Is it possible to load test Web Services without front-end?

Yes, it’s possible and there are couple of ways in doing it (disclaimer: not all are applicable). Was actually responding to fews question on this topic and well, might as well share with everyone. Let’s get some fundamentals right on Web Services, (a) they can be implemented without any front-end GUI (e.g. browser) causing challenges to conventional testing techniques. If it was implemented with a front-end, that makes the scripting a little bit easier as it’s the same for conventional testers (no issue here). (b) It communicates or delivers via SOAP/HTTP. That’s to say, HTTP protocol is the medium of communication, one of the key concepts of using load testing tools such as LoadRunner is understanding the protocol. (Refer to “Which protocol to use?” on protocol fundamentals)

There are four possible ways of doing it. Read the rest of this entry »