Using Badboy with JMeter

While Badboy offers some elementary load testing features, to do real stress testing you often need much more. Rather than trying to offer all of the features of a complete load testing product, Badboy integrates with a free, open source product called JMeter. JMeter is run by the Apache Software Foundation and is free and open source.

Badboy integrates with JMeter by letting you save your scripts in the JMeter file format so that you can open them and run them in JMeter. This support means that you can use Badboy to record your scripts to do functional testing, and then save the same script as a JMeter file to do performance testing using the full power of JMeter!

Exporting a script in JMeter format is very simple. Simply record your script and navigate to File->Export to JMeter

Limitations

There are, unfortunately some limitations to Badboy's JMeter support. These limitations exist because the features of JMeter and Badboy do not exactly match each other and in some cases it is not possible to export items directly.

The following limitations should be noted:

• JScript cannot be exported. JMeter cannot run JScript because it does not have an embedded browser window. JScript items will be ignored in the script when you do your export.
• Data sources are not exported. JMeter has its own concept to replace Data Sources. When you export your file, all of your variables will be created in JMeter as "User Parameters". You can, if you wish, provide a file for JMeter to read variable values from. Please read the JMeter help on the "HTTP User Parameter Modifier" to see how to do this.
• Increments are not exported. JMeter does not use increments to modify variables. Rather, variables are automatically modified by the iteration of a loop and the presence of a User Parameter Modifier.
• Navigations are not exported. Navigations also rely on having a browser window present and thus cannot be directly supported by JMeter. You can simulate them if you wish by using Jmeter features.
• Assertions are exported but may need adjustment. Badboy will attempt to export Assertions to JMeter but due to small differences in how JMeter and Badboy handle Assertions it is possible that they will not always work the same way. Badboy automatically scans for these problems and will alert you with a message after export containing details about what may need to be adjusted.

Important Note

Badboy's integration with JMeter is entirely supported by Badboy Software. If you have issues with JMeter support, please find help from Badboy's support channels (for example, the Badboy Forum). Please do not bother the JMeter mailing lists with Badboy questions!