URL vs HTML recording mode

There are three types of recording mode/levels in LoadRunner. GUI-based, HTML based and URL based. For the uninitiated, recording levels tells you the amount of and what information is recorded during the recording process. As the title says, for this post we will keep focus on HTML based and URL based recording levels only and will touch upon GUI based mode, in a later post.

1. HTML based mode, records script for every user action that is performed during recording (hmmm…sounds like QTP) while URL based mode records each and every browser request to the server and resources received from the server. Confused? ok, HTML based mode does recording as you perform clicks and doesn’t give you inside information like what is happening behind the recording while URL based mode records each and every step and emulate Javascript code.
2. From the point1) above you can guess, HTML mode would have less correlation to do while URL mode has much more complex correlation requirements.
3. HTML mode is smaller and is more intuitive to read as the statements are inside the functions corresponding to the user action performed. In the case of URL based, all statements gets recorded into web_url()
4. HTML mode is recommended for browser applications while URL mode is recommended for non-browser applications.
5. Lastly, don’t get the impression that I am advocating for HTML mode :). URL mode can be of real help when you want to have control over the resources that need to be or need not to be downloaded, since you have each and every statement in-front of you (point 1)