Test Models Interactively

You can test a configurator model interactively, at any time during its development cycle, to ensure that its structure, behavior, and appearance are as you intend.

You can test the following aspects of a configurator model, as shown on the Configurator Model details page for viewing or editing a model:

The structure of the model, as shown on the Structure tab, with any supplemental structure that you have added.
The configurator rules that you have defined for the model, as shown on the Rules tab.
Any user interfaces that you have defined for the model, as shown on the User Interfaces tab.

The aspects are all active together during a test session, subject to any test parameters that you apply, or any restrictions that are part of the model, such as:

Items that are ineffective based on the test session date
Rules that are disabled or invalid

Test Parameters

In the Test Model dialog box, you can set the test parameters described in the following table.

Test Parameter	Meaning
Root Model	The model being viewed or edited. Read-only.
Version	Read-only.
Session Effective Date	The date and time to use in the test session for considering effectivity. The session effective date must be on or after the Effective Start Date of the workspace that the model is a participant of. Required.
User Interface	If user interfaces have been defined for the model, the UI to use for the test session, or the default UI. Optional.
Root Quantity	The quantity of the root model to use for the test session, which affects the relative quantity of child items in the configuration. Required.
Enable pricing	Enables the calculation and display of prices during a test session. If you enable pricing, then you must select a pricing strategy that includes pricing rules for this model, in the Pricing Strategy field. Names of pricing strategies are suggested in the field as you enter part of their name.
Generate trace file	Enables the generation of a trace file. If you enable trace file generation, then you will be prompted to save the file at the end of the test session.

Test a Model

Follow these steps to interactively test a model. The test parameters are described separately.

Open a configurator model for editing or viewing.

You must open a specific model. The model can be either locked or unlocked. If the model is not locked by the user who is testing it, that user must first unlock it. The model status can be either Draft or Released. You can be using either the Structure, Rules, or User Interfaces tab; the same test session tests all those aspects of the model. If you're editing the model, you will be prompted to save any model changes.
On the Configurator Model details page, click Test Model.
In the Test Model dialog box, enter values for the test parameters. When you click OK, the configurator runtime test UI opens in a new dynamic tab of the work area window.
Interact with the configurator runtime test UI, as if you were an end user. The contents and appearance of the test UI reflect the test parameters that you entered for this test session.

During the test session, you can navigate UI pages, select options and enter field values, and provide values for transactional attributes. You can configure referenced models by clicking the Configure control, configuring the model, then returning to the root model.
When you're finished with your testing, click one of the action buttons to complete the test session. The available actions are similar to, but distinct from, the actions available to the end user in the configurator runtime end user UI.
- Finish: The configurator engine finishes the configuration, which means that the configurator engine uses the autocomplete process to automatically complete the remaining selections that are required for a valid configuration of the model. A valid configuration is determined by the attributes defined for the item structure in the Product Information Management work area, and by the configurator rules defined in the Configurator Models work area. After the configuration is finished, the test session ends, and you're returned to the Configurator Model details page.
- Finish and Review: The configurator engine finishes the configuration, then navigates to the Review page, where your selections are displayed for review and possible further configuration by clicking Back. Clicking OK returns to the Configurator Model details page.
- Save for Later: Saves the configuration in the exact state that you left it. The configurator engine doesn't finish the configuration, and the saved configuration may be invalid.
  
  You can assign a name to the configuration as you save it, and later restore the configuration for further testing.
- Cancel: Warns you about losing any selections made, and exits the test session, returning to the Configurator Model details page.
In all of these session actions, no configuration data is returned to any host application, since there is no host application for a test session.
If you enabled the generation of a trace file, then, when you're exiting the test session, a message confirms that the trace file was generated and is available for download. You can open the file or download it for later examination. When you close the confirmation dialog box, the test session ends.
Return to viewing or editing the tested model, on the Configurator Model details page.

Trace Files

You can select the Generate trace file option in the Test Model dialog box to produce a trace file that can be provided to Oracle Support.

Issues that surface while testing models that have large sets of complex rules can sometimes be difficult and time-consuming to diagnose. If you generate a trace file for a runtime test session, the file helps Oracle Support, working jointly with you and Oracle product development, to diagnose the issues and resolve the problem, using constraint technology analysis and other tools and techniques.

The trace file is named after the model being tested, and is in XML format.

Review Test Configurations

You can review the interim configuration results of a test session before leaving the session.

If you select the Finish and Review action during a test session, then you're navigated to the Review page after the configurator engine finishes the configuration. On that page, your selections are displayed for review.

The model items that have been configured during the session are displayed in a hierarchical tree that can be expanded and collapsed. Values entered for transactional item attributes are displayed in the tree, but values for user-defined attributes aren't displayed.

Supplemental structure nodes aren't included on the Review page because you can't order them, and would not be returned to a host application after a session.
For each configured item, the page displays the following values:
- Quantity: The quantity of the item included in the configuration, either by your selection or because of the action of configurator rules.
- Unit Quantity: The quantity of the item included in the configuration for each included unit of the item's parent item.
- UOM: The unit of measure for the quantity of the configured item.
- Your Price: The price of the item as determined by the applied pricing strategy. Pricing must be enabled for the test session.
- Amount: The amount of Your Price multiplied by the amount of Quantity. Pricing must be enabled for the test session.

When you're finished reviewing, click one of the following action buttons:

Back: You're returned to the runtime test UI for possible further configuration.
OK: The test session ends, and you're returned to the Configurator Model details page.
Cancel: Warns you about losing any selections made, and exits the test session, returning to the Configurator Model details page.

Restore Saved Configurations During Model Testing

You can test the latest configuration for an item against previously saved configurations, to understand what changed. This ability to review changes in configurations helps you ensure the accuracy over time of your item structure and your configurator model definition.

When testing models, you can:

Save configurations during model testing

When you click Save for Later during a configuration session, you can enter a name and optional description for the configuration. You can also record the system-generated configuration header and revision IDs, which you can later use to search for this configuration

You can establish a naming strategy for saving configurations, to ease searching among them.
Test model changes with previously saved configurations

When you start a test session, you can select Restore a configuration in the Test Model dialog box, then select the configuration to restore from the Configuration Name list. You can search for a configuration by its header ID or revision ID by clicking the Search link in the list.

If you modified the model after the previous test session, you can compare how the modified model behaves against one of your saved configurations.