This is somewhat of a strange post here but it’s something I need to remember how to do and because it was hard to find.  So if you’re not into JMeter please move on, there’s nothing to see here!

The problem, that I am solving here is, how to get unconventional data out of JMeter. When you run JMeter all performance data is neatly saved away in any way you like. But say you want to make a list of the customers and customer numbers you created. JMeter does not deliver such functionality out of the box. Well….there is one way but it’s ugly and tedious at best so I won’t even mention it here.

So I am under the assumption you know your way a little around JMeter and what it does.

1. You will need to install BeanShell on all machines hat this script will execute on. Download bsh-core interpreter from http://www.beanshell.org/download.html
2. Copy the file to the ~/lib directory of JMeter
3. Have some variables ( ${ExampleVar} ) defined that you’d like to write to a file.
4. In your script go to the sampler that you want to write the file and insert a BeanShell PostProcessor
5. In the Script box insert the following script and change to hearts content.

 
import org.apache.jmeter.services.FileServer;

// Get the variable(s) from the JMeter script
tempVar = vars.get("ExampleVar");

// Static elements or calculations
part1 = "Car Speed is: ";
part2 = " km/h";

// Open File(s)
f = new FileOutputStream(FileServer.getFileServer().getBaseDir()+"\\carSpeed.csv", true); 
p = new PrintStream(f); 

// Write data to file 
p.println( part1 + tempVar + part2 );

// Close File(s)
p.close();f.close();

This will store a file directly on the Desktop. Enhance the content as needed. So far I have not noticed any adverse performance issues but I also haven’t tested it in too strenuous situations. I mainly use this when creating test data for performance tests.

It becomes a bit more difficult when you have a distributed test harness. You will need a process, by which you amalgamate all the separate files being created on the clients. So for now I’d suggest not using this when using remote JMeter instances.

Author: Oliver Erlewein