BPC 10 for NetWeaver LoadRunner

Toolkit

Applies to:
SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation 10, version for SAP NetWeaver SP1 and higher, EPM
Add-In, SP3 and higher. For more information, visit the Enterprise Performance Management homepage.

Summary
This how to guide provides a utility that streamlines the process of creating LoadRunner scripts for SAP
BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation 10, version for NetWeaver as well as a detailed explanation of
the utilities features.
Author:

Daniel Settanni

Company: SAP Labs

Created on: 29 February 2012

Author Bio
Daniel Settanni has worked SAP Labs in the EPM CSA for the last 5 years. He specializes in SAP
BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation, version for NetWeaver.

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Table of Contents
Business Scenario .............................................................................................................................................. 3
Background Information...................................................................................................................................... 3
Prerequisites ....................................................................................................................................................... 4
How-To Use the BPC Toolkit for LoadRunner.................................................................................................... 4
Recording Requests with Fiddler .................................................................................................................... 4
Installing the BPC Toolkit for LoadRunner ...................................................................................................... 7
Using the BPC Toolkit for LoadRunner ........................................................................................................... 8
Step by Step Instructions ............................................................................................................................................. 9

Creating the LoadRunner Script in HP VuGen ............................................................................................. 12

Additional Steps ............................................................................................................................................ 15
Related Content ................................................................................................................................................ 16
Copyright........................................................................................................................................................... 17

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Business Scenario
In the course of promoting a new solution into production many clients verify their landscapes using HP Load
Runner for stress, volume, and/or performance testing.
This How-To guide documents a toolkit created within the CSA Business Analytics team that enables rapid
script creation and assists with platform specific challenges related to LoadRunner.

Background Information
This How-To guide consists of the guide you are reading now, as well as a utility named the SAP
BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation 10, version for NetWeaver (hereafter referred to as BPC 10 or
BPC) LoadRunner Toolkit. The utility allows you to translate interactions with the web and office clients
recorded with Fiddler, a third party (freely available) tool, into LoadRunner scripts.
During the translation process the utility performs the following operations:

Parses the following from the Fiddler (http://fiddler2.com/fiddler2/) SAZ file for each Representational
State Transfer (REST) request and response:
o

REST Request URL

REST Request body

HTTP Request Type (POST/GET/etc.)

Set-Cookie Requests

HTTP Response Code

Formats the REST request so that it is compatible with a C style string. For example, backslash
characters \ are automatically escaped and newline characters are added where necessary.

Creates a LoadRunner script for the requested protocol, either Web Services or Web (HTTP/HTML).

Creates LoadRunner transactions for each request allowing you to identify specific requests causing
bottlenecks.
o

It can optionally create transactions based on specially formatted comments in the Fiddler
SAZ file. If these are found, individual requests are created as sub-transactions.

Ignores any unsuccessful (non HTTP-200/300 status) SOAP/HTTP requests when creating the
LoadRunner script.

Ignores any requests that are not valid for the Web Service protocol. It places a comment in the
LoadRunner script identifying that a request was skipped.

Ignores any requests that are not valid for the Web (HTTP/HTML) / SAP - Web protocols. It places a
comment in the LoadRunner script identifying that a request was skipped.

Splits the SOAP request body string into shorter string if it exceeds 10,000 characters. The lines are
split at known delimiters (; and |) to ensure dimension member names are not truncated.

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Prerequisites

HP LoadRunner licensed for one of the following protocols:

o

Web (HTTP/HTML)

SAP + Web

Web Services

Fiddler
o

To capture the requests/responses.

Available at http://www.fiddler2.com/fiddler2/

SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation, version for SAP NetWeaver version 10

Microsoft .NET 4.0 Runtime

o

This is required for the client component

A working knowledge of HP LoadRunner

Note: This utility was created using Fiddler version 2.3.9.3.

How-To Use the BPC Toolkit for LoadRunner

This section covers:

Recording requests with Fiddler

Installing the BPC Toolkit for LoadRunner

Using the BPC Toolkit for LoadRunner

Creating the LoadRunner Script in HP VuGen

Recording Requests with Fiddler

The BPC Toolkit for LoadRunner uses a Fiddler session as the source of the LoadRunner scripts. As such,
the first step to using this utility is to start Fiddler on a client system and record interactions with BPC.
Here is an example Fiddler recording:

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Fiddler allows you to store comments on a request. By using special prefixes in comments, you can
influence how the toolkit creates transactions in the LoadRunner script.
There are currently three prefixes recognized by the toolkit:

startTrans Denotes the beginning of a parent transaction.

o Can appear on any valid HTTP request (i.e. a request with a result of 200 or 3xx).
o All requests falling within a startTrans/endTrans block will be treated as sub-transactions.
o The benefit of using startTrans/endTrans is that you can group related HTTP requests into
meaningful client operations. For example, requests 3 through 8 are grouped into the Login
transaction (from the preceding graphic).
endTrans Denotes the end of a parent transaction.
o Can appear on any valid HTTP request (i.e. a request with a result of 200 or 3xx).
o All requests falling within a startTrans/endTrans block will be treated as sub-transactions.
startEndTrans Denotes a transaction consisting of a single request.
o Can appear on any valid HTTP request (i.e. a request with a result of 200 or 3xx).
o Allows you to provide a meaningful transaction name to a client interaction resulting in a
single HTTP request.

Note: Use the keyword (startTrans/endTrans/startEndTrans) followed by a colon, followed by your transaction name.
For example, startEndTrans:SEC10K Report would result in a transaction in LoadRunner named SEC10K
Report containing the HTTP request you set the comment on.

The remainder of this session will step you through creating a Fiddler recording.
1. Launch Fiddler and make sure that it is capturing traffic (F12 or File > Capture Traffic)

2. Launch the BPC client you wish to record. Either Internet Explorer for the web client or Excel for the
EPM Add-in.
3. Start interacting with the client. Notice that Fiddler will display HTTP requests as you interact with
BPC.

Note: You can group individual requests into transactions using the startTrans/endTrans/startEndTrans keywords in
comments as described in the beginning of this section.

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4. Complete all of the client side interactions you wish to include in the script and save the Fiddler
session by navigating to File > Save > All Sessions

.
5. Save the file as type Session Archive.

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Installing the BPC Toolkit for LoadRunner

Before we can use the toolkit, you have to install it. The toolkit itself is simply an executable and can be
copied anywhere on your system although it requires the ICSharpCode.SharpZipLib library be downloaded
and placed in the same directory as the executable.
You can download the toolkit from here: Download the LoadRunner Toolkit
You can download the library from here: http://www.icsharpcode.net/opensource/sharpziplib/Download.aspx
You can also access these links by launching the BPC 10 for NetWeaver LoadRunner Toolkit and navigating
to Extras > Download SharpZipLib.

Once downloaded, unzip the installation package and copy the file ICSharpCode.SharpZipLib.dll from the
net-20 subdirectory to the directory containing the toolkits executable.

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Using the BPC Toolkit for LoadRunner

The toolkit is relatively simple to use. To launch it simply double click on the BPC LoadRunner Toolkit
executable.

Once launched you need to do the following:

Enter a output file name in the Output File Name field

o This is the name of the text file that will be created containing the LoadRunner script.
Select the LoadRunner Protocol to use
o This toolkit can create scripts compatible with the Web (HTTP/HTML) and Web Services
protocols
SAP Web is basically the same as Web (HTTP/HTML). The two are
interchangeable. The primary difference between the two is related to licensing.
Specify whether your script will use HTTP or HTTPS
o This is a convenience method which allows you to record a script with Fiddler using one
protocol and create the LoadRunner script using another.
o The most common use case for this is when recording in a development system that doesnt
have SSL enabled and executing against a QA or Prod system that does.
Select your Fiddler session archive file
o This is the recording created in the previous section.
o You can type the full path and filename in by hand or use the Browse button.
Select the output directory
o This defaults to the directory containing your Fiddler session archive file
o You can change this by typing the full path by hand or using the Browse button.

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Step by Step Instructions

1. Double click on the BPC LoadRunner Toolkit executable

2. Enter an output file name.

3. Select the LoadRunner protocol

4. Select the transport protocol

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5. Click Browse to the right of the Fiddler Session Archive textbox

6. Navigate to the SAZ file you created during the recording process. Select it and click Open.

7. The output directory will default to the path containing the SAZ file previously selected. You can
change this by clicking the Browse button and selecting a new path.

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8. Click the Convert to LoadRunner button to create the script.

9. Detailed information about the conversion process can be found in the Status text box

10. You can now view the LoadRunner script by opening the output file in any text editor.

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Creating the LoadRunner Script in HP VuGen

The last step to getting a working LoadRunner script is to copy the output from the toolkit into a new or
existing script in HPs VuGen application. This section will cover that process.
1. Launch the Virtual User Generator application.

2. Create a new script by navigating to File > New

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3. Select the same LoadRunner protocol you selected in the previous section and click Create.

4. Click Cancel in the Start Recording dialog

Note: We skip this because the script recording process was already completed in the previous two steps.

5. Open the file created by the toolkit in a text editor. Select and copy all of the text from this file.

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6. Switch back to the Virtual User Generator (VuGen) application and replace the content in the Action
section with content from the toolkits output file.

7. Scroll down to the line containing the web_set_user function call and enter your test accounts
username, password and host:port.

Note: You can find the hostname and port (if required) in the first LoadRunner request following the lr_start_transaction
function.

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8. If the script captured interactions with the web client you will also need to update the password in
one of the web requests. A comment will be placed before the request that sends the username and
password. You dont have to change this unless parameterizing the usernames and the passwords
in the script.

9. Save the script by selecting File > Save.

10. Select the desired path; enter a file name and click Save.

11. The script is now ready to run.

Additional Steps
If you have completed the steps to this point you should have working scripts, however that doesnt mean
that youre ready to run your test. You still need to parameterize the scripts (master data values, data values
sent to server, etc) and add appropriate think time before these scripts will accurately reflect your scenario.
One last tip, if you utilize the startTrans/endTrans/startEndTrans keywords in your Fiddler recordings
comments you can make the placement of think time much easier down the road.
Happy testing!

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Related Content
How-To Use the SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation (BPC) Toolkit for LoadRunner (version
7.x)
How-To Plan and Execute LoadRunner Scenarios for SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation
(version 7.x)
For more information, visit the Enterprise Performance Management homepage

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Copyright
Copyright 2012 SAP AG. All rights reserved.
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