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If you are not recording the data to file, this option makes no difference.

ThreadGroup

Thread group elements are the beginning points of any test plan. All elements of a test plan must be under a thread group. As the name implies, the thread group element controls the number of threads JMeter will use to execute your test. The controls for a thread group allow you to:

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Version 1.9 introduces a test run scheduler. Click the checkbox at the bottom of the Thread Group panel to reveal two extra fields in which you can enter the start and end times of the run. When the test is started, JMeter will wait if necessary until the start-time has been reached. At the end of each cycle, JMeter checks if the end-time has been reached, and if so, the run is stopped, otherwise the test is allowed to continue until the iteration limit is reached.

Controllers

Controllers let you modify the ordering and flow of a JMeter test script. Controllers may have as child elements any of the following: Samplers (requests), Configuration Elements, and other Logic Controllers. Controllers can change the order of requests coming from their child elements. They can modify the requests themselves, cause JMeter to repeat requests, etc.

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The last element is a HTTP Cookie Manager . A Cookie Manager should be added to all web tests - otherwise JMeter will ignore cookies. By adding it at the Thread Group level, we ensure that all HTTP requests will share the same cookies.unmigrated-wiki-markup

Controllers can be combined to achieve various results. See the list of built-in \[wiki:Self:UserManual/Reference#controllers Controllers\].

Samplers

Samplers tell JMeter to send requests to a server. JMeter currently has the following samplers:

• FTP Request
• HTTP Request
• JDBC Request
• Java object request
• LDAP Request
• SOAP/XML-RPC Requestunmigrated-wiki-markup
• \[:../Reference/WebServiceRequest: WebService (SOAP) Request (Alpha Code)\] \\
  

Each sampler has several properties you can set. You can further customize a sampler by adding one or more Configuration Elements to it. Also, note that JMeter sends requests in the order that you add them to the tree.

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If you are interested in having JMeter perform basic validation on the response of your request, add an Assertion to the Request controller. For example, in stress testing a web application, the server may return a successful "HTTP Response" code, but the page may have errors on it or may be missing sections. You could add assertions to check for certain HTML tags, common error strings, and so on. JMeter lets you create these assertions using regular expressions.unmigrated-wiki-markup

\[wiki:Self:UserManual/Reference#samplers JMeter's built-in samplers\]samplers

Listeners

Listeners provide access to the information JMeter gathers about the test cases while JMeter runs. The simplest listener, the Graph Results listener plots the response times on a graph. Listeners provide a graphical view of the data that JMeter generates.

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Listeners can be added anywhere in the test. They will collect data only from elements at or below their level.unmigrated-wiki-markup

There are several interesting \[wiki:Self:UserManual/Reference#listeners listeners\] that come with JMeter.

Timers

By default, a JMeter thread sends requests without pausing between each request. We recommend that you specify a delay by adding one of the available timers to your Thread Group. If you do not add a delay, JMeter could overwhelm your server by making too many requests in a very short amount of time.

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If you choose to add more than one timer to a Thread Group, JMeter takes the sum of the timers and pauses for that amount of time.

Assertions

Assertions allow you to assert facts about responses received from the server being tested. Using an assertion, you can essentially "test" that your application is returning the results you expect it to.

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To view the assertion results, add an Assertion Listener to the Thread Group.

Configuration Elements

A configuration element works closely with a Sampler. Although it does not send requests (except for HTTP Proxy Server ), it can add to or modify requests.

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Also, a configuration element inside a tree branch has higher precedence than the same element in a "parent" branch. For example, we defined two HTTP Request Defaults elements, "Web Defaults 1" and "Web Defaults 2". Since we placed "Web Defaults 1" inside a Loop Controller, only "Web Page 2" can access it. The other HTTP requests will use "Web Defaults 2", since we placed it in the Thread Group (the "parent" of all other branches).

http://jakarta.apache.org/jmeter/images/screenshots/http-config/http-config-example.png BR

Figure 1 - Test Plan Showing Accessability of Configuration Elements

Pre-Processor Elements

A Pre-Processor executes some action prior to a Sampler Request being made. If a Pre-Processor is attached to a Sampler element, then it will execute just prior to that sampler element running. A Pre-Processor is most often used to modify the settings of a Sample Request just before it runs, or to update variables that aren't extracted from response text. See the scoping rules for more details on when Pre-Processors are executed.

Post-Processor Elements

A Post-Processor executes some action after a Sampler Request has been made. If a Post-Processor is attached to a Sampler element, then it will execute just after that sampler element runs. A Post-Processor is most often used to process the response data, often to extract values from it. See the scoping rules for more details on when Pre-Processors are executed.