In addition to facilitating testing of today's modern Web applications on the protocol level (HTTP), Silk Performer now enables you to use real Web browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome) to generate load. In this way, you can leverage the AJAX logic built into Web applications to precisely simulate complex AJAX behavior during testing. This powerful testing approach provides results that reflect real-world end user browsing experience, including rendering time and protocol-level statistics.
Unlike other load-testing solutions that only support specific AJAX frameworks (and of those, only specific versions or a subset of controls), Silk Performer supports the full range of Web applications that are developed for (and tested with) Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome.
With the browser-driven load testing support, Silk Performer strives to offer the same functionality and behavior across all supported browsers. This makes it possible to record your scripts in the Internet Explorer-based Browser Application and replay them with Firefox and Chrome.
In some rare cases however, this abstraction might not work as expected due to inherent differences among the browsers. For example: The Browser Application might generate a locator that cannot be resolved by Chrome or Firefox. For more information, see Limitations for Replay with Different Browsers.
Most browsers follow a frequent and silent update policy. For a load testing environment, this is not ideal, because it influences the consistency of the results. Furthermore, Silk Performer might not have been tested with the latest browser versions, especially if these have been published after the latest Silk Performer release. As a general rule: To avoid problems, stick to the tested browser versions listed in the section Tested Software in the release notes and install the latest hotfixes.