Recording the Android client application test script in IBM Rational performance Tester

Background of writing this article

As smartphone usage grows, more and more web-based applications are starting to provide the ability to access from mobile clients, whether the client is a browser or a native application. In both cases, these clients can use HTTP as a network protocol and, theoretically, they can be tested using the primary load test tools. On the other hand, most of the current available products, including IBM Rational performance Tester, do not have built-in functionality to record tests for mobile client applications.

This article describes how to use the Android emulator to set up a simple framework to record an Android application's HTTP test in Rational performance Tester.

Set up the Android emulator

The developers section of Android.com provides detailed installation steps for installing the Software Development Kit (SDK). Please refer to the Resources section of this article for a related link.

Install the necessary components

You need to install at least the following components:

Android SDK

Wanted Android platform (at least one platform needed)

SDK Platform Tools (Install the latest version)

You may want to download and install the Eclipse plug-in, but this is only for development purposes. Also, make sure that you have an updated version of the Java Development Kit (JDK) on your workstation. Only the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) is not sufficient.

Create a virtual device

After you install these components, you need to create a virtual device. You can use the wizards in Android Virtual Device Manager (AVD Manager) to do this by using the following steps:

In the Android SDK, open a terminal, navigate to the Tools directory, and execute: Android

In the Virtual Devices tab, select New.

Figure 1. To create a new virtual device

Fill in the following details for AVD:

Name: Names of virtual devices

Target: Targeted Android Platform

SD card: If your test does not require SD cards, you can leave the Size blank. Otherwise, specify the size you want.

Hardware: It is a good idea to allocate at least 1 GB of memory for a virtual device. Add a new property (Device RAM Size) and set its value to 1024.

Figure 2. AVD Detailed information