// Copyright (c) 2011 The Chromium Authors. All rights reserved.
// Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style license that can be
// found in the LICENSE file.
// FieldTrial is a class for handling details of statistical experiments
// performed by actual users in the field (i.e., in a shipped or beta product).
// All code is called exclusively on the UI thread currently.
//
// The simplest example is an experiment to see whether one of two options
// produces "better" results across our user population. In that scenario, UMA
// data is uploaded to aggregate the test results, and this FieldTrial class
// manages the state of each such experiment (state == which option was
// pseudo-randomly selected).
//
// States are typically generated randomly, either based on a one time
// randomization (generated randomly once, and then persistently reused in the
// client during each future run of the program), or by a startup randomization
// (generated each time the application starts up, but held constant during the
// duration of the process), or by continuous randomization across a run (where
// the state can be recalculated again and again, many times during a process).
// Only startup randomization is implemented thus far.
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Example: Suppose we have an experiment involving memory, such as determining
// the impact of some pruning algorithm.
// We assume that we already have a histogram of memory usage, such as:
// HISTOGRAM_COUNTS("Memory.RendererTotal", count);
// Somewhere in main thread initialization code, we'd probably define an
// instance of a FieldTrial, with code such as:
// // FieldTrials are reference counted, and persist automagically until
// // process teardown, courtesy of their automatic registration in
// // FieldTrialList.
// // Note: This field trial will run in Chrome instances compiled through
// // 8 July, 2015, and after that all instances will be in "StandardMem".
// scoped_refptr<FieldTrial> trial = new FieldTrial("MemoryExperiment", 1000,
// "StandardMem", 2015, 7, 8);
// const int kHighMemGroup =
// trial->AppendGroup("HighMem", 20); // 2% in HighMem group.
// const int kLowMemGroup =
// trial->AppendGroup("LowMem", 20); // 2% in LowMem group.
// // Take action depending of which group we randomly land in.
// if (trial->group() == kHighMemGroup)
// SetPruningAlgorithm(kType1); // Sample setting of browser state.
// else if (trial->group() == kLowMemGroup)
// SetPruningAlgorithm(kType2); // Sample alternate setting.
// We then, in addition to our original histogram, output histograms which have
// slightly different names depending on what group the trial instance happened
// to randomly be assigned:
// HISTOGRAM_COUNTS("Memory.RendererTotal", count); // The original histogram.
// static bool use_memoryexperiment_histogram(
// base::FieldTrialList::Find("MemoryExperiment") &&
// !base::FieldTrialList::Find("MemoryExperiment")->group_name().empty());
// if (use_memoryexperiment_histogram) {
// HISTOGRAM_COUNTS(FieldTrial::MakeName("Memory.RendererTotal",
// "MemoryExperiment"), count);
// }
// The above code will create four distinct histograms, with each run of the
// application being assigned to of of the three groups, and for each group, the
// correspondingly named histogram will be populated:
// Memory.RendererTotal // 100% of users still fill this histogram.
// Memory.RendererTotal_HighMem // 2% of users will fill this histogram.
// Memory.RendererTotal_LowMem // 2% of users will fill this histogram.
// Memory.RendererTotal_StandardMem // 96% of users will fill this histogram.
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#ifndef BASE_METRICS_FIELD_TRIAL_H_
#define BASE_METRICS_FIELD_TRIAL_H_
#pragma once
#include <map>
#include <string>
#include "base/base_api.h"
#include "base/gtest_prod_util.h"
#include "base/memory/ref_counted.h"
#include "base/synchronization/lock.h"
#include "base/time.h"
namespace base {
class FieldTrialList;
class BASE_API FieldTrial : public RefCounted<FieldTrial> {
public:
typedef int Probability; // Probability type for being selected in a trial.
// A return value to indicate that a given instance has not yet had a group
// assignment (and hence is not yet participating in the trial).
static const int kNotFinalized;
// This is the group number of the 'default' group. This provides an easy way
// to assign all the remaining probability to a group ('default').
static const int kDefaultGroupNumber;
// The name is used to register the instance with the FieldTrialList class,
// and can be used to find the trial (only one trial can be present for each
// name).
// Group probabilities that are later supplied must sum to less than or equal
// to the total_probability. Arguments year, month and day_of_month specify
// the expiration time. If the build time is after the expiration time then
// the field trial reverts to the 'default' group.
FieldTrial(const std::string& name, Probability total_probability,
const std::string& default_group_name, const int year,
const int month, const int day_of_month);
// Establish the name and probability of the next group in this trial.
// Sometimes, based on construction randomization, this call may cause the
// provided group to be *THE* group selected for use in this instance.
// The return value is the group number of the new group.
int AppendGroup(const std::string& name, Probability group_probability);
// Return the name of the FieldTrial (excluding the group name).
std::string name() const { return name_; }
// Return the randomly selected group number that was assigned.
// Return kDefaultGroupNumber if the instance is in the 'default' group.
// Note that this will force an instance to participate, and make it illegal
// to attempt to probabalistically add any other groups to the trial.
int group();
// If the field trial is not in an experiment, this returns the empty string.
// if the group's name is empty, a name of "_" concatenated with the group
// number is used as the group name.
std::string group_name();
// Return the default group name of the FieldTrial.
std::string default_group_name() const { return default_group_name_; }
// Helper function for the most common use: as an argument to specifiy the
// name of a HISTOGRAM. Use the original histogram name as the name_prefix.
static std::string MakeName(const std::string& name_prefix,
const std::string& trial_name);
// Enable benchmarking sets field trials to a common setting.
static void EnableBenchmarking();
private:
// Allow tests to access our innards for testing purposes.
FRIEND_TEST(FieldTrialTest, Registration);
FRIEND_TEST(FieldTrialTest, AbsoluteProbabilities);
FRIEND_TEST(FieldTrialTest, RemainingProbability);
FRIEND_TEST(FieldTrialTest, FiftyFiftyProbability);
FRIEND_TEST(FieldTrialTest, MiddleProbabilities);
FRIEND_TEST(FieldTrialTest, OneWinner);
FRIEND_TEST(FieldTrialTest, DisableProbability);
FRIEND_TEST(FieldTrialTest, Save);
FRIEND_TEST(FieldTrialTest, DuplicateRestore);
FRIEND_TEST(FieldTrialTest, MakeName);
friend class base::FieldTrialList;
friend class RefCounted<FieldTrial>;
virtual ~FieldTrial();
// Returns the group_name. A winner need not have been chosen.
std::string group_name_internal() const { return group_name_; }
// Get build time.
static Time GetBuildTime();
// The name of the field trial, as can be found via the FieldTrialList.
// This is empty of the trial is not in the experiment.
const std::string name_;
// The maximum sum of all probabilities supplied, which corresponds to 100%.
// This is the scaling factor used to adjust supplied probabilities.
const Probability divisor_;
// The name of the default group.
const std::string default_group_name_;
// The randomly selected probability that is used to select a group (or have
// the instance not participate). It is the product of divisor_ and a random
// number between [0, 1).
const Probability random_;
// Sum of the probabilities of all appended groups.
Probability accumulated_group_probability_;
int next_group_number_;
// The pseudo-randomly assigned group number.
// This is kNotFinalized if no group has been assigned.
int group_;
// A textual name for the randomly selected group. If this Trial is not a
// member of an group, this string is empty.
std::string group_name_;
// When disable_field_trial_ is true, field trial reverts to the 'default'
// group.
bool disable_field_trial_;
// When benchmarking is enabled, field trials all revert to the 'default'
// group.
static bool enable_benchmarking_;
DISALLOW_COPY_AND_ASSIGN(FieldTrial);
};
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Class with a list of all active field trials. A trial is active if it has
// been registered, which includes evaluating its state based on its probaility.
// Only one instance of this class exists.
class BASE_API FieldTrialList {
public:
// Define a separator charactor to use when creating a persistent form of an
// instance. This is intended for use as a command line argument, passed to a
// second process to mimic our state (i.e., provide the same group name).
static const char kPersistentStringSeparator; // Currently a slash.
// This singleton holds the global list of registered FieldTrials.
FieldTrialList();
// Destructor Release()'s references to all registered FieldTrial instances.
~FieldTrialList();
// Register() stores a pointer to the given trial in a global map.
// This method also AddRef's the indicated trial.
static void Register(FieldTrial* trial);
// The Find() method can be used to test to see if a named Trial was already
// registered, or to retrieve a pointer to it from the global map.
static FieldTrial* Find(const std::string& name);
static int FindValue(const std::string& name);
static std::string FindFullName(const std::string& name);
// Create a persistent representation of all FieldTrial instances for
// resurrection in another process. This allows randomization to be done in
// one process, and secondary processes can by synchronized on the result.
// The resulting string contains only the names, the trial name, and a "/"
// separator.
static void StatesToString(std::string* output);
// Use a previously generated state string (re: StatesToString()) augment the
// current list of field tests to include the supplied tests, and using a 100%
// probability for each test, force them to have the same group string. This
// is commonly used in a sub-process, to carry randomly selected state in a
// parent process into this sub-process.
// Currently only the group_name_ and name_ are restored.
static bool CreateTrialsInChildProcess(const std::string& prior_trials);
// The time of construction of the global map is recorded in a static variable
// and is commonly used by experiments to identify the time since the start
// of the application. In some experiments it may be useful to discount
// data that is gathered before the application has reached sufficient
// stability (example: most DLL have loaded, etc.)
static TimeTicks application_start_time() {
if (global_)
return global_->application_start_time_;
// For testing purposes only, or when we don't yet have a start time.
return TimeTicks::Now();
}
// Return the number of active field trials.
static size_t GetFieldTrialCount();
private:
// A map from FieldTrial names to the actual instances.
typedef std::map<std::string, FieldTrial*> RegistrationList;
// Helper function should be called only while holding lock_.
FieldTrial* PreLockedFind(const std::string& name);
static FieldTrialList* global_; // The singleton of this class.
// This will tell us if there is an attempt to register a field trial without
// creating the FieldTrialList. This is not an error, unless a FieldTrialList
// is created after that.
static bool register_without_global_;
// A helper value made availabel to users, that shows when the FieldTrialList
// was initialized. Note that this is a singleton instance, and hence is a
// good approximation to the start of the process.
TimeTicks application_start_time_;
// Lock for access to registered_.
base::Lock lock_;
RegistrationList registered_;
DISALLOW_COPY_AND_ASSIGN(FieldTrialList);
};
} // namespace base
#endif // BASE_METRICS_FIELD_TRIAL_H_