Test mobile native applications with OctoPerf
As mobility has been the trend these past years, all the users coming to a website do so from many different devices. OctoPerf allows you to simulate traffic to your website, but it also allows to simulate this kind of multi-device traffic.
That being said, to take advantage of OctoPerf possibilities, you might need to import several different user journeys. Because a mobile user is very likely to deal with a different version of the application. Thus if you record only one user journey from a computer's browser and use it for your tests, they may not be realistic.
Browser based mobile apps¶
To record the traffic from a mobile application, you have several options. For browser based apps, you can record them from Chrome or firefox and just use the dev tools to switch the user agent:
Native apps are a bit more complex to get by.
Let's see what is required step by step to record such an application.
Native mobile apps¶
First, what you need:
- A computer with fiddler installed.
- A phone or device to record
- A WiFi network for both to connect to.
Fiddler¶
To get started with fiddler, you can look at our documentation.
Once fiddler is installed, you must allow remote connects in Tools -> Fiddler options:
Then, if your application is using HTTPS you must make sure that Fiddler is a trusted third party tool. To do that,you have to send the fiddler certificate to the mobile device. If you are not sure, your application is likely to use HTTPS whenever a login is implied. In case you did not install the certificate and start recording an HTTPS application, you will notice that the application can't be accessed.
To take care of this:¶
Export the certificate from fiddler:¶
Send it by mail and open/import it on the mobile:¶
Now that fiddler's taken care of, let's switch to the mobile itself.
Mobile device¶
As said before, the idea is to connect the mobile to the same WiFi network than the computer. Once you achieved that, set computer IP as proxy on mobile. If you do not know how to find your computer's IP, run 'ipconfig' in a command line and look at the following information:
To set a proxy on an android phone follow the below procedure:¶
Go to settings:¶
Select WiFi:¶
Long tap on your WiFi network and modify network config:¶
Check 'Show advanced options':¶
Set the proxy to manual and enter the IP and port (8888 by default for Fiddler):¶
Recording¶
Just start the recording in fiddler and launch your application on the phone.
The traffic will be recorded in Fiddler:
Import it in OctoPerf¶
You can export this traffic as an HTTP archive v1.2 and import it in OctoPerf. You will have the same possibilities as usual:
Video¶
If anything is still unclear, you can look at this video tutorial to see a recording step by step:
