Tried to send variable from threadGroup to elastic

[gimbal04]

Hello !

I have few questions about the Backend Listener like a discussion it is why I open an issue for it.

Indeed, I need to call differents url and retrieve the environment linked with them In the backend listener to exploit it in Kibana.
I used a file which contains lines like : "env url apikey" and I make a loop on this file which call a request for each lines.

The ${url} in my threadGroup is good and the request works for each environment called but when I try to get it with custom parameter in the backendListener like : name:"environment", value:"${url}" and in Kibana I see the value as ${url} and not deployment for exemple.

Can you tell me if I make something wrong ?

[anthonygauthier]

Hey @cprevot04 ,

So this is related to #27. Basically, the way that JMeter and its backend listener are built makes it so that the backend listener doesn't have access to JMeter variables that are declared anywhere else but in the JMeter's "Test Plan" element.

I would really love to work around this, but I'm afraid I have no way of accessing these variables unless the way it works is changed directly into the JMeter's source code. 😢

So to answer your question; no you didn't do anything wrong - it's simply a limitation of the software :( !

[pmouawad]

Hello,
An option would be to submit a patch to jmeter implementing this .
I guess having variables declared in sample_variables available in SampleResult would do what you need.

See for contributing :

• http://jmeter.apache.org/building.html

[anthonygauthier]

Very true, this could very well solve the issue. I personally don't really have the time to implement it right now, but I'll try to work it in my schedule in the following weeks/months.

Thanks!

[gimbal04]

Hello,
An other solution for us will be to exploit the RequestHeaders.

Would it be possible that your plugin parse and forward the request&response headers as "real" key/values in ElasticSearch ?
Hence, those headers would be much easier to exploit in Kibana.

Thanks !

[anthonygauthier]

@cprevot04 Wow that's actually a great idea! I could sure as hell do that 😄 ! I'm on vacation right now, but I'll try to work on it ASAP!

Thanks for the feedback!

[anthonygauthier]

@cprevot04 Just to let you know that I'm working on the headers method as I'm writing this. Should be out sometime this week 😄 !

[anthonygauthier]

This was added with version 2.5.0! It is currently being pushed to the central repository and will be merged to JMeter-Plugins ASAP. For the meantime, you can manually uninstall your old version and install the new with the JAR available on GitHub! 😄

Cheers all,

[pmouawad]

Hello,
Maybe this would require some documentation.
AFAIU, plugin would use request headers starting with "es-" ?

If my understanding is correct, this might break some applications. But maybe I misunderstand something here.

Regards

[anthonygauthier]

Hi @pmouawad !

I documented the whole thing here https://github.com/delirius325/jmeter-elasticsearch-backend-listener/wiki/Sending-JMeter-variables .

I don't think it would break any applications per say, you might just have some unwanted key/pair values in your ElasticSearch index. Otherwise we can always change the startsWith("es-") to something more unique like startsWith("es-backend-").

Au plaisir,

[pmouawad]

Thanks for your rapid answer.
1/ Reading documentation, I don't understand where Header Manager would be put, and my notes depends on where it is located.
Maybe you could add a screenshot with a little test plan showing where it would be located.

2/ For custom fields, maybe the screenshot should show the whole config element with a red rectangle around the required values.
As you know, Variables are related to Thread , Property are global, I am a bit confused for custom fields, do you allow customization per thread or do you send properties?

[anthonygauthier]

@pmouawad

I'll rework the documentation, but to answer your question:

1. The Header Manager can either be located globally or locally, attached to a specific request.

2. The custom fields include the variables loaded through the the jp@gc CSV config element, the Test Plan variables, and properties that would be specified as ${__P(myProp)} or ${__groovy(props.get("myProp"))}.

Maybe it isn't clear in the documentation but Custom Fields are one of the two ways to include custom values to results sent to ElasticSearch. The second way being with the headers.

Thanks,