06/07/2004

OpenDemand Systems unveiled OpenLoad V4.0, “the industry’s first easy-to-use and affordable, browser-based load and functional testing solution for ensuring the performance, availability and reliability of enterprise Web applications and services.”

The vendor supplied the following details:

The new release is designed to address a specific need in the market for simple, powerful and affordable automated test tools. OpenLoad V4.0 provides midmarket firms with the first viable alternative to high priced and overly complex legacy load testing tools. The new release of this feature rich product extends OpenDemand's traditional focus on ease-of-use, superior analysis and affordability, offering application development and test teams the ability to easily perform fast and productive testing of dynamic websites without the need to develop complex scripts or perform complicated data analysis.

OpenLoad V4.0 fully automates the scripting process by going beyond simply recording Web traffic in that it actually inspects the contents of each response and automatically parameterizes the appropriate session variables on behalf of the user. This novel approach eliminates the need for complex scripting and debugging and enables users to effortlessly build robust data driven user scenarios in minutes. This new "script-free" recorder provides out of the box support for PeopleSoft applications using versions 8.0 and above; allowing PeopleSoft implementers and administrators alike to easily test customized modules without the need to develop complex scripts, including Customer Relationship Management, Human Capital Management, Financial Management and Campus Solutions.

“At Sunoco, we needed to measure the performance of a new online component of our mission critical HR application, so we could proactively maintain and support optimum service levels, rather than react to performance degradations. OpenLoad™ V4.0, powered by IBM WebSphere Express and IBM DB2 Express went beyond simply recording our Web traffic, it actually facilitated and expedited a potential complex scripting and debugging process, and saved Sunoco significant time and effort, thereby ensuring we met our testing deadlines ,” said Bob Giannotti, Manager, HR and Legal Applications, Sunoco, Inc .

OpenDemand’s latest offering provides full support for functional and performance testing of Web services. OpenLoad™’s Web service transaction recorder enables users to capture SOAP requests without a GUI and provides a browser-based interface that allows both technical and non-technical users to easily manipulate XML data elements. Now developers, testers and business users can quickly and efficiently parameterize XML payloads without scripting and verify the contents of XML responses to ensure the expected functional behavior and performance of Web services.

Other new features include extended reporting and analysis capabilities, including a new "virtual user watch" feature that allows users to view the actual page content that would be displayed to website visitors under load as well as the ability to export test results in a spreadsheet format, enabling users to create custom analyses with their favorite graphing packages. In addition, there is now full support for Linux kernel 2.4 and above, allowing customers to deploy OpenLoad™ on both their favorite Linux and Windows platforms.

Stephen Ince, VP Development of OpenDemand, emphasized the fact that midmarket firms face unique challenges when it comes to testing Web application and services. According to Ince, midmarket firms often lack the time, skill set and resources to effectively leverage legacy testing packages, which require large upfront investments of time and resources; often taking weeks or months to yield value. This is also true of small departments within large enterprises that often don't have the time or budget to put their applications through a full quality assurance test cycle. Ince said that OpenLoad V4.0 was designed to help small-to-medium sized organizations effectively overcome these challenges and enjoy the same benefits as their larger counterparts.

“The features in our new release came out of a growing need in the marketplace for automated test tools with enterprise capabilities that were much easier to use and more affordable than legacy test tools,” said Ince. “Midmarket firms operate under the same intense time-to-market pressures and face similar technical challenges when it comes to optimizing the performance of multi-tier Web applications as their counterparts in the large enterprise. The primary difference is that midmarket firms have fewer resources and smaller budgets,” continued Ince. “These teams don't need watered down "lite" versions of enterprise legacy test tools with restricted feature sets. What they need are tools that are designed to test more efficiently, cost-effectively and proactively. Now, with our new product, developers and testers in any size organization can easily ensure the performance, availability and reliability of their Web applications and services.”