Feeding automated test by Joe Beale

Feeding Your Automated TestsA Practical Demo

Joseph E. Beale02/16/2016

Agenda• Scenario Outlines• Inline Tables• YAML Files• CSV Files• Excel Spreadsheets

But before we can get into those…

• We need to understand two Ruby object classes:1. Array – a group of data elements accessed using

subscripts (0…n)2. Hash – a group of key/value pairs where you

access the value via the key.

Array and Hash Methods

• .each – is used to iterate through all items in an array:

Array and Hash Methods

• .each can also be used on a hash:

Array and Hash Methods

• Access an array value using the associated subscript and a hash value using the associated key:

What is a Scenario Outline

• If I have the following Gherkin Scenario:

What is a Scenario Outline

• If I want to do multiple searches, I have to change the parameters every time.

Scenario Outlines to the Rescue

• Conversion to Scenario Outline allows me to drive multiple searches with data!

Demo

• Live demo of search engine testing using a scenario outline.

What is an Inline Table?

• Suppose I want to feed multiple data elements through one step in the scenario?

• Example: several steps to get to a page and then multiple elements to enter on that page.

Inline Table With Header

• Insurance application, add beneficiaries:

Inline Table With Header

• You can then use the table headers as hash keys to access the data in the rows:

Demo

• Live demo of printing out data from an inline table.

What is a YAML file?

• YAML = “YAML Ain’t Markup Language”• Data serialization using colons and indentation

Using YAML

• One ordinary usage for a YAML file is storing different logins for your system:

Using YAML

• Normal hash principals apply to YAML files:

Using YAML

• Another way of using YAML files is for a list of items, like names of insurance companies:

Using YAML

• So after using the initial hash key to get the list, you then treat it like an array:

Demo

• Demo of using YAML file for login ID and password, plus printing out the list of insurance name.

What is a CSV file?

• Comma Separated Value file; really just an ordinary text file that follows this format:

Using the Ruby CSV class

• Ruby has a built-in class CSV that is designed to help you manage these very common files.

Using the Ruby CSV class

• The .read method wraps our file into a CSV object. The result is an array of arrays:

Using the Ruby CSV class

• Even better, adding headers to the file and one argument to the method call creates a CSV table object:

Demo

• Demo of using CSV.read method with and without headers.

The Ubiquitous Spreadsheet

• Almost everywhere you go in the IT world, you will find data in spreadsheets.

• Spreadsheets are so commonly used for test requirements that some tools have add-ins to use them for importing test artifacts.

• Spreadsheets are the main source of data for data-driven automation tools.

Introducing Simple XLSX Reader

• There are several gems that allow you to access spreadsheet data in Ruby. I prefer Simple XLSX Reader for input data.

• To install, add to Gemfile:

Using Simple XLSX Reader

• Let’s look at a scenario where we will input and modify the data from a spreadsheet.

Using Simple XLSX Reader

• The spreadsheet data looks like this:

Using Simple XLSX Reader

• Since a spreadsheet file is really a set of sheets, we need to specify one sheet:

Using Simple XLSX Reader

• Now we can iterate through the array of arrays and identify the various cells using subscripts:

Bonus Code

• Finally, as a bonus, this is how you can take the modified sheet and write it out to a new .csv file that can then be opened in Excel:

Demo

• Demo of using Simple XLSX Reader to input a spreadsheet into a Ruby object, plus modifying the data and writing out to a new .csv file.

Questions?Contact me:[email protected]

Or:Connect with me on LinkedIn!https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-beale-023b719