performance-testing

Testing & Quality

Use when adding, modifying, or debugging Handsontable performance test scenarios in performance-tests/ - covers the CDP trace-based measurement system, scenario structure (fixture + config + spec), trace-parser integration, hook timing for filtering/sorting, golden snapshot workflow on GitHub Pages, and the CI comparison pipeline. Trigger whenever work touches performance-tests/ files, when asked to benchmark a Handsontable feature, or when adding a new performance scenario.

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Performance Testing

Overview

The performance-tests/ package measures Handsontable rendering and interaction performance using Playwright + Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP) traces. It is a standalone package outside the pnpm workspace -- it has its own package.json, node_modules, and ESLint config.

Each scenario traces a specific user interaction (scrolling, filtering, sorting, editing), parses the CDP trace into DevTools-equivalent categories (scripting, rendering, painting, idle), and produces a compact markdown PR comment plus a self-contained interactive HTML report comparing against a golden baseline from develop.

Package Structure

performance-tests/
  scripts/run.mjs           # Orchestrator: build HOT UMD -> copy to fixtures -> run Playwright
  playwright.config.ts       # Sequential, 1 worker, 5 min timeout, chromium only
  trace-parser.mjs           # CDP trace -> DevTools-equivalent category breakdown
  .eslintrc.js               # Extends root config, relaxes JSDoc/console/await-in-loop rules
  lib/
    trace-runner.mjs          # CDP Tracing.start/stop + warmup/iteration loop + progress output
    hook-timing.mjs           # Hook pair timing (inject/get/save) for before/after measurements
    snapshot-store.mjs        # Golden baseline save/load/compare
    thresholds.mjs            # Shared classification logic (regression/improvement thresholds)
    chart-generator.mjs       # Inline SVG horizontal bar charts (base64 data URIs)
    report-builder.mjs        # Compact markdown PR comment (summary table + regression callouts)
    html-report-builder.mjs   # Self-contained interactive HTML report (inline CSS + JS)
    build-history-index.mjs   # Generates gh-pages history listing for develop runs
    teardown.mjs              # Playwright globalTeardown: parse traces -> report
    fs-utils.mjs              # Shared filesystem helpers (exists)
    scroll-utils.mjs          # Scroll-and-wait helpers (scrollToRow, scrollToColumn)
  scenarios/
    <name>/
      scenario.config.mjs     # { name, warmupRuns, iterations }
      fixture.html             # Standalone HTML loading HOT UMD from ../../fixtures/
      <name>.spec.ts           # Playwright test using runTracedScenario()
  fixtures/
    .gitkeep                   # Built JS/CSS copied here by run.mjs (gitignored)
  golden/                      # Golden snapshots (gitignored, fetched from gh-pages branch)
  output/                      # Trace JSONs + result.md + report.html (gitignored)

Adding a New Scenario

Every scenario needs exactly three files in scenarios/<name>/:

1. scenario.config.mjs

// Grid: <rows> x <cols> -- <rationale for this grid size>
export default {
  name: 'my-scenario',
  warmupRuns: 1,
  iterations: 3,
};

The name must match the directory name -- it determines the output/<name>/ subdirectory. Add a comment documenting the grid size and why it was chosen.

2. fixture.html

A standalone HTML file that creates a Handsontable instance and exposes it as window.__hot:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <title>My Scenario</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="../../fixtures/handsontable.css">
  <script src="../../fixtures/handsontable.full.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
  <div id="hot"></div>
  <script>
    const hot = new Handsontable(document.getElementById('hot'), {
      data: Handsontable.helper.createSpreadsheetData(5000, 10),
      rowHeaders: true,
      colHeaders: true,
      width: 1280,
      height: 600,
      autoRowSize: false,
      autoColumnSize: false,
      licenseKey: 'non-commercial-and-evaluation',
      // Add scenario-specific options (filters, columnSorting, etc.)
    });
    window.__hot = hot;
  </script>
</body>
</html>

Important rules for fixtures:

Always set autoRowSize: false and autoColumnSize: false -- these async plugins interfere with measurements.
CSS path is ../../fixtures/handsontable.css (not handsontable.full.css).
JS path is ../../fixtures/handsontable.full.js.
Always expose the instance as window.__hot.

3. Spec file (`<name>.spec.ts`)

import { test } from '@playwright/test';
import path from 'node:path';
import { runTracedScenario } from '../../lib/trace-runner.mjs';
import config from './scenario.config.mjs';

const fixturePath = path.resolve(import.meta.dirname, 'fixture.html');

test(config.name, async({ page }) => {
  await page.goto(`file://${fixturePath}`);
  await page.waitForFunction(() => (window as any).__hot);

  // Optional pre-trace setup (e.g., scroll to position)

  await runTracedScenario({
    page,
    warmupRuns: config.warmupRuns,
    iterations: config.iterations,
    outputDir: path.resolve('output', config.name),
    actionFn: async() => {
      // The measured action goes here
    },
    // Optional: resetFn to restore state between iterations
  });
});

The runTracedScenario function handles:

Creating the output directory
Running warmup iterations (no tracing) with progress output
Running measured iterations with CDP tracing and heartbeat dots
Writing trace JSON files as iteration-{n}.json

Adding hook timing (filtering/sorting scenarios)

For scenarios that measure a specific hook pair (e.g., beforeFilter -> afterFilter):

import { injectHookTimer, getHookTiming, saveHookTimings } from '../../lib/hook-timing.mjs';

// Before tracing, inject the timer:
await injectHookTimer(page, 'beforeFilter', 'afterFilter');

const hookDeltas: number[] = [];
const outputDir = path.resolve('output', config.name);

// Inside actionFn, capture timing after the action:
const timing = await getHookTiming(page, 'beforeFilter', 'afterFilter');
if (timing.deltaMs != null) {
  hookDeltas.push(timing.deltaMs);
}

// Inside resetFn, call injectHookTimer again to reset the store
// (it is idempotent -- prevents duplicate listener registration):
await injectHookTimer(page, 'beforeFilter', 'afterFilter');

// After runTracedScenario, save hook timing:
await saveHookTimings(outputDir, hookDeltas);

The saveHookTimings helper computes the average and writes hook-timing.json. The teardown automatically picks it up from each scenario directory.

Using scroll helpers

For scenarios that need to pre-scroll the grid (e.g., scroll-up starts from the bottom):

import { scrollToRow, scrollToColumn } from '../../lib/scroll-utils.mjs';

// Scroll to row 4999 and wait until it's rendered (no arbitrary timeouts)
await scrollToRow(page, 4999);

// Or scroll to column 4999
await scrollToColumn(page, 4999);

These combine scrollViewportTo() with a deterministic waitForFunction that checks the index mapper -- always use them instead of waitForTimeout.

Existing Scenarios

Scenario	Grid size	Action	Special
scroll-down	5000x10	`mouse.wheel(0, 350)` x 500	-
scroll-up	5000x10	`mouse.wheel(0, -350)` x 500	Pre-scrolls to bottom via `scrollToRow`
scroll-right	10x5000	`mouse.wheel(350, 0)` x 500	-
scroll-left	10x5000	`mouse.wheel(-350, 0)` x 500	Pre-scrolls to right via `scrollToColumn`
filtering	1000x1000	`filters.addCondition` + `filter()`	Hook timing
sorting	1000x1000	`columnSorting.sort()` asc/desc alternating	Hook timing
cell-editing	5000x10	selectCell + Enter + type + Enter x 20	-

Run Commands

# Full pipeline (build HOT + copy fixtures + run all scenarios)
cd performance-tests && node scripts/run.mjs

# Run specific scenario only (fixtures must exist)
npx playwright test --grep "scroll-down"

# Golden mode (saves baseline snapshot)
PERF_MODE=golden node scripts/run.mjs

# Compare mode (loads golden, generates delta report)
PERF_MODE=compare node scripts/run.mjs

# Lint
npm run lint

# Type-check spec files
npm run typecheck

Build artifacts (handsontable/dist/ and handsontable/styles/) must exist before running tests directly with npx playwright test. The scripts/run.mjs orchestrator handles building automatically.

CI Workflow

The GitHub Actions workflow (.github/workflows/performance-tests.yml) operates in two modes:

push to develop: Runs all scenarios in golden mode, deploys snapshots.json + report.html to the gh-pages branch under performance-reports/develop/<timestamp>/. Updates latest.json as a pointer for PR comparisons. Builds a history index page listing all past runs.
pull_request: Fetches golden from gh-pages via git show gh-pages:performance-reports/develop/latest.json, runs all scenarios in compare mode, posts a compact sticky PR comment with a summary table and regression callouts, and deploys the full HTML report to performance-reports/<branch-slug>/ on GitHub Pages.

Push retries with rebase (up to 3 attempts) protect against concurrent gh-pages writes.

The Trace Pipeline

Understanding the data flow helps when debugging or extending:

Spec calls runTracedScenario() -> CDP Tracing.start / Tracing.end -> raw JSON per iteration
Teardown (lib/teardown.mjs) discovers output/*/iteration-*.json, calls parseTrace() from trace-parser.mjs
trace-parser.mjs categorizes events into DevTools categories (scripting, rendering, painting, loading, system, idle), computes the auto-zoomed window, synthesizes ProfileCall scripting from CPU profile data
Teardown averages across iterations via averageParsedTraces(), collects per-iteration values for CV% calculation, strips internal fields (_iterationValues, _debug) from saved snapshots
report-builder.mjs assembles a compact markdown PR comment; html-report-builder.mjs generates a full interactive HTML report with inline SVG charts from chart-generator.mjs
If PERF_MODE=golden: snapshot-store.mjs saves averaged results, deployed to gh-pages
If PERF_MODE=compare: teardown loads golden from gh-pages, report shows deltas

Shared Utilities

The lib/ directory provides reusable helpers to avoid duplication across scenarios:

Module	Exports	Purpose
`fs-utils.mjs`	`exists(path)`	Async file existence check (used by teardown, snapshot-store, run.mjs)
`scroll-utils.mjs`	`scrollToRow(page, row)`, `scrollToColumn(page, col)`	Scroll + deterministic wait for renderable index
`thresholds.mjs`	`pctChange()`, `classifyChange()`, `fmtMs()`, `fmtPct()`, `fmtCv()`, etc.	Shared classification and formatting for both report builders
`hook-timing.mjs`	`injectHookTimer()`, `getHookTiming()`, `saveHookTimings()`	Hook pair timing injection, retrieval, and persistence

Always import from these shared modules rather than duplicating logic in scenario specs.

.mjs Convention

All .mjs files in this package follow the node-scripts-dev skill conventions:

node: prefix for builtins
node:fs/promises async APIs (never sync)
import.meta.dirname for paths
join() from node:path for cross-platform paths
No TypeScript syntax -- .mjs files are plain JavaScript. Use /** @type {any} */ JSDoc casts, not as any.

Common Mistakes

Mistake	Fix
Using `handsontable.full.css` in fixture	Use `handsontable.css` -- there is no `full` CSS variant
Forgetting `autoRowSize: false`	Always disable -- async sizing interferes with measurements
Scenario name doesn't match directory name	The `name` in config must match the directory name exactly
Running `npx playwright test` without built fixtures	Run `node scripts/run.mjs` or build HOT first and copy dist files
Using sync fs APIs in `.mjs` files	Use `node:fs/promises` async APIs
Missing `window.__hot` in fixture	The spec's `waitForFunction` and `page.evaluate` depend on it
Forgetting `resetFn` when measuring repeatable actions	Without reset, iterations 2+ start from the end state of iteration 1
Using `waitForTimeout()` for scroll/render waits	Use `scrollToRow()` / `scrollToColumn()` from `lib/scroll-utils.mjs`, or `waitForFunction` with a renderable index check
Manually writing `hook-timing.json` with `writeFile`	Use `saveHookTimings(outputDir, deltas)` from `lib/hook-timing.mjs`
Using TypeScript syntax (`as any`) in `.mjs` files	Use JSDoc casts: `/** @type {any} */ (window)` -- `.mjs` is not transpiled
Defining `exists()` locally in a new `.mjs` file	Import from `lib/fs-utils.mjs` -- it is the single source