Knowledge Base

The Conductor log (Conductor.log) file contains information that may be pertinent to Technical Support. In some cases, when contacting customer support this log will be requested by SOASTA staff. Use the following OS-specific instructions to retrieve the log file.

• In Mac OS X – With the Conductor menu active on the OS X menu bar, select View log contents. In Mac OS X, this file is located in ~/Library/Logs/SOASTA Conductor.

• In Windows – Locate the Conductor in the task bar and click to select View log contents from the popup menu. In Windows, this file is located in the install folder.

• In Linux – Locate the Conductor log via the View log contents command in the Conductor UI. In Linux, this file is located in the ~/.conductor folder.

Use the following steps to extract values from a container’s properties after it plays. This procedure uses the Clip Editor, Property Sets After tab for the given container.

1. Open the container in the Clip Editor lower panel by double-clicking it in the workspace. The Selected tab appears in the lower panel. For example, Selected: Login.
2. Click the Property Sets After tab.
3. Determine the property whose value will be extracted. For example, the wpLoginToken field in the Login nested clip.

4. Click the Browse icon for the given property row. The Path dialog box appears.
5. Navigate to the location of the property that you wish to set in the tree. Click the Custom tab if the replacement value is from a custom property. This would typically be a property in the outer container.

6. Once the property is selected, click to insert it into the Path field in the Property Set.

Note that the leftward green arrow becomes active when a Property Set is defined.

Additionally, the Delete PropSet icon becomes active when a Property Set is defined, in case you wish to remove the Property Set action.

7. Save the Clip after making any changes.

Use the following steps to set the property values of a container before it plays. This procedure uses the Clip Editor, Property Sets Before tab for the given container.

1. Open the container in the Clip Editor lower panel by double-clicking it in the workspace. The Selected tab (e.g. Selected: Login) appears in the lower panel.
2. Click the Property Sets Before tab.
3. Determine the property to set. For example, the password field in the Login nested clip.

4. To set the property value to a constant, click the Override Value field for the given property row and enter the new value. For example, the value new_password  has been entered in the password row shown below.

Note that the leftward green arrow becomes active whenever an override value is entered.

• If the property will be populated from the value of another property, instead of an entered constant, click the Path column’s Browse icon and then select that property from the Path dialog box using the appropriate target or clip element.

For example, set the container’s password property from an underlying target’s system property, Password.

5. Save the Clip after making any changes.

Setting Scope on Test Clips and Messsages or Browser Actions

Scope can be set for a selected object by applying Public, Private, or Local from the Etc. drop-down menu or by using right-click to access the same command from the Action menu.

In the Composition Editor, click the Scope icon to toggle the selection between scopes.

Unlike other objects, targets can only be public or local; because they are accessed by the messages or actions in a test clip. Scope for the targets in a test clip can be viewed and set in the Included Targets list of the Clip Editor.

This System Dashboard brings together the paired Waterfall chart and Clip Element Hierarchy analysis into a single system Waterfall Dashboard. This dashboard displays the load time based on the selected clip element those pages for the given columns: Domain, URL, Timeline, Sent, and Received.

Both widgets must be present if they are to be used in a custom dashboard. Whether System or Custom, select an item in the Clip Element Hierarchy list to display the load times for various paged clip elements on the right. 

Creating a Custom Waterfall Dashboard

1. To create a custom Waterfall Dashboard, open the Widget Selection Panel, Widget Type, Basic section.
2. Select the Clip Element Hierarchy widget and drag it into the dashboard workspace.

1. Select the Waterfall Chart and drag it into the dashboard workspace. This chart is the final entry listed in this section.

Locations can be grouped together within a distribution by using the inner (leftmost) Plus icon—in order to have repeat settings that apply to all the locations in that distribution. Enable Repeats must be checked per distribution to be in effect.

On the track surface, the Copy Count number shows an accurate Copy Count, but it turns into plain non-input text in any additional location (e.g. when there is more than one location in a distribution and one of them doesn’t use Dedicated Load Server).

The Track surface displays information about its current configuration. When more than one distribution is configured in the Track lower panel, the track surface will show [various] as its Virtual Users state. Clicking Locations here will show “Specified in lower panel.”

App actions are those action a user performs using a mobile app. App actions are captured within the Clip Editor and can be played back to a mobile app on one or more mobile devices. App action recording requiresa Mobile App target (or more specifically, a Device Agent/Mobile App combination defined as a target). Common app actions include key, tap, double tap, swipe, pinch, and many more. Like messages and browser actions, app action is represented visually in Clip Editor, Icon view as boxes with the action name and target service logo (if any was provided) on its surface.

In SOASTA CloudTest, app actions are combined into Test Clips with other test clip components—such as checkpoints and delays--that correspond to the individual test case that the clip represents.

Some app actions are also provided in the Clip Editor's Messages/Actions tab, Actions list. These are based on the Included Target selected in the middle column (in most cases there is only one). The listed actions can be double-clicked to add them to the insertion point above.

Assignment of seed data values to individual properties

When the Composition is playing, any time that a new item starts playing, such as a Clip, Chain, or Message, if that item contains Custom Properties that reference seed data, the server on which the item is playing extracts the next available row from the slice of seed data that server has been allocated and sets the Custom Property’s value. Depending upon the settings, this may result in multiple rows being extracted for each Custom Property value.

Seed Data Result Events

Various events are logged to the Result that indicate how the seed data was allocated and used. These events can be viewed in the “Result Details” and “Event Log” Dashboard widgets. All such events are logged at the “Composition” level and thus will be present even when the Composition is played in “Load” mode.
When play starts, a “Seed Data distribution summary” event is logged that shows a consolidated summary of the slices distributed to each server involved in the Composition:

When play starts on each server involved in the Composition, a “Seed Data slices distributed” event is logged for the server that shows information about the slices distributed to that server:

When play completes on each server involved in the Composition, a “Seed Data usage” event is logged that shows how much data that server used from the slice, as well as whether it was necessary to wrap back to the start of the data (if allowed to do so by the Custom Property settings). In this example, the first slice wrapped twice as the slice size was a single row and a total of 3 rows were allocated:

Multiple Custom Properties

If a Composition contains references to multiple seed data sources, each server will have a separate, independent slice for each such seed data source.

• If multiple Custom Properties refer to the same seed data source, they will all extract data from the same single slice (each will get different unique rows from that slice).
• If multiple Custom Properties refer to the same seed data source but specify different values for “Maximum rows per server”, the highest specified value will be used.
• If multiple Custom Properties refer to the same seed data source, all references must specify the same “Starting row” and “Number of rows” settings, if those settings are specified.

No security (such as Basic Authentication or other user ID or passwords) is supported when accessing seed data via URL. However, Repository Seed Data objects can be encrypted with a password. At Composition load time, you will be prompted to enter any such necessary passwords.

If multiple Custom Properties refer to the same seed data source, each such reference can have it’s own EOF Action, they do not all need to be the same.

TouchTest beta enrollees will receive a TouchTest introductory email that contains information with respect to installing the iOS Device Agent. Refer to the SOASTA TouchTest Tutorial for complete instructions on current Device Agent installation.

1. Once the iOS Device Agent is on the device, tap to launch it.

2. Enter the following information to configure the iOS Device Agent:

• Provide an iOS Device Agent name. This name should be unique to this device (e.g. it is different than the SOASTA Conductor name entered in the Installing the Conductor steps above). For example, My iOS Device Agent.
• Enter the CloudTest URL (for example, http://ctmobile.soasta.com/concerto)
• Enter the user name and password you use to connect to CloudTest.
• Press Save and Login.

When you do so, iOS Device Agent status field indicates Connected. Once Connected, it is not necessary for this app to remain on top; however, the device cannot be in Lock mode.

Extraction can be performed on any HTTP header, such as the Content-Type header using the following steps. For example, to show metrics about content within a given test.

1. To add a property set, select the Property Sets node and click the Plus icon to add a new Property Sets form to the message.

Note: This can be performed in either the Target Editor for a given operation (e.g. "get" or any other operation listed in the given target) or in the Clip Editor at the message level within the lower panel Message Editor). Note that target-level property sets will propagate for all messages based on the given target while message-level property sets are restricted to the one message).

2. Change “The value of this field” from the default Field to Header.
3. Enter the HTTP response header name whose value you want to extract. For example, Content-Type.

4. In the “Will be stored in this property” section of the form, ensure that Type is set to Custom.
5. Change Starting Element to “CurrentMessage”.
6. Enter a property path as a name for the custom property. This name will appear as a node in Property Value widgets with the response values shown. For example, Content-Type.
7. For this example, set the Starting Element to Current Message so that analytics are created for each message.
8. In the Automatic Creation drop-down, select “Create and save value in analytics.”
9. Save the target after making these changes.

CloudTest debugging is performed by first applying one or more breakpoints via the Clip Editor and then subsequently using the Composition Editor’s Debug tab to play and step through the composition. Alternately, with your composition open in the Debug tab, click Load to display the test contents in the Composition Tree widget, and then click to navigate to the location where you'd like to add a breakpoint. Breakpoints can be added to items displayed in the Clip Editors Container.

While in Debug play mode, the Composition Tree presents the visual cues to correlate progress with specific clip elements in your test shown in the Clip Editors Container. The debugging widgets work together to show one synchronized debug view.

Once breakpoints are inserted the remaining debugging tasks take place in the Composition Editor, Debug tab. Breakpoints can be set ahead of time for any clip element that fails validation, is an error, or is a failure by checking one or more options in the Debug Options drop-down.

As debug play progresses, the orange “caret” bar progresses in the Composition List widget, while the corresponding clip element displays an orange caret that moves in tandem within the Clip Editors Container.

Working with Breakpoints in the Clip Editor or Clip Editors Container

Breakpoints can be added, enabled and disabled in place, and removed using the following simple instructions.

1. To begin debugging, first determine where to insert breakpoints. Navigate to that location in either the Clip Editor or the Clip Editors Container in the Debugging dashboard. Be sure to click the Load command on the toolbar if no content displays for any open test in the Debug tab.
• Adding Breakpoints – Add a breakpoint to one or more selected item(s). This can also be done within the Clip Editor.
• Remove Breakpoint – Remove the breakpoint from the selected item(s). This can also be done within the Clip Editor. Alternately, click the icon or row surface to toggle off this breakpoint without removing it.

Note: A breakpoint is different from a “stop” of a composition because there is no stop at the API level.

To add a breakpoint, right-click an item in the Clip Editor, List view and choose Add Breakpoint to insert the breakpoint at this place in the test.

Or, right-click an item in the Icon view.

Expand a container in either view to apply a breakpoint to one of its children.

Once added, the Breakpoint icon appears enabled on the clip element’s surface in Icon view (and it appears next to the Scope icon in List view).

Toggle a Breakpoint On/Off

• Click the surface breakpoint for a given icon, or click the Breakpoint icon for a given row in List view, to toggle that breakpoint off.

Remove a Breakpoint

1. Click to select the clip element that has the breakpoint, and then right-click to choose Remove Breakpoint.
2. >Once the breakpoint(s) has been removed, save the clip and proceed to the Composition Editor, either by by clicking Open in Composition Editor or by opening the composition from the Compositions list.

When playing in Debug mode the composition will stop at enabled breakpoints, as well as follow “steps” defined via the toolbar.

Note: The Status Log will indicate Debug mode when playing from this tab.

Using Steps to Debug

Use the Step buttons on the toolbar to play one element at a time to skip over, go back, etc. as indicated by the button.

•  Step Over – Step over the selection by playing it without pause and proceed to the next (this is often called “Next” in some debuggers) clip element. For example, when no problem exists or is expected in the container.

Step Into a Selection

•  Step Into – Step into this container and any child containers it may have. Doing so will allow you to track each test component as it plays (indicated by the orange “caret”). 

Step Back to a Selection

•  Step Back – Step back to the prior container and re-run it (and any of its children). Doing so, will cause the caret to move back in the test.

Step Out of a Selection

•  Step Out – Step out of the current container and pause in the parent container.

Resuming after a Break

•  Resume – Resume debug play from this point forward to the next breakpoint or until the test ends. For example, in the container that contained a prior Step Into, Resume will be used to continue debug play.

Using  Debug Widgets in a Custom Dashboard

Apply classic “debug mode” principles to test creation using both the Clip Editor and the Composition Editor. CloudTest debugging will identify errors and possible performance bottlenecks in a composition by giving attention to each step of the test in the manner of traditional programming debugging tools.

CloudTest debugging provides breakpoints and the ability to step through the test while viewing relevant detail information at both the tree level and within any given container.

• In the Clip Editor, easily define run to next breakpoints on any clip element and gain convenient debug access to any container within the test. Once breakpoints are defined, easily toggle them on/off by clicking the Breakpoint icon.

• In the Composition Editor, use the new Debug tab to to play, view, and step through a test in one convenient Debugging dashboard. Debug commands appear on the toolbar, and include play control as well as step and resume. The General Debug Options drop-down allows breakpoints to be set on-the-fly for validations, errors, and failures. Conditional breakpoints can be assigned by clicking the Debug Options drop-down.

The Debug tab’s player control displays the Debug play icon instead of the Play button shown in other tabs.

Debug Tab and Default Debugging Dashboard

Like the Play and Results tabs, the Composition Editor, Debug tab uses a toolbar/dashboard approach to display information about a playing, as well as a completed, test.

Note: The debugging widgets can also be included in custom debug dashboards (see the new Debugging category in the Widget Type list). Any dashboard created in the Debug tab of a given composition will continue to be associated with it.

The default system Debugging Dashboard consists of all four debug widgets:

• Composition Tree – After Load is clicked on the Composition Editor toolbar, this widget shows test components in order and indicates all breakpoints that are set, whether enabled or disabled. This tree is similar to the one presented in the Result Details widget and is used to view the timeline of debug play (in real time);

• Clip Editors Container– This widget shows a nested Clip Editor view of the item selected in the Composition Tree; right-click to add or remove an existing breakpoint for a clip element in display.

• Composition Breakpoints – This widget shows where breakpoints are set in the test using the full path of the given clip element.

• Property Inspector – This widget shows properties of special interest in the test by Name (the name of either a System or Custom property), Type, and Value.

The Property Inspector, Type column shows either System or Custom properties (as in the Property Sets, Path dialog box). System properties can be null or text, while custom properties have six possible types: null, text, integer, float, datetime, and array.

Step and Resume Toolbar Commands

To the right of the Debug player control on the toolbar, the Step/Resume buttons are provided to Step Over, Step Into, Step Back, and to Step Out of the current object. Use Resume to continue after a breakpoint is reached.

•  Debug – Play the test in debug mode.
•  Step Over – Step over the selection by playing it without pause and proceed to the next (this is often called “Next” in some debuggers) clip element. For example, when no problem exists or is expected in the container.
•  Step Into – Step into this container and any child containers it may have. Doing so will allow you to track each test component as it plays (indicated by the orange “caret”).  
•  Step Back – Step back to the prior container and re-run it (and any of its children). Doing so, will cause the caret to move back in the test.
•  Step Out – Step out of the current container and pause in the parent container.
•  Resume – Resume debug play from this point forward to the next breakpoint or until the test ends. For example, in the container that contained a prior Step Into, Resume will be used to continue debug play.

General Debug Settings

The General Debug Options drop-down is used to conditionally assign breaks to validation failure(s), on error(s), and on failure(s). Checking a box here will assign an on-the-fly breakpoint for each type checked.

• Break on Validation Failure

Check this option to break when an item fails a validation (without having to open the clip and clip element in the Clip Editor to do so).

• Break on Error

Check this option to break when an item produces an error (without having to open the clip and clip element in the Clip Editor to do so).

• Break on Failure

General Debug Settings also appear in the Composition Editor, Edit tab when composition properties are in display.

The Property Value feature is accompanied by the following Analysis widgets and charts to track property analytics where they exist.

Property Value URL Analysis

When the Property Value URL Analysis chart is selected, the widget-level filter includes the Property Name attribute, which can be filtered by All values or by a specific property name (as shown right).

• Click Apply in the Edit Panel after making any changes

Property Value Clip Element Analysis

This tabular analytic widget provides summarized metrics for property values on clip elements across the entire test. 

When the Property Value Clip Element Analysis chart is selected, the widget-level filter includes the Property Name attribute, which can be filtered by All values or by a specific property name.

• Click Apply in the Edit Panel after making any changes

Property Value Composition Element Analysis

The Property Value Composition Element Analysis shows the values of properties for Tracks, Clips, and Collections at the time that those items completed.

For example, a clip custom property set on a Transaction container to a boolean value in order to indicate that a given order transaction was completed successfully (this can also be done at the message level, of course).  This widget allows you to see the counts for those items.

When the Property Value Composition Element Analysis chart is selected, the widget-level filter includes the Property Name attribute, which can be filtered by All values or by a specific property name (as shown below).

• Click Apply in the Edit Panel after making any changes

Properties by Value

This pie chart provides a breakdown of properties by their percent.

Properties by Value has additional settings to turn off visual metrics for Name, Percentage, and Value. Uncheck any of these boxes to suppress it on the widget surface.

When the Properties By Value chart is selected, the widget-level filter includes the Property Name attribute, which can be filtered by All values or by a specific property name.

• Click Apply in the Edit Panel after making any changes

Property Value Count

The count of property name/value pairs related to clips elements over time with a separate series for each name/value combination.

For example, the Property Value Count widget taken from the Content-Type example above shows a separate series for each type of content.

Click Legend to inspect the values by color.

Alternately, filter this widget by a property name.

Top N Messages by Property Value

This Top N widget presents the Top N widgets by a count of property values.

This widget is filterable by both property name and property value. When Property Name is the attribute, select the property name value to filter by.

When Property Value is the attribute , select the property value to filter by.

Custom properties can be created automatically at runtime using the Property Sets form, Automatic Creation drop-down in either the Target Editor or the Clip Editor when the Message Editor lower panel is open.

• Target-level property sets can be created for any operation in the Target Editor, Target Info section. Scroll to locate the Property Sets section.

• Message-level property sets are created in the Clip Editor, Selected, Property Sets node (in the list on the lower left).

Automatic Creation is specified when either Create or Create and save in analytics are chosen in the drop-down.

Set a Runtime Custom Property in a Property Set

Property sets can be added to a message whenever that message is open in the lower panel message editor. Property sets can also be defined for any operation in a given target via the Target Editor.

1. Locate a message and open it in the lower panel of the Clip Editor, or, in the case of a target, navigate to the operation in which a property set will be defined.
2. Add a property set, by clicking the green Plus icon to add a new Property Sets form to the message.

• To edit an existing property set, locate it within the Property Sets section in either editor.

3. Click the green Plus icon on the right to add the Property Sets form to the panel.
4. Define the section “The value of this field” according to your needs. For example, if you are going to extract from a header change Field to Header.

5. For either selection, define the text that will make the string extractable. For example, by defining leading text, trailing text, or value length. Or, by using XPath or Regex extraction methods.

• For example, enter or paste the leading text. For example, “?” or “Location: ”.

• Enter or paste the trailing text. For example, “/#”.
• Click Test on Played Response to determine if your choices result in the string being extracted properly.

2. Once the top section is defined, ensure that Custom is the property type to set.
3. Select a Starting Element and enter a name in the Property Path field.
4. In the Automatic Creation drop-down do one of the following:
   • To create a custom property without adding it to analytics, choose Create (rather than Create and save in analytics) in the Automatic Creation drop-down.
   • To create a custom property and simultaneously specify that the Custom Property's "ending" value will be tracked in Analytics, choose Create and save in analytics.
5. Finally, click Save on the toolbar.

The values of Akamai debug HTTP headers can be extracted, placed into a custom property, and then tracked in analytics using the following steps. This example defines a property set as part of a target after first adding the HTTP request headers to that target(s) in a target that is used in that test.
Note:  As a general rule, it is quicker to add request headers in the Target Editor for the widest use case, as they will then apply to all messages that use the target; however, these steps can also be performed on one or more individual messages in the Message Editor instead. These headers should be added to every pertinent target in the test.

1. Add the relevant header request to every HTTP operation that goes to Akamai. For example, get (as shown below).

Additional relevant Akamai Pragma cache headers include:

          Pragma: akamai-x-get-cache-key
          Pragma: akamai-x-cache-remote-on
          Pragma: akamai-x-get-true-cache-key

2. Save the target after making this change.

The example above causes each message response to contain an X-Cache header with one of a number of possible values which, when placed into a CloudTest widget (as a custom property’s value) are easy to analyze. Two of the two most common X-cache response values are TCP_HIT and TCP_MISS.

The raw X-Cache header value will indicate a hit or miss for a given object (among a number of other possible responses). Additional X-Cache responses include: TCP_REFRESH_HIT, TCP_REFRESH_MISS, TCP_REFRESH_FAIL_HIT, TCP_IMS_HIT, TCP_NEGATIVE_HIT, TCP_MEM_HIT, TCP_DENIED, and TCP_COOKIE_DENY.

By defining a property set to extract the X-Cache header value, place it into a custom property, and save that value to analytics, CloudTest can easily chart the X_Cache values for a given test.
X-Cache: TCP_MISS from a90-84-54-46 (AkamaiGHost/6.6.2-8814863) (-)

A TCP_HIT means that the object was fresh in cache and/or an object from disk cache. A TCP_MISS means that the object was not in cache, and that the server fetched the object from its origin.

3. To add a property set, select the Property Sets node and click the Plus icon to add a new Property Sets form to the message.
4. Change “The value of this field” from the default Field to Header.
5. Since we only want that portion of the X-Cache header prior to “from” enter a space and then “from” in the Trailing Text field. Note that the space is included so that there won’t be a trailing space on every extracted value.

6. In the "Will be stored in this property" section of the form, ensure that Type is set to Custom.
7. Change Starting Element to "CurrentMessage".
8. Enter a property path as a name for the custom property. This name will appear as a node in Property Value widgets with the response values shown.

9. In the Automatic Creation drop-down, select Create and save value in Analytics.
10. Click Save on the toolbar after making these changes.

CloudTest provides the ability to track and analyze custom properties. Additionally, custom properties can automatically be created on-the-fly when executing a property set.

These two property analytic features are especially useful when testing sites using content delivery networks such as Akamai where, for example, property analytics can be used to provide insight into the distribution and occurrence of metrics such as hits/misses for cached objects on a content delivery network. Or, for example, to reveal the distribution of Content-Type in HTTP responses within a given test.

Tracking Custom Property Values in Analytics

Custom Property values can be tracked in analytics for all objects in the Clip Editor and Composition Editor, with the exception of Band and Composition, by using the new Save value for analytics checkbox. Property analytics are turned off by default.

Save a Custom Property for Analytics (Messages/Actions)

1. Locate and open the message or browser action in the lower panel of the Clip Editor. If the item is part of a container, expand the container and select and double-click the message or action to open it in the lower panel.

2. Select the message by name in the Message Editor. For example, default.asp in the screenshot above.
3. Select the Custom Properties tab.
4. Check the Save value for analytics checkbox for a given property in the Custom Properties tab to track it in analytics.
5. Save the test clip after making any changes.

Note:  The Save value for analytics checkbox can be checked for all Custom property value types (e.g. Constant, Seed Data: Repository, and Seed Data: URL).

Save a Custom Property for Analytics (Containers)

1. Locate and open the clip element in the lower panel of the Clip Editor.
2. Select the Custom Properties tab.
3. Check the Save value for analytics checkbox for a given property in the Custom Properties tab to track it in analytics.
4. Save the test clip after making any changes.

Save a Custom Property for Analytics (Clip Custom Properties)

1. With the given clip open in the Clip Editor, click the Properties tab.
2. Select Clip Custom Properties in the Properties list on the lower left.
3. Check the Save value for analytics checkbox for a given property in the panel to track it in analytics.
4. Save the test clip after making any changes.

Save a Custom Property for Analytics (Track)

1. With the given track selected in the Composition Editor, click the Properties tab.
2. With the track still selected in the Properties list on the left, select the Custom Properties tab.
3. Check the Save value for analytics checkbox for a given property in the panel to track it in analytics.
4. Save the composition after making any changes.

Save a Custom Property for Analytics (Target)

1. Locate and open the target in the Target Editor.
2. Select the Target Info node on the left.
3. Click the Custom Properties tab on the right.
4. Check the Save value for analytics checkbox for a given property in the Custom Properties tab to track it in analytics.

In some circumstances when running CloudTest Lite in VMWare, the virtual machine can run out of memory even if the SOASTA recommended 2048 KB is correctly set. For example, increasing test complexity can place additional demands on the host system. In these cases, use the following instructions to increase the memory available to the virtual machine.

Note:  Memory settings in VMWare require that the affected virtual machine be shutdown (and not merely suspended as shown on the right). If the VM is not shut down, use Virtual Machine > Shut Down at this time.

1. Select the CloudTest Lite item in the Virtual Machine Library. As noted above, this item should be in "Powered off" status.

2. Click the Settings button.

3. Click Processors & RAM under the System Settings section.

4. Note the current setting. CloudTest Lite's minimum memory requirement is 2048 MB. However, with greater test complexity this minimum can easily be exceeded (a scenario that results in a "GC Overhead Limit Exceeded" error). It will be necessary to increase this memory amount. The ability to do so will depend upon the particulars of your total available system memory. If possible, double this amount (e.g. to 4096) and try using CloudTest Lite again.

Widgets that display collections also display collection-based filters in the dashboard or widget Edit Panel. Collection filters include Collection Rate, Collection Type, and Collection Name.

Like other widgets, the Fundamentals widget provides widget-specific filters. Since Collections are shown in this widget it can be filtered by collection. For example, the Collections Rate filter of the Fundamentals widget provides the ability to create on-the-fly Collections Completed per Minute, or Collections Started per Minute, Collections Completed per Hour or Collections Started per Hour sections in the existing Fundamentals widget. Once inserted, the filter(s) are placed in the leftmost column of the Fundamentals widget, shifting the pre-existing field to the right.

Setting the Collections Rate Filter

1. To use a Fundamentals widget filter such as the Collections Rate filter, place the Fundamentals widget into a dashboard.

2. Select the Fundamentals widget (as shown above), and then click Toggle Dashboard Edit Mode to open up the bottom panel.  
3. With Fundamentals selected in the Edit Panel, check Collections Rate.

The Collections Rate filter form appears.

The Collections Rate filter form uses an expression to allow the user to create a filter for a selected collection(s) for a given state and rate. One or more filters can be applied.

4. To create a filter, click the (Choose…) drop down in the first column and select the collection(s) to filter on. When you do so, a drop-down selection box appears.

5. Select the type of collection to filter on. For example, Pages.

The available collections for the selected collection type appear in the list below.

6. Select one or more collections in this test on which to filter (as shown below). Collection items can also be selected one at a time and then added via the Add button.

7. Click Apply when done selecting.
8. Choose whether to filter collections by the state, Started or Completed. Note that “Started” collections will only display during composition play, while “Completed” ones will only display after the given item has completed play.

9. Next, choose whether to filter by the rate per Minute or per Hour.

10. Next, determine the Surface Title for this filter, which can be based on all or part of the expression, or which can have a custom name.
• To display only the collection names and the integer (for either completed or started), check Display in the first column.
• To display only Started or Completed, check Display in the second column.
• To display only the rate, check Display in the third column.
• Alternately, check the Custom radio button and enter a custom surface title.

11. Next, determine whether to make one or more columns in this expression editable on the widget surface.

• Check editable for the first column if you’d like to select and then edit the collections on the widget surface at a later time.
• Check editable for the second column if you’d like to select and then switch between Started or Completed on the widget surface at a later time.
• Check editable for the third column if you’d like to select and then switch between the rate on the widget surface at a later time.

For example, in the screenshot on the right, both Display and Editable were checked in the first column so that when the blue text is clicked the collection selection box appears on the widget surface. Neither editable box was checked for the second two columns.

In this screenshot, all three columns were set to editable and the second column’s hypertext has been clicked.

Optionally, add one or more additional filters by clicking the green Plus icon.

When you do so, a second Collection Rate filter form appears.

Setting the Collection Type and/or Collection Name Filter

1. Open the dashboard to filter by Collection Name, or select a specific collection widget to filter. Collection Name appears as a filter attribute in many widgets (including Result Details, Collection Analysis, and all of the collection widgets).
2. Invoke the Dashboard Edit Panel by clicking Dashboard Toggle Edit Mode button.
3. Leave the Dashboard node selected in the edit panel selected if the filter will apply to the entire dashboard. Otherwise, select the widget node in the list on the left of the panel.

4. With either the Dashboard or Widget node selected in the Edit Panel list on the left, click the Filter tab.
5. Click the Attribute drop-down and select Collection Name. If Collection Name doesn’t appear the current selection cannot be filtered by that attribute.

6. In the Operator field, choose from either In or Not In.
• Use “In” to filter only those results in the specified container(s).
• Use “Not In” to exclude the specified container(s).
• To filter by more than one Collection Name, click the green Plus icon to add a new row then repeat the steps above for that row.

7. Click the Value field. An additional drop-down appears with the available collection types in display. Choose the collection type, and the available collection names are then populated. For example, selecting Transactions displays a list of the transactions in this result by name.

TIP: Use the OS-specific method for selecting a range of names or for selecting names out of order. Long lists can be filtered by entering a string in the Search field above collection type.

8. Click the Apply button (in the Collection Name drop-down) to confirm the selection. The filter value is added.

If multiple names were selected, they are shown alphabetically and comma-separated in the Value field. For example, the filter below lists selected by name using the method above.

1. Click the Apply button on the far-right of the Edit Panel to complete the filter.

Seed data can be specified for a given clip using the Properties tab for the given object in the Clip Editor. Use the following steps to utilize seed data already in the CloudTest repository or to refer to it by URL. If the seed data object doesn’t yet exist, create it first using Central > Seed Data. Refer to Creating and Editing Seed Data to do so.

• Open the clip that includes the given object.
• In the Clip Editor double click to open the object in the lower panel.
• Click the Custom Properties tab on the right.

3. If the property to use doesn’t already exist, click the green Plus icon to create a new clip custom property.
4. In the Value type drop-down, select either Seed Data: Repository or Seed Data: URL.
• For repository, select the Seed Data Object from among those configured. Refer to Creating and Editing Seed Data if the seed data object doesn’t yet exist.
• For URL, enter the address where the CSV file is located.

Refer to Setting Advanced Seed Data Options (In Tracks, Clips, and Containers) for additional configuration steps.

Property sets can be added to a message whenever that message is open in the lower panel message editor.

• To add a property set, select the Property Sets node and click the Plus icon to add a new Property Sets form to the message.
• To edit an existing property set, locate it within the Property Sets node.

Save the clip after making any changes.

Property Set via Start and End Markers

Property Set Retrieved using Xpath

The XPath value field used to perform an extraction when Retrieved using: Xpath is selected now accepts ISSEs.

Property Set Retrieved using Global Expression

The Glob value field used to perform an extraction when Retrieved using: Glob is selected now accepts ISSEs.

Property Set Retrieved using Regular Expression

The Regular Expression value field used to perform an extraction when Retrieved using: Regular Expression is selected now accepts ISSEs.

The text entered in many Property Set fields can include In Situ Substitution Expressions (ISSEs) alongside regular text.

For more information about using ISSEs in CloudTest, refer to In Situ Substitution Expressions.

Validations can be defined in the lower panel Message Editor for a given Clip Editor selection by selecting the Validation node in the tree. Click the green Plus icon to add a validation if it does not already exist.

Validation Success Message

The Success Message field for a given user-defined validation now accepts ISSEs.

Validation Failure Message

The Failure Message field for a given user-defined validation now accepts ISSEs.

Validation Exact Match value

A validation whose Match Type is Matches exactly now accepts an ISSE as its value.

Validation Glob Match Value

A validation whose Match Type is Matches glob expression now accepts an ISSE as its value.

Validation Regular Expression Match Value

A validation whose Match Type is Matches regular expression now accepts an ISSE as its value.

The Composition Editor toolbar provides additional play controls that are useful for more complex test compositions. In the Composition Editor, Repeat Composition, Load/Unload Composition, and Play Mode buttons provide pre-play control over test composition staging. For example, the Load/Unload Composition button is useful for a test composition that specifies multiple (Maestro) server locations may take a few moments to load.

Use Repeat Composition to play your test composition in a continuous loop.

Use the Load and Unload Composition toggle to stage complex test compositions prior to clicking Play. This pre-staging of test compositions is particularly useful in Cloud environments such as on Amazon EC2. Load Composition can help identify any problems with the staged components of a given test.

Use the Play Modes button to conveniently modify test composition properties to SOASTA recommended settings. Refer to Play Modes and Results Logging.

Load, Unload, or Stop Loading a Composition

The Load and Unload Composition toggle icon on the Composition Editor toolbar  is used to stage complex test compositions prior to clicking Play. Using Load Composition can help identify any problems with the staged components of a given test. This pre-staging of compositions is particularly useful in cloud environments such as Amazon EC2.

Stopping the load process once begun is useful because if there are multiple servers involved it can sometimes take a significant length of time to complete the loading process. Stop the load if you change your mind, or if there are a handful of servers that are taking a long time to load (because of network, configuration, or other issues) and you wish to not wait any further and play the Composition with the number of servers that have been loaded so far.

To stop the Load, click the Load/Unload icon a second time whenever it displays the red stop icon superimposed over the load icon (as shown below).

Clicking Stop the Load can, in some cases, still result in a usable composition. For example if 100 servers are configured for a composition, but Stop the Load is clicked when only 92 have been loaded, the result will be a loaded composition that can play with 92 servers using a partial load.  

It is possible to proceed with a partial load, for example, when there are one or more servers having trouble.  If a partial load is undesired, click Unload.

If Stop the Load is clicked early enough in the load process, before any servers at all have been successfully loaded, then there won't be a loaded composition to play.