Firefox Performance Testing : A Python framework for Windows

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Revision as of 09:15, 12 October 2006 by Elichak (talk | contribs) (Project News)
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Project Name

Firefox Performance Testing : A Python framework for Windows


Project Description

The goal of this project is to:

  • get the current framework up and running to help work with others
  • get the framework running in an automated fashion
  • help with the creation and execution of new tests
  • work to upgrade the framework to work with a mozilla graph server
  • work with the mozilla community and contribute to an open source project


From this project, you will:

  • learn python
  • learn about white box testing methodologies
  • work with an open source community
  • more generally learn about the functioning of QA in an open source community


This will benefit you in the future when presented with a new program, you'll be able to give an idea of how to approach testing - to give adequate coverage and be able to provide some metric of program stability and functionality


Note: This is NOT the typical mundane black box testing


Project Leader(s)


Project Contributor(s)

Ben Hearsum (bhearsum)

Helped with the debugging process for report.py, run_tests.py and ts.py

Project Details

This is different from Tinderbox. Two major differences are:

  • First, it doesn't build, it just runs the performance test given a path to the executable. This is helpful if you're testing the performance of an extension or a build from another server. (You could build on a fast server, and then run performance tests on a machine with low memory).
  • Second, it measures performance characteristics while it's running the pageload tests--you can track cpu speed, memory, or any of the other counters listed here.


Project News

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Performance tests didn't run sucessfully.

  • There weren't any results generated in the extension_perf_testing\base_profile and extension_perf_reports folders.
  • Output after the performance tests were run:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\proj\mozilla\testing\performance\win32\run_tests.py", line 129, in ?
    test_file(sys.argv[i])
  File "C:\proj\mozilla\testing\performance\win32\run_tests.py", line 122, in te
st_file
    TP_RESOLUTION)
  File "C:\proj\mozilla\testing\performance\win32\report.py", line 152, in Gener
ateReport
    mean = mean / len(ts_times[i])
ZeroDivisionError: integer division or modulo by zero

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Understand further the approach to testing with the Python framework


Monday, September 25, 2006

elichak will be working on a resolution with alice to get the results generated in the extension_perf_testing\base_profile and extension_perf_reports folders.


Friday, Sept 29, 2006 elichak re-configured the environment of the machine to run the tests again. Cleaned up old files to do a clean test. Reinstalled Cygwin (replaced Make 3.80 with Make 3.81) and updated the testing files through CVS.


Sunday, October 1, 2006 Alice has successfully run the tests. The Zero Division error didn't occur again after she updated her test files. There were results generated in the extension_perf_testing\base_profile and extension_perf_reports folders. elichak attempted to run the test with the alice's code but the Zero Divsion Error still occured on her machine.


Wednesday, October 4, 2006 Elichak consulted Robcee about the Zero Division Error and he suggested a few things, like debugging the script. Elichak found out that the value in the report.py is empty but couldn't find out why the value isn't assigned. According to alice, she only had to update the files to make them work.


Friday, October 6, 2006 Ben set up the VM for elichak to run her performance testing in that environment.


Wednesday, October 11, 2006 elichak configured the environment in the VM for her testing. Ben assisted elichak with the debugging process.

Project Events

Bon Echo Community Test Day

Friday, September 22, 2006, from 7am - 5pm PDT
Mozilla QA Community:BonEcho 2.0RC1 prerelease Community Test Day