eValid™ -- Automated Web Quality Solution Browser-Based, Client-Side, Functional Testing & Validation, Load & Performance Tuning, Page Timing, Website Analysis, and Rich Internet Application Monitoring.

Introduction
This page outlines details of how to manage browser state during playback.

Description of Problem
Because the eValid browser can, being a complete browser, maintain complete state there often are situations in which the ability of a web application to maintain state interferes with achieving reliable, repeatable playback.

Here's what it's like: You have a good recording, every action you took resulted in an entry in the script file, but when you play back the recording eValid fails to behave as it did when you made the recording. What's happened is that the eValid browser, by one of several methods and possibly by a combination of two more more of them, has "remembered" what you did the last time.

Simple Example: The simplest example is a login. If you log in using a name/password combination and don't record logging out, then immediate playback will not work: You're already logged in, so the logged-in state declines to accept re-logging in. The solution is to log in, and then log out. This returns eValid to the original state so that the playback is successful.

Discussion
Here is a discussion of the main methods eValid [in fact, any browser] can maintain state, and which may cause problems in achieving reliable and realistic playback.

• Cookies [Persistent Cookies]
  The cookies file stores the state information in a file on the local machine. A subsequent eValid launch will read the cookies that were stored from the prior session.

  eValid Solution: Use the DeleteCookies command in your playback script.

• URL $name=value Pairs -- Query Strings Processing
  Some websites mainain login state by storing data in the quaery strings of the URL. When $name=value pairs are used to keep a server-issued "state key", a common standard is to use the first-occurring $name=value pair in the URL, but this is not required. Some servers use multiple $name=value pairs, so special care must be taken in that circumstance.

  eValid Solution: eValid can handle multiple $name=value pair situations with the SecureSessionID command. The left-hand-side identifier, $name in each targeted $name=value pair, is given to eValid, which then automatically substitutes currently issued information into the previously specified URLs.

• Session Cookies
  Session cookies are stored in the browser execution space, accessible within the DOM [for example] and are NOT written to the hard drive. Session cookies are not directly accessible to eValid -- for security reasons the location of this information varies and/or is not available.

  eValid Solution: Get a fresh copy of eValid, which will NOT have any session information stored internally, and then play back the script. You can also do this by running your playbacks from a batch mode command.

• JavaScript/VBScript State
  This is another way of "remembering state" -- keeping information in the namespace of the browser in the global data area within the JavaScript or VBScript interpreter.

  eValid Solution: Restart eValid to get a copy that doesn't remember anything! Or, you can achieve this same result by running the playback in batch mode (where each run involves a fresh copy of eValid).

• Page Authentication
  Page authentication, e.g. in https protocols, is automatic and state information is internal to the browser.

  eValid Solution: No special steps need be taken. Each separate eValid instance, which will run in a different process, authenticates file access independently, and all pertinent access credentials are kept internal to the browser.

• Server State Keeping
  In some cases server state keeping problems can be minimized by making your tests idempotent, that is, by making sure whatever work you did is reversed or cancelled before the end of each script playback.

  eValid Solution: eVaild does not have control over the server state. You may need to arrange with the server manager to have an "initial condition" state available.