Launchers / Automated tests

Generic Version-Control Launcher
(generic_version_control.jar)

The Generic Version-Control launcher allows interfacing with any Version Control Systems (e.g. GIT, SubVersion ...)
With it you can launch a script (e.g. 'gitFileLoader.bat') that exports files from the Version Control System of your choice and upload them, at run time in the destination folder you indicate in the configuration

To use it, you create a test that can be empty. You associate some predefined attibutes to that test (detailed below). The launcher will then automatically run the file loader you defined, passing to it the attributes and configuration information you provided. While we provide an example for 'git', it can be adapted to Subversion, Perforce or any other. The file loader just need to be placed in the XStudio install folder (e.g. Xstudio/xstudio on the standalone version , Xqual/xstudio on the server or VM)
This allows managing all tests and associated tests data in a central repository (i.e. with your application source code), to maintain them with the same tools, process and lifecycle as your code
And it saves you from updating you target test scripts, before you run a test session. You are certain to always test with the latest scripts and test data.
Note: the launcher is based on the bat_with_params launcher. So it can also run '.bat' test scripts after it downloaded the file from your VCS.

Configuration

The generic_version_control.xml file is just a template and must NOT be edited. It's used by the system to dynamically build 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 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_scripts
Synchronous executable This must indicate if the executable is synchronous or not
Default value is: true
Asynchronous timeout (in seconds)
Default value is: 600

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

  • Create a test in XStudio and associate the following attribute set:
    Attribute Name Description
    com.xqual.vcs.repository.path The path to the repository (this is a mandatory attribute)
    Example: c: in this case your repository will have to be just under c:
    Example: https://your_username:your_password@github.com/ in this case your repository will have to be just under https://github.com/
    com.xqual.vcs.script_loader The name of the file loader script you use to upload from GIT, SVN .... (this is a mandatory attribute)
    Default value is: gitfileloader - you don't need to specify '.bat' or '.sh'
    com.xqual.vcs.repository.name The name of the repository (this is a mandatory attribute)
    Example: agitrepo in that case the repository is c:\agitrepo\ (if the respository path was set to 'c:')
    com.xqual.vcs.files_filter The filter describing which files to fetch from the repository (this is a mandatory attribute)
    Default value is: *.* Example: "mytest?.bat,mytest?.txt" in that case the files matching those 2 defintions will be donwloaded from all folders in the c:\agitrepo\
    com.xqual.vcs.username The username to authenticate with - note that you may already include it in your repository path - this is NOT madatory attribute
    com.xqual.vcs.password The password to authenticate with - note that you may already include it in your repository path - this is NOT madatory attribute

    • The file loader is executed by the launcher using this syntax:
    <current path>/<com.xqual.vcs.script_loader> <com.xqual.vcs.repository.path> <com.xqual.vcs.repository.name> <com.xqual.vcs.files_filter> <com.xqual.vcs.username> <com.xqual.vcs.password>

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