The Internal State Of The Browser

[wqss]

How much use does eValid make of the internal state of the browser during recording a test? During playback?

[eValid]

How much use does eValid make of the internal state of the browser during recording a test? During playback?

The short answer is: A Lot!

One of the unique ideas of eValid -- some would call it a disruptive idea -- is that the entire test engine is built into the browser. It's literally true, eValid operations have a "inside view" of what is going on as the user takes actions of various kinds. And that view gives the eValid engine a great deal of support in a primary goal: record only the very LEAST information necessary to reproduce the user's action. This makes for a short, efficient script and it also allows for a great deal of latitude in eValid in how the test playback is accomplished.

For example, consider that eValid does when it is recording a simple "click on this link to go to a new page" action. eValid records most such actions as a FollowLink command (there are other commands that reproduce actions in different circumstances) that includes as its parameters only a few basic facts about the action. The key data is the visible text (which is what the user saw) and the link to which that visible text links to, that is, the underlying URL.

If the page doesn't change eValid, at playback time, can go to the place in the current page and confirm a couple of facts (that the visible text hasn't changed and that the underlying URL is the same) and then it uses the browser's internal apparatus to execute the navigation. The whole recording of a single click on a single links is captured in a single line. From that information the browser does all of the actual work of going to the page, getting all of the secondary files (images, scripts, etc.), getting the HTTP/S protocol sorted out...there often is a LOT of activity that arises from just a simple "FollowLink" command like the one being discussed.

The "disruptive idea" to this is that the eValid approach introduces automation into the browser so the browser does all of the work. You, the web tester, are relieved of as much pain as possible. All of the complexity is buried or hidden or masked from your view...what you don't need to see is all kept internal within eValid.

The eValid Architecture Team