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Browser Load Time Stopwatch
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Contents |
Introduction
Webmonkey needed a good way to time how fast a web page loads or to compare the load times of different browsers. You see, we have big thumbs and we keep messing up when we try our old-timey stopwatch.
So we whipped up this code to start a timer when the browser starts and stops loading a web page.
It's not the most scientific way to test browsers, but it will do in a pinch and for lack of a better option.
This page is a wiki. If you have any ideas to enhance the program or have anything to add, log in and edit this page.
What you'll need
You'll need to simply copy and paste this code into a text editor and save the file as something like "loadtest.html"
Load it up in the browser of your choice and a JavaScript message will tell you how long it takes to load the page.
Code and Explanation
<html>
<script language="javascript">
var startTime = new Date();
// The following function uses the time and calculates it against when the
// script first loaded, basically getting the start and end time. This function
// is run when the page finishes loading using the "onload=" DHTML element of
// the iframe
function showElapsedTime(){
var testSiteUrl = document.getElementById("testFrame").src;
var testSiteString = String(testSiteUrl).slice(testSiteUrl.indexOf("www"));
var endTime = new Date();
var elapsedTime = Number(endTime-startTime);
var browser=navigator.userAgent;
var platform=navigator.platform;
// This is the message that pops up informing you the elapsed time
var msgString = "http://" + testSiteString + "\ntook " + elapsedTime + " milliseconds or " + Number(elapsedTime/1000) + " seconds to load.\n\nYour browser and platform is: \n" + browser;
alert(msgString);
}
</script>
<div style="margin:40px 0px;"><h1>Webmonkey Stopwatch</h1></div>
<!-- This loads the web page in an iFrame and runs the showElapsedTime function when the page is loaded. -->
<iframe id="testFrame" onload="showElapsedTime();" src="http://www.webmonkey.com/" width="640" height="800" scrolling="no" frameborder="2" ></iframe>
</html>
Suggested readings
We encourage you to add test results to enter your results in our our survey page.
Known Issues:
- The page will load only time the first page it comes across. That means that if there is a redirect, it will only time how long it took to load the redirect, not the actual page.
- There is no accounting for connection speed. To level the playing field, you might want to save the web page to your hard drive first, and run it from there.
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