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<document id="$Id$">
<properties>
<title>Developer's guide: Dashboard generator</title>
</properties>
<body>
<section name="Dashboard generator">
<p>
This document describes the architecture and operation of the
dashboard generation engine.
</p>
<subsection name="1 Overview" anchor="overview">
<subsection name="1.1 Architecture" anchor="overview_architecture">
<p>
The dashboard generation engine is a modular feature based on
samples operation processes.
<br />
The processes can be represented by the following diagram:
</p>
<figure image="dashboard.png">Figure 1 - Dashboard generation overview</figure>
<p>
In this view, you can see:
<ul>
<li>
A source from where samples are produced (e.g. CSV file).
</li>
<li>
A chain of items, named consumers, that operate
on the samples
that go through the chain
(e.g. Filtering, sorting, calculation, &hellip;).
</li>
<li>
An execution context, named sample context, where the results
of consumers calculations are stored.
</li>
<li>
A set of items, named exporters, that use the content of the
sample context to generate a final result to the user (e.g.
HTML
page generation).
</li>
</ul>
</p>
</subsection>
<subsection name="1.2 Operation" anchor="overview_operation">
<p>
Before producing samples, the source is associated with a sample
context that will be used to store the consumers results.
</p>
<p>
Then a chain of consumers is built using JMeter properties
(prefixed by
<code>jmeter.reportgenerator</code>
) in order to enable the user to customize it.
</p>
<p>
When the source emits a sample, it sends it to the first consumer
of the chain.
<br />
The consumer can have different behaviors:
<ul>
<li>It can process the sample and send it to the next
consumers.</li>
<li>It cannot process the sample, so it stores it and
continues to
receive other samples. When it can process the
stored samples, it
does so and sends the whole to the next
consumers (e.g. sorting).</li>
<li>It can choose to discard the sample (e.g.
filtering).</li>
</ul>
When the source stops producing samples, consumers can publish a
result in the sample context.
<br />
The latter is send to the set of exporters in order to create
results used by final user.
</p>
</subsection>
</subsection>
<subsection name="2 Consumers chain details" anchor="consumers_chain">
<p>
</p>
<figure image="chain.png">Figure 2 - Consumers chain</figure>
<p>
The chain begins with a normalizer consumer in charge of
standardizing the timestamp of each sample because JMeter allows
different timestamp formats (See
<code>jmeter.save.saveservice.timestamp_format</code>
).
</p>
<p>
Then two consumers have to define the start time and end time of
the load tests.
</p>
<p>
At the same level a filter consumer keeps or
discards samples
depending on the
<code>jmeter.reportgenerator.sample_filter</code>
property.
</p>
<p> Another filter is plugged after to discard controller
samples.
</p>
<p>
Depending on the property
<code>jmeter.reportgenerator.graph.&lt;graph_id&gt;.exclude_controllers</code>
, the graph consumer matching the
<code>graph_id</code>
identifier will be
set at position
<code>A</code>
or
<code>B</code>
.
</p>
</subsection>
<subsection name="3 Template processing" anchor="process_template">
<subsection name="3.1 Overview" anchor="template_overview">
<p>
The default exporter of the generator use the template engine
<a href="http://freemarker.org/">freemarker</a>
to produce html pages.
<br />
Template files are located in the template
directory defined by
the JMeter property
"<code>jmeter.reportgenerator.template_dir</code>"
and have
the extension "<code>.fmkr</code>".
</p>
<p>
The graph references in the template
files use the syntax :
<code>${&lt;graph_id&gt;.&lt;value&gt;}</code> where :
<dl>
<dt><code>graph_id</code></dt>
<dd>is the identifier of the graph matching the JMeter
properties definition</dd>
<dt><code>value</code></dt>
<dd>is the name of the value where data are stored.</dd>
</dl>
</p>
<p>
Each graph produces the following values :
<dl>
<dt><code>maxX</code>:</dt>
<dd>The maximum abscissa of the graph (double).</dd>
<dt><code>maxY</code>:</dt>
<dd>The maximum ordinate of the graph (double).</dd>
<dt><code>minX</code>:</dt>
<dd>The minimum abscissa of the graph (double).</dd>
<dt><code>minY</code>:</dt>
<dd>The maximum ordinate of the graph (double).</dd>
<dt><code>title</code>:</dt>
<dd>The title of the graph (string).</dd>
<dt><code>values</code>:</dt>
<dd>A JSON object representing the data of the graph series
(string).</dd>
</dl>
</p>
<!-- <note> -->
<!-- Graph can provide some other values, see -->
<!-- <a href="#default_graphs">Default -->
<!-- graph section</a> -->
<!-- to get the list of these values for default graphs. -->
<!-- </note> -->
</subsection>
<subsection name="3.2 Customization" anchor="template_customization">
<p>You can customize the dashboard generation by modifying the
files in the
template directory.
</p>
<p>
If you want to add a graph to the dashboard,
you have to
<a href="#configure_graph">declare it among the JMeter properties</a>
and use its references in the template files.
</p>
<p>If you want to remove
a graph from the dashboard, you must remove
all its references in
the template
files and clear JMeter
properties.</p>
</subsection>
</subsection>
<subsection name="4 Limitations and Outlooks" anchor="outlooks">
<ul>
<li>
<p>Till now, there is only one sample source implementation which
is strongly coupled with the CSV file format, we should allow
other kinds of source by using a sample source interface.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
To add customized graph, users must extend the
<code>AbstractGraphConsumer</code>
or use one of the implementations provided
in the package
<code>org.apache.jmeter.report.processor.graph.impl</code>
.
This could be enhanced by making concrete the base class and
give
public access to additional properties (like selectors). But
first
we have to resolve the issue of shared properties (e.g. over
time
graphs must dispatch the same granularity property to the
keys
selector and time rate aggregator).
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
The chain building is dispatched between the
<code>org.apache.jmeter.report.dashboard.ReportGenerator.generate</code>
method
and the implementation of the consumers. So the code in
charge of
the building is split and furthermore some consumers can
be
redundant and harm the performance of report generation, not
load testing.
</p>
<p>
E.g. Each
<code>LatencyVSRequestGraphConsumer</code>
and
<code>ResponseTimeVSRequestGraphConsumer</code>
instances use an embedded
consumer that could be shared depending
on
<code>granularity</code>
and
<code>exclude_controllers</code>
properties.
</p>
<p>
So we should enable the consumers to define the chain they
require and provide a single chain builder that processes these
chain requirements to instantiate needed consumers on demand.
I.e.
for the same chain requirement declaration, the same consumer
instances are used. Otherwise if the declaration differs, a new
branch of consumers is created.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
The graphs (DOM elements) in the generated HTML page should be
dynamically build in order to match the graphs defined in JMeter
properties.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Some improvements can be done on the generated html pages:
<ul>
<li>Using a single page, and hide graphs depending on the
navigation menu selection.</li>
<li>Adding a loading animation when graphs are build or
refreshed.</li>
<li>Let the user determine if a graph is zoomable using a JMeter
property.</li>
<li>
Using the
<code>jquery.plot.setData()</code>
method to handle series
activation/deactivation rather than
rebuild the graph.
</li>
</ul>
</p>
</li>
</ul>
</subsection>
</section>
</body>
</document>