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Network Monitor

Related topics

TestMaker Briefing
TestMaker Tutorial
Recording AgentsExample Agents
Recording Agents
XSTest Load Test
TestMaker Script Guide
TOOL Guide
Testing Email Services

Frequently Asked Questions
License Details
TestMaker Platform (TestNetwork)
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Published: April 17, 2006
Applies to: TestMaker 4.4

Network Monitor Guide

Software developers, QA technicians, and IT managers often need to see the HTTP, SOAP, and XML-RPC messages being used to invoke Web applications and web services along with the results of those messages. The network monitor provides a way to monitor the messages being used.

To start the network monitor use the Tools -> Network Monitor command in TestMaker. The network monitor window will appear and the administrative tab will appear by default.

To begin monitoring messages select a local port which the network monitor will check for incoming connections. For example, to monitor at port 8091 click on the Listen Port # text edit field and enter 8091.Click the Add button. The monitor for port 8091 will appear in a tab labeled Port 8091.

Each time a connection is made to port 8091, the request appears in the "Request" panel, and the response from the server in the "Response" panel. The network monitor keeps a log of all request/response pairs, and allows you to view any particular pair by selecting an entry in the top panel. You may also remove selected entries, or all of them, or choose to save to a file for later viewing.

Use the network monitor to watch the communication between a TestMaker test agent and a service host. To do so you need to use TestMaker's proxy support. For example, below is a TestMaker script that makes an HTTP Get request to the http://examples.pushtotest.com/responder/htmlresponder application through the network monitor at port 8091.

from com.pushtotest.tool.protocolhandler import ProtocolHandler
protocol = ProtocolHandler.getProtocol("http")
protocol.setUrl(    "http://examples.pushtotest.com/responder/htmlresponder" ) 
protocol.setProxyHost( "localhost" )
protocol.setProxyPort( 8091 )
response = protocol.connect() 
print "Response = ", response

The network monitor offers a few handy features. The "resend" button will resend the currently viewed request, and record a new response. The network monitor also lets you edit the XML in the request window before resending. (You may need to change the content-length HTTP header value before resending an edited request.)

TestMaker saves the network monitor settings and any open monitors when TestMaker exits. The next time TestMaker starts it automatically starts the previously open monitors.

The monitor is based on the TCPMonitor utility from the Apache Axis project.

Where to go from here:

TestMaker Script Language Reference

Reference to the TOOL test object library

A guide to the example agents that come with TestMaker

A list of frequently asked questions

Building test agents to check email services for scalability and functionality

Additional documentation, product downloads and updates are at www.PushToTest.com. While the TestMaker software is distributed under an open-source license, the documentation remains (c) 2006 PushToTest. All rights reserved.