Load Testing: Data Driving – Version 2012.1.528

If you need each virtual user to be unique when communicating with your web application, use the data driven load testing feature. With a data driven load test, you bind a dynamic target to specific column from an external data source (e.g. an Excel spreadsheet, a SQL database).

1. First, add an external data source to the project.
2. Bind the Load Test to that data source.
3. Open the specific user profile that will use the data.
4. Locate the specific HTTP transaction that will use the data and click on it, such as an HTTP POST command:

 



 

5. Notice there are five input fields contained within this POST command. Let's bind the username and password fields.
6. Click the drop-down for username. You will get a list of columns available in the data source to bind that field to. I'll select the column username from my data source.
7. Click the drop-down for password. The same list of columns appears. I'm going to pick password from my data source.
8. Here's what it looks like when finished:

 



 

9. Click Save.

 

When your load test runs, each virtual user will use a different row from the data source. When all of the rows have been used, the load test will start over again with row one and repeat for the duration of the load test.