Autoit Launcher (autoit.jar)

The Autoit launcher allows interfacing with Autoit (.au3) scripts.
It has been tested with Autoit v3.

Configuration

The autoit.xml file is just a template and must NOT be edited. It's used by the system to build dynamically the form that the user will be able to fill in from the GUI when creating a custom execution configuration.

Parameter	Description
General
Test root path	This must indicate where are located all the .au3 scripts. This is a root path. Each test in XStudio has a canonical path that will be appended to this path. This path MUST not include an ending slash. Default value is: `C:/my_autoit_scripts`
Asynchronous timeout (in seconds)	This must indicates the maximum time the system will wait for the test to complete. Default value is: `600`
AutoIt
AutoIt install path	This must indicate where is installed AutoIt on the host. Default value is: `C:/tools/autoit-3`
Attachments
Attachment path	This must indicate where Autoit save its attachments (so that the launcher can upload them in XStudio too). WARNING: this folder will be automatically deleted by the launcher after each execution! It MUST contain only temporary data that you want to be automatically uploaded. DO NOT POINT TO A WORKING DIRECTORY THAT CONTAINS TESTS OR ANY OTHER DATA YOU NEED TO BE PERSISTANT! Default value is: `C:/my_autoit_scripts/attachments`

These values can be changed while creating the campaign session from XStudio.

Note about file path parameters:
Any parameter referring to a file or folder path (for instance Test root path) can be provided either using \ separator (if the tests are going to be executed on a Windows agent) or / separator (if the tests are going to be executed on a linux or MacOSX agent).

On windows, if you provide a path containing an OS-localizable folder such as C:\Program Files, always prefer the English version (i.e. NOT C:\Programmes if you're using a french-localized Windows) or the corresponding native environment variable (i.e. %PROGRAMFILES%).

Process

Each test in XStudio must have his dedicated .au3 script. The name of the script MUST be equal to the name of the test.
The .au3 script must be able to parse the argument testcaseIndex passed during interpretation.
This allows the script to execute different routines depending on the testcase index.
The interpreter is executed by the launcher using this syntax:
"<autoitInstallPath>/AutoIt3.exe" "<testRootPath>/<testPath>/<testName>.au3" /debug /testcaseIndex=<testcaseIndex>
When the .au3 has executed all its action, it MUST create an empty test_completed.txt file.
Indeed, the executions of the autoit scripts are asynchronous. This mechanism allows the launcher to know when the test is completed.
A timeout of 10 minutes is predefined.
If the .au3 script did not create the test_completed.txt within the first 10 minutes, then the launcher considers the test has crashed and skips it.
the .au3 script must generate a log.txt during its execution.
This file MUST describe all the actions performed by the test as well as the result of each action.
This file will be parsed by the launcher and all the information will be passed/stored automatically in the XStudio database.
The log.txt MUST respect a specific format: Each line MUST include the strings [Success], [Failure] or [Log] or the line will not be treated. Based on this information, the testcase will be marked as passed or failed.

Tutorial: Creating and executing Autoit tests

In this tutorial, we will learn to run some AutoIt test scripts.

Prerequisites

Install AutoIt in the folder C:\\Program files\\AutoIt3

We will modify one of the example script provided with AutoIt.
Copy the file C:\\Program Files\\AutoIt3\\Examples\\calculator.au3 and rename it as calculator_test.au3.

Insert in the beginning of the file calculator_test.au3 the following lines of code:

    #include <File.au3>
    $RESULT_FILENAME = "Log.txt"
    FileDelete($RESULT_FILENAME)
    $FLAG_FILENAME = "test_completed.txt"
    FileDelete($FLAG_FILENAME)

And insert at the end of the file:

    ; log a success
    logFileAndConsoleWrite($RESULT_FILENAME, "[Log] first message")
    logFileAndConsoleWrite($RESULT_FILENAME, "[Log] second message")
    logFileAndConsoleWrite($RESULT_FILENAME, "[Success] testcase succeeded")
    ;logFileAndConsoleWrite($RESULT_FILENAME, "[failure] testcase failed")
    
    ; create the test_completed.txt file
    FileOpen($FLAG_FILENAME, 1)
    
    Func logFileAndConsoleWrite($logFile, $input)
       ConsoleWrite($input & @CRLF)
       _FileWriteLog($logFile, $input)
    EndFunc

Create a dedicated category for AutoIt tests and create a test

create a category AutoIt in the test tree associated to the launcher autoit.jar
under this category, create (somewhere in the tree) a test with name calculator_test and with a canonical path set to /Examples.

Creating a test campaign

create a campaign including only the test calculator_test
create a campaign session specifying in the configuration:
- Test root path: C:/Program Files/AutoIt3
- AutoIt install path: C:/Program Files/AutoIt3

Run a campaign session

Run the campaign session

Permissions

WARNING: if you're running your tests on Windows, it may be required to run the tests as administrator.
Having an account with Administrators permissions may even not be enough in some cases (especially if you're using Windows 10) and you may need to disable completely the UAC (User Access Control) on your computer.
To do so:

Press the Windows + R key combination
Type in regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
In the right-side pane, look for EnableLUA and set the value 0
Close the registry editor
Restart your computer

Debug

If your tests are not executed correctly or are reporting only failures, this is very likely because your configuration is incorrect or because you used a wrong naming convention for your tests and test cases.

The best way to quickly find out what's wrong is to look at the traces generated by XStudio (or XAgent).
The traces always include the detailed description of what the launcher performs (command line execution, script execution, API calling etc.) to run a test case. So, if you experiment some problems, the first thing to do is to activate the traces and look at what's happening when you run your tests.

Then, try to execute manually in a cmd box the exact same commands.
This will normally fail the same way.
At this point, you needs to figure out what has to be changed in these commands in order to have them run properly.

When you have something working, compare these commands to what's described in the Process chapter above. This will tell you exactly what you need to change.

Most of the time, this is related to:

some incorrect values in some parameters of your configuration,
the name of your tests,
the name of your test cases,
the canonical path of your tests

Launchers / Automated tests