Environment Editor/en
The environment editor is used to create and edit variables in the environment of a test suite, a test plan or a compound block. The view slightly differs when either the testsuite's or a compound block's environment is edited. It can be found on the "Environment" tab after selecting the test suite or a compound block in the navigation tree.
Environment variables can be used as input to a step by setting an input pin's input value (freeze value) to "Read from Environment" via the pin's menu. The standard library also contains a number of blocks to dynamically add, remove, read or modify environment variables.
Environments are arranged as a hierarchy of local environments (lexical scope), so that an inner block's variable may hide an outer block's variable, up to the containing test plan and finally the test suite's environment. By default, an inner variable (i.e. from a deeper nesting) shadows a corresponding outer variable, but this behavior may be reversed for special situations, where an inner variable is used to provide a fallback value for testing.
Buttons[Bearbeiten]
Add another variable to the environment
Remove the selected variable from the environment
Initialize the environment with the given values (only shown in the project's environment). This is done automatically, when a test suite is loaded initially, but may also be needed to reset read/write variables which have been modified by a test run back to their initial state, or to have computed values be recomputed.
Move the selected variable upwards in the list. As variables are initialized in the order of appearance, this may affect the order of execution of any computed values
Move the selected variable downwards in the list
Fields[Bearbeiten]
- Variable-Name
This field is a text input field that holds the variable name, which must meet the rules for variable naming (alphanumeric or underline character, no embedded spaces). Click it once to give it the input focus.
- NET (visible in expeccoNET)
This checkbox determines whether the variable will be visible in expeccoNET or in exported parameter sets. Such externally visible variables can later be provided by whoever initiated the automatic test run (i.e. expeccoNET, another QM platform, an external parameter file or provided as command line argument). This option/column is only shown in the project's variable environment.
- OW (overwrite)
This checkbox determines whether the variable hides (overwrites) an inherited variable from an outer scope, or not. This option/column is only shown for compound blocks. The default mode is "overwrite", so variables behave as if defined in a lexical scoped fashion: variables can be redefined in a compound block to overwrite any outer definition of the same named variable.
The non-overwrite mode is useful if a block wants to define a variable's fallback or default value, to be used if no outer definition exists.
For example, an interface block which needs a port number (for example: HTTPPort) might define the variable as a non-overwriting local variable, with a value of "80". If an outer block or the test suite needs a different parameter, it is free to define HTTPPort with another value.
- R/W (read/write)
This field is a checkbox that determines whether the variable can be modified during initialization, or not. Parameter values should be set to readOnly, which is the default for new variables.
- Datatype
This dropdown list provides a list of available data types. Choose the type of the variable here (typically, most likely a String- or Integer type is used)
- Initialization
This dropdown list provides a list of possible initialization methods for the variable's value. Most common are Constant and New Instance, but it is also possible to assign a value during initialization by evaluating a programmatic expression, or to request values from the user via a dialog. See list below.
- Initial Value/Expression
Use this text field to enter the initial value (if the initialization method is Constant).
- Current Value
This field shows a variable's current value. This information is useful for writable variables (for example: counters or other measurements as gathered during execution) or for user-entered variables. Notice, that the top-level testsuite environment is initialized one, when the suite is loaded, so you may have to manually reset modified counters if stored in the global environment, if the suite is executed multiple times.
Initialization Types[Bearbeiten]
Notice that variables are only initialized once, when the environment itself is instantiated. The instantiation happens at load time for the top-level project environment, or with every execution for the test-suite, testcase and action environments.
The concrete behavior, depending on the init-type, is:
- Constant
a constant value, such as a port-number, counter values, hostnames or other simple (unstructured) values. This value is used "as is".
You may refer to other variables by name or the operating system's shell environment variables using a $-prefix: use "$(Name)" to refer to the value of the variable named "Name". The parenthesis are required. Thus if your environment contains a variable "Foo", with value "Hello", the value "$(Foo)World" will expand to "HelloWorld" whereas "$Foo World" remains as-is.Be careful when referring to variables from within the same environment, because they are initialized top-to-bottom, and the values of variables further down the list will not yet be setup. In addition to the shell's variables, such as "$(USERNAME)" and "$(PATH)", a few additional pseudo variables are accessable:
- $(AttachmentsDirectory) - the directory where all of project's attachment files are located (by ID, not by name)
- $(ProjectDirectory) - the temporary directory in which all of the project's files are located. This directory will be removed when another project is loaded, or expecco is terminated.
- $(ExecutionDirectory) - the temporary directory in which temporary files during a single test execution are located. This directory will be removed after the execution.
- $(ExpeccoInstallationDirectory) - the directory in which expecco was installed.
- $(ExpeccoPluginDirectory) - the directory in which expecco plugins are installed.
- SecretConstant
like above, but its value is not shown in the variable-environment; useful for passwords. Notice: the algorithm for password storage is not secure. It will be easy for any experienced user/programmer to extract these values from either the saved test-suite or via an inspector from the running test-suite. Also, the value might also be visible in the execution log, if it is passed as String through input/output pins.
- New Instance
creates a new (empty) instance of the datatype.
- New Instance of Size
given its size in the environment, create a vector (collection-like) instance.
- Ask for Size
will ask the user for the size of an instance to create.
- Request from User
opens a dialog to ask for the variable's value, when the project is loaded. You can define the dialogbox's question title in the comment.
- Request from User when first used
opens a dialog to ask for the variable's value, when the variable's value is needed for the very first time during the session. If the value is never needed (because the block(s) which need this value are not executed), no question dialog will be shown during execution. You can define the dialogbox's question title in the comment.
- Secret from User
like "Request from User", but hides the password in the dialog, and only displays '*'s in the value fields.
- Secret from User when first used
like "Request from User when first used", but hides the password in the dialog.
- Smalltalk Expression
the text is evaluated as a Smalltalk expression and the resulting value used to initialize the variable.
- JavaScript Expression
as above, but uses JavaScript syntax for the evaluation.
- GUI-Value
a special type used with GUI blocks (described elsewhere).
- GUI-Action
a special type used with GUI blocks (described elsewhere).
The "when first used" initialization-type is useful for passwords of dynamically alternative execution pathes - for example, if your testsuite needs either an ftp- or an http password, depending on which communication path is chosen dynamically.
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For other editors see: Editors
The full online documentation can be found under: Online Documentation
