Settings ExternalToolsSettings/en

External Tools Settings

Expecco may use external programs to provide additional functionality. This dialog allows for the configuration of which executable is used in particular.

HTML Viewer

Specify the program which is used to display online help documents. By default (if left blank), the configured web-browser (typically: Firefox, Safari or Internet Explorer) is used. For security reasons, it is recommended to use Firefox or Safari as opposed to Internet Explorer.

PDF Viewer

Specify the program which is used to display generated report documents. By default, the configured PDF viewer (typically: acrobat reader) is used.

Wiki Folder

Should point to this Wiki (and obviously, it does already, otherwise you would probably not read this document). By default, the Wiki pages are accessed via HTTPS (i.e. encrypted SSL on port 443). You can turn this to HTTP, if your firewall does not allow outside connections via ports other than 80.

External Text Editor

Specify the program to edit text attachments. Useful Linux/Unix settings are "xterm -e vi %1" or "xterm -e emacs %1". By default, a built in text editor (FileBrowser) is used.

External CSV Editor

Specify the program to edit CSV attachments. A useful Linux/Unix setting is "/opt/libreoffice/bin/office %1" or another excel-alike calculator which can read and write CSV files. By default, a built in text editor (FileBrowser) is used.

External Script Interpreter Settings

Script interpreters are programs used to execute script action blocks written in various programming languages, such as Ruby, TCL, Python etc. The location (i.e. folder) and name of the executable may depend on the operating system or your particular choice when installed. It may also be required to choose among a number of different installed versions. This dialog configures those language interpreters. Notice, that if no special setting is entered here, the interpreter is assumed to be found along the regular command line path. Thus, if you have ruby installed, and you can execute it from the command line via "ruby --version", then no special setup is needed in this dialog.

This is the recommended way to install those external programs: let them install themself at their preferred location and make sure, they are found along your shell's/cmd's PATH setting (you may have to install them before starting expecco).

Shell (Win32 only)

Specify the program which is used to execute shell scripts. Notice, that under the Windows operating system, a Unix bourne/korn-shell compatible shell has to be installed (for example as part of the cygwin package).

This is only needed if your test suite includes script actions which are written in the Unix shell command language AND your test suites are required to run unchanged under both Windows and Unix operating systems. If unspecified, the default shell (value of the "SHELL" environment variable, in either an expecco environment in scope or the shell environment) is used.

Therefore, in most cases, this setting is not required.

Powershell Path

Specify which powershell interpreter to use for Powershell Elementary blocks. By default, the powershell command which is found along your PATH setting is used (i.e. the same as found when executing "powershell" on the command line). Of course, you have to have powershell installed on your machine. Notice, that on some systems, the powershell command is named 'pwsh'. If unspecified, the value of the "POWERSHELL" environment variable (in either an expecco environment in scope or the shell environment) is used.

This setting is not needed if you do not use any Powershell Elementary blocks.

Ruby Path

Specify which ruby interpreter to use for Ruby Elementary blocks. By default, the ruby command which is found along your PATH setting is used (i.e. the same as found when executing "ruby" on the command line). Of course, you have to have ruby installed on your machine. If unspecified, the value of the "RUBY_SHELL" environment variable (in either an expecco environment in scope or the shell environment) is used.

This setting is not needed if you do not use any Ruby Elementary blocks.

Python Path

Specify which python interpreter to use for Python Elementary blocks. By default, the python command which is found along your PATH setting is used (i.e. the same as found when executing "python" on the command line). Of course, you have to have python installed on your machine. If unspecified, the value of the "PYTHON_SHELL" environment variable (in either an expecco environment in scope or the shell environment) is used.

This setting is not needed if you do not use any Python Elementary blocks.

Python2 and Python3 Settings

Due to some bad planning in the python community, there were a number of changes between python2.x and python3.x, which may (and usually do) make scripts written for either version incompatible with the other. For example, the following print expression from python2:

print "Hello World from a Python2 script\n"

needs parentheses in python3:

print ("Hello World from a Python2 script\n")

and will lead to a syntax error if executed in python3.

Thus, it may be necessary to specify an explicit python interpreter version to be used for python script actions. If all of your actions depend on the same python interpreter version, it is sufficient to ensure that either the "PYTHON_SHELL" variable is set correctly, or the "Python Path" is defined in the settings to point to the correct interpreter. However, if you have mixed version scripts (for example, when importing python actions written by another team, which used a different version), you have to specify the python interpreter explicitly for some of the actions.

For this, expecco contains 3 setting fields for the python interpreter: "Python Path" in the settings or "PYTHON_SHELL" in the shell environment, which are used when no explicit version is required, or if all of your script require the same python version, "Python2 Path" in the settings (or "PYTHON2_SHELL"), which are used for scripts which have been marked as explicitly requiring python2 and "Python3 Path" in the settings (or "PYTHON3_SHELL") for scripts which are marked to require python3.

The python version requirements are defined in the environment of the suite/imported library in which the action is defined: a variable named "PYTHON_VERSION", which should be an integer with either "2" or "3" as value specifies the version to be used for ALL of the python actions within that library. Notice, that the environment of the project from which the action was imported is relevant here - not the active environment at execution time, or the suite's top environment. This version number then determines, which of the above setting is to be used (i.e. PYTHON2_SHELL/path or PYTHON3_SHELL/path).

Using that double-indirect mechanism, it is still possible to:

• import multiple libraries with different python-versions requirements
• specify the paths independent of where the python interpreters are installed (i.e. the machine on which the final suite is executed may have different installation paths than the machine on which the imported libraries were developed).

A concrete demo importing libraries which require different python interpreter versions is found in "d46_Suite_using_both_Python2_and_Python3_actions.ets" in the demo folder.

Perl Path

Specify which perl interpreter to use for Perl elementary blocks. By default, the perl command which is found along your PATH setting is used (i.e. the same as found when executing "perl" on the command line). Of course, you have to have perl installed on your machine. If unspecified, the value of the "PERL_SHELL" environment variable (in either an expecco environment in scope or the shell environment) is used.

This setting is not needed if you do not use any Perl Elementary blocks.

TCL Path

Specify which tcsh interpreter to use for TCL Elementary blocks. By default, the tcsh command which is found along your PATH setting is used (i.e. the same as found when executing "tcsh" on the command line). Of course, you have to have TCL installed on your machine. If unspecified, the value of the "TCL_SHELL" environment variable (in either an expecco environment in scope or the shell environment) is used.

This setting is not needed if you do not use any TCL Elementary blocks.

Node.js Path

Specify which node.js interpreter to use for Node Elementary blocks. By default, the node command which is found along your PATH setting is used (i.e. the same as found when executing "node" on the command line). Of course, you have to have ruby installed on your machine. If unspecified, the value of the "NODEJS_SHELL" environment variable (in either an expecco environment in scope or the shell environment) is used.

This setting is not needed if you do not use any Node Elementary blocks.

Go Path

Specify which go interpreter to use for Go Elementary blocks. By default, the go command which is found along your PATH setting is used (i.e. the same as found when executing "go" on the command line). Of course, you have to have go installed on your machine. If unspecified, the value of the "GO_SHELL" environment variable (in either an expecco environment in scope or the shell environment) is used.

This setting is not needed if you do not use any Go Elementary blocks.

GnuplotPath

Specify which gnuplot interpreter to use for Plot/Graph Elementary blocks. By default, the gnuplot command which is found along your PATH setting is used (i.e. the same as found when executing "gnuplot" on the command line). Of course, you have to have gnuplot installed on your machine. If unspecified, the value of the "GNUPLOT_SHELL" environment variable (in either an expecco environment in scope or the shell environment) is used.

This setting is not needed if you do not use any Plot/Graph Elementary blocks.

'R' Path

Specify which 'R' interpreter to use for RScript Elementary blocks. By default, the 'R' command which is found along your PATH setting is used (i.e. the same as found when executing "R" on the command line). Of course, you have to have 'R' installed on your machine. Notice, that on OSX and Windows systems, the 'R' command is named 'r' (i.e. lowercase), whereas on Linux systems, it is called 'R' (upper case). If unspecified, the value of the "R_SHELL" environment variable (in either an expecco environment in scope or the shell environment) is used.

This setting is not needed if you do not use any RScript Elementary blocks.

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