How to use JMeter (HTTP performance test)

Apache JMeter™

The Apache JMeter™ application is open source software, a 100% pure Java application designed to load test functional behavior and measure performance. It was originally designed for testing Web Applications but has since expanded to other test functions.

How to create first Jmeter Test

Step 1 - Start Jmeter

• Download JMeter from here.
• Extract the zip file in your preferred location
• In the bin folder there will be a jmeter.bat file, run it.
• The JMeter window will show up

Step 2 - Create a TestPlan

TestPlan its created to check performance of different pages under a single project

• Name the test plan. I have given MyFirstTestPlan 

Step 3 - Create a Thread Group (Users) 

Thread group is a way to introduce virtual users to a page to check the performance of the page.

• Follow this to create a thread group MyFirstTestPlan(right click) >Add>Threads(Users)>Thread Group
• In thread properties there will some parameters
• Number of thread is the number of users
• Ramp-up time is time in milliseconds to introduce a new user for the test.
• Loop count is the period for the test execution. If loop count is set forever then the test will execute until the user forcefully stop the execution

Step 4 - Add a Sampler (Http)

Sampler is used to run the test. We will use HTTP sampler as we'll be testing the performance of a website

• Follow this to create a sampler MyFirstRequest(right click) >Add>Sampler>HTTP request
• First name the sampler as MyFirstRequest
• Suppose we have to test the page https://qaprovider.com/discussions-club 
• Server name or IP for this page is qaprovider.com . Don't write https:// as it takes http as default protocol.
• Path is the exact page of the website we want to test i.e. /discussions-club
• Keep the rest of the parameters as it is

Step 5 - Add Listeners

There are many more listeners available for different tests. For performance of a http page we'll use two basic listeners i.e. results table and results tree. 

• Follow this to create a listener MyFirstRequest(right click) > Add > Listeners > View Results in Table & MyFirstRequest(right click) > Add > Listeners > View Results Tree
• Here in listeners we will be able to see the results of our test
• Details of both the listeners are provided in the later steps.

Step 6 - To Run the Test

• After creating samplers and listeners we are now ready to run our first test

• Click on the start button from the toolbar
• AT the top right corner we can see execution time,errors in execution,number of current users and the status of the test

Lets check the result table

Here we can see different parameters which we can compare with the expected result

• Sample time is the the taken to open the page totally
• Status is green means the test is successful
• Latency is the time in milliseconds to get the first byte of information from the page
• Connect time is the time  in milliseconds to connect to the website

Now check the Results Tree

Here we can see result of our test as well as the request we have sent to website and the response we get from the website.

This is the request we've sent using GET method(see in the sampler section)

And this is the response we get from the website

In this way we can test the performance of a webpage and see the results using JMeter. That's all about this article on how to use JMeter for testing a website using HTTP sampler. Hope this will help someone to get started with this tool.