Understanding Calling Tests

If a test uses a sequence of steps repeatedly, you may want to isolate the repetitive sequence of steps and move them to another, smaller test. Doing so enables you to call the steps repeatedly and also make them available to other tests that use the same sequence of steps.

Moving shared test steps to a distinct test (a called, or child, test) provides these benefits:

• Reduces the amount of recording or development you need to do.

• Reduces the amount of debugging you need to do.

• Reduces the effects of development changes that require manual updates to existing tests.

You can use the Test.Exec action to call any other test, but you may be able to manage and identify the relationships between calling and called tests more easily on the PTF Explorer tree if you use library tests and shell tests.