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5. Building a Web Test Plan

In this section, you will learn how to create a basic Test Plan to test a Web site. You will create five users that send requests to two pages on the Jakarta Web site. Also, you will tell the users to run their tests twice. So, the total number of requests is (5 users) x (2 requests) x (repeat 2 times) = 20 HTTP requests. To construct the Test Plan, you will use the following elements: Thread Group , HTTP Request , HTTP Request Defaults , and File Reporter .

For a more advanced Test Plan, see Building an Advanced Web Test Plan .


5.1 Adding Users

The first step you want to do with every JMeter Test Plan is to add a Thread Group element. The Thread Group tells JMeter the number of users you want to simulate, how often the users should send requests, and the how many requests they should send.

Go ahead and add the ThreadGroup element by first selecting the Test Plan, and then from the Edit menu, select Add --> ThreadGroup.

You can also access the Edit menu by selecting an element and then clicking your right mouse button.

You should now see the Thread Group element under Test Plan. If you do not see the element, then "expand" the Test Plan tree by double-clicking on the Test Plan element.

Next, you need to modify the default properties. Select the Thread Group element in the tree, if you have not already selected it. You should now see the Thread Group Control Panel in the right section of the JMeter window (see Figure 5.1 below)


Figure 5.1. Thread Group with Default Values

Start by providing a more descriptive name for our Thread Group. In the name field, enter Jakarta Users.

Next, increase the number of users (called threads) to 5.

In the next field, the Ramp-Up Period, leave the the default value of 0 seconds. This property tells JMeter how long to delay between starting each user. For example, if you enter a Ramp-Up Period of 5 seconds, JMeter will finish starting all of your users by the end of the 5 seconds. So, if we have 5 users and a 5 second Ramp-Up Period, then the delay between starting users would be 1 second (5 users / 5 seconds = 1 user per second). If you set the value to 0, then JMeter will immediately start all of your users.

Finally, clear the checkbox labeled "Forever", and enter a value of 2 in the Loop Count field. This property tells JMeter how many times to repeat your test. If you enter a loop count value of 0, then JMeter will run your test only once. To have JMeter repeatedly run your Test Plan, select the Forever checkbox.

In most applications, you have to manually accept changes you make in a Control Panel. However, in JMeter, the Control Panel automatically accepts your changes as you make them. If you change the name of an element, the tree will be updated with the new text after you leave the Control Panel (for example, when selecting another tree element).

See Figure 5.2 for the completed Jakarta Users Thread Group.


Figure 5.2. Jakarta Users Thread Group


5.2 Adding Default HTTP Request Properties

Now that we have defined our users, it is time define the tasks that they will be performing. In this section, you will specify the default settings for your HTTP requests. And then, in section 5.3, you will add HTTP Request elements which use some of the default settings you specified here.

Begin by selecting the Jakarta Users element. From the Edit menu, choose Add --> Config Element --> HTTP Request Defaults. Then, select this new element to view its Control Panel (see Figure 5.3).


Figure 5.3. HTTP Request Defaults

Like most JMeter elements, the HTTP Request Defaults Control Panel has a name field that you can modify. In this example, leave this field with the default value.

Skip to the next field, which is the Web Server's Server Name/IP. For the Test Plan that you are building, all HTTP requests will be sent to the same Web server, jakarta.apache.org. Enter this domain name into the field. This is the only field that we will specify a default, so leave the remaining fields with their default values.

The HTTP Request Defaults element does not tell JMeter to send an HTTP request. It simply defines the default values that the HTTP Request elements use.

See Figure 5.4 for the completed HTTP Request Defaults element


Figure 5.4. HTTP Defaults for our Test Plan


5.3 Adding Cookie Support

Nearly all web testing should use cookie support, unless your application specifically doesn't use cookies. To add cookie support, simply add an HTTP Cookie Manager to each Thread Group in your test plan. This will ensure that each thread gets its own cookies, but shared across all HTTP Request objects.

To add the HTTP Cookie Manager , simply select the Thread Group , and choose Add --> Config Element --> HTTP Cookie Manager, either from the Edit Menu, or from the right-click pop-up menu.


5.4 Adding HTTP Requests

In our Test Plan, we need to make two HTTP requests. The first one is for the Jakarta home page (http://jakarta.apache.org/), and the second one is for the Project Guidelines page (http://jakarta.apache.org/site/guidelines.html).

JMeter sends requests in the order that you add them to the tree.

Start by adding the first HTTP Request to the Jakarta Users element (Add --> Generative Controller --> HTTP Request). Then, select the HTTP Request element in the tree and edit the following properties (see Figure 5.5):

  1. Change the Name field to "Home Page".
  2. Set the Path field to "/". Remember that you do not have to set the Server Name field because you already specified this value in the HTTP Request Defaults element.


Figure 5.5. HTTP Request for Jakarta Home Page

Next, add the second HTTP Request and edit the following properties (see Figure 5.56:

  1. Change the Name field to "Project Guidelines".
  2. Set the Path field to "/site/guidelines.html".


Figure 5.6. HTTP Request for Jakarta Project Guidelines Page


5.5 Adding a File Reporter to Store the Test Results

The final element you need to add to your Test Plan is a File Reporter Listener. This element is responsible for storing all of the results of your HTTP requests in a file.

Select the Jakarta Users element and add a File Reporter (Add --> Listener --> File Reporter). Next, you need to specify a directory and filename of the output file. You can either type it into the filename field, or select the Browse button and browse to a directory and then enter a filename. Leave all of the other fields with their default values (see Figure 5.7).


Figure 5.7. File Reporter Listener


5.6 Saving the Test Plan

Although it is not required, we recommend that you save the Test Plan to a file before running it. To save the Test Plan, select the Test Plan element in the tree. Then, select Save As from the File menu.

JMeter allows you to save the entire Test Plan tree or only a portion of it. JMeter uses the currently selected tree element and saves all elements located in that particular "branch" of the tree. Because you want to save all of the elements, you must select the Test Plan element before selecting File --> Save As.

You can also access the Save As menu item by selecting an element and then clicking your right mouse button.


5.7 Running the Test Plan

Before running the Test Plan, You have to manually open the File Reporter output file. Select the File Reporter tree element, and select the Open button, which is located at the bottom of the Control Panel.

From the Run menu, select Run.

The current version of JMeter does not let you know when it has finished running your Test Plan. You have to determine this by viewing the console output or the File Reporter output file.

Once JMeter has finished running your Test Plan, select Stop from the Run menu.

Next, you need to close the File Reporter output file. Select the File Reporter tree element, and select the Close button on the Control Panel.

To view the results, open the File Reporter output file in a text editor (see Figure 5.8). The format is [URL][space][Response time in milliseconds].

Alternatively, you can use the Data Analyzer for a graphical view of the data.


Figure 5.8. Test Plan Results



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