Firefox Performance Testing : A Python framework for Windows Documentation

Introduction

This documentation is the revised version of Annie Sullivan's Readme.txt for the Firefox Performance Testing

Framework Prerequisites

You'll need to download these before running performance testing:

• Python 2.4
  • The scripts all run from Python 2.4. You will need the windows version (not the cygwin version).
• Python Win32 Extensions
  • These extensions provide some support for process management and performance monitoring.
• Numerical Python
  • This is required by Matplotlib.
• Matplotlib
  • This library is used to plot the graphs of performance characteristics of Firefox during the page load test.
• PySyc
  • This is used for reading/writing config files in YAML.
• Cygwin
  • For some reason, we can't get output from Firefox unless it's wrapped in a Cygwin sh shell. So we use cygwin for that, and to sync between Firefox runs.
• msvcp71.dll(NOTE: If you have Visual Studio 2003 installed, you've already got it.)
  • Microsoft® C Runtime Library, v. 7.10.3077.0
  • You need a copy of this file to run Python with all the libraries.

Framework Configuration

Configure the environment

1. Make sure the prerequisites are installed.
2. Make a directory for the framework:

   $mkdir C:\mozilla

3. Download entire framework (directories and all subdirectories) and put it in C:\mozilla

Configure the paths (paths.py)

To setup the appropriate paths for the framework, open the paths.py file in C:\mozilla\testing\performance\win32\ and configure the paths:

CYGWIN

• Verify that the path is pointing to the desired cygwin directory

CYGWIN = r'c:\cygwin\bin\bash.exe -c'

• The path to cygwin bash to get output from dump() in Firefox
• If you didn't specify a different root directory for the Cygwin to be installed, it is in C:\

SYNC

• Verify that the path is pointing to the desired cygwin directory

SYNC = r'c:\cygwin\bin\sync'

• Runs sync between Ts runs
• If you didn't specify a different root directory for the Cygwin to be installed, it is in C:\

BASE_PROFILE_DIR

• Verify that BASE_PROFILE_DIR is pointing to the base_profile directory
• If you didn't alter the directory structure, the base_profile path would be: C:\mozilla\testing\performance\win32\base_profile

BASE_PROFILE_DIR = r'C:\mozilla\testing\performance\win32\base_profile'

• IMPORTANT: Check that there is content in the base_profile directory

• (Optional) For the page load test to work, modify the hostperm.1 file
  • Set to allow urls with scheme:file to open in new windows
  • Set the preference to open new windows in a tab should be off.

REPORTS_DIR

• This is the path to the directory that the generated reports will go into

REPORTS_DIR = r'C:\mozilla\testing\performance\win32\extension_perf_reports'

• Create extension_perf_reports in C:\mozilla\testing\performance\win32\

OR

• Set REPORT_DIR path to a directory where you want the reports to go into. Make sure that directory is created.

INIT_URL

• The path to the file url to load when initializing a new profile

INIT_URL = 'file:///c:/mozilla/testing/performance/win32/initialize.html'

• Check that initialize.html is in C:\mozilla\testing\performance\win32\
• Note: Don't change the local file url to a file path

TS_URL

• The path to the file url to load for startup test (Ts)

TS_URL = 'file:///c:/mozilla/testing/performance/win32/startup_test/startup_test.html?begin='

• Check that startup_test.html is in C:\mozilla\testing\performance\win32\startup_test
• Note: Don't change the local file url to a file path

TP_URL

• The path to the file url to load for page load test (Tp)

TP_URL = 'file:///c:/mozilla/testing/performance/win32/page_load_test/cycler.html'

• Check that cycler.html is in C:\mozilla\testing\performance\win32\page_load_test
• Note: Don't change the local file url to a file path

Config file

Config info

In C:\mozilla\testing\performance\win32\, create a YAML config file (config.yaml) with info about the profiles you want to test. Copy, paste and modify the following in config.yaml:

     # Filename will be appended to the timestamp in the report filename.
     # Use letters and underscores only
     filename: yourfilename
     # The title of the report
     title: 1 GHz Celeron

     # Name of profile to test
     Test profile 1:
       # Path to Firefox to test
       firefox: C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox 2 Beta 1\firefox.exe

       # Preferences to set in the test (use "preferences : {}" for no prefs)
       preferences:
         javascript.options.showInConsole : true
         xpinstall.enabled : true

       # Extensions to install in test (use "extensions: {}" for none)
       extensions:
         # Need quotes around guid because of curly braces
         "{12345678-1234-1234-1234-abcd12345678}" : c:\path\to\unzipped\xpi
         foo@sample.com : c:\path\to\other\unzipped\xpi

Instructions:

1. Check that your firefox path is right

2. If you don't have preferences to set:

• change to:

  preferences : {}

  (make sure there is a space between ":" and "{" or else it will cause a syntax error)

3. If you don't have extensions to install in test:

• change to:

  extensions: {}

  (make sure there is a space between ":" and "{" or else it will cause a syntax error)

4. filename and title can be anything

5. Run run_tests.py with the name of your config file as an argument in c:\mozilla\testing\performance\win32\:

$run_tests.py config.yaml

• You can use a space-separated list of config files, to generate a report of startup and page load times.
• The report will be placed in the REPORTS_DIR directory you specified in paths.py.

Directory Structure of Framework

Overview of Structure

A glance at the Framework File Structure (CVS files not included):

      win32
        |
        |
        |__ base_profile (dir)
        |     |
        |     |__ bookmarkbackups (dir)
        |     |    |
        |     |    |__ .html files
        |     |
        |     |__ Cache (dir)
        |     |
        |     |__ .bak, .html, .ini, .dat, .txt, .js, .rdf, .mfl files  
        |             
        |
        |__ page_load_test(dir)
        |     |
        |     |__ base(dir)
        |     |    |
        |     |    |__ other dirs and .html files
        |     |
        |     |__ cycler.html & report.html
        |
        |
        |__ startup_test
        |     |
        |     |__ startup_test.html
        |
        |
        |__ extension_perf_reports (dir for generated reports)
        |
        |
        |__ run_tests.py, paths.py, config.yaml and other .py, .html files
   

• NOTE: Content in base_profile dir may vary

The following is written by Annie Sullivan (annie.sullivan@gmail.com):

base_profile/

• This directory contains the base profile used for testing.
• A copy of this profile is made for each testing profile, and extensions or prefs are added according to the test_configs array in run_tests.py.
• For the page load test to run correctly, the hostperm.1 file must be set to allow scheme:file uris to open in new windows, and the pref to force a window to open in a tab must not be set.
• The dom.allow_scripts_to_close_windows pref should also be set to true. The browser.shell.checkDefaultBrowser pref should be set to false.

page_load_test/

• This directory contains the JavaScript files and html data files for the page load test.
• The page load test opens a new window and cycles through loading each html file, timing each load.

startup_test/

• This directory contains the JavaScript to run the startup test.
• It measures how long it takes Firefox to start up.

extension_perf_report/

• This directory is where the generated report will go into.
• You may specify another directory to substitute this directory, but make sure that the paths.py is changed to point to it.

run_tests.py, paths.py

• These files should be configured to run the test on different machines, with different extensions or preferences. See setup above.