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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 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.

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.
  - 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.
    - Code generation
      The com.ibm.rational.test.lt.codegen.core.extLibraryDependency extension point has been modified.
    - Extension points for code generation
      During the initialization process a number of extension points are checked for existence of extensions that define different aspects of the code generation behavior.
    - Generating test code
      During the initialization phase of a code generation request, an object extending the LTTestExtensionPreferences class is created by calling all plug-ins implementing the com.ibm.rational.test.lt.codegen.core.codegenProtocolExtension extension point through their supportFeatures() method.
    - Creating the script class
      After all model language elements are processed and the code language elements created, the code for the script class is generated.
    - Code generation templates
      The code generation subsystem uses declaration templates and creation templates.
    - New protocol extensions
      This section describes the implementation of the code generation subsystem extension for the socket protocol as an example of using code generation extensibility features.
    - Public APIs of codegen.core
      The public APIs contain the public interfaces and classes used to extend the code generation core subsystem.
  - 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.

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.

Before you begin

The language elements are typed, named, and have appropriate templates defined for them. Performance testing code generation takes place entirely within the Eclipse workbench. The Eclipse extension point mechanism is used for code generation extensibility to accommodate new protocols.

About this task

The com.ibm.rational.test.lt.codegen.core plug-in supports code generation for the generic Load Test script extending the com.ibm.rational.test.lt.execution.core.impl.LTTestScript class and generic test elements such as loops, containers, transactions, data pools, generic content verification points, data sources and substituters, and generic custom code. Specific protocols such as the com.ibm.rational.test.lt.codegen.http plug-in are implemented as extensions of the com.ibm.rational.test.lt.codegen.core plug-in. The com.ibm.rational.test.lt.codegen.schedule plug-in generates schedules implemented on top of com.ibm.rational.test.lt.codegen.core functionality.

For the code generation extension sample, see the plug-in com.ibm.rational.test.lt.sdksamples.codegen.socket.

The Javadoc for the test execution services interfaces and classes can be accessed from the product by clicking Help > Help Contents > IBM Rational Performance Tester API Reference.