With ParallelRequest tests you can run multiple tests in parallel. These tests can use up to two BRIDGE services.

Defining Threads

The actual parallel threads cannot be defined via the Analyzer but you have to define them in a thread definition file manually. The thread definition file is based on XML and has the following structure:

<threadsDefinition>
    <options>                                                                                                                                   
        <ignoreElement value="SessionID" />
        <ignoreElement ... />
        <ignoreAttribute ... />
        ...
    </options>
	<threads>
		<thread>
			<test url=control" name="test1" />
			<test ... />
			...
		</thread>
		<thread>
			<test ... />
			<threads>
				...
			</threads>
			...
		</thread>
	</threads>
</threadsDefinition>

Options

At the beginning of the treads definition, you can define ignore options. These are definitions for the comparison of test results which elements or attributes should be ignored (see also Adding Options to a Test Suite).

Within the options element, you can make the following definitions:

Tests

Tests can have the following XML attributes:

Attribute	Description	Mandatory	Allowed Values / Example
url	Reference to the service you want to call with this test. The service details (URL, port, ...) are defined in the ParallelRequest test.		control	Test calls service 1.
			soap	Test calls service 2.
name	Specify a test name. This name will also be used to name the test error logs and response logs. If performing a POST request, you need to supply the POST body in an XML file <name>.xml. This file must be stored in folder Request Files as defined in the ParallelRequest test.
method	HTTP method. Method POST needs an input file in the source folder. The page BRIDGE:@self was not found  -- Please check/update the page name used in the MultiExcerpt-Include macro		POST	POST request (default).
			GET	GET request.
path	Supply an appendix to the service path if necessary.		/sessions
variable	Specify the name of the variable to "store to" or "retrieve from" the variable store. Refer to Working With a Variable Store below for more details.		sessionID
xpath	Specify an XPath expression to extract a value from the request response to store it to the variable store. Refer to Working With a Variable Store for more details.

Working With a Variable Store

You can use a variable store with ParallelRequest tests to pass data from one test to others.

1. One test from the thread definitions stores a value from the test response to the variable store using
   • xpath to extract the value from the response
   • variable to specify the name of the variable and the name of the variable store the value is stored to
2. A later test replaces placeholders in the request file with values from the variable store using
   • variable to load the variable value from file

   This way, the variable value is used in the request of the second test.

Storing Variables to a Variable Store

Specify xpath and variable in a ParallelRequest test. The value extracted by the XPath expression will be stored in the XML file specified by variable under name of variable.
You need at least one ParallelRequest test with this settings to store a value.

Retrieving Variables From a Variable Store

Specify an existent variable store (<variable>.xml) in one or more subsequent ParallelRequest test to retrieve values that have been previously stored. All occurrences of variables in form of ${variable} in a given request file will be replaced by the value from the variable store.