Tip #16: How to save test results - part 2

In the previous part I wrote how to save the testing results using Simple Data Writer. There is one more way about how to do it - using the command line options.

So, if you want to run the test plan from file test.jmx and save the testing results to the file log.jtl, use the following command:

jmeter -n -t test.jmx -l log.jtl

You can configure how the result data will be saved by editing the file jmeter.properties (section "Results file configuration"). For example, if you want to save the results in CSV format you should edit the following property:

jmeter.save.saveservice.output_format=csv

This way is more powerful than the one described in the previous part (Simple Data Writer) because it allows you to set some additional options like CSV delimiter, timestamp format, etc. Sometimes it could be very helpful.

Tip #15: Hacking the response data size limit

View Results Tree is very useful listener especially when you are debugging your test plan. You can review the response data and ensure that your test plan works good. But sometimes you you can see a message in the beginning of the response data like "Response too large to be displayed. Size: 313674 > Max: 204800, Start of message:".

And unfortunately you are not able to see the whole response data. By default JMeter shows only first 200 Kb of response data. To resolve this problem you should edit the file jmeter.properties and uncomment the line:

view.results.tree.max_size=0

 This will disable response data size check at all.

After you have saved jmeter.properties you will never see this message again.

Tip #6: How to do the Test Plan more flexible using variables and properties

JMeter's variables and properties can do your Test Plan very flexible and prevent you from frequent modifications of the Test Plan. Just add the most frequently used options as variables on the Test Plan page and specify their values using "__P" function as on the screenshot below.

As you can see Test Plan can be executed with default values and at the same time if you need to modify some options you can pass them to Test Plan through the command line without the modification of the Test Plan.

Tip #4: Using JMeter properties

Sometimes I need to modify some parameters in the Test Plan and it requires me to start JMeter, open the Test Plan file and edit these parameters there. But it's better to use JMeter properties for this task. Look at the image below.

There are JMeter properties used as values of "Number of Threads (users)" and "Loop Count" options: ${__P(users)} and ${__P(count)}. Also we must add two parameters to JMeter command line:

jmeter -t TestPlan.jmx -Jusers=10 -Jcount=50

Now you can specify necessary parameters on the fly. I recommend you to use properties for the following options: number of users, loop count, host, port, results and data filenames, etc.