HTTP Status Response code in Performance Testing

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HTTP Status Response code in Performance Testing

Performance testing frequently uses and greatly benefits from the phrase HTTP status response code. Any tool for performance testing essentially verifies the HTTP Status Response Code to label a request as successful or unsuccessful. When you play back the script, you frequently receive a response code of HTTP 500, 404, or 403, which prompts you to troubleshoot the script. Such problems might be brought on by faulty test data, incorrect correlation, server problems, etc.

To be a little more technical, clients and servers communicate via the HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) protocol. The browser sends a request to a server to acquire the pertinent answer when someone browses a URL, clicks a link on a webpage, or submits a web form. An HTTP Request is the name of the web request that the server issue. In response to such a request, a server delivers the client information in the form of an HTTP Response.

There are seven different categories of requests.

GET: requests information from a certain resource

POST: Sends information to be processed to a certain resource.

HEAD: Similar to GET but only delivers the HTTP headers body PUT: Uploads a graphical version of the requested URI

DESTROY: Removes the targeted resource.

Returns the HTTP methods that the server accepts, options

Transforms the request connection into a clear TCP/IP tunnel via CONNECT.

TRACE: To track down an object that contains the request message that the end server has received.

Header: It includes data such as browser, operating system, accept, and cookie information.

Body: This section of the message is optional.

How does a performance testing tool work with HTTP?

Any communication between the browser and the server is recorded when you record an HTTP script in a performance tool like LoadRunner or Apache JMeter. The information is recorded and added to the script, which is subsequently read aloud. The script behaves exactly like a real user when you execute it, interacting with the website. One thing you should mention here The performance testing tools just imitate actual user activity; they never operate as browsers.

What are the types of HTTP status codes?

What are the types of HTTP status codes?

HTTP status codes are categorized into five classes which are:

1. Informational: HTTP 1XX:

It denotes a limited response that just includes the Status-Line.

100 (Continue): The client may transmit the remainder of the request after being notified that the first portion has been received.

101 (Protocols for Switching): The Upgrade message header field indicates that the server has understood and is prepared to comply with the client’s request.

2. Successful: HTTP 2XX

It shows that the request has been successfully handled.

  • 200 (OK): The request was successfully processed.
  • 201 (formed): A new URI was formed once the request was complied with.
  • 202 (Accepted): Although the request has been accepted for processing, there is still work to be done.
  • 203 (Non-Authoritative Information): The entity header’s delivered metadata is not the complete set provided by the origin server, but rather is compiled from a local or external copy.
  • No information was available to transmit back, hence the response code was 204 (No Content). The first empty line following the header fields always marks the end of the 204 response, which is required to not include a message body.
  • 205 (Reset Content): The user agent should reset the document view that triggered the request since the server has completed it.
  • 206 (Partial Content): The server has completed the resource’s partial GET request.

3. Redirection: HTTP 3XX

It means that your request is unfinished and needs to be processed further.

  • Redirection 300 (Multiple Choices) 301 (Moved Permanently): The requested data has moved and the change is permanent.
  • The requested data temporarily has a changed URL, according to 302 (Found)
  • The response to the request can be located at a different URI and SHOULD be received using the GET method on that resource, according to the response code 303 (See Other).
  • 304 (Not Modified): The document has not undergone the anticipated modification.
  • 305 (Use Proxy): The proxy must be used to access the requested resource.
  • The code 306 is kept for upcoming usage.
  • The requested resource temporarily lives under a different URI, as indicated by the 307 (Temporary Redirect) error code.

4. Client Error: HTTP 4XX

It shows that either the client’s request is invalid or that they are not permitted to view the data.

  • Because of the request’s improper grammar, the server returned the error code 400 (Bad Request).
  • The client is not authorized to access the data, according to error code 401.
  • This code is kept for future usage and reads 402 (Payment Required).
  • Even with authorization, access is not required by 403 (forbidden).
  • 404 (Not Found): The requested resource was not found by the server
  • The method indicated in the Request-Line is not permitted for the resource defined by the Request-URI, according to the 405 (Method Not Allowed) response code. 406 (Not Acceptable): The specified resource can only provide response entities with content attributes that are disallowed by the request’s approved headers.
  • Similar to 401 (Unauthorised), 407 (Proxy Authentication Required) specifies that the client must first authenticate themselves with the proxy.
  • 408 (Request Timeout): The client failed to submit a request within the allotted amount of time, which the server was willing to wait for.
  • 409 (Conflict): The request was unable to be fulfilled because it conflicted with how the resource was being used at the time.
  • 410 (Gone): The server no longer has the requested resource accessible.
  • Without a specified Content-Length, the server rejects the request with the code 411 (Length Required).
  • When the precondition was checked on the server, it was determined to be false, resulting in a 412 (Precondition Failed) response.
  • The reason a server is refusing to perform a request is that the requesting entity is greater than what the server is willing or able to handle (413, Request Entity Too Large).
  • 414 (Request-URI Too lengthy): The Request-URI is too lengthy for the server to parse, hence the server is refusing to process the request.
  • 415 (Unsupported Media Type): The resource requested for the given method does not support the required format.
  • If a request contains a Range request-header field and none of the range-specifier values in this field overlap the current extent of the chosen resource, the response code 416 (Requested Range Not Satisfiable) is returned.
  • The server failed to meet the expectation specified in an Expect request-header field, returning a 417 error code.

5. Server Error: HTTP 5XX

All errors in this group point to a problem on the server.

  • The server was unable to process the request due to an unforeseen circumstance, returning a 500 (internal server error) code.
  • A response code of 501 (Not Implemented) indicates that the server cannot accommodate the requested capability.
  • The server got an erroneous answer from the upstream server while serving as a gateway or proxy, resulting in a 502 (Bad Gateway) error.
  • Due to a brief overload or server maintenance, the server is now unable to handle the request, which results in a 503 (Service Unavailable) error.
  • The server, which was serving as a gateway or proxy, received a 504 (Gateway Timeout) error message.
  • The server doesn’t support or won’t support the HTTP protocol version, 505 (HTTP Version Not Supported).

How to resolve HTTP 400 Bad Request error?

Check the request URL once more. The most frequent cause of a 400 Bad Request error is that the URL was input incorrectly or that the link clicked connects to a URL that is flawed and has a particular sort of error, such as a syntax issue. The header field’s incorrect value might also result in a 400/Bad Request error.

How to resolve HTTP 500 internal server error?

Numerous times, a script was properly recorded but failed during playback due to an HTTP 500 internal server problem. Even though this issue falls under the category of server errors, a faulty correlation may have caused it. Check the script once again to ensure that all dynamic values are accurately captured.

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