Expression and EL
Work with the session with the Expression Language
Expression Language
Most Gatling DSL methods can be passed Expression Language Strings.
This is a very convenient feature to write dynamic values.
Gatling parses Strings parameter values and turn them into functions that will compute a result based on the data stored into the Session when they will be evaluated.
The Gatling EL is not a dynamic language, but just placeholders with a few additional helpers.
If you need a full blown templating engine, you can use our Pebble support.
Gatling EL uses a ${attributeName} syntax, where attributeName is the name of an attribute in the Session.
For example:
request("page").get("/foo?${bar}")
Moreover, Gatling EL provide the following built-in functions:
"${foo.size()}" // expects `foo` to point to a Scala or Java collection attribute and returns its size
"${foo.random()}" // expects `foo` to point to an indexed collection and returns a random element
"${foo.exists()}" // returns true if the session contains a `foo` attribute, false otherwise
"${foo.isUndefined()}" // returns true if the session doesn't contains a `foo` attribute, false otherwise
"${foo(5)}" // expects `foo` to point to an indexed collection or a Tuple and returns the 5-th element
"${foo(n)}" // expects `foo` to point to an indexed collection or a Tuple and `n` to point to an Int and returns the n-th element
"${foo.bar}" // expects foo to point to a Map and returns the value associated with key `bar`
"${foo._2}" // expects `foo` points to a Tuple and returns the second element (identical to idiomatic Scala Tuple syntax, 1 based index)
"${foo.jsonStringify()}" // properly formats into a JSON value (wrap Strings with double quotes, deal with null)
"${currentTimeMillis()}" // System.currentTimeMillis
"${currentDate(<pattern>)}" // new Date() formatted with a java.text.SimpleDateFormat pattern
You can also combine different Gatling EL builtin functions. For example if foo is a List of Lists ${foo(0)(0)} will return first element of the first list in foo. ${foo.list.random()} will return random element from an indexed collection associated with key list in a map foo.
Gatling EL supports the following indexed collections: java.util.List, Seq and Array. It also supports both Scala and Java maps. Function .size supports any Scala or Java collection.
This Expression Language only works on String values being passed to Gatling DSL methods. Such Strings are parsed only once, when the Gatling simulation is being instantiated.
For example queryParam("latitude", session => "${latitude}") wouldn’t work because the parameter is not a String, but a function that returns a String.
Also, queryParam("latitude", "${latitude}".toInt) wouldn’t because the toInt would happen before passing the parameter to the queryParam method.
The solution here would be to pass a function:
session => session("latitude").validate[Int].
s as soon as you start typing ${
because it thinks you want to use Scala’s String interpolation.
You need to remove this s to use Gatling EL.Escaping ${
To prevent "${" from being interpreted by the EL compiler, add a $ before it. "$${foo}" will be turned into "${foo}".
If you want a $ before the placeholder, add another $.
Assuming the session attribute foo holds "FOO", "$$${foo}" will be turned into "$FOO".
This can go on and on. In general, if there are 2n-1 $ characters before ${ – an even number of $ characters totally –
there will be n $ before { in the final string;
if there are 2n $ before ${ – an odd number totally – there will be n $ before the placeholder.
Expression
Most Gatling DSL methods actually take Expression[T] parameters, which is a type alias for Session => Validation[T].
This way, one can pass functions to generate parameters, possibly based on the Session’s content.
exec(http("Inline").get(session => "/inline/" + session("param").as[String].toLowerCase))
How is it that one can also pass Strings and other values then?
The reason is that there are implicit conversions:
- when passing a String, it gets automagically parsed turn them into Expressions thanks to Gatling EL compiler.
- when passing a value of another type, it gets automagically wrapped into an Expression that will always return this static value.
Validation, please check out the Validation reference.