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Website Load Time

The Website Load Time action step measures the time taken to load a website and the websites that it references. Referenced websites are websites that are embedded within a website and loaded automatically at the same time, e.g. visitor counters, analysis pages, Web stores, integrated payment systems, etc.

The Website Load Time action step logs all data measured in a special file, identified by a .har extension (har = Http ARchive). This file is located in Windows under "My Documents → NameOfRPABuilderProject → Robot → trace → http@www-website-xx.har“. The name of the .har file is derived from the website tested (e.g. http@www-wikipedia-de.har). The file is overwritten every time the Workflow is executed.

You can display the .har file using a suitable viewer. The viewer will show the load times of all website components in a waterfall diagram. There are many free viewers for .har files. The following list is not comprehensive:

Show the content of the waterfall file using a viewer, e.g. softwareishard, as described below:

  1. Open the .har file in an ASCII editor, e.g. Notepad++.

  2. Select all using <CTRL> + <a> and copy the entire content of the file to the clipboard using <CTRL> + <c>.

  3. Start the viewer, e.g. softwareishard, in a browser.

  4. Paste the content of the clipboard into the input field on the website using <CTRL> + <v>

  5. Click the <Preview> button.

  6. The next page of softwareishard, which is on the "Preview" tab, shows the waterfall diagram of your measurement. The components of the website of interest are shown on the left of the page and the load times are shown on the right.

Error message: FAIL to load the address. The error message "FAIL to load the address" will be recorded in the .har log file if the Website Load Time action step was unable to load the specified URL.

It is also possible to perform further processing on the measured values for Website Load Time using the Website Load Time.Result variable. This variable has the same content as the .har file after the action step has been executed.

Properties

Load Time Settings

  • WebsiteUrl Enter the URL to be tested, e.g. www.wikipedia.de.

Other Properties that are the same in all action steps in the Web Automation are described in the section on Common Properties. For reasons of clarity they are not shown here.

Inbound Variables

WebsiteUrl Enter the URL to be tested, e.g. www.wikipedia.de.

Outbound Variables

Result The Website Load Time.Result variable provides the results of the load time measurement in the form of a log (the log has the same content as the .har file).

IsOnline The Website Load Time.IsOnline variable records whether the website tested was available or not (True/False).

Wizard

  • WebsiteUrl Enter the URL to be tested, e.g. www.wikipedia.de. The URL can also be constructed by inserting variables from the Workflow.

Error message: FAIL to load the address. The error message "FAIL to load the address" will be recorded in the .har log file if the Website Load Time action step was unable to load the specified URL.