%% Last Updated: - [[2021-02-10]] Related - [[Load Testing Tool]] - [[Load Testing Platform]] %% A recorder for a [[Load Testing Tool]] is a plugin or feature that watches for network traffic (in the case of [[Protocol-based load testing]] tools) or user interactions with page elements (in the case of [[Browser-based testing]] tools). It then converts these observed events into a test script. ## Advantages A recorder's main advantages are as a tool for conversion. Having a recorder might be enough to get people to try out a tool. - Gives new users of a tool an idea of how to get started and what a basic script should look like (although this can also be solved by including a [[Sample script packaged in|sample script]] with the tool.) - Provides an "easy in" to a tool for users that may not have scripting experience - Gives the tool developers a way to suggest best practices (such as [[Dynamic think time and pacing|think time]] within a script) ## Disadvantages Most experienced developers and testers do not use recorders regularly. - Sets the expectation that recorded events can be immediately played back and ramped up as a load test, without regard for [[Correlation of dynamic values|correlation]] or [[Making load testing scripts more realistic]]. - "Intelligent" correlation engines within records are notoriously insufficient, and may actually make a script _more_ difficult to correlate properly by correlating the wrong values. - Some recorders don't allow ways to filter recorded events, so a script might contain requests to [[Exclude third-party or configured domains|third-party resources]] that shouldn't be part of a load test.