Calling a Web Service from IE

[NickC]

OK so not a JavaScript question but don't know where else to ask and judging
from some of the knowledge I have seen here in the past I reckon someone
here might just have some idea.

When the Web Service URL is called from IE it just returns the wdsl and does
not actually run the Web service. Is there a way of creating a dummy Web
page which would actually run the Web service?

Theoretically calling a Web Service is just an HTTP request so I am trying
to call a Web Service from IE. I know they are not exactly designed to be
called from Internet Explorer but I would like to do this so that I can
speed/load test our Web Service using the Microsoft 'WAS' stress testing
tool.

Thanks,
Nick

 

[Grant Wagner]

OK so not a JavaScript question but don't know where else to ask and judging
from some of the knowledge I have seen here in the past I reckon someone
here might just have some idea.

When the Web Service URL is called from IE it just returns the wdsl and does
not actually run the Web service. Is there a way of creating a dummy Web
page which would actually run the Web service?

Theoretically calling a Web Service is just an HTTP request so I am trying
to call a Web Service from IE. I know they are not exactly designed to be
called from Internet Explorer but I would like to do this so that I can
speed/load test our Web Service using the Microsoft 'WAS' stress testing
tool.

Thanks,
Nick

Use the XML HTTPRequest object.

<url: http://jibbering.com/2002/4/httprequest.html />

--
| Grant Wagner <[email protected]>

* Client-side Javascript and Netscape 4 DOM Reference available at:
*
http://devedge.netscape.com/library/manuals/2000/javascript/1.3/reference/frames.html

* Internet Explorer DOM Reference available at:
*
http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/author/dhtml/reference/dhtml_reference_entry.asp

* Netscape 6/7 DOM Reference available at:
* http://www.mozilla.org/docs/dom/domref/
* Tips for upgrading JavaScript for Netscape 6/7 and Mozilla
* http://www.mozilla.org/docs/web-developer/upgrade_2.html

 

[Jim Ley]

When the Web Service URL is called from IE it just returns the wdsl and does
not actually run the Web service. Is there a way of creating a dummy Web
page which would actually run the Web service?

Yes, stop using web-services, and get a more RESTful architecture,
then you wouldn't have this problem....

The http request object will probably do the job, but using it for
stress tesing won't be very fair as you'll have the cost of loading
the page itself aswell it then doing automatic javascript requests
back to the server, but I guess this at least will give errors on the
better side of the issue (underestimating performance)

Jim.

 

[Steve van Dongen]

Yes, stop using web-services, and get a more RESTful architecture,
then you wouldn't have this problem....

The http request object will probably do the job, but using it for
stress tesing won't be very fair as you'll have the cost of loading
the page itself aswell it then doing automatic javascript requests
back to the server, but I guess this at least will give errors on the
better side of the issue (underestimating performance)

Jim.

You don't have to have the dummy page on the same server though.

Use XMLHTTP as Grant already suggested or try the SOAP Toolkit.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/soap/htm/soap_ref_soapclient_6038.asp
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/soap/htm/kit_intro_19bj.asp

Don't have the dummy page create multiple XMLHTTP/SoapClient objects
and send multiple simultaneous requests. Windows attempts to respect
the HTTP standard of a maximum of 2 concurrent connections between the
client and server by limiting the number of concurent connections a
single process can make to any one web server. Your dummy page should
probably only send one request, and you should have multiple instances
of IE with the dummy page (either on one machine or distributed over a
number of machines).

Regards,
Steve

 

[Jim Ley]

You don't have to have the dummy page on the same server though.

Don't you to put it through MS's stress tester - since it's that that
generates the requests, so the only way to do it would be via firing
them off onload?

Jim.

 

[NickC]

XMLHttp won't help in this case because of the overhead involved in opening
IE and waiting for the onLoad() to run. The stress tester will be hitting
the Web server 100, 200 maybe 500 times per second there is no way IE could
keep up with that; it would require a farm of way more machines than I have
available.

Nick