Configure steps before execution rather that when added to <webtest> --------------------------------------------------------------------

Key: WT-232 URL: http://webtest-community.canoo.com/jira/browse/WT-232 Project: WebTest Type: Task

Versions: 2.1 Reporter: Marc Guillemot

WebTest configures its nested steps at the time Ant added them to <webtest>.
This is not the normal/best way to process (at least since an t 1.6) and has
many consequences (properties evaluated to early, all steps held in memory,
...).

The normal way to process would be to avoid forcing instantiation of the tasks.
When Ant parses a <something someAttr=".."/> it first creates an UnknownElement holding the information found in the xml file. When this
UnknownElement gets executed, it looks for the "something" task to instantiate, configures it, execute it and releases it. This is what WebTest
should do/allow.

This has many consequences like: - ${} properties are evaluated just in time before task execution - memory consumption should be really smaller, particularly for long <webtest> as tasks are made available for garbage collection as soon as they have been executed. Only the execution result is conserved. - #{} properties get evaluated in nested non webtest tasks too

and offers new possibilities