Custom Configuration Plugin

I’m trying to write a custom JMeter module, that will run a Java method that I use for Server Setup and returns Map<String,String> as configuration properties that can be used in sampling.

At the moment I am slightly unsure of what TestElement I should be extending or implementing in order to achieve this, given that it seems to sit somewhere between a PreProcessor and ConfigTestElement, in that it is both setting up pre-conditions for the test and then providing these as configuration parameters.

After looking at the example in jmeter-plugins for csv config element I wrote a class which was little more than

class CreateMyServerConfig extends Arguments {
@Override
public Map<String, String> getArgumentsAsMap() {
return ServerInstance.getServerInstance().getPropertiesAsMap();

Where getServerInstance would first generate a VM Instance and later just provide a reference to the one created. When I tried to run a test plan with it in the code never appeared to be executed, and I never really knew what to expect. And whether/when this code might be called (particularly as I only really want it run once).

I was hoping that someone might be able to tell me which path to follow, whether I’m barking up the wrong tree and which resources might be helpful. I have looked at https://jmeter.apache.org/extending/jmeter_tutorial.pdf, have seen various information relating to building custom samplers, and have even used the Java Request Sampler in the past, however this has me completely stumped.

Alternatively a way to deal with JMeter’s configuration such that I could embed JMeter in a jar and load the config from classpath would allow me to run the code manually before starting JMeter from within Java.

Thanks,

Sam.