Recording Modes in LoadRunner

Comparison of different Recording Modes in LoadRunner

No		HTML Mode	URL Mode	GUI Mode
1	Mode of Recording	HTML Mode is the Default mode of recording in LR for Web(HTTP/HTML) Protocol	The URL-mode option instructs VuGen to record all requests and resources from the server.	This is introduced with Web (Click & Script) protocol.
2		Each USER ACTION is recorded as a separate request.  This is also called as Context based recording	It automatically records every HTTP resource as separate URL steps (Request). This recording mode captures even non-HTML applications such as applets and non-browser applications.	The GUI-mode option instructs VuGen to record all editable fields in an object or non-browser applications.
		This means everything you do on the web page will be recorded in a single function	When a web site is launched apart from the HTML content, there will be images, java script files, CSS files an other resources downloaded. Each of these resources is recorded as a separate request.	This is similar to functional testing when objects are detected at the GUI-level
		We would be able to recognize each “logical” requests/call made to the server, making amendments to the script easily.	This mode does not depend on the UI of the application, rather the actions associated with the user actions performed on UI
			This works good with non-HTML applications such as applets and non-browser applications (e.g. Win32 executables).
3	Intuitiveness	Scripts are more intuitive to understand and easy to modify	Difficult to work and modify	Scripts are in the form of GUI Objects
4	Advantages	The advantages of using the HTML recording mode is that the size is very compact and the customization efforts are reduced	The benefit of having scripts with URL recording mode is that the maintenance cost associated with these are reduced and can be used across various releases of the product making the script less susceptible to changes in the UI
5	Disadvantages	However, with UI changes to the web applications the scripts would require much higher maintenance costs	As each resource is recorded the size of the script is large.  This means that a large amount of customization is also required.
6	Explicit URLs only	Another option is available under “Advanced options” of HTML mode  is Explicit URLs only mode.	NA	NA
		The benefits of the HTML mode and URL mode are cobbled together in HTML  -  Explicit URLs only.
		With this mode, the size of the script is compact (as only the user action are recorded as requests, not at the UI level but at the request level).
		This requires more customization effort, but has the advantage of high maintainability for longer durations
		This is generally the most commonly used and recommended recording method for web applications where the scripts have to be maintained for longer durations