[Ann] FirstACT 2.2 released for SOAP performance testing

Question

Empirix Releases FirstACT 2.2 for Performance Testing of SOAP-based Web Services
FirstACT 2.2 is available for free evaluation immediately at http://www.empirix.com/TryFirstACT
Waltham, MA -- June 5, 2002 -- Empirix Inc., the leading provider of test and monitoring
solutions for Web, voice and network applications, today announced FirstACT™ 2.2,
the fifth release of the industry's first and most comprehensive automated performance
testing tool for Web Services.
As enterprise organizations are beginning to adopt Web Services, the types of Web
Services being developed and their testing needs is in a state of change. Major
software testing solution vendor, Empirix is committed to ensuring that organizations
developing enterprise software using Web Services can continue to verify the performance
of their enterprise as quickly and cost effectively as possible regardless of the
architecture they are built upon.
Working with organizations developing Web Services, we have observed several emerging
trends. First, organizations are tending to develop Web Services that transfer a
sizable amount of data within each transaction by passing in user-defined XML data
types as part of the SOAP request. As a result, they require a solution that automatically
generates SOAP requests using XML data types and allows them to be quickly customized.
Second, organizations require highly scalable test solutions. Many organizations
are using Web Services to exchange information between business partners and have
Service Level Agreements (SLAs) in place specifying guaranteed performance metrics.
Organizations need to performance test to these SLAs to avoid financial and business
penalties. Finally, many organizations just beginning to use automated testing tools
for Web Services have already made significant investments in making SOAP scripts
by hand. They would like to import SOAP requests into an automated testing tool
for regression testing.
Empirix FirstACT 2.2 meets or exceeds the testing needs of these emerging trends
in Web Services testing by offering the following new functionality:
1. Automatic and customizable test script generation for XML data types – FirstACT
2.2 will generate complete test scripts and allow the user to graphically customize
test data without requiring programming. FirstACT now includes a simple-to-use XML
editor for data entry or more advanced SOAP request customization.
2. Scalability Guarantee – FirstACT 2.2 has been designed to be highly scalable to
performance test Web Services. Customers using FirstACT today regularly simulate
between several hundred to several thousand users. Empirix will guarantee to
performance test the numbers of users an organization needs to test to meet its business
needs.
3. Importing Existing Test Scripts – FirstACT 2.2 can now import existing SOAP request
directly into the tool on a user-by-user basis. As a result, some users simulated
can import SOAP requests; others can be automatically generated by FirstACT.
Web Services facilitates the easy exchange of business-critical data and information
across heterogeneous network systems. Gartner estimates that 75% of all businesses
with more than $100 million in sales will have begun to develop Web Services applications
or will have deployed a production system using Web Services technology by the end
of 2002. As part of this move to Web Services, "vendors are moving forward with
the technology and architecture elements underlying a Web Services application model,"
Gartner reports. While this model holds exciting potential, the added protocol layers
necessary to implement it can have a serious impact on application performance, causing
delays in development and in the retrieval of information for end users.
"Today Web Services play an increasingly prominent but changing role in the success
of enterprise software projects, but they can only deliver on their promise if they
perform reliably," said Steven Kolak, FirstACT product manager at Empirix. "With
its graphical user interface and extensive test-case generation capability, FirstACT
is the first Web Services testing tool that can be used by software developers or
QA test engineers. FirstACT tests the performance and functionality of Web Services
whether they are built upon J2EE, .NET, or other technologies. FirstACT 2.2 provides
the most comprehensive Web Services testing solution that meets or exceeds the changing
demands of organizations testing Web Services for performance, functionality, and
functionality under load.”
Learn more?
Read about Empirix FirstACT at http://www.empirix.com/FirstACT. FirstACT 2.2 is
available for free evaluation immediately at http://www.empirix.com/TryFirstACT.
Pricing starts at $4,995. For additional information, call [phone].

Answer 1

Simon,
I will admit, I almost never use SQL Developer. I have been a long time Toad user, but for this tool, I fumbled around a bit and got everything up and running quickly.
That said, I tried the new GeoRaptor tool using this tutorial (which is I think is close enough to get the jist). http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/georaptor/index.php?title=A_Gentle_Introduction:_Create_Table,_Metadata_Registration,_Indexing_and_Mapping
As I stumble around it, I'll try and leave some feedback, and probably ask some rather stupid questions.
Thanks for the effort,
Bryan