// Copyright (c) 2006-2009 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: // // Note, FieldTrials are reference counted, and persist automagically until // // process teardown, courtesy of their automatic registration in // // FieldTrialList. // scoped_refptr trial = new FieldTrial("MemoryExperiment", 1000); // int group1 = trial->AppendGroup("_high_mem", 20); // 2% in _high_mem group. // int group2 = trial->AppendGroup("_low_mem", 20); // 2% in _low_mem group. // // Take action depending of which group we randomly land in. // if (trial->group() == group1) // SetPruningAlgorithm(kType1); // Sample setting of browser state. // else if (trial->group() == group2) // SetPruningAlgorithm(kType2); // Sample alternate setting. // We then modify any histograms we wish to correlate with our experiment to // have slighly different names, depending on what group the trial instance // happened (randomly) to be assigned to: // HISTOGRAM_COUNTS(FieldTrial::MakeName("Memory.RendererTotal", // "MemoryExperiment").data(), count); // The above code will create 3 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 // 96% of users still fill this histogram. // Memory.RendererTotal_high_mem // 2% of users will fill this histogram. // Memory.RendererTotal_low_mem // 2% of users will fill this histogram. //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ #ifndef BASE_FIELD_TRIAL_H_ #define BASE_FIELD_TRIAL_H_ #include #include #include "base/lock.h" #include "base/ref_counted.h" #include "base/time.h" class FieldTrial : public base::RefCounted { 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 kNotParticipating; // Provide an easy way to assign all remaining probability to a 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. When doing // A/B tests with timings, it is often best to define all groups, so that // histograms will get unique names via the MakeName() methods. static const Probability kAllRemainingProbability; // 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. FieldTrial(const std::string& name, Probability total_probability); // Establish the name and probability of the next group in this trial. // Sometimes, based on construction randomization, this call may causes the // provided group to be *THE* group selected for use in this instance. 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 kNotParticipating if the instance is not participating in the // experiment. int group() const { return 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() const { return 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); private: friend class base::RefCounted; ~FieldTrial() {} // 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 maximu sum of all probabilities supplied, which corresponds to 100%. // This is the scaling factor used to adjust supplied probabilities. Probability divisor_; // 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). 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 kNotParticipating if no group has been assigned. int group_; // A textual name for the randomly selected group, including the Trial name. // If this Trial is not a member of an group, this string is empty. std::string group_name_; 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 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 StringAugmentsState(const std::string& prior_state); // 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 base::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 base::TimeTicks::Now(); } private: // Helper function should be called only while holding lock_. FieldTrial* PreLockedFind(const std::string& name); // A map from FieldTrial names to the actual instances. typedef std::map RegistrationList; 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. base::TimeTicks application_start_time_; // Lock for access to registered_. Lock lock_; RegistrationList registered_; DISALLOW_COPY_AND_ASSIGN(FieldTrialList); }; #endif // BASE_FIELD_TRIAL_H_