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Loadster Documentation

website·Indexed 32 days ago

https://loadster.com/manual/

Documentation for Loadster, a load testing platform. Includes guides on performance and API testing, manual for protocol scripts, dynamic datasets, and load test scenarios. Covers integrations with PagerDuty, Opsgenie, and AI agents via MCP, as well as CLI usage for continuous integration.

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What's inside Loadster

  1. Overview of the crypto object in Loadster Code Blocks

    The crypto object is available within Loadster Code Blocks (including Protocol and Browser scripts) to provide synchronous cryptographic functions for hashing, HMAC generation, and data integrity verification. It is primarily used for API authentication signatures, webhook verification, token generation, and custom security implementations. All methods return string results in either Base64 or hexadecimal encoding.

  2. Overview of Dynamic Datasets in Loadster

    Dynamic Datasets allow load tests to submit different data to a server for each bot or iteration, making tests more realistic and stressing the application/database more effectively. A dataset is a table of predefined values. Scripts reference these datasets via variables, and Loadster substitutes the values into requests or form fields based on configured selection order and frequency.

  3. Overview of the Loadster bot object

    The bot object is available within Loadster Code Blocks in both Browser Bot and Protocol Bot scripts. It provides synchronous methods to control and gather information about the virtual user (bot) currently executing the script. Each bot operates independently with its own variable scope. Note that this object is only available within code blocks, not in regular steps, and does not require await or promise chains.

  4. Overview of Loadster and PagerDuty integration

    Integrating Loadster with PagerDuty allows site and API monitors to automatically create incidents in PagerDuty when a monitor fails and resolve those incidents when the monitor recovers. This ensures that the appropriate team members are notified immediately of outages or broken endpoints.

  5. Overview of Loadster Validation Rules

    Loadster automatically detects HTTP 4xx/5xx responses and network errors (like socket timeouts). However, custom validation rules are required to detect application-specific errors, such as a 'User not found' message appearing on a page that otherwise returns an HTTP 200 OK. Validation rules can be added to any HTTP step via the Add... button. Multiple validators of different types can be applied to a single step.

  6. Overview of Loadster load testing capabilities

    Loadster is a SaaS cloud load testing platform focused on web protocols (HTTP/S and WebSockets). It supports three primary testing methods:

    1. Browser Bots: High-level actions (navigate, click, wait) using headless Chrome, suitable for non-developers and complex SPAs.
    2. Playwright Test Scripts: Native support for JavaScript/TypeScript Playwright scripts, allowing functional test suites to be repurposed for load testing.
    3. Protocol Bots: Lightweight HTTP clients for testing APIs and static sites without the overhead of a full browser.

    Loadster provides a browser extension for recording scripts, a web-based editor with JavaScript code blocks for advanced logic, and the ability to import scripts from JMeter, k6, or Locust. Tests can be executed from 32 AWS and GCP regions or via self-hosted engines for internal firewalls.

  7. Overview of Loadster performance engineering platform

    Loadster is a cloud-based performance engineering platform used for load testing, stress testing, and synthetic monitoring. It allows developers to identify scalability bottlenecks and breaking points of websites, web apps, and APIs to ensure high availability. The platform provides fully managed infrastructure, eliminating the need for manual test environment setup, and offers live metrics and automatic reporting.

  8. Overview of Loadster SSO and User Provisioning

    Loadster supports two complementary technologies for identity management:

    1. SAML 2.0 Authentication: Enables users to log in using corporate identity provider credentials. If used without SCIM, user accounts are provisioned 'just in time' upon first successful authentication.
    2. SCIM 2.0 User Provisioning: Automatically synchronizes user access (creation and removal) as employees join or leave an organization, ensuring accounts are deactivated even if the user does not sign in.

    SSO is available on certain annual and custom plans. Contact sales@loadster.com for availability.

  9. Overview of Protocol Bot Scripts

    Protocol scripts are sequences of HTTP/HTTPS requests executed by Protocol Bots. They provide precise control over the HTTP method, URL, and body of each request. They are ideal for API load testing and simple static websites, though they can be used for dynamic web applications. For complex web apps, browser scripts are generally recommended over protocol scripts.

  10. Overview of the Loadster formats object

    The formats object is a synchronous utility library available within Loadster Code Blocks, Protocol Scripts, and Browser Scripts. It is used for encoding, decoding, data transformation, and random data generation. All methods handle Unicode characters correctly and are safe for use in URLs, XML, HTML, and HTTP headers. While the object is shared, random data generation produces unique values per bot.

  11. Overview of Soak Testing (Endurance Testing)

    Soak testing, also known as endurance or stability testing, involves applying steady, moderate traffic to a system for an extended period (hours or days). Unlike stress testing, which pushes a system to its breaking point, soak testing confirms that a system remaining online under normal use does not gradually degrade. It is specifically designed to uncover 'slow-burn' problems that short-duration load tests (15-60 minutes) cannot detect.

  12. Overview of Loadster AI Agent capabilities

    Loadster provides a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server at https://api.loadster.com/mcp that allows AI agents to automate load testing workflows.

    What agents can do:

    • Scripts: Create, edit, validate, and play Protocol Bot, Browser Bot, and Playwright scripts. Inspect results, response bodies, logs, and screenshots.
    • Datasets: Create and update datasets for test data.
    • Scenarios: Create and configure load test scenarios (bot groups, ramp patterns, regions).
    • Reports: Read finished load test results and add notes.
    • Monitoring: Create/manage monitors and investigate incidents.

    What agents cannot do:

    • Launch or stop a full load test.
    • Enable a monitor.
    • Manage notification policies, maintenance windows, team administration, billing, or Fuel.