wptagent

Cross-platform WebPageTest agent

• 🥡 Installation instructons
• 🐋 Docker instructions

Contributing

There are separate lines of development under different licenses (pull requests accepted to either):

• The master branch where most active development occurs has the Polyform Shield 1.0.0 license
• The apache branch has the more permissive Apache 2.0 license

Supported Platforms/Browsers

• Chromium-based browsers are the only ones that currently support manipulating requests (changing headers, blocking requests, etc). Firefox and Safari do not currently support capturing response bodies and running optimization checks.
• All browsers should support basic page loading, scripts, and video capture on all platforms.
• Traffic-shaping is supported on all platforms.

⚠️ Known Issues

• Internet Explorer does not support manipulating requests (adding headers, blocking requests, etc)

Linux (with display, or headless with Xvfb)

• Chrome: Stable, Beta, and Unstable
• Firefox: Stable and Nightly
• Opera: Stable, Beta, and Developer
• Brave: Stable, Beta, Dev, and Nightly
• Microsoft Edge: Dev
• Epiphany: Ubuntu 20.04+
• Vivaldi

Windows

• Chrome: Stable, Beta, Dev and Canary
• Firefox: Stable, ESR, Developer Edition, Beta, and Nightly
• Microsoft Edge: Legacy and Chromium-based
• Internet Explorer
• Opera: Stable, Beta and Developer
• Brave: Stable, Beta, Dev and Nightly

MacOS (Intel and Apple Silicon)

• Chrome: Stable and Canary
• Firefox: Stable and Nightly
• Safari: iOS Simulator

Android (requires a tethered host; Raspberry Pi preferred)

• Chrome (Stable, Beta, Dev, and Canary)
• Samsung Internet
• Several browsers run as “black box” tests (single page load, only visual metrics):
  • Chrome (Stable, Beta, Dev and Canary)
  • Samsung Browser
  • Opera
  • Opera Mini
  • UC Browser
  • UC Mini
  • Firefox (Stable and Beta)

Command-line options

Basic agent config

• -v, -vv, -vvv…: Increase verbosity (specify multiple times for more). -vvvv for full debug output.
• --name: Agent name (defaults to the machine’s hostname).
• --exit: Exit after the specified number of minutes. Useful for running in a shell script that does maintenance or periodic updates (like hourly).
• --dockerized: The agent is running inside a docker container.
• --ec2: Load config settings from EC2 user data.
• --gce: Load config settings from GCE user data.
• --log: Log critical errors to the given file.
• --healthcheckport: HTTP Health check port (defaults to 8889). Set to 0 to disable. Returns 200 if the agent is running and communicating with the server, 503 otherwise.
• --har : Generate a per-run HAR file as part of the test result (defaults to False).

Video capture/display settings (Linux only)

• --xvfb: Use an Xvfb virtual display for headless testing.
• --fps: Video capture frame rate (defaults to 10). Valid range is 1–60.

Server/location configuration

• --server (required): URL for WebPageTest work. Example: https://www.webpagetest.org/work/.
• --location (required): Location ID (as configured in the server’s locations.ini).
• --validcertificate: Validate server certificates (HTTPS server, defaults to False).
• --key : Location key (if configured in locations.ini).

Traffic-shaping (defaults to host-based)

• --shaper: Override default traffic shaper. Supported values:
  • none: Disable traffic-shaping (i.e. when you can’t run as root).
  • netem,<interface>: Use NetEm to bridge reverse-tethered traffic (specify outbound interface). Example: --shaper netem,eth0
  • remote,<server>,<down pipe>,<up pipe>: Connect to the remote server over ssh and use preconfigured dummynet pipes. SSH keys for root user should be pre-authorized.
  • chrome: Use Chrome DevTools’s traffic-shaping. Only for Chromium-based browsers, and as a last resort because of inaccuracy.

Android testing

• --android: Run tests on an attached Android device.
• --device: Device ID, if more than one Android is attached.
• --gnirehtet: Use the gnirehtet tool for reverse-tethering. You will need to manually approve the vpn once per mobile device. Valid options are:
  • <external interface>,<dns>: e.g. --gnirehtet eth0,8.8.8.8
• --vpntether: (Android 7+) Use vpn-reverse-tether for reverse-tethering. You will need to manually approve the vpn once per mobile device. Valid options are:
  • <external interface>,<dns>: e.g. --vpntether eth0,8.8.8.8
• --vpntether2 (recommended): Use vpn-reverse-tether v2 for reverse-tethering. You will need to manually approve the VPN once per mobile device. Valid options:
  • <external interface>,<dns>: e.g. --vpntether2 eth0,8.8.8.8
• --simplert: Use SimpleRT for reverse-tethering. The APK should be installed manually (adb install simple-rt/simple-rt-1.1.apk) and tested once manually (./simple-rt -i eth0, then disconnect and re-connect phone) to dismiss any system dialogs. The ethernet interface and DNS server should be passed as options:
  • <interface>,<dns1>: i.e. --simplert eth0,8.8.8.8
• --rndis (deprecated): Enable reverse-tethering over rndis (Android 6+). Valid options:
  • --rndis <ip>/<network>,<gateway>,<dns1>,<dns2>: Static Address. e.g. --rndis 192.168.0.8/24,192.168.0.1,8.8.8.8,8.8.4.4
  • --rndis dhcp

Authenticating the agent with the server

• --username: Username if using HTTP Basic Auth with WebPageTest server.
• --password: Password if using HTTP Basic Auth with WebPageTest server.
• --cert: Client certificate if using certificates to authenticate the WebPageTest server connection.
• --certkey: Client-side private key (if not embedded in the client certificate).

Running tests locally on the command-line

The test result is written as JSON to stdout. If a server, location, and key are provided, then the test will be uploaded to the given WebPageTest server and the test ID returned in the output JSON.

• --testurl: Test the given URL via the command line (required unless --testspec is provided)
• --testspec: Path to a full JSON file with test parameters
• --browser: What browser to test in (can also be specified in the JSON file)
• --testout: Output format fot the test result. Valid options:
  • id: Test ID (if tests are uploaded to a server/location)
  • url: URL to test result (if tests are uploaded to a server/location)
  • json: JSON-formatted raw test result
• --testoutdir (optional): Output directory for the raw JSON test results
• --testruns: Number of runs to test. Defaults to 1.
• --testrv: Include repeat view (defaults to only testing first view)

Supported features

The following Script Commands are supported on Windows, Linux, Mac, and Android:

• navigate
• exec and execAndWait
• block
• sleep
• logData
• combineSteps
• setEventName
• setUserAgent
• setBrowserSize, setViewportSize, and setDeviceScaleFactor
• setActivityTimeout and setTimeout
• blockDomains and blockDomainsExcept
• setDns and `setDnsName
• setHeader and addHeader (addHeader add multiple values for the same header, effectively the same as setHeader)
• resetHeaders
• setCookie
• setABM
• click, clickAndWait, and sendClick
• selectValue and setValue
• setInnerHTML and setInnerText
• submitForm
• overrideHost

Unsupported

There are no plans to implement the following Script Commands:

• sendKeyDown
• setDOMElement
• waitForComplete
• overrideHostUrl
• ignoreErrors
• logErrors (TODO: can’t find any mention of this in this GitHub organization?)
• loadFile
• loadVariables
• minInterval
• endInterval
• expireCache
• requiredRequest
• setDOMRequest
• waitForJSDone (change semantics to console.log message)
• if, else, and endif