How to use Jmeter for UI performance testing?

Question

I would like to use Jmeter for UI performance testing. How to use Jmeter for UI performance testing? How can I get the loading time of the HTML elements?

Thanks

Answer 1

As per JMeter project main page:

JMeter is not a browser, it works at protocol level. As far as web-services and remote services are concerned, JMeter looks like a browser (or rather, multiple browsers); however JMeter does not perform all the actions supported by browsers. In particular, JMeter does not execute the Javascript found in HTML pages. Nor does it render the HTML pages as a browser does (it's possible to view the response as HTML etc., but the timings are not included in any samples, and only one sample in one thread is ever displayed at a time).

So the only way of testing UI using JMeter is going for WebDriver Sampler which provides integration with Selenium browser automation framework.

WebDriver Sampler can be installed using JMeter Plugins Manager

Answer 2

Just add the ELK RUM Agent to your Dev and Functional test environments. Pull all of the w3c timings there. Whether the test is being run manually or automgically, so long as a browser is involved that runs JavaScript you will receive the w3c navtiming metrics