User's Manual: Generating Dashboard Report

14. Generating Report Dashboard

JMeter supports dashboard report generation to get graphs and statistics from a test plan.

This chapter describes how to configure and use the generator.

14.1 Overview

The dashboard generator is a modular extension of JMeter. Its default behavior is to read and process samples from CSV files to generate HTML files containing graph views. It can generate the report at end of a load test or on demand.

This report provides the following metrics:

• APDEX (Application Performance Index) table that computes for every transaction the APDEX based on configurable values for tolerated and satisfied thresholds
• A request summary graph showing the Success and failed requests (Transaction Controller Sample Results are not taken into account) percentage:
• A Statistics table providing in one table a summary of all metrics per transaction including 3 configurable percentiles:
• An error table providing a summary of all errors and their proportion in the total requests:
• A Top 5 Errors by Sampler table providing for every Sampler (excluding Transaction Controller by default) the top 5 Errors:
• Zoomable chart where you can check/uncheck every transaction to show/hide it for: - Response times Over Time (Includes Transaction Controller Sample Results): - Response times Percentiles Over Time (successful responses only): - Active Threads Over Time: - Bytes throughput Over Time (Ignores Transaction Controller Sample Results): - Latencies Over Time (Includes Transaction Controller Sample Results): - Connect Time Over Time (Includes Transaction Controller Sample Results): - Hits per second (Ignores Transaction Controller Sample Results): - Response codes per second (Ignores Transaction Controller Sample Results): - Transactions per second (Includes Transaction Controller Sample Results): - Response Time vs Request per second (Ignores Transaction Controller Sample Results): - Latency vs Request per second (Ignores Transaction Controller Sample Results): - Response time Overview (Excludes Transaction Controller Sample Results): - Response times percentiles (Includes Transaction Controller Sample Results): - Times vs Threads (Includes Transaction Controller Sample Results): :::note In distributed mode, this graph shows a horizontal axis the number of threads for 1 server. It’s a current limitation ::: - Response Time Distribution (Includes Transaction Controller Sample Results):

14.2 Configuring Dashboard Generation

Dashboard generation uses JMeter properties to customize the report. Some properties are used for general settings and others are used for a particular graph configuration or exporter configuration.

Note

All report generator properties can be found in file reportgenerator.properties. To customize these properties, you should copy them in user.properties file and modify them.

14.2.1 Requirements

14.2.1.1 Filtering configuration

Ensure you set property jmeter.reportgenerator.exporter.html.series_filter to keep only the transactions you want in the report if you don’t want everything.

In the example below you must only modify Search|Order, keep the rest:

jmeter.reportgenerator.exporter.html.series_filter=^(Search|Order)(-success|-failure)?$

14.2.1.2 Save Service configuration

To enable the generator to operate, the CSV file generated by JMeter must include certain required data which are correct by default in the last live version of JMeter.

If you modified those settings, check that your JMeter configuration follows these settings (these are the defaults):

jmeter.save.saveservice.bytes = true
# Only available with HttpClient4
#jmeter.save.saveservice.sent_bytes=true
jmeter.save.saveservice.label = true
jmeter.save.saveservice.latency = true
jmeter.save.saveservice.response_code = true
jmeter.save.saveservice.response_message = true
jmeter.save.saveservice.successful = true
jmeter.save.saveservice.thread_counts = true
jmeter.save.saveservice.thread_name = true
jmeter.save.saveservice.time = true
jmeter.save.saveservice.connect_time = true
jmeter.save.saveservice.assertion_results_failure_message = true
# the timestamp format must include the time and should include the date.
# For example the default, which is milliseconds since the epoch:
jmeter.save.saveservice.timestamp_format = ms
# Or the following would also be suitable
# jmeter.save.saveservice.timestamp_format = yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss

14.2.1.3 Transaction Controller configuration

If you use Transaction Controllers, to ensure most accurate results:

• uncheck the box (this is the default configuration): Generate parent sample
• If Transaction Controller is used as a Container to represent a request for an HTML Page that will trigger Ajax calls and you only want in your report the Transaction Controller, then Right click on the node and Apply Naming Policy You will obtain this:

14.2.2 General settings

Note

All properties must be prefixed with

jmeter.reportgenerator.

Name	Required	Description
report_title	No	Title used in the generated report. Default: “Apache JMeter Dashboard”
date_format	No	Default date format from SimpleDateFormat Java API with Locale.ENGLISH. Default Date format is yyyyMMddHHmmss Useful when you would like to generate a report after the load test, and the results file contains timestamp in another time zone. In this case the date format must include the time zone (zzz). :::note If jmeter.save.saveservice.timestamp_format does not contain year then use 1970 as year ::: Example: dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss zzz
start_date	No	Start date of the range of data to use for report. Date format is defined by date_format property. Default: not filled which means data range will be used from the beginning
end_date	No	End date of the range of data to use for report. Date format is defined by date_format property. Default: not filled which means data range will be used until the end
overall_granularity	No	Granularity of over time graphs. Data is aggregated to have 1 minute ticks. :::note Granularity must be higher than 1 second (1000) otherwise throughput graphs will be incorrect ::: Default: “60000” (1 minute)
apdex_satisfied_threshold	No	Sets the satisfaction threshold for the APDEX calculation (in ms). Default: 500
apdex_tolerated_threshold	No	Sets the tolerance threshold for the APDEX calculation (in ms). Default: 1500
jmeter.reportgenerator.apdex_per_transaction	No	Sets satisfaction and tolerance threshold to specific samples. Use sample names or regular expression. Format is `sample_name:satisfaction
sample_filter	No	Sets the filter of samples to keep for generating graphs and statistics. An empty value deactivates the filtering. Format: Regular expression. Default: “”
temp_dir	No	Sets the temporary directory used by the generation process if it needs file I/O operations. Default: temp
statistic_window	No	Sets the size of the sliding window used by percentile evaluation. Caution: higher value provides a better accuracy but needs more memory. Default: 20000

Note

Percentiles used by Summary table and Percentile graphs can be adjusted to different values by using the 3 properties:

• aggregate_rpt_pct1: Defaults to 90
• aggregate_rpt_pct2: Defaults to 95
• aggregate_rpt_pct3: Defaults to 99

Note

Relative paths are built from the JMeter working directory (default: bin).

Note

You can define some overall properties which are used by the generator configuration. These properties are freely named but you should use the prefix

jmeter.reportgenerator.

in order to avoid property overlap.

E.g.:

Property definition: : ``` jmeter.reportgenerator.overall_granularity=60000

**Property reference:**
: ```bash
\${jmeter.reportgenerator.overall_granularity}

Note

The calculated percentiles might differ from those from the Aggregate Report in the GUI. This is because the dashboard uses a different formula to estimate the percentiles. It will be most observable when the distribution of the timing values is spread too wide. That can happen if too few samples were taken. If you want the numbers to be more or less the same as those from the Aggregate Report, you will have to switch the used estimator from LEGACY to R_3, by specifying the JMeter property backend_metrics_percentile_estimator=R_3 (this time without any prefix).

14.2.3 Graph settings

Each property describing a graph configuration must be prefixed with

jmeter.reportgenerator.graph.

followed by the graph identifier.

14.2.3.1 General properties

All graphs support these properties:

Name	Required	Description
classname	Yes	The fully qualified class name of the graph The class of the graph must extend org.apache.jmeter.report.processor.graph.AbstractGraphConsumer. See Default graph section for more details.
exclude_controllers	No	Defines whether the graph discards controller samples. Default: false
title	No	Sets the title of the graph. Default: “”

14.2.3.2 Specific properties

Specific graph properties must use the prefix:

jmeter.reportgenerator.graph.<graph_id>.property

The name of the property will be mapped using camel case transformation and the matching method of the class will be called with the property value as argument.

E.g.:

jmeter.reportgenerator.graph.<graph_id>.property.set_granularity=150

induces the call of the method setGranularity(150) on the instance of the graph.

14.2.4 Export settings

Each property describing an exporter configuration must be prefixed with

jmeter.reportgenerator.exporter

followed by the exporter identifier.

14.2.4.1 General properties

All exporters support these properties:

Name	Required	Description
classname	Yes	The fully qualified class name of the exporter The class of the exporter must implement org.apache.jmeter.report.dashboard.DataExporter .
filters_only_sample_series	No	Defines whether series_filter (see below) apply only on sample series. Default: true
series_filter	No	Sets the filter of series. An empty value deactivates the filtering. If not empty, regex should end with `(-success
show_controllers_only	No	Defines whether only controller series are shown. Default: false

14.2.4.2 Specific properties

Specific exporter properties must use the prefix

jmeter.reportgenerator.exporter.<exporter_id>.property

Name	Required	Description
output_dir	No	Sets the destination directory for generated html pages. Default: report-output
template_dir	No	Sets the source directory of template files from which the html pages are generated. Default: report-template

14.2.4.3 Graph properties

Graph properties allow exporters to overwrite some graph data.

They must use the prefix:

jmeter.reportgenerator.exporter.<exporter_id>.graph_options.<graph_id>

Name	Required	Description
minX	No	Sets the minimum abscissa for the graph.
maxX	No	Sets the maximum abscissa for the graph.
minY	No	Sets the minimum ordinate for the graph.
maxY	No	Sets the maximum ordinate for the graph.

14.2.4.4 Filtering mechanisms

Unlike the filtering in the section General properties which discards data before calculations, here the filtering is performed after the calculations and serves to simplify the final report.

The property series_filter allows to filter which series of a graph (resp. rows of a summary table) using regular expression that matches the name of the series (resp. of the row). However, even if the name of the series (resp. row) matches the filter, the setting of the other filtering properties can lead to its discarding. Conversely if there is no matching, the other properties can allow to keep it.

The following tables show how the setting of filtering properties works.

filter_only_sample_series	Graph/Summary supports controllers discrimination	The current series is a controller series	show_controllers_only	Discarded
False	False	-	False	False
True
-	False
True
True	False	False
True
True	False
True
True	False	-	False
True
-	False
True
True	False	False
True	True
True	False	False
True

filter_only_sample_series	Graph/Summary supports controllers discrimination	Kept
False	False	False
True
True	False	True
True	False

Note

Incorrect filter configuration can lead to generate empty graphs/summary tables:

• If you set the property show_controllers_only and the graph is configured to exclude controllers.
• If the property series_filter matches none series.

14.2.5 Sample configuration

You can copy the following configuration to your user.properties file in order to test the report generator.

# Configure this property to change the report title
#jmeter.reportgenerator.report_title=Apache JMeter Dashboard

# Change this parameter if you want to change the granularity of over time graphs.
# Granularity must be higher than 1000 (1second) otherwise Throughput graphs will be incorrect
# see Bug 60149
#jmeter.reportgenerator.overall_granularity=60000

 Change this parameter if you want to change the granularity of Response time distribution
# Set to 100 ms by default
#jmeter.reportgenerator.graph.responseTimeDistribution.property.set_granularity=100

# Change this parameter if you want to override the APDEX satisfaction threshold.
jmeter.reportgenerator.apdex_satisfied_threshold=1500

# Change this parameter if you want to override the APDEX tolerance threshold.
jmeter.reportgenerator.apdex_tolerated_threshold=3000

# Sets the destination directory for generated html pages, it is better to change it for every generation
# This will override the value set through -o command line option
# jmeter.reportgenerator.exporter.html.property.output_dir=/tmp/test-report

# Indicates which graph series are filtered (regular expression)
# In the below example we filter on Search and Order samples
# Note that the end of the pattern should always include (-success|-failure)?$
# Transactions per second suffixes Transactions with "-success" or "-failure" depending
# on the result
#jmeter.reportgenerator.exporter.html.series_filter=^(Search|Order)(-success|-failure)?$

# Indicates whether series filter apply only on sample series
jmeter.reportgenerator.exporter.html.filters_only_sample_series=true

Note

Adapt the parameter output_dir to your environment.

This configuration allows to generate a report where:

• Over time graphs have a time granularity equal to 1 minute.
• The satisfaction threshold for ADPEX calculation is 1 second and half.
• The tolerance threshold for ADPEX calculation is 3 seconds.
• The HTML files are generated in the directory /tmp/test-report.
• Only series which the name begins with “s0” or “s1” are shown.
• The previous filter only applies to graphs (resp. summary tables) where the series (resp. rows) match samples

14.3 Generating reports

The report generation can be done as a stand alone process from a sample log file or automatically after running load test.

14.3.1 Generation from an existing sample CSV log file

Use the following command:

jmeter -g <log file> -o <Path to output folder>

14.3.2 Generation after load test

Use the following command:

jmeter -n -t <test JMX file> -l <test log file> -e -o <Path to output folder>

14.3.3 Generation using GUI Tools menu

You can generate the HTML report using menu item Tools → Generate HTML report: Figure 14.1. HTML Report Dialog Menu

For each parameters see the following table :

Name	Required	Description
Results file (csv or jtl)	Yes	The CSV output of a tes run
user.properties file	Yes	The user.properties file used to run the load test
Output directory	No	The directory where you want the report to be created(must be empty)

If no output directory is defined, the controller will use \${JMETER_HOME}/bin/report-output.

You then only have to click on the Generate report button and wait for an information dialog to appear

Note

If report generation takes more than two minutes, adjust the property generate_report_ui.generation_timeout

14.4 Default graphs

Note

Due to limitations of this early version, each default graph must be declared in JMeter properties. Otherwise, the graph views will be empty.

All graphs provided by this report engine are located in the package org.apache.jmeter.report.processor.graph.impl

The dashboard generator provides the following graph classes:

Graph	Description	Supports controller discrimination
ActiveThreadsGraphConsumer	This graph represents the number of active threads over time.	False
BytesThroughputGraphConsumer	This graph represents the throughput of received and sent data over time.	False
CodesPerSecondGraphConsumer	This graph represents the rate of response codes over time.	False
HitsPerSecondGraphConsumer	This graph represents the rate of finished requests over time.	False
LatencyOverTimeGraphConsumer	This graph represents the average latency time over time.	True
ConnectTimeOverTimeGraphConsumer	This graph represents the connection time over time.	True
LatencyVSRequestGraphConsumer	This graph represents the median and average latency time depending on the number of current requests.	False
ResponseTimeDistributionGraphConsumer	This graph represents the distribution of the samples depending on their elapsed time and name.	True
ResponseTimeOverTimeGraphConsumer	This graph represents the average response time over time.	True
ResponseTimePercentilesGraphConsumer	This graph represents the percentiles of the elapsed time over time.	True
ResponseTimePercentilesOverTimeGraphConsumer	This graph shows Min/Max and 3 percentiles response time over time.	True
ResponseTimeVSRequestGraphConsumer	This graph represents the median and average response time depending on the number of current requests.	False
TimeVSThreadGraphConsumer	This graph represents the average response time depending on the number of current active threads. The *-aggregated series represent the average response time regardless of the number of current active threads. These series are represented by a sole point because the number of current active threads is aggregated to an average. So for these points: - The abscissa is the average of the number of current active threads when samples of the series finish. - The ordinate is the average of the response time for the samples of the series regardless of the number of current active threads.	True
TransactionsPerSecondGraphConsumer	This graph represents the rate of transaction by sample name over time.	True

14.5 Generating customs graphs over time

You can graph any sample_variable in CSV over time, you can customize your graphs by settings their properties in the user.properties file.

They must use the id prefix custom_:

jmeter.reportgenerator.graph.custom_<your_graph_name_id>.property.<your_option_name>

To specify that this graph is a customized one :

jmeter.reportgenerator.graph.custom_<your_graph_name_id>.classname=org.apache.jmeter.report.processor.graph.impl.CustomGraphConsumer

Name	Required	Description
set_X_Axis	Yes	Sets the X axis name of the graph.
set_Y_Axis	Yes	Sets the Y axis name of the graph.
set_Content_Message	Yes	Sets the displayed message when the cursor is on a point of the graph.
set_Sample_Variable_Name	Yes	Name of the column you want to graph in the csv.

Here is an example of a custom graph configuration that graphs the variable ts-hit:

jmeter.reportgenerator.graph.custom_testGraph.classname=org.apache.jmeter.report.processor.graph.impl.CustomGraphConsumer
jmeter.reportgenerator.graph.custom_testGraph.title=Chunk Hit
jmeter.reportgenerator.graph.custom_testGraph.property.set_Y_Axis=Number of Hits
jmeter.reportgenerator.graph.custom_testGraph.set_X_Axis=Over Time
jmeter.reportgenerator.graph.custom_testGraph.property.set_granularity=60000
jmeter.reportgenerator.graph.custom_testGraph.property.set_Sample_Variable_Name=ts-hit
jmeter.reportgenerator.graph.custom_testGraph.property.set_Content_Message=Number of Hits :

14.6 Want to improve Report Dashboard ?

If you want to contribute new graphs or improve current ones, you can read this developer documentation.

Read this documentation on contributing.