What’s new for March 2023? 

[Mock Services] Client certificate support for all "live" execution modes – Outbound 

Mock Services now supports the ability to provide client certificates when calling external APIs. Client certificates can be added to the following when calling live endpoints -  

- Mock Services  

- Transactions level 

- Webhooks  

- HTTP processing actions  

In addition, a new functionality for storing and retrieving certificates has been added. Every uploaded certificate will be stored in the ‘Certificate store’ and can be reused later.

 

 

[Mock Services] New transaction priority level added 

By default, every transaction when created is set to priority level of 10. A new priority level of 20 has been added to Mock Services, which can be set on transactions that are required to be matched after the other ones with priority of 10.  Say on import of 100 transactions, 10 of them are ‘anything’ transactions that should be matched only after the specific 90 are matched. In this case, those 10 transactions can now be set to priority of 20 which would enable those transactions to be matched only after the ones with priority of 10.  

 

 

[Mock Services] XPath/JSONPath Enhancements 

Keep/Retain JSON/XML sample with transaction 

In the Request Matcher --> Selection Wizard --> when a sample payload is used to create XPath and JSON Path matchers, that sample payload is now saved and retained along with the transaction, so you can always go back and revisit the sample payload that created the request matchers.  

XPath/JSONPath wizard in sync with existing XPath/JSONPath matchers 

When XPath or JSON expressions are used to create their matchers, those matchers are kept in sync with the Selection Wizard so we can see the matchers that were created with the expressions.  

Add Regular expression option to Xpath/JSONPath wizard 

On the Selection Wizard for matchers, when the nodes are displayed, the Match Type is either specific or anything. A third option called 'RegEx' has been added which supports matching using Regular Expressions.

 

 

[Mock Services] Ignore Namespace option 

When matching, this option of ‘Ignore Namespace’ allows matching even when the namespace is different.  

 

 

[Mock Services] Failover mode - Transaction redirect to Live service, if failure then Mock Service responds 

With this option is enabled, when a transaction that makes a call to a Live System endpoint, if the endpoint errors out or fails, the transaction responds with it’s configured response instead.  

 

 

[General] taurus-cloud image update 

Here is a detailed description of all the UI-level and Application-level changes, divided into several categories:

JMeter Versions: 

  • The new taurus-cloud image contains two JMeter versions 
  • “Latest” which is set to 5.5 as of March 27, 2023 
  • “Stable” which is set to 5.4.3 as of March 27, 2023  
  • All (older) JMeter versions except for these two were completely removed from the new taurus cloud image. 
  • “Latest” will be updated whenever JMeter releases a new version.  
  • “Stable” will be updated only after the BlazeMeter team reviews a released JMeter version.  
    • The result of the review process must confirm that the candidate for a new “Stable” version doesn't introduce bugs or critical vulnerabilities. 
    • As JMeter does not support multiple versions in parallel, BlazeMeter’s labeling of a “Stable” JMeter version provides guidance to customers as to which version might be the best fit in different situations. 
  • By default, all JMeter or Taurus YAML JMeter tests, regardless of the JMeter version that they were created with, will run with the “Stable” version of JMeter.  
    • From the dropdown in the test creation/configuration screen, users will have the option to select the “Latest” or the “Stable” version.

 

 

  • The dropdown configuration of all the existing tests will be migrated with the following logic: 
    • The dropdown of all tests configured with auto-detect, or with a specific JMeter version that is lower or equal to 5.4.3, will be set to the “Stable” version (5.4.3). 
    • The dropdown of all tests configured with JMeter 5.5 won’t be changed. 
  • A warning tool tip will be visible in the validation status section of the test creation/configuration screen whenever BlazeMeter detects that an uploaded JMeter script was created with a legacy JMeter version: 

 

 

  • Tests created in legacy JMeter versions will run on the JMeter version selected in the dropdown (“Stable” or “Latest”). In addition, a warning message will be displayed in the test-run dialog box:
     

Java Versions: 

  • The new taurus-cloud image will contain only supported Java versions. 
    • Only Java 8 & 11 as of March 27, 2023.  
    • NOT contained are Java 7 & 9, which are no longer supported.  

Private Locations & Cloud Engines: 

  • This change is being rolled out to our customer base in cohorts.  
  • Once an account is configured to use the new taurus-cloud image, all agents (engines) that are configured to automatically update (auto-update=true) of all Private Locations (OPLs) of said account will get the command to initiate the download of the new taurus-cloud image 
    • Depending on network connection speed it can take up to several hours for the image to download completely  
    • At this point (March 27, 2023), the major version of the new taurus-cloud image is set to “2” (e.g. 2.0.9) 
    • No user action needed  
  • All tests set to run on cloud locations will use the new taurus-cloud image. 
    • No user action needed 

Vulnerabilities: 

  • Maintenance of the new taurus-cloud image involves constant vulnerability reviews. As of March 27, 2023, the new taurus-cloud image has 0 critical vulnerabilities. 
  • The BlazeMeter team is committed to continuously reduce the number of non-critical vulnerabilities as much as possible. 

JMeter Version Auto-Detect: 

  • The JMeter Version Auto-Detect toggle enables BlazeMeter to detect the JMeter version used by a Taurus YAML JMeter or JMeter file.  
    • If the detected version is not available in BlazeMeter’s image, Taurus will attempt to download the specified JMeter version. 
    • This includes legacy JMeter versions. 
  • Account Admins can decide to enable the JMeter Version Auto-Detect functionality (off by default). This can be done by going to Settings -> Account Settings -> Environment.

 

 

  • It is recommended to only enable this option in situations where it is temporarily needed. 
  • Once enabled, every newly-created test will be configured to run with “auto-detect”. Existing tests will maintain their original dropdown configuration.