LoadRunner basic question: records traffic or browser actions?

Question

I cannot find the basic information about LoadRunner: does it record browser actions (like QTP) or network traffic (I mean packet sniffering?). It is not clear to me since there is Script view that resembles QTP object actions. But on the other hand there is no browser opened when running the tests. I would need to understand how it works, thank you in advance!

Answer 1

VuGen records the traffic on a protocol level. This means that all traffic "as seen" from TCP perspective is inspected. I will assume you want to understand the HTTP(S) recording here since you talk about browsers.

HTTP(S) can be recorded in a number of different ways, but all result in a recording log that is then inspected and the script is "generated" based on that. In the "Recording Log" and "Generation Log" tabs you can see the actual traffic recorded and how the script was generated.

When running a script the commands generated send the raw HTTP(S) requests to the target server, without any UI. Depending on the request mode the resulting data may also be inspected for references to other resources, such as images, css or js files etc.

Answer 2

It records both (and then some) depending upon the protocol selected. Keep in mind that LoadRunner can execute QTP scripts as GUI Virtual Users. It can also execute Citrix and Remote Desktop Protocol Scripts at a layer even outside of the client interface.

It can also record at a variety of levels of application and presentation layer protocols, all the way down to the Winsock level,