> OctoPerf load testing - WebDriver Action documentation page. WebDriver Actions execute real web browser interactions with your web-application.

Source: https://api.octoperf.com/doc/design/edit-virtual-user/action-types/web-driver-action/

# WebDriver

The WebDriver executes **real web browser interactions** with your web-application. Running WebDriver virtual users alongside with HTTP virtual users allows to capture both network and real-user experience performance metrics. The WebDriver action uses the [JMeter WebDriver sampler](http://jmeter-plugins.org/wiki/WebDriverSampler/) under the hood. It simulates real browser interactions by launching a web browser like [Firefox](https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/products/).

## WebDriver Action

The Selenium WebDriver action has several configuration options:

* **Name**: the name of the action. This name appears in test results,
* **Script**: contains the Selenium webdriver script to execute,
* **Script Language**: Defines the script language (Java, Javascript and more),
* **Requests and Responses**: when executing a virtual user validation, it shows the played request and the received server response.

![WebDriver Action](https://api.octoperf.com/doc/design/edit-virtual-user/action-types/img/webdriver-action.png "WebDriver Action")
*WebDriver script edition*

For more advanced usage of the web driver action, it is recommended to look at the [official documentation](https://jmeter-plugins.org/wiki/WebDriverSampler/ "Web driver documentation").

!!! note
    Each webdriver action will take over the context from the previous action. Using this you can have a distinct action for each step.
    This way you get a response time for each page in a different webdriver action and if you name them right the report will be easy to use.

## Performance consideration

We take care of the infrastructure. But, launching real browser to gather end-user experience performance metrics consumes a lot of resources. As a consequence, the number of concurrent WebDriver virtual users has been drastically limited.

**We strongly recommend running only a single WebDriver virtual user to collect real browser metrics during a load test**. The purpose of this kind of virtual user is not to simulate the load. Load must always be simulated using regular HTTP actions.

## Advanced script example

This script is a more advanced example created on our [demonstration application](https://petstore.octoperf.com "Demo application"): 

```javascript
var pkg = JavaImporter(org.openqa.selenium);
var ui = JavaImporter(org.openqa.selenium.support.ui);

//Clear cache and cookies in case the script runs several iterations
WDS.browser.manage().deleteAllCookies();

// Required to start counting time which will get reported at the end of this code.
WDS.sampleResult.sampleStart();

// Load the login page
WDS.browser.get("https://petstore.octoperf.com/actions/Account.action?signonForm=");

// Entering login and password
WDS.browser.findElement(pkg.By.name("username")).clear();
WDS.browser.findElement(pkg.By.name("username")).sendKeys(['user1']);
WDS.browser.findElement(pkg.By.name("password")).clear();
WDS.browser.findElement(pkg.By.name("password")).sendKeys(['pass']);
var signon = WDS.browser.findElement(pkg.By.name("signon"));
signon.click();

//Waiting for the logout link to appear as confirmation
var waitLogin = new ui.WebDriverWait(WDS.browser, java.time.Duration.ofSeconds(120));
waitLogin.until(ui.ExpectedConditions.elementToBeClickable(pkg.By.linkText("Sign Out")));

// End the test sampler, capturing length of time for the test.
WDS.sampleResult.sampleEnd();
```