How do you schedule and run tests in Test Director?

In this article we shall see how the tests can be scheduled and run. 

By configuring the conditions the test director can be instructed to postpone the run of the current test till the completion of some other specified tests is over. For example, the test b is scheduled to be run only after the test a finishes with the execution and there is one more test c which is scheduled to run only if the test b passes.

Also, the tests a and b can be scheduled to be executed a day prior to the execution of the test c. the tests and their conditions are displayed by the execution flow in the form of a diagram. 

Steps to schedule tests in test Director

Follow the below mentioned steps to schedule a test run:

1. Firstly, make sure that the test module is in the view mode and if it is  not then first enable it.
2. Second step involves creation of a new test. Click on the execution flow tab in the test lab module. Choose a folder in the test sets tree and click on the ‘new test set’ option. You will get a ‘new test set’ dialog box. Type in the following details:

a)   Test set name

b)   Description

Once you are done click OK and the test set will be added to the test sets tree in the left pane by the test director.

3. Add a test that you want to add to the test set created in the previous step. Using the ‘select tests’ button  to make the test director display the test plan tree in the right pane. Then, type the name of the test to be searched for in the find box in the test plan tree and click find button. Select the searched test and add it to the test set using the ‘add tests to test set’ button.
4. Any number of tests can be added to the test set. To add the tests to the execution flow either simply drag them in to the execution flow area or double click on them.
5. Add conditions using conditions tab. When you will click on the new button a ‘new execution condition’ dialog box will pop up. Select the required test and then passed option. This will instruct the test director to execute the next test only after the successful execution of the previous test. Click OK once done with this and the condition will be added to the run schedule of by the test director in the test dialog box.
6. You can even add a dependency condition to the tests by clicking on the time dependency tab. You will get a field titled ‘run at specified time’, in that specify the date of execution and click OK. Clicking on OK will close the run schedule. The conditions will be displayed by the test director in the execution flow area.
7. Further, if required, some execution condition can also be added to the tests.
8. For rearranging the tests in a hierarchical way, click on the perform layout option. You can then view the dependencies between the tests clearly.  

How the tests are run in Test Director?

We get two options form the test director namely:

a)   Running tests manually and

b)   Automating the tests.

Follow the steps below for the manual execution of a test:

1. Click on the test lab module to display the test lab module.
2. From the test sets select the required test set.
3. From the execution grid select the required test.
4. Clicking on the run will open up a manual runner dialog box.
5. To begin the test run click on the test run. Parameter values dialog box will open up.
6. Assign the parameter values for the test.
7. Click OK and test director will show up the manual runner. The step details dialog box will open up. Perform the execution process step by step.
8. After running all the steps return to the default manual runner display. End the test run by clicking on the end of run button. 

How to run a test automatically in Test Director?

The whole testing process revolves around the execution of the tests. As the changes are introduced in to the software system or application, running tests either manually or automatically becomes mandatory so that the defects can be located and quality can be assessed. 

How are tests run?

- One starts the testing process with the creation of the tests and adding these tests to a test set. 

- Tests are grouped into test sets by the test director so that some specific goals can be achieved. 

- Execution process of the tests can be controlled via the various controls provided by the test director. 

- Along with these controls, there are certain conditions and settings which need to be configured for the execution of the tests as desired by the tester. 

- The date and time can also be scheduled when the tests will be executed. 

- Once the tests have been defined the tester can begin with the execution of the tests. 

- Whenever the tests are executed manually, it is basically the test steps that were defined earlier during the test planning which are executed one by one. 

- The steps are passed or failed by the tester depending up on whether there is a match between the expected results and the actual results. 

- For the automatic run of a test, the selected tool is directly opened by the test director and the test is run. 

- The result hence obtained is exported to the test director. 

- Setting conditions and specifying date and time for the execution of a test both can be done with the help of the execution flow tab.

- In the execution, one thing should be noticed which is that the condition is always dependent on the result of some other specified test in the same flow. 

- Also, the sequence in which the tests are to be executed can be specified. 

In this article we shall see how the test execution can be automated. The tool selected for the execution of the tests is opened directly by the test director and the tests are run on either local or remote machine. It is either choice if you want to run all the tests or some specified ones. 

For running the tests automatically one of the following tools must be installed on the system:

a)   Astra quick test

b)   Quick test professional

c)   Winrunnner

Follow the below mentioned steps:

1. Clicking on the test lab tab will display the test lab module. This is a must for the automation of the tests.
2. The test set you want to execute automatically should be displayed in the execution grid. For doing this click on the execution grid tab and select the required test from the test sets tree.
3. Select a test. For running the winrunner test select the required test or if you want to run an astra quick test or QTP test select the required one. Next clicking on the run button will open up the execution dialog box and the test will be displayed.
4. Configure the test run settings and select the ‘run all tests locally’ option for running the tests on the local machine.
5. For running the tests click on run tests and the tool will be opened automatically by the test director and the tests will be run. The execution progress can be viewed in the status column.
6. Once the execution of the test is complete close the execution dialog box by clicking on the exit option.
7. Also the summary of the test results can be viewed in the execution grid.

How to call tests with parameters in Test Director?

Testing an application is a complicated process. Test director has provided help in many tasks such as in the organization and management of the different phases of the testing process which is inclusive of various activities such as test planning, requirements analyzation, defects tracking and so on. 

Test director basically provides the tester with a frame work that is well organized for the testing of applications just before their deployment. Test plans typically evolve around the requirements that are new or have been modified therefore; there is a need of having a central data repository for the management and organization of the testing activities. 

Test director proves to be an effective guide while you go through the following tasks:

1. Requirements specification
2. Test planning
3. Test execution
4. Defect tracking etc.

The above mentioned 4 tasks also represent the 4 major phases of the test director testing process. In the phase of test planning you have the following tasks:

1. Defining the testing strategy
2. Defining test subjects
3. Defining tests
4. Creation of the requirements coverage
5. Designing the test steps
6. Automation of the tests
7. Analyzation of the test plan

A test plan tree is constructed and then the tests are executed for locating the defects and assessing the quality. The following tasks are involved:

1. Creation of the test sets
2. Scheduling the runs
3. Running the tests
4. Analyzation of the test results

How to call tests with parameters in test Director?

- When the test steps are designed, you have an option whether or not include a call to a manual test. 

- When the test is executed, this manual test is called as a part of the execution sequence. 

- The test that is called is actually a template test which has the characteristic that it can be reused as a test that is called by other tests. 

- It is possible to pass parameters to a template test. 

- Parameter is a variable for replacing a fixed value. 

- The values of the parameters can be changed by passing the desired value to the test that calls it. 

Example:

- Suppose there is a test in which you need to log-in with a specific user id and password. 

- There might be two users to the same test i.e., administrator and public. 

- For achieving this, two parameters are created to the test namely user id and password. 

- The value of these two parameters then can be modified according to whether log-in has to be public or administrative.

Follow the steps below to call a test with parameters:

1. Firstly, the design steps tab needs to be displayed for the test therefore click on the design steps tab.
2. Select the test with parameters that are required to be called by clicking on the ‘call to test’ button. A ‘select a test’ dialog box will open up.  Type in the name of the test to be found and click find button. Test director will highlight that particular test. Click OK.
3. Again you will get a ‘parameters of test …’ dialog box which will display all the parameters associated with that particular test.
4. Modify the parameter values in the value column according to your requirements. Values to the parameters can be assigned whenever a test is created to call the tests or whenever a test is added to the test set or whenever the test is run.  Click OK. The selected step will be added to the design steps.
5. Re-order the steps
6. Adjust the step size.

What is Keyword driven testing? What are base requirements for keyword driven testing?

Table driven testing, action word testing or key word driven testing, whatever you may call it, it is one and the same thing – a software testing methodology that has been especially designed for automated testing.

However, the approach followed by this testing methodology is quite different and involves dividing the test creation process in to 2 distinct phases namely:

1. Planning phase and the
2. Implementation phase

What is Keyword Driven Testing?

- It has been specially designed for automated testing.

- It does not mean that it cannot be employed for carrying out manual testing. - It can be very well used for manual testing as well. 

- The biggest advantage provided by the automated tests is of re-usability and so all this has eased up the maintenance of the tests that were developed at an abstraction level that was too high. 

- To say in simple words, one or more atomic test steps together form a key word.

- The first phase i.e., the planning phase involves the preparation of the testing tools and test resources. 

- The second phase i.e., the implementation phase depends up on the frame work or tool and thus differs accordingly. 

- Often a frame work is implemented by the automation engineers which has key words like enter and check. 

- This makes it easy for the test designers who do not have any knowledge of programming, to design the test cases based on such key words, that have already been defined by the engineers in planning phase that has already been implemented. 

- Such designed test cases are executed via a driver. 

- The purpose of this driver is to read the key word and execute the corresponding code.

- There are other testing methodologies which put everything right in to the implementation phase instead of performing the test designing and engineering separately.

- In such a case, the test automation is only confined to the test design.

- There are some keywords that are created using the tools which had the necessary code already written for them such as edit and check. 

- This helps in cutting down the extra number of engineers in the process of test automation. 

- This makes the implementation of the keyword a part of the tool. 

Advantages of Key word Driven Testing

There are some advantages of key word driven testing as stated below:

1. Concise test cases.
2. Test cases are readable only by the stake holders.
3. Easily modifiable test cases.
4. Easy reuse of the existing keywords by the new test cases.
5. Keywords can be re used simultaneously across multiple test cases.
6. Independent of programming languages as well as specific tool.
7. Labor gets divided.
8. Less requirement of tool and programming skills.
9. Lower domain skills required for keyword implementation.
10. Layer abstraction.

Disadvantages of Keyword Driven Testing

1.   A longer time is required for marketing when compared to manual testing.

2.   Initially, high learning curve.

Base Requirements of Key word driven Testing

1. Full separation of test development and test automation processes: The separation of these two processes is very much required for test automation since both of them have very different skill requirements. The fundamental idea behind this is that the testers should not be programmers. Testers should have the ability of defining test cases which can be implemented without having to bother about the underlying technology.
2. The scope of the test cases must be clear and differentiated: The test cases must not deviate from their scope.
3. Right level of abstraction must be used for writing the tests: Tests must be written at levels such as lower user interface, higher business level etc. 

What is Perl Testing?

Various testing methodologies have become a corner stone for many of the development processes and PERL testing is one such testing methodology. 

"Perl testing is one such testing that is highly involved with the creation of automated test suites".

The creation of automated test suites with regard to the perl projects is assisted by around 400 testing and quality modules which are now available on the CPAN.

Now you must be thinking why only automated test suites in perl? 

The answer is that the with an automated test suite the developers as well as the project managers get a sense of confidence in the ability of the code that it can very well carry out a specification. 

What is Perl Testing?

- Perl development ethos has always viewed software testing as its central and critical part since years. 

- Gradually, a testing protocol by the name of TAP or ‘test anything protocol’ was set up for the perl in the year of 1987. 

- This TAP protocol is now available for so many languages. 

- Many of the test modules on CPAN like 100s make use of this TAP protocol. 

- With the help of this protocol it has been made possible to enable the following aspects:

1. Testing of data base queries
2. Testing of objects
3. Testing of web sites and so on.

- Around 250,000 tests have been developed for the core Perl language plus there are a same number of tests for the libraries that are associated with it. 

- There is one more advantage of the automated test suites which is that the additions are done to the code base as the changes in functional requirements are experienced. 

- But, while making the additions, re-factoring is required so as to avoid duplication. 

- Since, if there is enough code coverage the issues will automatically be highlighted by the test suite and then it becomes fairly easy to spot the changes that occur in the knock on effects of code. 

- The duty of the code coverage is to determine how much of the code has been tested since the execution of the test suite. 

- This metric however can be obtained from the developer and also the branches and sections of the code that are not being tested can also be reported. 

- Testers can combine the testing modules that are most frequently used and thus it serves a good starting point. 

- So, for the cases in which testing specific functionality is required, one only needs to add specific testing modules to the test.

- Perl has always recognized testing as a part of its culture. 

- With the TAP protocol, the communication between a test harness and several unit tests has been made possible. 

- The TAP producers can make communication regarding the test results to the testing harness in a way that is language agnostic. 

- Earlier the parser and producers were available for only this platform but now they are available for a variety of platforms. 

- The responsibility for the following purposes is taken up by the test anything web site:

1. Development of TAP
2. Standardization of TAP
3. Writing of test consumers
4. Writing of test producers
5. Evangelization of the language and so on.

- In many other testing methodologies, writing the tests and verifying them seems like to be a daunting task but it is pretty easy with the perl test facilities. 

- It is not always necessary that a large perl project must have an automated test suite. 

What is a Silk Test project? How to create a new Silk Test project?

These days silk test projects are quite popular with the software test automators. In this article our focus is on the silk test projects only. The first aspect of the article discusses what a silk test project is and the other aspect discusses how a new silk test project can be created. 

"A Silk Test Project can be thought of as a collection of files consisting of the information regarding to a test project". 

How to create a Silk Test Project?

- For creating a silk test project you need to go through the following steps:

1. First step, is to run the silk test.
2. Next step, involves selecting the appropriate basic work flow bar.
3. Now you need to open up your project on the work flow bar.
4. Select a new project from the list of options.
5. Just double click on the icon “create project” which is available in the new project dialog box.
6. Once you have opened the create project dialogue box, enter the name and the description of your project in the box.
7. Finally click OK after checking that all the details that you have entered are correct.

- All the resources associated with a set of test cases are organized by the projects in silk test and are later presented in the project explorer. 

- Such a presentation makes it much easier to view, work up on and manage the project in the test environment. 

- The project holds the relevant information regarding the project as well as other references to the associated resources such as the following:

1. Test plan
2. Test scripts
3. Test data
4. Test option sets
5. .ini files
6. Frame/ include files
7. Editor settings
8. Data files for queries as well as attributes
9. Results and lastly
10. The configuration information.

- All of this information is organized in the projects at the level of the project. 

- This also means that once the project has been configured after adding all the appropriate files to it, there is no need to do it again and again. 

- In silk test, it is quite simple to switch between the projects. 

- Whichever project you want to open, you can open it and execute the tests on it. 

- Whenever a new project is created, silk test agent is employed by the silk test automatically as a measure to provide support to the type of application that is being tested. 

- By default the following settings are not enabled in any project:

1. Enabled extensions
2. Agent options
3. Class mappings and so on.

- In silk test it is possible to retain the settings from the current test set by just saving the settings as the option set by using the option save new options set. - The saved option set then, can be included in the project whenever you create one. 

- Silk test provides you with two ways of creating a project:

1. Manual
2. Automatic

- Of course a project can be automatically generated by the silk test based up on the existing files as specified by the use. 

- Two project files are used by the silk test for storing the information regarding the project:

1. Project name.ini: It is an initialization file which stores information regarding the option sets, queries and so on that form a part of your project.
2. Project name.vtp: The extension stands for ‘verify test project’. This file stores the leftover things of the project information i.e., the names and locations of the files that are in use by the project. 

What is a QTP batch testing tool?

Under the context of quick test professional the term given for the execution or running of multiple tests or a series of tests at the same time is “batch testing” or sometimes it is also called “batch execution”. 

However, this batch testing cannot be performed normally like the other applications, a special tool is needed. Quick test professional provides such a tool and it is called “batch testing tool” or the “test batch runner”. 

The batch testing process follows the below mentioned process:

1. Creation of individual tests.
2. Execution of the individual tests created in the first step.
3. Formation of batches using the batch testing tool.
4. Execution of the batch tests on tests from batch testing tool.
5. Observation of result via test result viewer.

Here one thing to be noted is that the provision of viewing batch wise result is not available in quick testing professional for the batch testing sessions. 

Creating a Test Batch

- For creating a test batch, you need to hog down to the tools menu in the menu bar of the quick test professional window.

- Then select test batch runner, then batch, then add option, then specify the path of the test to be added, then save it with appropriate extension like MTB or module test batch and  finally close the test batch runner. 

Execution of Test Batch

- For the execution of a test batch you again need to open the batch testing tool i.e., the “test batch runner” by following the same sequence of steps as discussed for the creation of a test batch. 

- But instead of the add option you need to select the run option. 

- When you do this, the test batch runner is launched and the tests are executed one by one. 

Here if you don’t want to use test batch runner or if you are facing issues with it, you can go for batch testing using other mercury products by checking the “allow other mercury products” check box and clicking OK. 

- In some cases it may be required to run only some specific tests and not all.

- This is also possible in quick test professional via test batch runner. 

- For doing this, you just need to open the test batch runner like always and go to option “open test batch”, then select or deselect from the lists of the tests and go for run test batch. 

- The selected tests are kept in waiting mode till they are all executed one by one. 

- Another mercury product that serves the same purpose as the test batch runner is the “multi test manager”. 

- After the execution of the scripts is complete via test batch runner you can open up that particular test script, then go to automation, then results option and here you have the results. 

- When your test batch is set to batch mode, the entire results cannot be viewed at a time. 

- This whole program can be scheduled if you want it to be scheduled by going to the scheduled tasks option in the control panel. 

- There are some known issues with the quick test professional’s batch testing tool like consolidated test results cannot be viewed and if by chance the batch test execution stops in the mid way, the batch cannot be executed again. 

- The batch runner window should be closed and opened again. 

- Whenever a test is completed, the QTP window comes in the front and the AUT window goes back, the next is opened and executed. 

- For multi test manager the same steps are followed as for the quick test professional. 

What are data driven tests and how they are created in WinRunner?

When you go for testing of your software system or application, it serves good if you check the performance of your software system or application with multiple sets of different data for some set of same operations. 

For doing so you can go for creating a data driven test! Let us see in detail what actually the data driven tests are and how you can create one in the winrunner. 

What are Data Driven Tests?

- Data driven tests cuts down on the difficulty of manually executing the same test over and over again. 

- The data driven test is created with a loop that iterates exactly the same number of times as there are sets of data to be implemented. 

- Say the loop executes 20 times, so in all these 20 iterations the loop executes with a different set of data and drives the test with it. 

- Since every time the test is driven by a different set of data, the test has been termed as the data driven test. 

- However, in order to make the winrunner run a data driven wizard, use parametrization which involves the linking of the data to the test script which it is to drive. 

- After parameterization, the data is stored in a table called data table. 

- It is up to you that whether you carry out this whole process on your own manually or you take the assistance of the data driver wizard. 

- Usually a non driven test consists of the following three steps:

1. Creation of a test
2. Execution of the test
3. Analyzation of the test results.

- In data driven testing there are two additional steps are there in addition to the above mentioned 3 steps. 

- These two extra steps lie between the creation of the tests and execution of the tests. 

- These two extra steps are as mentioned below:

1. Conversion of the test in to a data driven test and
2. Creation of a corresponding data table.

Stages involved in creation of data driven test

The below stated are all the stages that are involved in the process of data driven test creation:

1. Creation of a test
2. Conversion of a data driven test
3. Preparation of data table
4. Running the test
5. Analyzation of the test results.

- You cannot directly convert a test in to a data driven test. 

- For doing so, first it is required that you should create a basic test and then convert it in to a data driven test. 

- This basic test can be created by recording a test with only a single set of data. 

- Now this test is recorded by going to the insert menu, then selecting GUI check point, then “for single property” command.

- This is to ensure that the correct order is open. 

- This order can be later modified and updated. 

- There is an alternative to this, which is that you can create bitmap check points, bitmap synchronization points and data driven GUI check points. 

- Firstly, the values contained in the check point statements and recorded statements with parameters are replaced and a data table is created which stores the values that are to be assigned to the parameters. 

- This is the parameterization process. 

- The functions and statements are added to the test scripts so that they can be read from the data table.