Reading/Web/Performance/How to test static pages

Run tests in parallel
Using webpagetest api and your own API key it's pretty easy to write your own script in node to generate a list of JSON that you can easily feed the array of json urls into a reporting tool.

API usage is capped so it may be better to use the Wikimedia instance, but this is a useful technique for generating results fast.

On Wikimedia's WebPageTest instance
The WebPageTest library from the performance team is a useful tool for testing static pages.

Generated a sample in the scripts/batch folder in the current form: Set up environment variables to do a single test run. Tests in a batch file will be run sequentially.

When ready to run

Given that tests run sequentially youcan terminate it right away and check the correct location/connectivity settings are being used by visiting the test history page

When you are sure everything is working as expected, you will want to bump up the WPT_RUN value. Use an odd number to get a more useful median. 5,7 or 9 are suggested.

Issues
Note at time of writing you may need to do the additional following things:
 * Cherry pick CSV support
 * URLS for equivalent webpagetest summary URL is not present in URL. Hoping Peter will add it. It helps debugging..
 * IF 2G profile is unavailable you may need to manually define it in the batch file.