very fast is also a Load Test.

Types of Performance Testing

Following are the types of Performance Testing −

• Baseline Testing − Examines how a system performs under expected or normal load and creates a baseline against which the other types of tests can be compared.

• Load Testing − Includes increasing the load and see how the system behaves under higher load. During Load Tests, the user can monitor response times, throughput, server condition and much more. The goal of Load Testing is not to break the target environment.

• Soak Testing − The goal of testing is to make sure no unwanted behavior emerges over a longer period of time.

• Scalability Testing − Scalability Testing is very much like Load Testing, however instead of increasing the number of requests, it increases the size or the complexity of the requests sent. For example, sending large requests, large attachments, or deeply nested requests.

Key Aspects in Web Service

Two aspects stand out in the unique characteristics of Web Service performance.

First Aspect

On the server side, XML/JSON processing is going on, both XML/JSON parsing and serialization. The thing that often fails first is the processing of the payloads. The reasons of failure can be multifold; it can be in the platform, the weaknesses of the application server, or it can be an implementation issue in the shape of unnecessarily complex WSDLs. It could also mean that the code is making a request to a database that is slow in responding.

Testing Aspect − The complexity of parsing the XML/JSON payload means that there is a need to put extra focus on Scalability Testing. It also means that WSDLs should be examined closely. If the requests and responses are either complex or larger, or if they include large attachments, focus should be on emphasizing the complexity and see how it behaves under load.

Second Aspect

Another factor frequently encountered is security. Secure sites behind HTTPS have considerably lower performance and in Web Service testing we can add a layer of WSSecurity to the layer of HTTP security, decreasing the performance even more.

Testing Aspect − The issue of security means, there is a need to focus on performing testing of requests that are secure. If the entire Web Service is secure it means Load Testing is more important, especially if WS-Security and token handling is used.