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What Kinds of Problems Does a Datapool Solve

What Is a Datapool?

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What Kinds of Problems Does a Datapool Solve?

If you play back a test script just once during a test run, that test script probably does
not need to access a datapool.

But often during a test run, and especially during performance testing, you need to
run the same test script multiple times. For example:

During performance testing, you may run multiple instances of a test script so that
the test script is executed many times simultaneously. (Remember, a virtual tester
is one runtime instance of a test script.)

During functional and performance testing, you may often run multiple iterations
of a test script so that the test script is executed many times consecutively
(simulating a virtual tester performing the same task over and over).

If the values used in each test script instance and each test script iteration are the same
literal values--the values that you provided during recording or hand-coded into the
test script--you might encounter problems at suite runtime.

The following are some examples of problems that datapools can solve:

Problem: During recording, you create a personnel file for a new employee using
the employee's unique social security number. Each time the test script is played
back, an attempt is made to create the same personnel file and supply the same
social security number. The application rejects the duplicate requests.

Solution: Use a datapool to send different employee data, including unique social
security numbers to the server each time the test script is played back.

Problem: You delete a record during recording. During playback, each instance and
iteration of the test script attempts to delete the same record, and "Record Not
Found" errors result.

Solution: Use a datapool to reference a different record in the deletion request each
time the test script is played back.

Problem: The client application reads a database record while you record a test
script for a performance test. During playback, that same record is read hundreds
of times. Because the client application is well designed, it puts the record in cache
memory, making retrieval deceptively fast in subsequent fetches. The response
times that the performance test yields are inaccurate.

Solution: Use a datapool to request a different record each time the test script is
played back.