Performance testing The Economist Online using The Grinder

At The Economist, we developed a load testing framework using an open source Java-based tool called The Grinder. We've had great success running sophisticated virtual user scripts, that accurately reproduce real user interactions on our Drupal site.

In this session, David Strauss (Four Kitchens) and Mark Theunissen (The Economist) will cover:

* An introduction to The Grinder
* Jython, the scripting language used for the tests.
* Our custom framework.
* Gathering accurate test data.
* Basic functional testing in the framework.
* The staging environment.
* Simulating user interaction.
* Load injectors and approaches to script execution.
* Tools for monitoring site performance.
* Continuous load testing using Hudson.
* Load test reporting.
* A case study of the specific performance problems we faced at The Economist.

Join us to learn more about the challenges facing big Drupal installations!