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<document next="get-started.html" date="$Date: 2007-07-03 20:36:51 +0100 (Tue, 03 Jul 2007) $">

<properties>
  <title>User's Manual: Introduction</title>
</properties>

<body>

<section name="1. Introduction" anchor="intro">
<p>
<b>Apache JMeter</b> is a 100% pure Java desktop application designed
to load test client/server software
(such as a <a href="build-web-test-plan.html">web application</a>).  It may be used
to test performance both on static and dynamic
resources such as static files, Java Servlets, CGI scripts, Java objects, <a href="build-db-test-plan.html">databases</a>,
<a href="build-ftp-test-plan.html">FTP servers</a>, and more. JMeter can be used to simulate a heavy
load on a server, network or object to test its strength or to analyze
overall performance under different load types.</p>
<p>
Additionally, JMeter can help you regression test your application by letting you create
test scripts with <a href="test_plan.html#assertions">assertions</a> to validate that your application is returning the
results you expect.  For maximum flexibility, JMeter lets you create these assertions using
regular expressions.</p>

<p>But please note that JMeter is not a browser.</p>
<subsection name="1.1 History" anchor="history">
<p>Stefano Mazzocchi of the Apache Software Foundation was the original developer of JMeter.
He wrote it primarily to test the performance of Apache JServ (a project that has
since been replaced by the Apache Tomcat project).  We redesigned JMeter to enhance the GUI
and to add functional-testing capabilities.
</p>
</subsection>

<subsection name="1.2 The Future" anchor="future">
<p>We hope to see JMeter's capabilities rapidly expand as developers take advantage of its
pluggable architecture.  The primary goal of further development is to make JMeter the most
useful regression testing tool as possible, without compromising JMeter's load-testing
capabilities.</p>
</subsection>
</section>

</body>
</document>
