Citrix image synchronization details
In the test editor, the Citrix image synchronization allows Citrix performance tests to keep track of the contents of a screen area during the replay. These settings apply to the image synchronization element that is selected.
Image synchronization attributes
- Locations
- These are the coordinates of the top left corner of the image synchronization area, and the size of the image synchronization area in pixels. This field is read only.
- Synchronization state
- This describes the behavior of the test if a synchronization timeout occurs
on the image. The base timeout delay is specified in the Citrix test generation
preferences, however the actual delay varies with the level of synchronization.
- Conditional
- The conditional timeout delay is the base timeout delay as specified in the Citrix test generation preferences. If the synchronization fails, the test tries to resume execution and a timeout is logged in the Citrix performance report and the test log.
- Mandatory
- The mandatory timeout delay is three times the base timeout delay. If the synchronization fails, the test exits with an error status and a timeout is logged in the test log.
- Optional
- The optional timeout delay is fixed at 2 seconds. If the synchronization fails, the test ignores the timeout.
- Image synchronization preview
- This is the screen capture of the image synchronization area as it was recorded. Select Fit screen to visible area to limit the size of the screen capture in the test editor.
Synchronization
- Bitmap hash code
- This specifies that the synchronization will be evaluated on the bitmap hash code. A hash code is a unique number that is calculated from the image of the selected area. When an image synchronization is encountered during test execution, the test calculates the hash code on the selected area and synchronizes the test if the hash code of the screen area matches the expected hash code before a timeout occurs.
- Optical character recognition
- This specifies that the synchronization will be evaluated on a recognized text value. Optical character recognition extracts a text string from the selected image area. When an image synchronization is encountered during test execution, the test continually applies text recognition to the selected area and synchronizes the test as soon as the extracted text value matches the expected text value before a timeout occurs.
- Value
- This page specifies the expected value depending on the specified recognition
technique. You can add alternate values by clicking Add so that the image
synchronization can succeed in multiple conditions. Alternate values are evaluated
in the same way as the main expected value.
- Bitmap hash code
- When Bitmap hash code is selected, this is the hash code that was calculated on the selected image area during the recording. After executing a test, you can create alternate hash code values by copying the resulting hash codes from the Citrix image synchronization view.
- Expected text
When Optical character recognition is selected, this is the expected text value that was extracted by the optical character recognition from the selected image area. Click Extract text to extract a text string from the selected image area.
If the text extraction is unsuccessful, try changing the text recognition settings on the Options page. However, accuracy of the recognized text is not essential. It is only important that the recognized text is consistent each time the test is executed for the test to synchronize.
- Use regular expression
- Select this option to express the expected text string using standard regular expression syntax.
- Options
- This page specifies the settings for text extraction by optical character
recognition. You might need to experiment with various settings to obtain
good results. After changing a setting, click the Value tab
and click Extract text to see if the text recognition
has improved. Note that because optical character recognition is used for
verification purposes, consistency of the results in more important than the
accuracy of the extracted text.
- Zoom factor
- This is the enlargement factor that is applied to the image. The default setting is medium for standard font sizes. Increase the zoom factor to improve recognition of smaller fonts or decrease for larger fonts.
- Language
- This is the language of the dictionary used by the text recognition synchronization. Select the language of the application you are testing. If the language of your application is not available in the list, change the language setting in the Default OCR settings of the Citrix Test Generation preferences.
- Brightness
- This is the brightness level from 0 to 250 that is applied to the image. The default setting is 70 for normally contrasted text. Increase the brightness setting to improve recognition of darker images or decrease for lighter images.
- Recognition rate
- This is the rate of recognition required for the extracted string to match the expected text. Decrease the recognition rate to tolerate a proportion of mismatching characters in the recognized text. The default is 100%, which means that an exact match is required.
Verification Point
- Enable verification point on synchronized element
- When selected, the test verifies whether the image synchronization succeeds. If the synchronization produces a timeout, the verification point returns a fail status in the Citrix performance test report.
Response Time
- Stop response time for
- Select this option to use the current image synchronization to stop a response time measurement. When you select this option on an image synchronization that is not already linked to a response time, a new response time is created with a default name. If there are response times that do not have a stop action, then these are also listed. Select the response time that you want to link to.
- Go to response time definition
- Click here to navigate to the session element to view the Response Time Definitions table.