Asynchronous support in Web Transport supports testing of asynchronous behavior in web applications.

The following asynchronous behaviors are supported:

• Push – client waits for input from server.
• Poll – client polls server periodically for information.
• Long poll – client polls server and waits for answer. When answer arrives another poll request is initiated.
• Cross-user interaction – One user performs an activity which is reflected in another users client. For example, a Vuser sends email and a different user receives notification.

The terms used in asychronous-related topics are:

Asynchronous Conversation An Asynchronous Conversation is a series of related web tasks, including tasks caused by redirection. An Asynchronous Conversation starts with the request for the desired response, includes all the requests and responses that are caused by this request (authentication, redirection, and so on) and ends when the desired response is received or when the series of interactions is canceled.

Asynchronous Conversation Pattern A Pattern consists of one or more web tasks, issued and responded-to according to a predefined pattern, such as push, poll, or long poll. A Repetitive Pattern consists of more than one Conversation. For example, polling.

Task A web task consists of an HTTP request and any directly related HTTP responses and requests until the eventual HTTP response to the initial HTTP request. Redirections are not included in an RDR.