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Test Execution Specialist Guide
This guide describes tasks that you can perform on schedules, test execution with custom code, and Extending Rational® Performance Tester to support other protocols. This guide is intended for testers or test execution specialists.
Extending Rational® Performance Tester to support other protocols
The Rational® Performance Tester Extensibility Software Development Kit (SDK) enables you to create extensions to support testing new protocols without modifying the core product code. You can create an extension that provides functionality for testing other protocols in addition to the HTTP protocol support that is standard in Rational Performance Tester.
Extending the test editor
The performance testing software provides application programming interface (API) classes for extending the test and performance tools platform (TPTP) to write new editors and protocol extensions.
Common editor framework
Extend performance test editing in the common editor framework. It contains the classes to extend for specific behaviors that will be used by the extended editor implementations.
The testOptions extension point
The testOptions extension point is used to contribute user interface elements for displaying options for a protocol in the Details area of the root element in the tree, Performance Test or schedule, in this context, is used to refer to both VU Schedule and Rate Schedule. Each contribution is displayed in a separate tab in a Tab folder.

Test Execution Specialist Guide
This guide describes tasks that you can perform on schedules, test execution with custom code, and Extending Rational® Performance Tester to support other protocols. This guide is intended for testers or test execution specialists.
- Running schedules with performance testing
  After you have added the user groups, tests, and other items to a schedule, and you are satisfied that it represents a realistic workload, you run the schedule.
- Extending test execution with custom code
  You can extend how you run your tests by writing custom Java™ code and calling the code from the test. You can also specify that results from the tests that are affected by your custom code be included in reports.
- Extending Rational® Performance Tester to support other protocols
  The Rational® Performance Tester Extensibility Software Development Kit (SDK) enables you to create extensions to support testing new protocols without modifying the core product code. You can create an extension that provides functionality for testing other protocols in addition to the HTTP protocol support that is standard in Rational Performance Tester.
  - Protocol extension structure
    Before organizing your extension, note the restrictions and guidelines provided in this topic.
  - Extending the test recorder
    To generate a test, the data exchanged by an application and another entity such as a server must be recorded. The recorded data is then processed to generate a test.
  - Extending the test generation framework
    Test generation consists of processing the recorded data and producing a test.
  - Contributing annotations
    An annotation is an action that a user performs during a recording session. Annotations are used to document or structure the test generated from the recording.
  - Extending the load test behavior model
    The load test behavior model (LTBM) is a model of the behavior of a performance test in Rational® Performance Tester.
  - Extending data correlation
    Data correlation is the process of extracting data that is returned from a server, and then sending it back to the server in a subsequent request.
  - Extending the test editor
    The performance testing software provides application programming interface (API) classes for extending the test and performance tools platform (TPTP) to write new editors and protocol extensions.
    - Migrating test editor extensibility
      Changes in the performance testing editor base framework package are provided in this release to support more standardized ways of handling model element attributes.
    - Test editor structure
      The editor in Rational® Performance Tester is built of several layers; the common framework, the editor and the protocol layer.
    - Common editor framework
      Extend performance test editing in the common editor framework. It contains the classes to extend for specific behaviors that will be used by the extended editor implementations.
      - The modelObjectDescriptor extension point
        The modelObjectDescriptor extension point combines and enhances the deprecated contentProvider, labelProvider, layoutProvider, and actionHandler extension points.
      - The testOptions extension point
        The testOptions extension point is used to contribute user interface elements for displaying options for a protocol in the Details area of the root element in the tree, Performance Test or schedule, in this context, is used to refer to both VU Schedule and Rate Schedule. Each contribution is displayed in a separate tab in a Tab folder.
    - Contributing actions to the menu
      You can use extensions to extend the menu, change navigation, and perform data correlation.
    - Editor layer extension points
      The editor layer enables you to write protocol extensions. During the initialization process, a number of extension points are checked for extensions that define different aspects of the test editor.
    - API classes
  - Contributing error handlers
    An error handler is associated with an error condition. Error handlers specify the action to take when a specified error condition occurs. Error handlers are provided for conditions such as verification-point failures, connection failures, server timeouts, and data-correlation problems. You can add new types of errors and error handlers.
  - Extending the schedule component
    When you extend the schedule component in performance testing, another plug-in can contribute options to a schedule. Those options can be set up to persist in the schedule model, and a corresponding user interface can be displayed for editing the new options.
  - Extending code generation
    The code generation subsystem maps Load Test Behavior Model (LTBM) elements to objects of the code generation element model (IModelElement), which in turn are mapped to objects of its ILanguageElement class. As a result, a language element tree is created that contains all equivalent elements of the behavior model test element tree and at the same time determines the structure of code to be generated.
  - Extending the run-time environment
    The run-time environment defines the plug-ins on which all other plug-ins depend. The run-time environment is responsible for defining a structure for plug-ins and the implementation detail behind them.
  - Extending the test log viewer
    After running a test, the test results are saved in a test log. Use the Test Log viewer to check the results for specific events, such as the script start and end, loop, invocation, message, or verdict.
  - Extending evaluation results
    Reports are a specification of how performance test data should be extracted from the statistical model and presented to the user.

The testOptions extension point

The testOptions extension point is used to contribute user interface elements for displaying options for a protocol in the Details area of the root element in the tree, Performance Test or schedule, in this context, is used to refer to both VU Schedule and Rate Schedule. Each contribution is displayed in a separate tab in a Tab folder.

The testOptions extension point has the following attributes:


Attribute	Description
label	The text to be displayed in the tab title.
toolTip	The text to be displayed in the tab tooltip.
image	The image to be displayed in the tab title.
feature_id	The feature to which these options pertain, currently not filtered.
order	The numeric order of the tab, used to sort tabs. If no number is given or there are duplicate numbers, the label will be used for sorting.
class	The class that will be instantiated to display and handle options. The default implementation base class, `DefaultOptionsHandler` , provides convenience methods. This class is abstract, which means that it needs to be extended to provide concrete user interface elements. The default implementation of the `ExtLayoutProvider` class for Test objects, `DefaultTestLayoutProvider`, loads and displays relevant options declared through this extension point.