What is JMeter?

JMeter is Open Source testing software. It is 100% pure Java application for load and performance testing.

JMeter is software allowing loading test or performance oriented business (functional) test on different protocols or technologies. Stefano Mazzocchi of the Apache Software Foundation was the original developer of JMeter. He wrote it primarily to test the performance of Apache JServ (Now called as Apache Tomcat project). Apache later redesigned JMeter to enhance the GUI and to add functional-testing capabilities.

This is a Java desktop application with a graphical interface using the Swing graphical API, can therefore run on any environment / workstation accepting a Java virtual machine, for example: Windows, Linux, Mac, etc.

Why do we Use JMeter?

JMeter is designed to cover categories of tests like load, functional, performance, regression, etc., and it requires JDK 5 or higher.

Installing Jmeter

Before installing JMeter we have to make sure that java is present in our machine.
Then we need to download the JMeter zip file and unzip the file. We need not install anything in order to invoke JMeter we just need to click on the Jmeter.bat file present in the bin folder.

How do we Run JMeter?

As we have already discussed earlier, JMeter runs on different environment we have different ways to invoke JMeter in different environments.

OS	Output
Windows	jmeter.bat
Linux	jmeter.sh
Mac	jmeter.sh

Once clicked on the above file, after a short pause, the Jmeter GUI should appear which is a Swing application as seen in the image below

This is the main page and default page of the tool.
This is a Jmeter window having nothing added yet. Details of the above window are:

·         Test Plan node is where the real test plan is kept.

·         Workbench node simply provides a place to temporarily store test elements while not in use, for copy/paste purposes. When you save your test plan, Workbench items are not saved with it.

POC:

A test plan describes a series of steps JMeter will execute when run. A complete test plan will consist of one or more Thread Groups, logic controllers, sample generating controllers, listeners, timers, assertions, and configuration elements.

Apache JMeter HTTP(S) Test Script Recorder

1.      Select “Test Plan” on the tree

2.      Right click on the “Test Plan” and add a new thread group: Add > Threads (Users) >Thread Group

3.      Select the Thread Group

4.       Right click “Add -> Config Element -> HTTP Request Defaults”

5.      In new HTTP Request Defaults element: Server name – enter “google”

6.      Path – leave blank

7.      Right click on the “Thread Group” and add a recording controller: Add > Logic Controller->Recording Controller

8.      Next, select WorkBench

9.      Right click on WorkBench and add the recorder: Add -> Non-Test Elements -> HTTP(S)Test Script Recorder

10.  On HTTP(S) Test Script Recorder, click the “Add” button in “URL Patterns to Include”. This will create a blank entry; enter “.*\.html”.

11.  Right click on “HTTP(S) Test Script Recorder” and add a listener: Add -> Listener -> View Results Tree

               

12.   Return to HTTP(S) Test Script Recorder, and click the “Start” button at the bottom This will start the JMeter proxy server which is used to intercept the browser requests.

 

Configure browser to use the JMeter Proxy

At this point, JMeter's proxy is running. For this exercise, we will use Firefox to
view some pages on the Google website.
Start Iceweasel/Firefox, but do not close JMeter.

13.    From the tool bar, click “Edit -> Preferences” (or “Tools > options”).

14.   Select the “Advanced” tab, and “Network” tab

15.  Click “Settings” button

16.   On the new pop-up, check “Manual proxy configuration”. The address and port fields should be enabled now.

17.    Address – enter “localhost” or the IP address of your system

18.   Port – enter “8080”.

19.    Check “Use this proxy server for all protocols”

20.   Click "OK" button

21.    Click “OK” button again. This should return you to the browser

Record the Navigation

22.    With browser, in the “Address” bar at the top, enter “http://google.com” and hit the “enter” key.

23.    Click on a few links in Google page.

24.    Close the browser and bring up the JMeter window.

25.   Expand the thread group and there should be several samplers. At this point, the test plan can be saved as is "sampletest.jmx". If you forget to add default HTTP Request settings, you will have to manually delete the server name, and port.

26.   Select “Thread Group"

27.    Right click “Add -> Listener -> Summary Report” to add an summary listener.

28.   The summary listener will show some basic statistics.

29.    Select “Thread Group”

30.    Number of Threads – enter “5”

31.    Ramp up Period – do not change

32.   Loop Count – enter 100

Start the test

At this point, we are ready to run our test plan and see what happens. Save the test plan.

When you're ready to run the test.

1. Run -> Start

Before  start the test, select “Summary Report”. As the test runs, the statistics will change

until the test is done. At the end of the test, the summary report should look like this.