Oracle performance

How Forms2test works

The Oracle Forms client, JInitiator (a Java applet), communicates with the Forms runtime, which runs on the Oracle Application Server, over HTTP. HTTP is a request/response protocol; a widely used and firewall friendly protocol for transferring data over a network. Each user action in a Forms application, for instance submitting a button or selecting a table row, results in network traffic over HTTP. This traffic notifies the Forms runtime on the application server of this event. This way the Forms runtime and the Forms client are always in sync.

Forms2test works on a record-and-playback principle. As you work with the Forms application under test the network traffic that the user generates are intercepted and recorded into a script (see figure 1). Including think and response times. With Forms2test you can create load on the application server by playing back the script a number of times concurrently to simulate real user sessions (see figure 2).

To intercept the network traffic Forms2test places itself between the browser and the Oracle Application Server. Forms2test acts like a local proxy. The client connects with Forms2test and Forms2test connects to the Oracle Application Server. When you start recording a user session you will notice that the Forms application link points to a local endpoint (http://localhost:3773/forms/....) instead of the application link. Even if the Forms application runs over a secure connection (https) the protocol of the local (Forms2test) endpoint remains http.