Search Test Repository actions
Search Test Repository actions search the specified Test Repository to find test assets that match a supplied set of tokens. for example, a set of SAP transaction codes. In the case of Tosca Test Repositories, both SapEngine and API modules are searched to find matching test assets. In the case of Tosca Test Repositories, the TBox and Classic SAP automation engines are searched for matching test assets, and reusable test blocks are included in the search. In the case of qTest Test Repositories, both standard and custom test case fields are searched to find matching test assets.
The action may be run using either a Pipeline or a Test Repository parameter.
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If only a Pipeline parameter is specified, the action searches the Pipeline’s Most-at-risk Search Test Repositories and their associated Search Paths.
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If only a Test Repository parameter is specified, the action uses the Test Repository parameter value and the search paths specified in the Search Paths parameter.
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If both are specified, the action uses the Test Repository parameter value and the search paths specified in the Search Paths parameter.
The action returns the set of matched test assets, along with IDs that may be used by the Create Test Execution action.
| Action property | Description |
|---|---|
| Confidence Threshold |
An integer parameter or dataset used to filter the contents of the Result dataset according to the following rules:
Note that the Confidence Threshold is not used if the Search Test Repository action’s Use Cache parameter is set to true. In this case, any existing CONFIDENCE and SEARCH_TERM values are retrieved from the cache. |
| Exclude Paths | A String List parameter or dataset containing Test Repository paths that are not to be searched for matching test assets. This property is only used when searching a live ALM Test Repository (where the Use Cache property is set to false). The Exclude Paths property takes priority over the Search Paths property; if a path appears in both lists, the path will not be searched. |
| Pipeline | A Pipeline parameter or dataset whose Most-at-risk Search Test Repositories provide the Test Repositories to be searched. |
| Result | A Table dataset containing details of the matching test assets. |
| Search Paths |
If this String List parameter or dataset is set, and a Test Repository parameter is specified, the search for test assets is limited to the specified workspace or project folders. If the action is configured to use a Pipeline parameter only, it uses the Search Paths set for the Pipeline’s Most-at-risk Search Test Repositories. For example, if you have a test plan hierarchy like this… Subject\Release 1 A B Test1 C D Test2 Subject\Release 2 E F Test3 G H Test4 … and you wish to search only the ‘Subject/Release 2’ portion of the hierarchy, set the Search Paths parameter or the Search Paths field in the Pipeline to ‘Subject/Release 2’. The string 'Subject/' is added if it is missing from the beginning of the search path, and any trailing backslash characters are removed. Setting the Search Paths parameter appropriately can significantly reduce the time it takes to search for relevant test assets. If Search Paths are specified for Tosca Test Repositories, at least one of the Search Paths must be at the start of the node path in order for matches to be found. Suppose you have the following hierarchy... Test Cases Sales VA01 - Create Sales Order ... and another test case that references VA01 in a different folder path. Setting Search Paths to /Test Cases/Sales will match only the first instance of VA01, because its node path (/Test Cases/Sales/VA01 - Create Sales Order) starts with the value in Search Paths. For qTest and Tosca Test Repositories, each Search Path must begin with a leading ‘/’. For Tosca Test Repositories, if the Use Cache property is set to ‘false’, each Search Path must begin with a leading ‘/’. ‘Subject/’ is added to the beginning of each Search Path if the Use Cache property is set to ‘true’. For Excel Test Repositories, the Search Paths property is not used. |
| Source |
A Table parameter or dataset used to specify the search terms to be searched for in test assets. The table should have a NAME column which stores object names, and a SEARCH_TERM column which stores search terms associated with the objects. The Result dataset returned by the Convert SAP Objects Test Search action may be used as the Source table for this action. |
| Test Repository | A Test Repository parameter or dataset referring to the Test Repository to be searched for test assets. If both a Test Repository and Pipeline are specified, the action uses the specified Test Repository and Search Paths parameters only. |
| Use Cache |
If this Boolean parameter is set to ‘true’, the Search Test Repository action uses any cache associated with the specified Test Repository when searching for test assets. If the property is set to ‘false’, the Test Repository cache is not used. If this parameter is not set, ‘true’ is used as the default value. A cache may be created for a Test Repository using the Write Test Repository Cache action. |
The Search Paths property is not used in some cases, as described below:
| Test Repository type | Is Search Paths used when Use Cache = true? | Is Search Paths used when Use Cache = false? |
|---|---|---|
| Tosca | Yes | Yes |
| qTest | Yes | Yes |
| ALM | Yes | Yes |
| Azure DevOps | Yes | No |
| Certify | Yes | No |
| Excel | No | No |
| SAP Solution Manager | Yes | No |
The Result dataset has the following columns:
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| TEST_REPOSITORY | The name of the Test Repository that was searched. |
| TEST_REPOSITORY_TYPE | The type of the Test Repository that was searched. |
| NAME | The matching token from the Source table’s NAME column. Tokens that match within word boundaries are not included in the results. |
| TEST_ID | The ID of a matching test asset. For Certify Test Repositories, this column contains the test asset’s process ID. |
| CONFIDENCE |
For each NAME in the Source table, this column stores the percentage of SEARCH_TERM values for which a matching test asset was found. If a technical name is matched in a test, the NAME’s CONFIDENCE value is set to 100. This column is populated for Tosca, qTest, ALM and SAP Solution Manager Test Repositories only. Note that the Result dataset may be filtered by setting a value for the Confidence Threshold property. |
| COMMON_TERMS | A list of the all the SEARCH_TERMS matched in the test asset. This column is populated for Tosca, qTest, ALM and SAP Solution Manager Test Repositories only. |
| TEST_NAME | The name of the test asset. For Certify Test Repositories, this column contains the test asset’s process name. |
| TEST_PATH | The test asset’s path. Note that if a matched token contains path separators, these will be escaped and stored as \/ in the test path. |
| TEST_URL | The test asset’s URL. |
| WORKSTATE | For Tosca Test Repositories, this column is set to the workstate associated with the test asset. |
| RANK | The test’s rank, either H (High), M (Medium) or L (Low), based on how recently it was last run, its passes and fails, the number of runs per day, and the number of test steps. More highly ranked tests should be prioritized over tests with a lower rank. |
If the RetrieveRankData field in the Configuration - Test Repository screen is set to Y, the Result dataset includes the additional fields which are used to calculate the RANK value.
By default, the Search Test Repository action does not search disabled Tosca test steps or values to find matching test assets. To allow disabled Tosca test steps and values to be searched, carry out the following steps:
- Use the Define Action Parameters Wizard to add a new Boolean input parameter named SearchDisabledSteps to the Search Test Repository action.
- Set the parameter’s value to true.
All Test Repositories
If you have LiveCompare Administrator privileges, the MinimumSearchTermLength field in the Configuration - Test Repository screen’s General section may be used to set the minimum length for search terms that are used by the Search Test Repository action when searching for matching test assets. If this field is not set, all search terms are used regardless of their length.
Tosca Test Repositories
If you have LiveCompare Administrator privileges, the Configuration - Test Repository screen’s Tosca section may be used to control the behavior of the Search Test Repository action when searching Tosca Test Repositories.
| Option | Description | Default value |
|---|---|---|
| FindAPIModules | Set this field to 'Y' or leave blank to have LiveCompare find Tosca test cases that use API modules. Set to 'N' and LiveCompare will not find API modules. The default is to find API modules. | Y |
| FindClassicModules | Set this field 'Y' to have LiveCompare find Tosca test cases that use classic modules. This will increase the search time. Set to 'N' or leave blank and LiveCompare will not find classic modules. The default is to not find classic modules. | N |
| FindSAPModules | Set this field to 'Y' or leave blank to have LiveCompare find Tosca test cases that use SAP engine modules. Set to 'N' and LiveCompare will not find SAP engine modules. The default is to find SAP modules. | Y |
| FindUI5Modules | Set this field to 'Y' or leave blank to have LiveCompare find Tosca test cases that use SAP UI5 modules. Set to 'N' and LiveCompare will not find SAP UI5 modules. The default is to find SAP UI5 modules. | Y |
| RetrieveRankData | Set to 'Y' to have LiveCompare retrieve all the Tosca test case data it uses to calculate the 'Rank' when searching a live test repository. This data would be accessible using the Search Test Repository action. Leave blank to use the default setting. Default is to not retrieve all the data. | N |
| ScanTestCases | Set this field to 'Y' to have LiveCompare search for manual test cases in Tosca test repositories. A manual test case is one that does not use a module of type: Classic, SAP Engine, API or SAP UI5. This will increase the search time, sometimes by a lot. Set to 'N' or leave blank and LiveCompare will not search for manual test cases. The default is to not search for manual test cases. | N |
| UI5ModuleNames | Enter module names separated by ';'. Used by LiveCompare to identify custom Tosca modules that are used by tests to access Fiori/UI5 apps. |
For Tosca Test Repositories, LiveCompare uses the following algorithm when searching for token matches:
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It finds all modules that match any of the supplied tokens.
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For each matched module:
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It finds test cases that use the module directly via an enabled test step.
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It finds test cases that use the module indirectly via a reusable test step block.
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Reusable test step blocks
Reusable test step blocks may be nested. In this case, LiveCompare traverses the hierarchy of blocks look for test cases. To restrict the search depth when searching reusable test blocks, carry out the following steps on the LiveCompare server.
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Navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Tricentis\LiveCompare\5.3\Settings registry folder.
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Create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value names ReusableTestStepBlocksDepth and set to the required search depth.
The default value is 1, which uses if the registry setting does not exist. The value 0 means do not restrict the search depth. This setting requires that the ScanReusableTestStepBlocks String Value in the Settings registry folder be set to X.
Manual test cases
Once the module/test case phase is complete, LiveCompare will optionally search for manual test cases. This search is switched off by default. If To enable the search for manual test cases, carry out the following steps:
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Log in to LiveCompare as a user with Administrator privileges and click
to go to the LiveCompare studio. -
In the Administration hierarchy, navigate to the Configuration - Test Repository screen, and set the ScanTestCases field to X (use uppercase).
Search paths
For live Tosca Test Repository searches (where the Use Cache property is set to ‘false’), the Search Test Repository action checks the specified Search Paths to verify that:
- All parts of each Search Path are valid.
- Each Search Path is synchronized in the Tosca workspace.
If either test fails, the action returns a suitable error message.
Workstates
For Tosca Test Repositories, the Search Test Repository action returns test cases that match one of the workstates specified in the associated Test Repository definition. If no workstates are listed in the Test Repository’s Workstates field, the action returns all matching test cases, regardless of their workstate.
Test hits based on a test case’s NodePath attribute
The Search Test Repository action may be configured to find test hit transactions in a Tosca Test Repository where the only reference to the transaction is stored in a test case’s NodePath attribute. This requires that the following fields are set in the Configuration - Test Repository screen’s Tosca section…
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| FindAPIModules | N |
| FindClassicModules | N |
| FindSAPModules | Y |
| FindUI5Modules | N |
| RetrieveRankData | N |
| ScanTestCases | Y |
| UI5ModuleNames | <Do not change this value> |
| VerboseRESTLogging | Y |
… and that all the Search Methods in the Tosca Test Repository are switched off.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Transaction | Unselected |
| Buffer | Unselected |
| Test Configuration | Unselected |
| Parameter | Unselected |
| Tile | Unselected |
| Api Type SAP Module | Unselected |
Synchronization
For Tosca Test Repositories, the Search Test Repository action checks that search paths in the Tosca Test Repository are synchronized with the Common Repository. This is done by checking that the synchronization status of the complete search paths only, and not their parent nodes in the search path hierarchy.
Verbose REST logging
To enable logging of every Tosca REST request issued by LiveCompare, carry out the following steps:
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Log in to LiveCompare as a user with Administrator privileges and click
to go to the LiveCompare studio. -
In the Administration hierarchy, navigate to the Configuration - Test Repository screen’s Tosca section, and set the VerboseRESTLogging field to X.
The default is <blank>, which means no verbose REST logging. If the field is set to X (case insensitive), LiveCompare will produce log entries similar to the following:
Get http://localhost:85/rest/toscacommander/AcmeInc_LiveCompare/object/39f81520-e812-d247-4a5a-16123d5969f4 -- OK 1305 00:00:00.0033
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Get - The http request method.
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URL - The request URL.
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OK - The http response status code.
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1305 - The response size in bytes.
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00:00:00.0033 - The response time in HH:MM:SS.mmmm (33 ms in this example).
ALM Test Repositories
If you have LiveCompare Administrator privileges, the Configuration - Test Repository screen’s ALM section may be used to control the behavior of the Search Test Repository action when searching ALM Test Repositories.
| Option | Description | Default value |
|---|---|---|
| ALMKeepExportedTempFiles | Set to 'X' to have LiveCompare keep the temporary files it creates when using the default ALM search method. | <blank>. Delete the temporary files. |
| ScanAttachments | Set to 'X' to have LiveCompare scan all ALM Word document attachments (.docx) when searching for most-at-risk to test. | <blank>. Do not scan attachments. |
| ScanTestScripts | Set to 'X' to have LiveCompare scan ALM test scripts when searching for most-at-risk to test. | <blank>. Do not scan test scripts. |
| UseClassicALMSearchMethod | Set to 'X' to have LiveCompare use the classic method to search for ALM test hits. The method is much slower than the default method. This setting should be used with caution. | <blank>. Do not use the classic ALM search method. |
No tokens searches
For ALM Test Repositories, setting the Search Test Repository’s Source property to an empty Table dataset with NAME and SEARCH_TERM columns returns all tests in the specified Search Paths into the action’s Result dataset. In this case, the Result dataset’s NAME column is set to ALL.
Example (Pipeline)
Example (Test Repository)
Read Test Repository Cache actions