PeopleTools 8.51 PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Test Framework

Understanding PeopleSoft Test Framework

This chapter provides an overview of PeopleSoft Test Framework (PTF) and defines common PTF terms.

Understanding PeopleSoft Test Framework

PTF automates various tasks within the PeopleSoft application, primarily functional testing. Automating functional testing enables testers to execute more tests with greater accuracy during a shorter time.

PTF works by replicating the actions of a single user executing functional tests against the PeopleSoft browser-based application. Users can record manual test procedures and save them within the framework. Later (perhaps after an application upgrade or patch), those tests can be executed against the application to verify whether the application still behaves as expected. This method for capturing and executing tests is often called the record and playback approach to automation.

Test assets (tests and test cases) are stored in a database as Application Designer objects. As a result, test assets are PeopleTools-managed objects, which can be managed along with other PeopleTools-managed objects through PeopleSoft Lifecycle Management.

PTF includes a number of features not available in other commercially available record and playback automation tools, including:

Test assets are PeopleTools-managed objects, which enables PTF to validate recorded objects against PeopleSoft object metadata definitions. As a result, the tester is able to assertively verify the existence of test objects before running a test rather than running the test to identify invalid object definitions by trial and error.

See Identifying Change Impacts.
Features that help users manipulate data within the PeopleSoft rowset-oriented data structure.

See Incorporating Scroll Handling.
Functionality that automates numerous PeopleSoft-specific functions, such as running processes through Process Scheduler.

See Process.
Functionality that interfaces with other PeopleSoft automation tools, such as Data Mover and PsQuery.

See Query.

You should be aware that PTF is not designed to:

Validate certain types of information, such as image appearance and relative position of data and online objects. PTF is a functional test tool rather than a user interface or browser testing tool.
Be a load testing tool; it replicates the experience of a single user running the application.
Replicate certain types of user actions, such as drag-and-drop mouse actions.
Recognize or validate certain types of objects you might find in third-party or external applications, such as Flash/Flex objects, data displayed in HTML regions, and so on. PTF is designed to validate objects in the PeopleSoft application.

Terminology

This table defines some PTF terms:

Asset	See Test Asset.
Execution Options	A list of application environments available to the tester. Execution options store application environment information such as URL, user ID, password, and Process Scheduler server. PTF supplies this information to the test by default when a test does not explicitly specify such information.
Explorer	See PTF Explorer.
Hook	Establish a connection between a test and a PeopleSoft application browser.
Library	Similar to a test, a library contains one or more steps that together automate some discrete amount of test functionality. Unlike a test, a library is never executed by itself. Rather, libraries are meant to be called (sometimes repetitively) by tests.
Log	An object that saves the experience of a single test execution event. Logs report the success or failure of the test execution and include messages and screen shots to indicate where errors occurred.
Log Manager	A tool that enables PTF administrators to purge unneeded logs
Maintenance	The process of updating PTF tests and test cases to reflect object modifications present in upgrades or changes to the PeopleSoft application. This is done by way of a direct connection to the PeopleSoft metadata, not by executing the test. For example, if a field is renamed in an upgrade, the PTF maintenance process can warn the user that a test containing a reference to the old field name will likely fail to find the object by the old identification method. The maintenance process can help the user find the obsolete field reference and replace it with the valid (renamed) field reference before executing the test.
PTF Client	An instance of the PTF executable program installed on an individual user’s machine.
PTF Environment	An instance of a PeopleSoft application that has been configured to exchange data with one or more PTF clients, enabling clients to save and retrieve test assets from the application database.
PTF Explorer	A view of the PTF test assets stored within an application database. The system stores assets in a tree structure with collapsible folders for organizing the test assets. The pane containing the tree is the first pane visible to the user after startup and will always be the leftmost pane in the PTF user interface. It is labeled with the name of the application database.
Recorder	A feature of the PTF tool that is the primary means for creating new tests. While the Recorder is active, the PTF tool converts all of the user’s manual test steps into steps that can be saved as an automated test.
Screen Shot	An image generated during test execution. A screen shot can be generated automatically by PTF to show the application window immediately after an error condition, or as a result of a step that uses the Log.Snapshot step.
Step	The smallest unit of test functionality in PTF. A test will contain a number of steps. A step typically corresponds to a single manual test step or test instruction.
Test Asset	An object used in PTF to automate a functional test. PTF test assets are saved in the application database and can be retrieved at any time to help automate tests. The five types of test assets are: Execution Options Libraries Logs Tests Test Cases
Test	The primary type of test asset in PTF. Tests contain steps that replicate the action of a tester executing a functional test against the PeopleSoft application.
Test Case	A set of data associated with a test corresponding to the values entered or verified in the application. For example, if a hire test hires three similar employees into the PeopleSoft system, a user might elect to record one test and to configure that test to call three test cases, one for each employee hired. A test can have multiple test cases associated with it.
Test Editor	A space within the PTF user interface where users can edit individual tests and test cases. The Test Editor displays a test as a series of steps presented as rows within the test. Users can open multiple Test Editor panes to edit multiple tests simultaneously.