I would like to ensure that our webservice works but I don't know how to do it because webservices data are controlled by a backoffice and data changes everyday multiple times.
The data loaded by the webservice doesn't come from a database but from json files dynamically loaded and distributed. I've considered replacing those files for testing the behavior, but bad data are a common frequent cause of disfunction, so I would rather tests those simultaneously or at least have some way to ensure that data are valid for the currently deployed sources.
I would also welcome suggestions of books too.
This is a big problem and it is difficult to find a single solution. Instead you should split task into smaller sub tasks:
Does web service work at all? Connect to it and make normal operations. If you are using real data, you cannot verify that it is correct. Just check you get a valid looking reply. You should also have a known set of data in a different server, maybe call it staging. Here you can verify that a new version web service gives out correct output.
How to check that files you get from backoffice are valid? It is not efficient to make you test them just before deployment. You mentioned several reasons why this is not possible so you have to live with it. Because your files are json, it should be possible to write a test suite that checks their validity.
How to check that real json files give out correct output in web service. This is your original question. You have a set of json files. How easy it is to calculate what web service responds based on these files? In some cases you would need to write your own web service engine. This is why testers usually do first two steps first.
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I have a few questions about server-cost estimations.
How do you decide what type of instance is required for X number of concurrent users? Is it totally based on experience or is there a certain rule that you follow for the same?
I was using JMeter for load testing, and I was wondering, how do you test POST APIs with separate data for each user? Or is there any other platform that you use?
In the case of POST API calls, do we need to create a separate DB for load testing (which I think, we should)? If yes, should we create a test DB in the same DB instance (i.e., in the same AWS RDS)? And does it needs to have some data present in it? As that might change its performance, right?
How to load test a workflow? Suppose we need to load test a case where we want 5,000 users to hit Auth API. It will consist of two APIs, one to request an OTP and the other to use that OTP to get the token.
Please help me out, on this. As I am quite new to scaling and was just wondering if someone with experience in this can help.
Thanks.
It doesn't look like a single "question" to me going forwards you might want to split it into 4 different ones.
Just measure it, I don't think it's possible to predict the resources usage, start load test with 1 virtual user and gradually increase the load to the anticipated number of users at the same time looking at resources consumption in AWS CloudWatch or other monitoring solution like JMeter PerfMon Plugin. In case if you detect that CPU or RAM is the bottleneck switch to higher instance and repeat the test.
There are multiple ways of doing parameterization in JMeter tests, the most commonly used approach is CSV Data Set Config so each user would read the next line from the CSV file containing the test data on each iteration
DB should live on a separate host as if you place it under the same machine as the application server they will be mutually interfering each other and you might face race conditions. With regards to the database size - if possible make a clone of production data
You should simulate real usage of the application with 100% accuracy, if user needs to authorize before making an API call your load test script should do the same.
The project I'm working on logs data on distributed devices that needs to be joined in a single database on a remote server.
The logs cannot be streamed as they are recorded (network may not be available etc) so they must be sent in bulky 0.5-1GB text based csv files occasionally.
As far as I understand this means having a web service receive the data in form of post requests is out of the question because of file sizes.
So far I've come up with this approach: Use some file transfer protocol (ftp or similar) to upload files from device to server. Devices would have to figure out a unique filename to do this with. Have the server periodically check for new files, process them by committing them to the database and deleting them afterwards.
It seems like a very naive way to go about it, but simple to implement.
However, I want to avoid any pitfalls before I implement any specifics. Is this approach scaleable (more devices, larger files)? Implementation will either be done using a private/company owned server or a cloud service (Azure for instance) - will it work for different platforms?
You could actually do this through web/http as well, after setting a higher value for post request in the web server (post_max_size andupload_max_filesize for PHP). This will allow devices to interact regardless of platform. Should't be too hard to make a POST request server from any device. A simple cURL request could get this job done.
FTP is also possible. Or SCP, to make it safer.
Either way, I think this does need some application on the server to be able to fetch and manage these files using a database. Perhaps a small web application? ;)
As for the unique name, you could use a combination of the device's unique ID/name along with current unix time. You could even hash this (md5/sh1) afterwards if you like.
I am sorry in advance; I am just learning Web development and my knowledge of it is quite limited.
I will describe my problem first.
I have relatively large amount of data (1.8-2 GB), which should be hidden from a public web access. However, a user should be able to request via url call a specific small subset of data and see it on his / her webpage.
Ideally, I would like to write a program on a web server. Let's call it ./oracle, which stores the large amount of data in primary memory.
Each web user should be able to make a specific string calls to oracle and see oracle'sresponse on a web page as html elements.
There should only one instance of oracle, and web users should make asynchronous calls to it.
Can I accomplish the above task with FastCGI or any other protocols?
If yes could you please explain which tools / protocols should I use / learn?
I would recommend setting up an Apache server because it's very common and you'll be able to find a lot of answers to any specific questions here on StackOverflow already.
You could also look into things like http://Swagger.io which can help you generate your API.
Unfortunately, everything past this really depends on what you use to set up your server. Big picture though:
You'll need to open up a port to listen to incoming requests
You'll need to have requests include the parameters they want to send to oracle
You could accomplish this the URI, like localhost/oracle-request?PARAMETER="foo"
You could alternatively use JSON in the body of the http request
Again, this largely depends on how you set up step 1
You'll need to route those requests to the oracle
This implementation depends entirely on step 1
You'll need to capture the output from the oracle and return it to the user
Once you decide on how you want to set up your server, feel free to edit your question and we may be able to provide more specific help.
I'm considering using Saxon CE for a web application to edit ebooks (metadata and content). It seems like a good match given that important ebook components (such as content.opf) are natively XML. I understand how to grab XML data from the server, transform it, insert the results into the HTML DOM, and handle events to change what and how is displayed.
Where I am getting stuck is how best to sync changes back up to the server. Is it best practice to use an XML database on the server? Is it reasonable to maintain XML on the server as text files, and overwrite them with a post, and could/should this be done through a result-document with a remote URI?
I realize this question may seem a bit open-ended, but I've failed to find any examples of client-side XSLT applications which actually allow the modification of data on the server.
Actually, I don't think this question is specific to using Saxon-CE on the client. The issues would be exactly the same if you were using XForms, or indeed if the client-side code were written in Javascript. And I think the answer depends on volumetrics, availability and concurrency requirements, and so on.
If you're doing a serious level of concurrent update of a shared collection of XML data, then using an XML database is probably a good idea. On the other hand there might be scenarios where this isn't needed, for example where the XML data is part of the user-specific application context, or where the XML document received from the client simply needs to be saved somewhere "as is", or perhaps where it just needs to be appended to a some kind of XML log file.
I think that in nearly all cases, you'll need a server-side component to the application that responds to HTTP put/post requests and decides what to do with them.
I need to be able to access a mySQL database from my iPhone, for both read and write ops. Instead of using MCPKit (due to security and speed considerations), I'd like to access the db through a separate service. The app is iPhone SDK, so I need to get data back in XML form, not as a web page.
I am trying to decide whether to write a Java web service (SOAP) to provide this link, or to just throw together a PHP script on the server side. I can create either solution, but I don't know enough to figure out the advantages/disadvantages of the choice. Please help; thank you!
If you're writing both the client and the server, and performance isn't a significant issue, then the primary remaining consideration is development time.
So, what tools do you have at your disposal? Which platform will allow you to do this with the least amount of work? If it's a toss-up between the two, then pick the one you're most familiar with.