What’s new in Apache JMeter 5.6.3?

Apache JMeter 5.6.2 was released a while ago. Now it is time to get to know about the latest release candidate JMeter 5.6.3 in this blog post. Let me break it. There are no new features in this minor release as well. But it is always recommended to upgrade your JMeter ecosystem to the latest version as possible. Now let us dive deep into 5.6.3 bug fixes, enhancements, and more.

What’s in the box?

As foretold, there are no new features. But here are the bug fixes and why should you care.

• Issue#6043, PR#6044 – JMeter 5.6 shows 0 as a min response time in summary report
  • If you are using JMeter 5.6, then you must upgrade to 5.6.3 ASAP; you do not want to mess up your performance statistics.
• Restored binary API compatibility with pre-5.6.2: restore public methods to non-static as they were before 5.6.2 JavaSamplerContext.getJMeterVariables, JavaSamplerContext.getJMeterProperties, BoundaryExtractor.extractAll, AuthManager.setupCredentials, HttpRequestHdr.getMultipartConfig, (regression since 5.6.2)
  • If you are a JMeter tinkerer, then you must check 5.6.3 which has the binary API revert.
• Issue# 6165, PR# 6192 – The Constant Throughput Timer is throwing a NullPointerException when using variables (vars.get) in the “Target Throughput” field
  • Now you can use vars.get in the Constant Throughput Timer
• Issue# 6162 – The Constant Timer is throwing a NullPointerException when using variables (vars.get) in the “delay” field
• PR#6193 – Log errors happening while JMeter starts the test (previously, errors from TestStateListener.testStarted were not logged)
  • This will display the log errors when JMeter starts the test.
• PR#6216 – Pass JDBCSampler.maxRows to Statement.setMaxRows so the driver does not fetch extra rows from the database.
  • This PR fixes the max rows which is defined in the JMeter instead of fetching everything from the backend.

General Improvements

Now we can use ${…} expressions in Transactions Controller, Thread Group, and HTTP Requesr to retrieve embedded resources and store as MD5.

• PR#6199 – Enable use of ${…} expressions for TransactionController “generate parent sample”, and “include timers” checkboxes
• PR#6199 – Enable use of ${…} expressions for ThreadGroupGui “scheduler” checkbox
• PR# 6199 – Enable use of ${…} expressions for HTTP Request “retrieve embedded resources”, “download resources concurrently”, and “store as MD5” checkboxes

Non-Functional Changes

• PR#6166 – Use Gradle to 8.5 for building JMeter
• Require Java 17 for building JMeter
• PR# 6199 – Improved API for programmatic test plan creation, see default implementations of createTestElement, modifyTestElement, and new makeTestElement and assignDefaultValues methods in JMeterGUIComponent. AbstractJMeterGuiComponent.configureTestElement is now discouraged
• PR#6212 – Refactor: migrate existing Groovy tests to Kotlin, remove Groovy compiler from the build pipeline
• PR#6214 – Refactor JUnit 3 and JUnit 4 tests to JUnit 5, remove JUnit 4 test dependency

Download JMeter 5.6.3

You can download JMeter 5.6.3 from here. Make sure you check the integrity before starting to use JMeter.

Conclusion

Apache JMeter 5.6.3 release candidate is a minor update with bug fixes and enhancements, but no new features. Key updates include:

• Bug fixes for issues related to response time in summary reports, binary API compatibility with pre-5.6.2, NullPointerException in Constant Throughput Timer and Constant Timer, and more.
• Restored binary API compatibility with pre-5.6.2 versions.
• General improvements allowing the use of ${…} expressions in TransactionController, ThreadGroupGui, and HTTP Request.
• Non-functional changes include the use of Gradle 8.5 for building JMeter, requiring Java 17 for building JMeter, improved API for programmatic test plan creation, and refactoring of existing tests.

You can download JMeter 5.6.3 from the official Apache JMeter website.

Happy Birthday!