Version History

• Update release for version 5.1. New installation package for Windows and some minor bug fixes.

• Throttle control. Now you can vary the simulated loading JBlitz applies to the web server either manually or automatically by following a throttle profile. See how your website / web application's performance varies as the load changes.
• New automated test runner and scheduler allows you to run multiple tests in succession saving test results as you go. Tests can be timed to run immediately or at some scheduled time in the future. Periodic auto-retest allows you to schedule regular nightly, weekly or fortnightly tests.
• Host, port and request headers can now be specified individually for each web page if the global defaults need to be overridden.
• Extra support for PUT, DELETE and HEAD request methods.
• URL assistants. A Java API for simple plug in classes that allow you to specify the exact URL used to download each web.
• Addition of user-defined dynamic substitutions. Now you can define your own test data programmatically with your own Java code.
• Enhancements to the message detail view allowing easier access to the most recent downloads for each page.
• Enhanced web page navigation with auto-follow-link mode.
• Support for Java 1.6

• Addition of an inbuilt debugger. Step through each web page download. Review and modify request messages to be issued and response messages received. Set breakpoints or let JBlitz break to the debugger when an error is detected. A great visual way to get 'under the hood' of the HTTP request / response cycle.
• HTTPS support with SSL 3.0 encryption.
• Proxy support.
• Redirection support.
• Response checkers and response informers. A (very) simple Java API that allows you to plug in classes to verify web page responses or to connect JBlitz to third party software.
• Global custom response checker. Similarly to above, a pluggable Java class that can be used to check web page responses at a global level.
• Wait time error detection. Errors can be raised when connections or responses exceed acceptable limits.
• Page level error text detection. GUI configurable plain text searching and regular expression pattern matching of each downloaded web page that can be used to identify when an erroneous response has been received.
• Enhanced dynamic substitutions. Addition of substitutions for generating integers and floating point numbers within arbitrary ranges, for selecting test data items from file and for re-generating previously generated substitutions.
• Enhanced logging. Support for logging all parts of the request and response messages and the client-server conversation to file with a variety of configuration options. Support for fast in-memory logging when speed is important.
• Web page import wizard - save time configuring test URLs by importing them from a web server log file.
• Enhanced, easier to use UI. A slicker user interface with sliding panels for viewing the test results and working with the debugger. Faster loading and app startup time.

This is a minor revision to version 4.2 including enhanced response page viewing and a couple of bug fixes.

• Enhanced 'view downloaded page' and 'view downloaded headers' options with inclusion of a view mode and free text search. You can now view downloaded pages as either plain text, HTML documents or with a pseudo-browse function. Each option includes a free text search (press F3 to search). The pseudo-browse function provides rough in-place browsing of the target page (a full download is performed) - the browser capabilities are restricted to HTML 3.2.
• Inclusion of a case sensitive search in the 'Logging' window.
• Bug fix for state maintenance via anchor tags. State maintained through hyperlinks in response pages is now properly transferred when path parameters are used. Path parameters are sometimes used to maintain server side sessions as an alternative to using cookies.
• Bug fix for state maintenance via anchor tags and hidden form data. HTML encoded URLs in hyperlinks and forms are now properly decoded. For instance, '&' within a URL is decoded to '&'.

• Addition of the customization API allowing you to tailor JBlitz to meet the needs of your test environment exactly. Write a simple customization module to modify how the query engine works or to integrate with third party software. This simple, open API allows you to override the query engine functionality within JBlitz at the method level. You can also listen to events generated by the engine as your tests run. Help is available here.
• At a glance error reporting (Pro). Now you can see errors indicated immediately on the main 'Setup' tab. Errors are indicated with a small red 'x' next to the page that encountered them. Hover over mouse gives you feedback on what has gone wrong, and a right mouse click gives you immediate access to the erroneous pages and to related options.
• GET and POST request headers can optionally include dynamic substitutions. This lets you vary your request headers in the same way that you can vary the actual URLs.
• User interface enhancements: You can customize the background color for the main 'Setup' tab and there's an extra option for hiding the arrow icons. An animated 'cogs' icon toward the top left lets you hide and show the website selection panel giving you extra space if needed. The Web Page Content / Headers windows have been smartened up showing you the full URL in question and the request number, response code and response length. A browse button has been added to browse the URL. The Virtual User Activity windows have also received minor enhancements.

• Virtual User Activity window shows web pages being downloaded in real time giving you finger tip feedback on the current status. This useful window shows which web page each virtual user is requesting and how far the download has progressed along with any errors that have occurred on prior requests made by that user.
• Increases to the number of allowable test cases (Pro) or web pages (Direct) from 100 to 500. Each test case / web page can carry up to 500 virtual users making a total of 250,000 in all.
• Bug fixes for some graph scaling scenarios for extreme high or low values and a variety of other minor areas such as in the responsiveness graph.
• Upgrades and enhancements in the user interface - more readable test case icons; consistent table headers; consistent button text styles; extra menu options for the graph windows.

• Support for Java v1.4.2. JBlitz now utilizes the latest official release from Sun Microsystems which provides its own advantages in terms of speed and enhanced richness of the user interface. This brings JBlitz up to date with the latest technology set for the Java platform.
• The Request Log provides at a glance summary of the last 500 requests issued including the options to review the response body and response headers for each request. This feature provides immediate feedback on your test run showing requests being issued and responses being received back. Request and response times, response codes, response lengths and success or failure outcomes are shown.
• Enhanced graphing functionality brings a slicker and easier to use interface allowing direct comparisons between response information for different test scenarios. More detailed graphs are presented showing the hit count, error count, transaction count (Pro only), download rate, connection time, response time and responsiveness. Colors are configurable for each graph line. A new 'mountain graph' line display style becomes the default.
• A new Statistics Manager screen provides consolidated display of download statistics for each run. The display is filterable to show statistical data for any given test scenario or for all combined. Included is information on the hits count, error count, hit rate, transaction count and transaction rate (Pro only), download rate, response time, connection time and other response related information.
• Test results are now presented on their own panel indicating clearly the success or failure of the current run. Summary information is also included indicating at a glance the download status, error count and average response time.
• Test results can now be saved and reloaded for easier comparisons between different runs. Results are saved in XML format exposing them to further analysis by third party tools.
• Further user interface enhancements. A new stacking mode for URL query strings. Inclusion of quick keys for all the major user interface functions. More preference settings for configuring the startup / shutdown behaviour, test results options and general appearance.
• Some minor user interface bug fixes including focus traversal, tooltip display and the most recent file list.

• More powerful and flexible substitutions give you better simulation of real world loading. Two new substitution elements for 3.1 allow you to specify request parameters from a set of choices (choice substitution), and to embed the contents of a file (document substitution). Choice substitutions give you the ability to switch the request parameters (or even the web page itself) used for successive requests. Document substitutions allow you to embed XML content into a request. What's more, all substitutions in JBlitz are applied recursively, so you could combine the two substitutions to embed the contents of an XML document chosen randomly from a set of allowed XML documents. You could go further and embed substitution elements inside the XML documents allowing you to vary each request in a realistic fashion.
• New query string editor gives you 'at a glance' breakdown of the query string names and values. These can be manipulated arbitrarily, for instance, re-ordered, URL encoded or have substitution elements inserted etc etc.
• Dynamic highlighting of URLs shows you more clearly the query string name values and any substitution elements that may be embedded.
• Non gui 'console' run mode. Once a valid test configuration has been created, JBlitz can be run without a user interface in a command prompt or Unix shell. Feedback is provided on the prompt and logging to file or stdout, stderr still occurs as normal. This mode is advantageous for systems that may not have a user interface, or simply to allow JBlitz to run that bit faster (no screen update overhead), with less clutter and using less memory.
• More usability enhancements. Cut, copy and paste have been implemented for JBlitz Pro to ease the entry of test configurations and URLs.
• Extra error detection option. Returned web page headers can be scanned for an arbitrary error string to signal that a problem has occurred on the server.
• Bug fix: the web page request delay setting is now properly read from the settings file.

• Introduction of test configuration files. These user-editable XML files encapsulate all the details for a particular test scenario. Allows JBlitz to switch seamlessly between different test environments and makes the test settings transparent *.
• Separate logging window. The message log has been moved to a separate window to allow you to view and resize the log independently from the main test view.
• Scheduling capabilities. Use the 'Auto run on startup' menu option together with a scheduling tool such as 'cron' to allow JBlitz to be run unattended.
• Run control panel. Control when a run should finish. Specify indefinite duration, or limit the run based on the error count, the hit count or the elapsed time.
• Authentication panel. Specify basic authentication details explicitly. JBlitz will still prompt you for a logon if no details are specified and the web server issues a challenge.

• Error Inspector gives you instant collation and appraisal of all website errors detected.
• You can now browse downloaded pages with your favorite browser to compare against expectations.
• Trial run a test case using the 'Dry run' feature (Pro only). JBlitz runs once only through the test case so you can tune the settings before running for real.
• Addition of a toolbar for easy navigation. Includes Graph, Header configuration etc.
• Addition of menu item icons to enhanced readability and navigation.

• GET and POST request headers now fully customizable.
• Detailed state management options for hidden input tags and anchor tags (Pro only).
• Command line argument for inspecting HTTP requests issued. '-debug http' activates tracing of HTTP requests made for each page to standard error. Useful for debugging web page responses received.
• Enhanced easy to use UI for JBlitz Pro including options for viewing test cases, neater and clearer appearance as a list of tests and indication of which page is being queried by each thread: the Thread activity dialog shows lights indicating the progress of each thread through its test case.

• Release of Professional and Direct editions. JBlitz Direct 2.0 builds on JBlitz 1.3 whilst JBlitz Professional 2.0 adds task oriented testing over multiple web pages with support for server side state maintenance.
• Enhanced user interface. More intuitive look and feel. Further ease of use measures - e.g. double click on a test case to edit its settings.
• Fine level thread control including stop / restart on individual threads (via Thread Activity panel). This can be used to track down issues which are sensitive to the thread loading.
• Extra graph type - line graphs.
• State management (Pro only). Support for cookies which underpin ASP and JSP server side state maintenance. Support for transmitting state data using hidden form tags.
• Adoption of JRE 1.3.1 as standard JRE platform. This brings JBlitz up to date with the latest currently available released JRE from Sun Microsystems.
• Multiple configurations specifiable from the command line. JBlitz now takes a command line parameter specifying the configuration file to be used. Launching JBlitz with different configuration files allows you to run JBlitz under different test scenarios.
• Numerous buglet fixes and minor enhancements

Additional release for version 1.3 incorporating bug fixes for the following:

• Bad reply POSTing data to NES/iWS web servers. Included content-type header field specification on POST requests.
• Chunked reply to HTTP/1.1 request. Defaulted to HTTP/1.0 to avoid Transfer Encoding: chunked.
• Bad replies from non conformant HTTP servers using LF LF to separate HTTP headers from entity body. Added handler.

• Performance graphing. Shows hits and errors received plus data downloaded with time. Gives you important visual feedback on how changes to your website may be affecting response times and website performance in general. Multiple graphs can be displayed simultaneously to allow you to compare previous and future runs under different conditions to see if, say, that synchronization bottleneck on the server was fixed by that patch you just applied.
• Real time thread activity. See each thread as it runs through its connect, download, disconnect lifecycle. See visually what state each thread is in - how many errors were received etc.
• Real time in-depth statistics. More important stats have been added to help you analyze your website's performance. Includes download times, connection times, download content lengths and variances, minimum and maximum responses (with query strings, helps verify behaviour as query string vary).
• Windows installer for easy point and click install process. You get a short-cut icon to launch JBlitz straight away and no hassle remembering the commands for running Java^TM programs.
• Further buglet fixing and minor enhancements.