Profiling Scripts with AQtime: Part 1 - Web Scripts. By Artem Sataev @ 4:41 AM

Profiling Scripts with AQtime: Part 1 - Web Scripts.

The recent version of AQtime (version 6.0) introduces the ability to profile scripts executed by the Microsoft Scripting Engine. This scripting engine appeared in Microsoft Windows 98 and since then, is supplied with all of their operating systems. That is why it became a de-facto standard for a vast number of client applications. For example, this engine is employed by Microsoft Internet Explorer, Windows Script Host (this utility allows you to run scripts directly from Windows) and by AutomatedQA’s TestComplete.

You can now use AQtime to improve and examine web scripts, Windows Script Host tasks, TestComplete project scripts and other scripts. At this time the script profiling is available for the Performance, Coverage and Function Trace profilers.

This article demonstrates the first of the mentioned possible tasks - profiling scripts from web pages.

What is a Web Script?

Web scripts are a set of JScript or VBScript instructions that are executed by the web-browser on the client side. Web scripts are intended to customize the appearance of the web pages and to introduce user interaction which is unreachable via static HTML pages.

Web scripts are often embedded within an HTML document (in the <script> tags), but also they may reside in a separate file (.js or .vb extensions). Both the ASCII and Unicode encodings are possible.

Enabling Script Debug Mode in a Browser

AQtime tracks the debug information that is passed to the Microsoft Scripting Engine. Therefore, in order to obtain profiling results in AQtime, Internet Explorer should generate debug information. To enable debug mode in your browser do the following:

1. Open the Control panel.
2. Select Internet Options.
3. Switch to the Advanced page of the ensuing Internet Options dialog.
4. Clear the Disable Script Debugging (Internet Explorer) and Disable Script Debugging (Other) check boxes in the Browsing category.

 

Profiling techniques

AQtime offers three ways to profile a web script. They differ in how the profiled module is defined, it can be: a web-browser, a page’s URL or a script source file.

Profiling a script via web-browser application

The first technique is the elementary. You simply add Internet Explorer’s executable (iexplore.exe) to the Modules pane and enable the “Profile Entire Script” option. No other options or parameters are required, just choose the Performance, Coverage or Function Trace profiler and start profiling.

Upon start, the browser is launched and you manually navigate to whatever page you want. Once the profiling is finished, AQtime will report both the application’s results and the results for all executed scripting routines.

Profiling a script via URL

The Modules pane AQtime version 6 has a special button and context menu item named Add URL. It allows you to profile scripts directly from the web pages. A page can be on the Internet, on a local network or on a local computer.

Upon pressing the Add URL button (or selecting the menu item of the same name) a dialog appears asking you for the page location. When the page address is provided, AQtime performs a number of actions automatically: connects to the given URL, retrieves the list of available routines, displays them in the Modules pane, and assigns Internet Explorer as the host application.  After that you can create custom profiling areas to profile some of the available routines, or enable the “Profile Entire Script” option to profile all of the routines from the web page. Then you can select a profiler and start profiling.

Upon start, the browser is launched and the desired page is loaded automatically.  Once the profiling is finished, AQtime will report the results for the scripting routines.

Profiling a script via source file

This technique is pretty much the same as adding executables, libraries and assemblies of ordinary applications. Since this way is more universal, it requires additional parameters to profile a script, but it also offers alol of the profiling features.

The sequence of actions is as follows: You locate the .js or . vb file that holds the desired script and add it as the module via the Add Module button/menu item. AQtime then retrieves the list of available routines and displays them in the Modules pane. Thus you can create new profiling areas and add the interested routines to these areas, or enable the “Profile Entire Script” option to profile all of the routines from the added source file. After that you need to open the Run parameters dialog, specify Internet Explorer as the host application and the page’s path or URL as additional parameter. That’s it! You can then select the profiler and start profiling.

Upon start, the browser is launched and the desired page is loaded automatically.  Once the profiling is finished, AQtime will report the results for the scripting routines.

I hope you enjoyed this article and stay tuned for Part 2.