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Latest Release



Forecast™ version 4.4.0

Facilita™ Forecast™ 4.4.0 contains a host of exciting new features, see below for details!


Notes: 
 
  • you must have a valid, up-to-date support and maintenance contract to benefit from new product releases
  • to upgrade to the latest version of Forecast™ Studio, all Injector machines must also be upgraded
  • (coming in 4.4.1, not in the initial release of 4.4.0) the TCPIP Virtual User has been superseded by the new IP virtual user - if you have any custom Virtual Users or any scripts based on the existing TCPIP Virtual User, please contact the Facilita™ support team before upgrading
 
 
Forecast™ Studio 4.4.0 new features:
 
  • Web recording:
    • When recording a web script there is a new list of applications that can be launched automatically by the Recorder.  This list contains
      • Google Chrome
      • Microsoft Internet Explorer and
      • Mozilla Firefox.  
    • If any of these applications are not installed on the controller machine then they cannot be selected from the list
    • When recording a web trace, a snapshot of the browser window is taken every time a transaction name is entered into the Recorder dialog.  A thumbnail strip of snapshots has been added to the Recorder dialog.  When the trace is viewed in the Web Trace Viewer application, a new tab 'Snapshot' displays the snapshot that was taken at the time of recording and matches the currently viewed transaction
  • Another new feature when recording a web trace is the 'Hosts' tab, which allows the de-selection of hostnames that have been encountered during the recording, and when the web script is generated these hosts will be ignored at runtime.  The hostnames are persisted at the project level, so when another recording is taken the hosts that were excluded from the previous recording can also be excluded for the current recording (this is completely configurable from the Hosts tab in the Recorder).  Hostnames can be deselected individually and by defining regular expressions
  • Another new tab added to the Recorder is the 'Messages' tab, which displays a log of commands and any messages
  • The 'Stop' (recording) button has been added to the Web Script Recorder dialog but removed from the underlying dialog, to simplify the user interface
  • Transactions can be renamed whilst a script is being recorded
  • Web Script generation:
    • The protocol(s) for a generated web script have now been parameterised, making it easier to change the protocol(s) in each script
    • In generated web scripts we now write setHeaderValue() calls for all non-standard headers encountered in the trace, ensuring they will be automatically set at runtime
  • NetBeans integration:
    • If NetBeans is installed, it is possible to launch this IDE from within Studio and build the (java) Forecast™ project within NetBeans
  • dynaTrace integration (6.9.1, 7.x):
    • If dynaTrace is installed, there will be a new tab on the left-hand side of Studio named 'dynaTrace'.  Various dynaTrace configuration options have been added to this new tab.  The dynaTrace header can be set on a per Virtual User group basis by setting the new option on the 'Web: Logging' tab of the 'Runtime Settings' tab for the Virtual User group
  • Test export:
    • This new feature within Forecast™ Studio allows tests to be exported as single .zip files that contain everything required to run the test.  The .zip file can be extracted onto any target machine and run without having to install any other Facilita™ software.
    • The limitation is that only tests that are defined to run with a single virtual user can be exported
  • New product icons, splash screen and logo
 
Forecast™ Communications (Test Controller / Studio / Injectors / Engines) 4.4.0 new features:
  • The communications between Test Controller/Injectors/Engines have been redesigned to provide a more robust and reliable service.
  • Error message texts have been improved
  • All files sent between Test Controller/Injectors/Engines are now zipped for transfer thereby decreasing transfer times
  • A new status bar added showing the progress for the retrieval of the log files from the remote injectors
  • The default injector and engine port numbers have changed to ensure that we do not use ports in the dynamically allocated range (of ephemeral ports), this will resolve port conflicts with other running applications and provide smoother test executions.  This change complies with (and for further information, see)  this article
  • New registry settings added to optimize the usage of TCP ports for all versions of windows.  For a controller machine, run 'Optimize System Settings ...' from the Tools menu in Test Controller.  Reboot the injector machine as appropriate to ensure the registry settings are applied.  
  • For injector machines, click on 'forecastOptimalSettings_x86.reg' or 'forecastOptimalSettings_x64.reg' from within the installation folder.  Reboot the injector machine as appropriate to ensure the registry settings are applied.
  • When running a large number of engines on an injector, if there are any problems starting all of the engines, increase the Injector 'Connect-back timeout for engines' value to ensure that all engines start correctly
     
    Forecast™ Test Controller 4.4.0 new features:
    • We have added new 'Aborted' and 'Unknown' states to Test Controller which more clearly define the known statuses of the running virtual users
    • The 'Last Alert' is now displayed at the top of the main window and is updated in real time

     

    Forecast™ Analyzer 4.4.0 new features:
    • Analyzer will now warn (during database creation) if not all of the expected virtual user log files are available for a test run

     

    Miscellaneous improvements:
    • Many other issues resolved and many small additional features added 

     




    Facilita Forecast™ Studio v4.3.0 - New Features

    Latest Build - 699
    Studio
    • The Studio graphical user interface has undergone a technology refresh and looks cleaner and crisper than before.
    • When loading a workspace that was created with a previous verson of Studio, an upgrader will automatically run and provides an automated backup function.
    • The log file name has changed to include the date and time and the content has been revamped to include time stamps and severity level.
    • The 'Handle Dynamic URLs' web-script generation option has been removed.
    • Workspaces and projects are now built together, F8 performs a build, ALT+F8 performs a full rebuild. The options to build the project and workspace separately have been removed, whereas the ability to open each separately in an IDE has been maintained.
    • Much improved dynamic build output messaging windows, which can be maximised or hidden from view until needed (press SHIFT+ESCAPE or through context menu).
      • Whenever there is a compile-time error, clicking on an entry in these windows will open the script at the failing line in the Scite text editor.
      • New (clickable) build indicators added.
      • New build progress bar added.
    Web
    • The Internet Explorer Recorder has been removed, as has the old Proxy Recorder. These have been replaced by the new Fiddler Core Proxy Recorder, which provides an option to delete the Internet Explorer cache and files before recording starts.
    • New HTTP 'PUT' and 'DELETE' support.
    • Added support for the WinHTTP socket handler. This handles NTLM authenication better than WinInet. WinHTTP should be used in preference to WinInet for HTTP and HTTPS.
    • The setOptions() method call in web scripts has been replaced with a new pre() method.
    Other protocols
    • Custom Virtual Users now have pre() methods (all protocols).
    • New TCP recorder and generator. New scriptable UDP support (generator to be released soon).
    Test Controller
    • Now reloads changes to the workspace or tests automatically.
    Miscellaneous
    • Many further minor improvements and enhancements (>200).



    Facilita Forecast™ Analyzer v4.3.0 - New Features

    Latest Build - 671
    When creating a view for an analysed database, either clock time or elapsed time can be chosen, and this will be displayed for each of the created charts
    Additional data files (metrics for the System Under Test or Injector machines which were gathered by Test Controller) are automatically added when creating an analysis database
    Charts are now categorized and displayed in an expandable tree view. Categories include
    • 'User Defined': created from metrics gathered in scripts
    • 'External Metrics': any metrics gathered by Test Controller for the System Under Test and Injectors
    • 'Custom Charts': charts created by the user
    • 'HTTP charts': status codes, cache hits/misses, etc.,
    • 'Standard charts': transaction information, concurrencies, rates, spread, etc.,
    • 'TCPIP charts': how many bytes sent/received, how many connections made, etc.,
    • 'Error charts': errors from the test run; Error rate, Errors in transactions
    • 'Other charts': pre-existing charts that were created from pre-existing databases will be displayed here. If the database is re-created, the charts will appear in the above categories and this category will not be displayed.
    Charts can now be overlaid one over another; two y-axes will be displayed and the chart data tables labelled clearly
    New Report Designer allows the user to specify which charts should be included in a report, and their order to appear in the report
    Reports can now be saved to a user-specified location
    Reports can now be created as either HTML format or as a Microsoft Word document (Microsoft Word must be installed on the same machine as Analyzer)

    release history...