Record Web Dynpro Java tests with jMeter

Content this document is based on:

Sample WDJ application
Load test your web application (part 2 of 2)
Verify jMeter test runs

As you can see from the above content, jMeter allows to load test a WDJ application. But how
do you create the jMeter tests? A test consists of several browser request to the application,
submitting data, headers, cookies, etc. Its not feasible to add all request manually. Therefore,
jMeter comes with a reverse proxy that intercepts the browser requests and uses them to create
the tests. Short: jMeter records every interaction between the browser and the server. This also
means that when you use Internet Explorer to record the test, jMeter will act as Internet Explorer
to the server when running the test. To test with different browsers, it makes sense to record the
test with each browser.
To record browser navigation, add a proxy and configure it accordingly.

Important: URL Patterns to Exclude

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Record Web Dynpro Java tests with jMeter

Depends on what you want to test: the application only or also the impact of loading HTML resources like CSS
and Javascript. Patterns to just test the application:
.*\.css.*
.*\.js.*
.*\.gif.*
.*\.png.*

For the test group, add the controllers

HTTP Cookie Manager and
HTTP Request Defaults

The later one needs to be configured to point to the NW AS Java server:

Browser settings
jMeter records what passes its proxy, so when you use Internet Explorer, jMeter will record how IE is
interacting with the application. As SAP may choose to send out other files when accessing the application
using Firefox or Chrome, you have to run the same recording steps again for each browser that is going to be
tested. The browser needs to be configured to use the jMeter HTTP Proxy:

Record the test

After the HTTP Proxy is started, execute in the browser every step at once and name the step in jMeter. This
helps a lot in identifying each step after the test is recorded.

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Record Web Dynpro Java tests with jMeter

Replay the test

This is a step where special attention is needed. Right after recording the steps they can executed using jMeter
and everything will work. Replaying the script some time later, the test will fail:

Failed to process the request: Request refers to an unknown session

The reason is that WD uses several parameters to identify a session. When the browser is calling the
application, additional information is also send. This information is recorded by jMeter:

Of course, this information is not valid anymore.

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Record Web Dynpro Java tests with jMeter

Hint: when you record your test and immediately afterwards replay the samples, it may work, as the session
can still be open and valid. Running the test 5 days later will show errors, as the sessions expired.

How are these values set?

These values are set by the WDJ application. The first time the browser accesses the application, WD
initializes a session and sets these values. The values are set inside the HTML file sent back to the browser.
They are not cookies and therefore are not handles by the HTTP Cookie Manager. jMeter comes with regular
expression extractors that allow to extract the value of a given regular expression and assign it to a jMeter
variable. These variables in turn can be used as placeholders in the HTTP requests.
Some useful parameters to extract are
sap-wd-cltwndid
sap-wd-appwndid
sap-wd-secure-id
sap-ext-sid

sap-wd-cltwndid
name="sap-wd-cltwndid" value="(.+?)"

sap-wd-appwndid
name="sap-wd-appwndid" value="(.+?)"

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Record Web Dynpro Java tests with jMeter

sap-wd-secure-id
This parameter depends on your NW AS Java WD version.

7.1: name="sap-wd-secure-id" value="(.+?)"

7.3: {0:'sap-wd-secure-id',2:'(.+?)'}

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Record Web Dynpro Java tests with jMeter

sap-ext-sid
name="sap-ext-sid" value="(.+?)"

Adding these regular expression extractors to the test case will assign the variables with the current valid
parameter value. Now the HTTP request needs to be adjusted to make use of the variables. In my case, I
annotate the values of the parameter and substitute them through variables using notepad.

Example

The value is k6V1s3CcEmwzsSJH6ummAg==. The values needs to be replaced by ${sap-wd-secure-id}

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Record Web Dynpro Java tests with jMeter

Afterwards, the HTTP Request looks like this in jMeter:

After adjusting these parameters, running the jMeter test now gives:

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