Can I exclude embedded resources on JMeter?

Question

I am testing an application on the UI side and I want to see how the application handles concurrent API calls via AJAX requests.

Should I exclude things like css, js , font and so forth in my script? I'm assuming because there are potentially too many variables to have an accurate test like network latency, hardware setup, and so forth to include these things.

Basically, what should I include and exclude outside my scripts?

Answer 1

Think of JMeter virtual user as of a real user using the real browsers

Real browsers:

• download embedded resources (scripts, styles, fonts, sounds, etc.)
• do it using parallel thread pool of 6 threads
• do it only once (or according to Cache Control headers), on subsequent requests the resources are being returned from the browser's cache

So I think you need to configure JMeter to:

• Download embedded resources and do it in parallel
• Add HTTP Cache Manager to your Test Plan
• Limit embedded resources to the ones which are directly related to your application and exclude any 3rd-party scripts or fonts or banners or whatever

More information: JMeter Web Testing: How To Properly Handle Embedded Resources in HTML Responses