Test: Added Clinic.js (Dynamic Analysis, Additional Tool)

[jarchenn]

Add Clinic.js Dynamic Analysis (Tool Not on Starter List) + Artifacts

Summary

This PR adds Clinic.js as a dynamic performance analysis tool for our NodeBB app and includes evidence that it was installed and successfully run on this repository.

• Tool: Clinic.js
• Type: Dynamic analysis (runtime performance / event loop profiling)
• Docs: https://clinicjs.org
• Why this tool: Not on the course starter list; targets Node.js async/event-loop bottlenecks that static tools cannot see.

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Evidence of Installation (Trackable File Changes)

Choose one of the two options below (we used whichever applied):

Option A – Local Dev Dependency (preferred for trackable changes)

• package.json and package-lock.json show:

  "devDependencies": {
    "clinic": "x.y.z"
  }

• Added npm script for convenience:

  "scripts": {
    "clinic:doctor": "clinic doctor -- node app.js"
  }

Option B – Global Install with Log File

• Committed clinic-artifacts/clinic-install-log.txt showing:
  • Date/time of global install
  • Output of npm list -g --depth=0 | grep clinic

We included: [state which option you used]

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Evidence of Successful Run (Artifacts)

• Committed HTML report generated by Clinic Doctor:
  • clinic-artifacts/8910.clinic-doctor.html
• (Optional) Committed terminal output:
  • clinic-artifacts/clinic-output.txt
• (Optional) Screenshot of the report:
  • clinic-artifacts/report-screenshot.png

Command used:

clinic doctor -- node app.js
# exercised app for ~30s, then Ctrl+C
# Clinic wrote: .clinic/8910.clinic-doctor.html
cp .clinic/8910.clinic-doctor.html clinic-artifacts/
# optional terminal output:
clinic doctor -- node app.js > clinic-artifacts/clinic-output.txt 2>&1

---

What Problems This Tool Can Catch

• Event loop blocking / slow async paths
• CPU hotspots and synchronous work on request path
• Latency introduced by I/O or promise chains
• Memory or GC-related stalls (with other Clinic subtools)

---

Customization Tried (for Evaluation)

• Ran Clinic Doctor under default settings on NodeBB startup workload
• Plan to re-run with clinic flame or clinic bubbleprof if Doctor suggests CPU or async profiling

---

Integration Ideas (for Design Doc)

• When to run: On demand before releases or major merges (profiling is heavier)
• Who runs it: Feature owner or QA lead on performance-sensitive changes
• Process impact: Attach report to PRs for reference, not as a hard CI gate

---

Requirement Mapping (for Grading)

• Separate testing branch created: testing-clinic-js
• PR from testing branch → main
• Tool is not from starter list
• Evidence of installation (Option A or B)
• Artifacts proving successful run (HTML report / output / screenshot)

---

Notes

• NodeBB threw an EADDRINUSE: 4567 warning due to a port conflict, but Clinic still produced a valid analysis report.
• This PR is part of the Tools Checkpoint (10 pts) for Project 3.
• No changes to core application logic.

---

##Artifact Generation Commands

# Local devDependency install (Option A)
npm install --save-dev clinic
# Optional script
jq '.scripts["clinic:doctor"]="clinic doctor -- node app.js"' package.json > package.json.tmp && mv package.json.tmp package.json

# Run and capture output
clinic doctor -- node app.js > clinic-artifacts/clinic-output.txt 2>&1
# interact with app, then Ctrl+C
mkdir -p clinic-artifacts
cp .clinic/*.clinic-doctor.html clinic-artifacts/

# Global install log (Option B)
echo "Installed Clinic.js globally on $(date -u)" > clinic-artifacts/clinic-install-log.txt
npm list -g --depth=0 | grep clinic >> clinic-artifacts/clinic-install-log.txt

# Commit and push
git add clinic-artifacts/ package.json package-lock.json
git commit -m "Add Clinic.js dynamic analysis (not on starter list) + report artifacts"
git push -u origin testing-clinic-js

Overall View demonstrating Clinic in repository as well as the HMTL report generated

# HTML generated from Clinic

Folder location for Clinic files

[coveralls]

Pull Request Test Coverage Report for Build 18957148787

Warning: This coverage report may be inaccurate.

This pull request's base commit is no longer the HEAD commit of its target branch. This means it includes changes from outside the original pull request, including, potentially, unrelated coverage changes.

• For more information on this, see Tracking coverage changes with pull request builds.
• To avoid this issue with future PRs, see these Recommended CI Configurations.
• For a quick fix, rebase this PR at GitHub. Your next report should be accurate.

Details

• 0 of 0 changed or added relevant lines in 0 files are covered.
• 55 unchanged lines in 6 files lost coverage.
• Overall coverage decreased (-0.01%) to 78.447%

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Files with Coverage Reduction	New Missed Lines	%
src/admin/versions.js	1	87.88%
src/controllers/admin/dashboard.js	2	85.34%
src/controllers/admin/plugins.js	2	90.57%
src/middleware/render.js	2	78.89%
src/emailer.js	23	75.15%
src/meta/build.js	25	53.26%

Totals
Change from base Build 18755099280:	-0.01%
Covered Lines:	24896
Relevant Lines:	29877

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💛 - Coveralls