9 JMeter drawbacks SmartMeter.io can fix
Recently, we have discovered an interesting JMeter rant. Some of those JMeter shortcomings mentioned in the article were bugging us as well which is one of the reasons why we created SmartMeter.io.
The original article: A Jmeter Rant From A Self-Professed Performance Engineer Snob
In this article we present how SmartMeter.io can help overcome many of those troubles. We hope you’ll find these tips helpful!
All bullet points marked “JMeter rant” are excerpts from the mentioned article.
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JMeter rant: “Wait, What?! I have to drag a “View Results Tree” into my thread group Before I record in order to save the responses of the initial recording? And, if I click the “sweep” button these original recordings are Gone, like forever? And there goes my best evidence in locating the dynamic parameters which I need to handle.”
No, you don’t! SmartMeter.io Recorder captures full requests and responses into a special component called Recording log. It contains all requests and responses recorded with the Recorder and a number of tools for easier navigation.
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JMeter rant: “Um, Is there no nifty search button to locate a unique string in each separate recorded request or response?”
Yes, there is. SmartMeter.io Recording log can search in captured requests and responses.
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JMeter rant: “If there is a blaring 500 due to not handling dynamic content, I want a red light and the exact request to LIGHT up like a light bulb!”
SmartMeter.io pops up an Error window when the first error occurs. There is also an error counter directly on the toolbar, right next to the Test runtime (also very useful).
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JMeter rant: “Where’s the regular expression GUI?? You know, the one which creates the exact regular expression needed to extract the unique string of content? Don’t MAKE me figure out this code all by myself.”
We don’t have a GUI for Regexes but we offer a 95 % cases better solution called et@sm - Boundary body extractor whichs allows to extract desired values much easier while consuming less system resources (CPU and memory).
It is designed for easy and fast obtaining of a string using the left and right borders. If an item of the left or right border is not defined, it saves an entire content of a report.
You can read more in the documention.
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JMeter rant: “What do you mean I can’t search ALL of the responses for a string. Only the one I select? If I KNEW the right response, I wouldn’t need to search! Help me. I don’t know where that pesky dynamic value is located!”
Again, SmartMeter.io Recording log solves this issue. After selecting this component a tree containing all recorded requests is displayed. It is then possible to display headers and body for each request. It also provides a number of tools for easier navigation.
Learn more in the documentation.
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JMeter rant: “Where are the framework engines so I don’t need to manually extract and insert variables every time I create a new script? Where’s the automation?”
SmarMeter.io comes with a built-in feature called automatic correlations. Automatic correlations extend the capability of Replacing dynamic values in requests by automatically extracting the dynamic parts from a response. All future occurrences of such values in requests are replaced with a placeholder (variable).
Once set up, correlating of dynamic requests happens while recording. No need to do it manually again and again after each script re-recording.
Also read: Step-by-step automatic correlations tutorial
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JMeter rant: “Remember to manage the cookies by dragging this into the top of the script? La la la, I can’t be bothered with Cookies.”
SmartMeter.io Recorder inserts Cookie Manager automatically to each test.
Recorder is a simple way to create a test script by just clicking in a browser. Find out how.
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JMeter rant: “Oh, now I want to emulate a realistic think time? I’m NOT going to add a bleaping timer. I need this to be REALISTIC and Easy.”
SmartMeter.io introduces et@sm - ThinkTime. A simple timer which does precisely what a person would expect it to do – wait for the given period of time at the precise position in the test plan.
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JMeter rant: “I’m expected to deliver in-depth analysis with these output graphs? Where’s the granularity which gives us the Clarity?"
A comprehensive test report capturing all relevant metrics of a performance test is automatically generated after each test.
Test report contains summary data, graphs, backups and overview of failed requests. The content is customizable using SmartMeter Configurator or by directly modifying the report template (located in programs/SmartMeter/extras/report/report.html), which is a great way how to personalize the report.
Hope this short article could help. At SmartMeter.io we've also grown up having jMeter for breakfast, lunch and dinner (and the 2nd midnight dinner too) and while we love jMeter for what it offers in performance testing, we were often annoyed, like Rebecca, by having to waste time on things that could be done smarter, faster, more conveniently and intuitively or that could be even fully automated. That was our motivation behind creating SmartMeter.io where we focused exactly on eliminating these jMeter weaknesses. This gives testers and developers using SmartMeter.io time to focus on what matters most in performance tuning and testing - getting insightful testing outcomes and making sense of them.
If you are a jMeter enthusiast or just have to use it in a project, we invite you to download SmartMeter.io and give it a try. While using your jMeter knowledge and familiar UI, you'll be prone to make less mistakes designing test, get better feel of the performance weaknesses of your app or system and move on faster to cure them.
