 Visual Studio has great support for building ASP.NET web applications  Real web application development involves more than just copying the files created in Visual Studio  In this session we look at the issue of deploying and testing ASP.NET applications

 The sample application › Self-contained slice of large web application › Interacts with web services › Retrieves data from database › User authentication

Production Database Test Database Web Application Staging Web Server Developer’s Workstation Web Application Production Web Server Web Application

 Different configurations are required for development, testing and production › Development  Local test web server, debugging, (local)test data, full source, editing support, local services › Testing  IIS, debugging?, source?, shared test data, distributed services › Production  No debugging, fully optimised, production data stores, enhanced security

 Add-on for Visual Studio which offers › Pre-compilation of ASP.NET sites › Flexible options for generating compiled assemblies from a Web project › Control over assembly naming, versioning and signing › Ability to exclude, add, and transform files and directories during builds › Modification of settings in the Web.config file › Generation of MSI installer setup  Tied to configuration settings of Web project  Really useful in building real-world web applications

 Source files pre-compiled into assemblies › One assembly per page › Single assembly for all pages  Compiled site can be › Updateable  Page markup shipped with site  Useful for intra-organisation sites which may need modification after deployment › Non-updateable  Page markup compiled into assembly(s)  Useful for ‘boxed’ applications where end-user should not be able to modify site

 Arbitrary sections of Web.config file can be modified for each build configuration › External file contains specific replacement for each build › WDP options specify which configuration sections should be replaced  Useful for › Changing connections strings (e.g. database) › Disabling debugging for production release

 Creating a Web Deployment Project  Setting build options › Output format › Assembly naming, versioning and signing  Modifying configuration settings  Creating an installer

 Replacement config files show up in deployed application › Combine WDP with custom MS-Build tasks ( )  Compiling sites to a single assembly and making them non-updateable can cause problems when › Minor (markup) layout errors need fixed  App must be recompiled and redeployed › Obfuscation used to protect IPR  Metadata removal/type renaming by obfuscator can cause problems in locating types when ASPX pages are removed  Using updateable pages requires code-behind types to maintain their names

 Pros › No source or markup deployed to site allows for protection of intellectual property › Secure – site can be made non-updateable › Performance – precompilation avoids compilation overhead on initial page load  Cons › Must deploy all at once; can’t upgrade part of the application › Can’t compile applications with sub-virtual directories › Can interfere with continuous service as large sites are deployed (due to assembly swapping)

 Testing is key to › Verifying web application functionality  Web unit tests › Verifying that non-functional requirements (e.g. performance, scalability) have been met  Load tests (makes use of web unit tests)  Automated testing is required  Visual Studio supports both kinds of testing against arbitrary web sites › Can be performed automatically as part of daily build cycle

 Black-box approach › Verifies expected page behaviour (i.e. output) when supplied with known input  Web Test Recorder › Create web test by interacting with web site in Internet Explorer › Recorder captures interactions to create test › Can capture timing information (think times)  Gives more accurate simulation of user behaviour › Can configure test parameters to be retrieved from a database

 Recording Web tests  Executing Web tests  Using parameterised tests

 Stress-testing of application by simulating multiple users accessing site › Thousands of simultaneous users › Users performing different actions  Load testing enables › worst case performance evaluations › investigation of application performance under different conditions › comparative evaluation of design alternatives to allow optimisation  Goal of load testing is to exercise application under conditions that are as close as possible to those the application will experience in real use before it goes live  Volume of users, traffic patterns and user behaviour, mix of browsers, network characteristics

Application under test Test Scripts Test Controller Test Agent

 Users do a variety of things with a web application at the same time  Load testing can simulate this by using multiple web tests › Create web tests for each of the user activities › Select web tests to include in the load test scenario › Alter the mix (ratio) of tests to produce an activity mix similar to the real usage scenario

 Users access your site from a range of browsers; load tests can simulate this  Out-of-box emulation support › IE 5.5, IE 6, Netscape, Pocket IE  Custom browser types can be added › Create additional browser config file in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\Templates\LoadTest\Browsers › Obtain browser settings by opening in browser you wish to emulate. Copy settings to config file

 Users access application from a variety of different networks › LAN, Broadband, Dial-up, etc  Load testing can simulate the effect of the different network bandwidths › Allows evaluation of performance experienced by client on particular types of network

 VS can simulate › Fixed user load accessing the site  Not representative of real traffic but useful for worst case analysis › Load varying over time  Ramp up from initial load to a maximum load  Think times recorded in web tests can be used to make timing of simulated web requests as close as possible to real traffic

 Monitoring of Windows performance counters is key to understanding the performance of your application  Performance counters exist for › OS (CPU/memory/IO,etc),.NET CLR, ASP.NET, IIS, SQL Server, VS testing framework › Test framework counters are monitored by default  Counters can be monitored across local and remote machines

 Show performance counters over time in graphical or tabular form

 Creating a test results repository  Creating a load test  Executing the tests  Viewing live performance data  Post-test analysis

 Web Test Recorder works well with standard ASP.NET applications › Cannot properly record interactions with applications that use AJAX => test failures  Download and use Fiddler2 to record tests for AJAX applications › Add the tests created by Fiddler to the test project › Run web/load tests as normal

 In this session we have seen how features of Visual Studio can be used to build real world web applications › Web Deployment Projects  used to control the building of web applications for testing and production › Web and load testing  used to verify the functionality and performance of Web applications

 Web Deployment Projects add-in us/asp.net/aa aspx Web Deployment Projects add-in  Using Web Deployment Projects with Visual Studio Using Web Deployment Projects with Visual Studio 2005  Web Deployment Project Enhancement Web Deployment Project Enhancement  Fiddler, Fiddler,  The Science of Web Site Load Testing load_testing_savoia.pdf The Science of Web Site Load Testing  Web Test Authoring and Debugging Techniques us/dnvs05/html/WTAuthDebug.asp Web Test Authoring and Debugging Techniques  Extending Load Testing Browser Support 832c09e99527.aspx Extending Load Testing Browser Support