Category Archives: Xceptance

Accessibility, Testing, Xceptance

WCAG Testing in E-Commerce: Compliance, Accessibility, and Business Impact

TL;DR: The EU’s upcoming legislation makes WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) compliance non-negotiable. With 87 million EU citizens living with disabilities, accessibility isn’t just ethical—it’s smart business. Xceptance, as experts in testing, offers comprehensive WCAG testing to help businesses meet legal requirements while improving user experience and inclusivity. Compliance isn’t just about avoiding fines—it’s about embracing inclusivity, enhancing user trust, and unlocking new market potential.

The Growing Need

Digital accessibility is no longer a nice-to-have — it’s a fundamental necessity. The European Commission estimates that over 87 million people in the EU experience some form of disability – that’s nearly 20% of the population. In Germany alone, that number translates to roughly 7.8 million individuals with severe disabilities. These numbers highlight the importance of making websites, apps, and digital services accessible to all users. The European Accessibility Act (EAA), which will come into effect in June 2025, mandates that e-commerce businesses comply with WCAG 2.2 Level AA standards. This means that online stores, banking services, and digital platforms must remove barriers that hinder people with disabilities from using their services. Non-compliance doesn’t just mean legal repercussions — it risks alienating a significant customer base and damaging brand reputation.

Challenges in E-Commerce

E-commerce businesses face unique challenges in ensuring accessibility compliance:

  • Complex User Interfaces: Online shops often use dynamic elements, pop-ups, carousels, and multimedia content, which can be difficult for assistive technologies to interpret.
  • Checkout and Payment Issues: Forms, captchas, and payment gateways must be accessible to users relying on screen readers or keyboard navigation.
  • Mobile Responsiveness: Accessibility must be maintained across devices, including smartphones and tablets.
  • SEO and Usability Overlap: Many accessibility improvements, such as proper heading structures and alt text, also enhance SEO and user experience.

Without structured WCAG testing, businesses risk excluding a significant customer base and facing compliance issues.

Xceptance: Your Partner in WCAG Compliance

Xceptance specializes in comprehensive software testing, including in-depth WCAG compliance verification. We go beyond simply checking boxes; we empower you to create an inclusive and user-friendly experience.

  • Automated and Manual Testing: We use automated tools to identify accessibility gaps and complement this with manual testing by experts using screen readers and keyboard navigation.
  • Evaluation Against WCAG 2.2 Guidelines: Our tests cover perceivability, operability, understandability, and robustness, ensuring compliance with Level AA standards.
  • Real-User Simulations: We test e-commerce platforms with real users to gain real-world insights into accessibility challenges.
  • Detailed Reporting and Actionable Recommendations: We provide clear, structured reports outlining issues, their impact, and practical solutions.
  • Ongoing Compliance Support: Accessibility is an ongoing process. We help businesses continuously monitor and improve their accessibility standards.

Business Benefits Beyond Compliance

Accessibility isn’t just about checking a legal box—it’s a competitive advantage:

  • Expand Your Customer Base: An accessible site welcomes millions of potential customers.
  • SEO Boost: Many accessibility best practices align with improved search engine rankings.
  • Stronger Brand Trust: Inclusive brands build deeper connections and customer loyalty.
  • Future-Proof Your Business: Early compliance with WCAG standards means staying ahead of regulations and market shifts.

Don’t Wait – Embrace Accessibility Today

The 2025 WCAG compliance deadline is fast approaching. Xceptance provides the expertise and support you need to ensure your online store meets the legal requirements and delivers an exceptional experience for every user.

Ready to unlock the full potential of an accessible e-commerce platform? Contact Xceptance today for a consultation.

A visual call to action for web accessibility, featuring the text "Embrace Accessibility Today" in a dynamic and eye-catching design.
Interesting Reading, Misc, Xceptance

Xceptance Supports Young Explorers with Donation to Witelo e.V.

The little Ozobot speeds around the corner, flashing colorfully, winds its way along a spiral, collides briefly with one of its colleagues and finally finds its way through the maze. It is navigated to its destination by color sensors on its underside, which allow it to follow a defined route. The miniature robot was not programmed by a high-tech engineer, but by Magnus, 10 years old, and the son of our co-founder Simone Drill.

During a programming workshop, he learned to give commands to the Ozobot and to control it with the help of color codes.  This was made possible by witelo e.V. from Jena, who offer working groups and experimentation courses at schools, as well as extracurricular learning formats. These scientific and technical learning venues were founded to promote so-called STEM education, with computer science as one of its components. Students learn the basics about coding, robotics and algorithms in research clubs, on hands-on days and during a wide range of vacation activities. In this context, Magnus also had the opportunity to playfully gain his first programming experience and took his enthusiasm from the workshop home with him.

Source: Ozobot
Continue reading Xceptance Supports Young Explorers with Donation to Witelo e.V. →
Open Source, Performance, Software, Xceptance, XLT

Xceptance LoadTest Goes Open Source

We have often been asked why XLT (Xceptance LoadTest) is free but not open source. Now, after considering our customers’ business needs and the advantages of using open source as opposed to free software, Xceptance has decided to open source XLT under the Apache License 2.0.

Within the next 30 days, we will restructure the XLT code base and move subprojects into independent open repositories. We will continue to expand and improve the documentation. All code will be published on GitHub.

Xceptance will continue to maintain and extend XLT as before. Releases will be built and published by Xceptance on a regular schedule. Libraries will be published to Maven Central as part of the open-sourcing process. The latest releases will be available from the XLT GitHub repository as well. Of course, the GitHub defect tracker will start to be your source for feature development and defect fixes.

If you are interested in training, projects, or support for XLT and load testing in general, we of course also offer those services, and will expand this offering further in upcoming months.

By open sourcing, we are opening a new chapter for XLT and we invite everyone to join us. More to come!

Open Source, Software Development, Xceptance, XLT

Thuringia’s Open-Source Prize for XLT

Wolfgang Tiefensee, Thuringia’s Secretary of Commerce, in conjunction with the board of directors of the IT industry network ITNet Thuringia, awarded the first Thueringen Open-Source Prize to three companies, all of them software companies based in Jena: TRITUM, Xceptance and GraphDefined.

Open Source Prize Title Picture Second Place

It is an honor for Xceptance to be the second-place winner of this competition. This result clearly demonstrates that open source as a component of commercial products can be a clear competitive advantage. XLT incorporates a number of open-source projects, including Apache HttpClient, Jetty, HtmlUnit, JUnit, and the Apache Commons libraries. As part of developing XLT, Xceptance is involved in testing and providing feedback for these projects, thus giving back to the open-source community.

While XLT is itself not open source, Xceptance does provide the software free of charge and with virtually no usage restrictions, so for most applications there is no noticeable difference to open-source software.

Xceptance, XLT

XLT – Now Available Free Of Charge

Update: Please see Xceptance LoadTest Goes Open Source for the next step in the evolution of XLT.

Because it is always great to end the year with something pleasant and start the next year with something even better, we want to surprise you with the announcement that Xceptance LoadTest (XLT) will be free of charge for load and performance testing starting 1 January 2018. XLT was already free for use in test automation.

Why are we doing this? Well, we have seen many people working with other performance test tools over the years and found that often they chose one primarily because of the price or simply because it was already a familiar tool in the company. This is not necessarily bad but it is certainly not always optimal.

People run into seat limits, operating system limitations, debugging limits, extensibility limits, have to use poor reporting, or cannot adjust features or functionalities. We want to give the testing world a tool that will be chosen because it fits and not because the license is cheaper or has already been purchased. Or in other words: You have more choices now.

Xceptance and its customers have been using XLT for many years. What started as a quick workaround because commercial tools had no affordable license a consulting company could use, grew into a versatile tool with a focus on great reporting and diagnostic capabilities.

We will update the license portal to the new model in the next few days and also rework our website accordingly. We just didn’t want to wait to tell our existing customers and take one worry off the 2018 budget table.

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

New Free-License Terms

Obviously some context is needed to make clearer what you can do with XLT and its free-of-charge license now.

  • XLT is available free of charge but you still need a license file from us. Request this license from Xceptance via email (support@xceptance.de) or use our license portal, and we will issue you one without any user or time limits.
  • You can use XLT for commercial purposes as long as you do not sell XLT itself or create the impression that XLT is your own software. You can sell software components built on top of XLT.
  • You must not modify XLT in any way. But you can customize test suites, demos, templates, or other customizable components such as CSS or XSL as long as you distribute these components separately.
  • You cannot offer XLT for download, excluding your local Maven/Nexus repositories and company internal redistribution, of course.
  • You cannot integrate XLT into public SaaS or other commercial or noncommercial hosting offers without explicit permission from us. If you built your own company-internal cloud for load testing for instance, that is of course permitted.
  • You cannot share your license outside of your organization. If you are a consulting company or freelancer, we encourage your clients to request their own licenses, but we do not require it. All licenses are personalized with email and company name.

FAQ

Is XLT open source now?

No, XLT is still closed source; we just stopped charging you for using it.

Will updates be free, too?

Yes, updates stay free. Please make sure you sign up for our release newsletter. Purchasing a support contract allows us to support you faster and more directly.

Can I use XLT commercially?

Yes, you can. Just request a license. If you are not sure whether your usage pattern is covered by our free-license terms, please ask. If you have interesting business ideas or applications for XLT, we are here to help.

Will Xceptance continue to invest in XLT?

Yes, we will continue to invest in and enhance XLT because it is an integral part of our company’s load and performance testing services. Product development is funded by the support, training, and testing services provided by Xceptance.

Xceptance, XLT

XLT 4.9 has been released

Xceptance released version 4.9 of its load testing and test automation product Xceptance LoadTest. This is primarily a 3rd party update release, but also delivers some improvements.

Here is a selection of the most important changes:

  • Script Developer supports Firefox 53
  • Selenium updated to version 3.4.0
  • Better reporting of JavaScript errors in script test cases
  • Master controller displays the configured load profile
  • Load test reports can be created for a subset of agents
  • Load test reports shows the number of entries in data tables and shows summary values when filtering the table
  • Demo app server ports can be reconfigured easily

Script Developer

Script Developer has been made compatible with the latest available Firefox version, while outdated versions are not supported any longer. Script Developer runs on Firefox 45/ESR up to 53 now.

Update Instructions: Firefox will not auto-update older versions of Script Developer to 4.9.0. You will need to do this manually. Please remove the currently installed version first and afterwards install the new version by simply dragging and dropping the file xlt-scriptdeveloper-4.9.0.xpi onto Firefox. Auto-updating within the 4.9.x product line will then work as usual again.

Alternatively you can visit the Mozilla Add-On marketplace and install Script Developer from there (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/xceptance-script-developer/). Please make sure you uninstall your locally installed version first.

Framework

XLT now ships with Selenium 3.4.0. Make sure you update your locally installed driver binaries to the latest available version. This is especially true for geckodriver. In case you experience issues with geckodriver / Firefox, you might be better off running FirefoxDriver in legacy mode. The legacy mode is more mature.

All other core libraries have been updated as well. This also includes HtmlUnit for an improved browser emulation.

The XLT framework also comes with some functional improvements. In case a JavaScript expression in your script test case could not be evaluated successfully for any reason, the root cause will now be listed as part of the exception message. Libraries that make use of Java’s built-in logging framework do no longer log to the console, but to XLT’s log file.

Load and Performance Testing

The Mastercontroller now prints the configured load profile to the console when starting a load test and also when displaying the current status. This helps to spot test configuration mistakes earlier. Intermediate results downloaded, while a load test is still running, will now be flagged to distinguish them from final results.

The load test report shows the number of entries in a data table, and when filtering a data table, the footer row is updated accordingly. Load test reports may also be created for only a subset of the agents. You might remember that version 4.8 already delivered the ability to render reports for specific test cases only.

Last but not least, ec2_admin prints more details about running AWS machine instances and lets you review your choice before actually terminating running instances.

Demo App Server / Posters Store

The app server that hosts our demo applications uses ports 8080 and 8443 by default. Since these ports are often already used by other applications, you can now reconfigure them easily.

Our demo application Posters Store now runs with HTTPS only. Any HTTP request will be redirected to use HTTPS.

Sounds interesting? More details can be found in the release notes of XLT 4.9.

Software, Xceptance, XLT

Release of XLT 4.8

XLT 4.8 is primarily a technology update release, but also comes with some new features.

First and foremost, XLT now ships with Selenium 3, the new version of the WebDriver library. All other core libraries have been updated as well. This also includes HtmlUnit for an improved browser emulation. Beginning with this release, XLT requires Java 8 to run.

The XLT framework also comes with some functional improvements. XLT now supports OperaDriver out of the box and can run FirefoxDriver in either the new Marionette mode using geckodriver or in the “old” legacy mode. When you drive Firefox via XltFirefoxDriver, you will get a much more detailed result browser now, with almost the same request and response details that you already know from XltDriver. Any values that you programmatically add to the newly introduced value log of a session are shown in the result browser as well. Furthermore, most of the XLT framework properties can now be configured not only globally, but also specifically for a certain test scenario.

For load testers, there is something in the box as well. If you use the AWS EC2 cloud a lot, you will be glad to hear that the new AWS data center in Ohio is now fully supported. The load test report has been tuned to become usable much faster, even with lengthy pages such as the Requests page.

Last but not least, the Poster Store demo application and the XLT Jenkins Plug-In have both been updated. If you ever wanted to load-test your WebDAV server, there is now a new demo test suite for that.

Sounds interesting? More details can be found in the release notes of XLT 4.8.

Xceptance

Xceptance at 11th Charity Relay in Jena

Yes, we did it again. We’re athletic and we care for our community, so we took on another sports challenge and had three of us participate in the 11th Relay Race in Jena, a charity run covering a 3x2km distance.

We had a lot of fun and did pretty well but most importantly we’re happy that this year’s funds will be donated to the Kindersprachbrücke Jena e.V., a local organization devoted to helping refugees and migrants, especially children and their families, learn German and find a new home in Jena.

Xceptance

Open-Air in Jena – kulturarena 2015

Logo KulturarenaWe are again supporting Jena’s widely acclaimed KulturArena Open-Air to contribute to local arts and culture. The international festival, which is held right in downtown Jena, is famous for hosting musical acts from all over the world.

This year’s performers include well-known artists such as Tanita Tikaram, Roachford, and Element of Crime. As always, visitors can also go to movie nights and theater performances. We’re excited to be a part of the biggest open-air event in Thuringia.

So come on out and enjoy exciting summer nights in Jena!

Xceptance

Xceptance at 5th Jena City Corporate Running Challenge

On May 20, 2015, we again joined Jena’s greatest sports and charity event, the Jena Corporate Running Challenge. Every year local companies and organizations go on a 5 kilometers run in downtown Jena to promote sporting activities and, more importantly, raise money for local programs and institutions devoted to help others in need.

We had a lot of fun and all of us tackled the whole distance. This year’s funds will be donated to various charity projects in Jena: the Paten für Demenz project for people with dementia, the mental health charity Aktion Wandlungswelten, and the Stiftung Hodenkrebs dedicated to research on testicular cancer.