How do I run the JMeter GUI via a Gradle task?

Question

I want to run the JMeter GUI from my Gradle script, so that I can carefully control version and environment factors and so there's no pre-requisite setup stuff for my local developer machine build¹.

My JMeter's build.gradle (part of a multi-project build):

plugins{
  id 'base'
  id 'java'
}

repositories {
  jcenter()
}

dependencies {
  compile 'org.apache.jmeter:ApacheJMeter:4.0'
}

task jmeterGui(type: JavaExec){
  workingDir = "$project.buildDir/jmeter-working-dir"
  classpath = sourceSets.main.runtimeClasspath

  main = "org.apache.jmeter.NewDriver"

  doFirst{
    println "running Jmeter from Gradle"
    mkdir workingDir

  }
}

This results in an error:

> Task :functional-test:jmeterGui
java.lang.Throwable: Could not access <source root>\functional-test\build\lib
  at org.apache.jmeter.NewDriver.<clinit>(NewDriver.java:102)
java.lang.Throwable: Could not access <source root>\functional-test\build\lib\ext
  at org.apache.jmeter.NewDriver.<clinit>(NewDriver.java:102)
java.lang.Throwable: Could not access <source root>\functional-test\build\lib\junit
  at org.apache.jmeter.NewDriver.<clinit>(NewDriver.java:102)
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.apache.jmeter.JMeter
  at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:372)
  at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:361)
  at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
  at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:360)
  at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:424)
  at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:357)
  at org.apache.jmeter.NewDriver.main(NewDriver.java:242)
JMeter home directory was detected as: <source root>\functional-test\build

I can't find anything in the JMeter user manual for this. Is it doable?

EDIT: This GUI that I launch is only intended for editing test plans. I use Redline13 for running the actual load tests.

---

¹ Currenly in my build everything is strictly version controlled and part of my Gradle build. This includes NodeJS, NPM and Terraform. Literally the only setup pre-requisite is a Java 8 JDK. I want to continue that approach with JMeter.

Answer 1

Here is my best current attempt at running the JMeter GUI from Gradle. Note that the GUI starts, but is pretty much non-functional (can't even open a test plan).

dependencies {
  // using the runtime classpath instead of compile in order to avoid
  // downloading all these and their deps in places where we never intend
  // to run the JMeter GUI (continuous build environments, etc.)
  runtime 'org.apache.jmeter:ApacheJMeter:4.0'
  runtime 'org.apache.jmeter:jorphan:4.0'
  runtime 'org.apache.jmeter:ApacheJMeter_core:4.0'
  runtime 'org.apache.jmeter:ApacheJMeter_components:4.0'
  runtime 'org.apache.jmeter:ApacheJMeter_config:4.0'
  runtime 'org.apache.jmeter:ApacheJMeter_functions:4.0'
  runtime 'org.apache.jmeter:ApacheJMeter_java:4.0'
  runtime 'org.apache.jmeter:ApacheJMeter_http:4.0'
  runtime 'org.apache.jmeter:ApacheJMeter_tcp:4.0'
  runtime 'org.apache.jmeter:ApacheJMeter_parent:4.0'
}

task launchJmeterGui(type: JavaExec){
  description = "Launch the JMeter GUI for editin test plans"
  workingDir = "$project.buildDir/jmeter-working-dir"
  classpath = sourceSets.main.runtimeClasspath

  // This is the main class that the jmeter.bat file invokes.
  // I think this thing is specifically intended to be invoked from a batch/
  // shell script and is not intended to be invoked like this.
  main = "org.apache.jmeter.NewDriver"

  // I think this controls where the log file goes, not sure.
  args "--homedir=${workingDir.absolutePath}"

  doFirst{
    println "Launching Jmeter from Gradle"

    // log file ends up in here
    mkdir workingDir

    // I don't put anything in here, but there will be errors in the console
    // output if they don't exist.  I think this is where the darcula jar
    // needs to be in order to work?
    mkdir "$buildDir/lib"
    mkdir "$buildDir/lib/ext"
    mkdir "$buildDir/lib/junit"

    // Copied into the source tree from a JMeter 4.0 install.
    // Will run without these files but will print errors to console/log file.
    // I'm happy to put these under source control, that makes sense to me.
    project.copy {
      from "src/test/resources/jmeter.properties"
      from "src/test/resources/log4j2.xml"
      into "$buildDir/bin"
    }

  }
}

Answer 2

You are adding a compile-time dependency while trying to use in in the runtime.

Change this line:

compile 'org.apache.jmeter:ApacheJMeter:4.0'

to this one:

runtime group: 'org.apache.jmeter', name: 'ApacheJMeter', version: '4.0'

and this should resolve your error.

References:

• Gradle: Introduction to Dependency Management
• Gradle: Dependency Types

---

Be aware that JMeter GUI is for tests development and debugging, when it comes to load test execution it is recommended to run JMeter in non-GUI mode so I would strongly recommend reconsidering this "GUI" step.