Migrating Projects to LoadComplete 4

About Project Conversion and Compatibility

Important Information on Backup

Migration Steps

Transferring LoadComplete Settings

Converting Quality of Service (QoS) Criteria

Project Item Names

Converting User Scenarios

Test Log Results

• LoadComplete 4.97 can open projects created with:

  • LoadComplete 3.x

  • LoadUIWeb 2.99 (but not earlier versions)

    All LoadComplete licenses support projects created with both LoadUIWeb (a free version) and LoadUIWeb Pro (a commercial version).

• When you open a project created in an earlier version, LoadComplete suggests converting it to a newer format. When converting a project, LoadComplete overwrites the project files with new data. So, the converted project becomes incompatible with earlier LoadComplete versions. That is why we recommend that you create a backup copy of your project before converting it (see below).

• LoadComplete suggests that you back up a legacy project automatically when you open it in LoadComplete. However, this automatic procedure does not cover project items that are located outside of the project folder. You have to back up them manually. See below.

Old projects converted to the new LoadComplete format become incompatible with the previous LoadComplete versions and with LoadUIWeb. Therefore, we recommend that you create a backup copy of your project before migrating it.

What is a backup copy?

A LoadComplete project is a set of files organized into several subfolders. To create a backup, you can simply copy your project file and folder to some other location. You can do this with Windows Explorer or with any other file manager. Also, LoadComplete suggests creating a backup copy automatically when you open a legacy project (see below).

What files are not copied?

A LoadComplete project can include references to project items that are located outside of your project folder. For instance, your project can refer to a scenario or test that belongs to another project. LoadComplete converts these “external” project items to make the new project functioning. However, it does not create a backup copy of them. You have to back up these items manually. Otherwise, you will not be able to open them in earlier project versions.

The external project items have an “arrow” mark on their icons in the Project Explorer, for example, . These are items that you include into your project by using the Add Existing Scenario or Add Existing Test command of the Project Explorer’s context menu.

Should I take files from source control?

If you store your projects in a source control system, we opt for the following alternatives:

• Create a separate branch for the converted project.

  In this case, you will have two parallel versions of the project.

• Get a local working copy without editing the files from the main repository.

  In this case, LoadComplete will convert the working project copy while the project files in the repository will have the old format.

1. (Optional) As a precaution against unexpected errors, create a backup copy of your LoadComplete project.

   Important: If your project uses scenarios, tests, or other project items that are located outside of your project folder, you need to back up these items manually.

   To find these items, open your test project in an earlier version of the product. You can find the “external” items by the “arrow” sign on their icons in the Project Explorer panel (for example, ). Close your project in the earlier version of LoadComplete and use Windows Explorer or any other file manager to copy the item files to some other folder.

2. If you store your project in a source control, check out all the project files, or, if you want to keep the files unchanged in the repository, make the local files read-write on your computer.

3. Start LoadComplete 4.97 and open your project in it. LoadComplete will show a message informing you that it is about to convert your project to the newer format and asking for your approval for this.

   If you have not created a backup copy yet, select Back up and Convert (this choice is recommended). If you do not need a backup copy, click Convert.

4. If you selected to back up your project, LoadComplete will display a dialog asking you to specify the folder to which your project’s folder will be copied. LoadComplete will automatically add backup to your folder name. After the backup is over, LoadComplete will start the project conversion.

5. LoadComplete converts the project automatically. After the conversion is over, you will see the project contents in the Project Explorer.

6. If needed, you can export your LoadComplete 3 or LoadUIWeb settings to a file and then import them to LoadComplete from this file. See below for details.

When migrating to LoadComplete 4, you may want to keep certain product settings you used in previous LoadComplete versions. These settings are stored with application data, not in project files. Therefore, these settings are overwritten during the update or re-installation.

To keep these settings when migrating to LoadComplete 4, you need to export them to an external file before upgrading to LoadComplete 4, upgrade to this version and then import these settings. See Exporting and Importing Custom User Settings.

Since version 4.96, service level agreement (SLA) criteria are used instead of Quality of Service (QoS) criteria. If you open a project created in an earlier LoadComplete version, and in which Quality of Service (QoS) criteria are specified, the following will happen:

• The QoS criteria specified for individual load tests will be transformed into the appropriate SLA criteria.

• The QoS criteria specified for the entire project will be transformed into the appropriate SLA criteria for those load tests for which no QoS criteria are specified.

• Specifying the criteria for the entire project will no longer be available.

• The test logs generated in earlier versions and containing information on QoS errors will still be available. The graphs showing QoS errors will be available as SLA violation graphs.

Starting from version 4.9, LoadComplete automatically removes spaces at the beginning and end of project item names.

If you have projects created in earlier LoadComplete versions that contain items with spaces at the end of their name, LoadComplete will remove the spaces when you first open the project in the new version. If you run LoadComplete tests in an unattended mode, update your batch files or CI scripts to use proper project item names. That is, remove the trailing spaces from their names.

Projects created in LoadComplete 3 and LoadUIWeb contain ordinary scenarios that specify the traffic to simulate complex scenarios that comprise one or several ordinary and complex scenarios. When you open the projects in LoadComplete4, it will automatically convert the scenarios to the new format:

• For each request, connection, and page in an ordinary scenario, LoadComplete will generate an appropriate operation that will simulate the needed web traffic.

• For each subscenario run by a complex scenario, LoadComplete will generate a Call Scenario operation that will run the needed subscenario.

• For each subscenario run by a complex scenario several times, LoadComplete will generate a Loop operation that will run the Call Scenario operation for the needed number of times (specified by the Count column of the complex scenario).

For more information on differences in the scenario format between version 4 and earlier versions, see Improved Scenario Format and Editor.

Test logs created in LoadComplete versions prior to 4.70 and in LoadUIWeb (any version) will be unavailable, because they do not contain the information required by later versions of LoadComplete. Such test logs will be marked as "unsupported" after they are opened in LoadComplete 4.70 or later.

Test logs created in LoadComplete version 4.70 will be available and will be opened correctly in LoadComplete 4.80.