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… into customizable scripts. You can even add automatically generated Expected Results to your steps if you want to.
Automated
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Scripts
Automate scripts makes it easy to write behavioral driven development (BDD) automated acceptance tests in Gherkin format as data-driven scripts. These data-driven test scripts are based on a test model, so they are more maintainable than traditional BDD/Gherkin test scripts.
Automated test scripts are notoriously expensive to maintain, and BDD/Gherkin test scripts are not immune to this problem. Normally changes to the system under test, or just changes to how the system will be tested means having to make changes to tens, hundreds, or (in some cases) thousands of feature files. With data-driven Automate test scripts though, that's not the case. Adding or removing parameter values, requirements, or constraints to the test model updates the data driving the automate scripts, but there is no need to update the scripts themselves.
In addition, Automate scripts makes it easier to write correct Gherkin scripts through its syntax highlighting and autocomplete features.
Automate Usage Tips
Access Hexawise Automate by creating or opening a test model and navigating to the "Auto-Scripts" tab. Once there, select the "Automated Testing" toggle in the window header.
Dismiss the section at the top of the page containing useful hints for inserting Hexawise parameters into a Scenario or Scenario Outline, restricting a Scenario or Scenario Outline to test cases that contain certain values, etc. by clicking the Usage button.
Bring back these tips again by click the Usage button on the right side of screen, above the Preview section.
Gherkin Feature File
The Hexawise Automate screen is a smart Gherkin feature file editor. It is aware of both the parameters, parameter values, & generated test cases of the current Hexawise model and the Gherkin test script syntax. It makes it easy to create a feature file with data-driven Scenario and Scenario Outline sections that are populated by the generated test cases of the Hexawise model.
Feature
Each Gherkin script has a Feature as its first keyword followed by : and a little bit of text to describe the feature, usually in the form of a user story which is demonstrated in the placeholder text. This section does not support parameterization of any kind.
Background
A Background section is useful when a set of initial setup steps is repeated for every Scenario and Scenario Outline in the feature file. The steps of the Background are run before each Scenario Outline and Scenario. Starting a new line in Background and further sections brings up a suggestion dialog with standard Gherkin keywords.
Keep in mind that restricting a parameter in the Background (with {}, as explained below) is valid syntax and is used to apply only the selected value to all Scenarios or Scenario Outlines for a given Feature.
Scenario
Next in the feature file is the enumeration of different testing scenarios. One way to describe a test case is with a Scenario block. It contains sequential steps, expressed as plain English Given/When/Then statements, that describe the necessary actions for executing the automated test script. If the Hexawise test model generates 28 test cases, then 28 Scenario sections would need to be written out in order to achieve the combinatorial coverage.
However, instead of writing out all 28 test cases individually, with Hexawise Automate a single data-driven Scenario that includes the <Parameter Name> syntax can generate all 28 needed Scenario sections in the exported feature file. You can check the number of associated test cases in the Preview panel.
Hexawise Automate provides a way to include the value of any test case parameter in a Scenario using the <Parameter Name> syntax. Simply typing < will populate a list of autocomplete suggestions related to all of the parameters in the model, also adding:
Test Number (sequential number within the Scenario),
Test Case (constant number of the row in the complete table on the Test Cases screen)
Expected Outcome (from the Requirements screen, if applicable)
Wherever the <Parameter Name> appears in the test steps it will be replaced by the specified parameter's value for the test case being tested. This is conceptually very similar to how manual testing auto-scripts work in Hexawise.
For example, writing the test step:
And they select <Color> for the car's color
Means that for each generated Scenario section (one for each test case), the <Color> portion of the test step will be replaced with the value of the Color parameter in the generated test case:
And they select Deep Blue Metallic for the car's color
Writing a data-driven Scenario with at least one <Parameter> reference for each of the inputs in the 2-way test set for this model would lead to a .feature file export containing 49 Scenario sections in the feature file, one for each of the 49 Hexawise generated test cases.
A Hexawise Automate feature file can contain as many data-driven Scenario sections as needed to automate all the testing ideas contained in the Hexawise test model.
Note: it is common to put dynamic elements into quotes (e.g., And they select "<Color>" for the car's color) to make them more visually distinguishable).
Scenario Outline
A Scenario Outline behaves almost exactly like a data-driven Scenario. When using a Scenario Outline, instead of having 49 Scenario sections in the export (one for each test case), the export has one data-driven Scenario Outline with a Gherkin Examples data table attached to it that contains 49 rows (one for each test case). The Preview panel shows the first 10 rows of the Examples data table for each Scenario Outline. The order of parameters in the Examples is dictated by the script, not by the Inputs tab of Hexawise.
A Hexawise Automate feature file can contain as many Scenario Outline sections as needed to automate all the testing ideas contained in the Hexawise test model and can include both Scenario and Scenario Outline sections in the same feature file.
Where possible, using data-driven Scenario Outline sections is preferable to generating many data-driven Scenario sections as it is a more compact and direct expression of the testing ideas of the Hexawise test model.
Remember Mad Libs?
Creating Auto-scripts in Xray Test Case Designer is similar to that. Instead of adding adjectives and nouns into pre-formed sentences, however, you’ll be more like the author of the Mad Libs sentences themselves. You need to:
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