How is step times calculated for test designer scripts?

When users run a Designer script, reports get generated which have two important columns:

Step Times and Request name

These times are ALL generated through the browser you have chosen, and NOT at the API level and APC will start moving on to the next step as soon as it is ready to be used and those reporting times will be reported.

Now here is how we start and stop the clock on both of these:

STEP TIME:

For the step time, the clock starts as soon as we hit a transaction (like a submit button) until the full page has come in and the DOM has settled.

This includes the submit request placed at the UX in the browser, and then all elements coming back, and then all of them being processed by the browser and displayed and then the page is complete. Just as what a user sees.

REQUESTS:

Now at a lower level are the requests. These are requests made in the browser and through the client side code, then to the server, and then a response coming back. We start the timer at the request time and then stop it as soon as the final bit for that element comes INTO the browser. The reason is that many of the elements (like JS elements) will never be “displayed” so this timing includes sending through client side code but stops when the final bit is delivered TO the client side code.

So the transaction times include all browser code in both directions. Including displaying all elements. Page complete. That is the end to end response time including rendering, latency and everything a user experiences.

The "Request name" times (one level down from step/transaction times) include browser code outgoing and then till the last bit arrives to fulfill that element. Whether or not it is displayed as most elements (especially code segments) do not display. That is the only way to make this timing make sense and all be the same basis.

So an API level test should generally appear faster than a UX level test, all else being the same.