Appendix

Action

An Action's functionality is defined by its constituent action files, enabling the execution of automated processes.

Action Plug-In

Enables automation to interact seamlessly with various product interfaces, including REST, SOAP, SSH, SFTP, and so on.

Array

A data structure that can hold multiple values, typically of the same type, in a single variable. Arrays are useful for organizing and managing collections of data.

Behavioral Development Data (BDD)

A proprietary language developed by Oracle. It uses a set of special keywords to structure and give meaning to executable business use case specifications.

Case

Represents a logical grouping of steps within a scenario.

Concat

A string function used to combine multiple strings into one. It takes two or more strings as input and returns a single concatenated string.

Controlled Steps

The way of executing test steps using different control structures such as if, for, and while.

Data-Driven Testing

A software testing methodology where test scripts are performed repeatedly using different sets of input data.

Environment

An environment refers to the combination of hardware, software, configurations, and settings required to execute automation tests.

JSON

A lightweight data-interchange format that is easy for humans to read and write, and easy for machines to parse and generate. JSON is commonly used to transmit data between a server and a web application, as well as to store configuration settings and other structured data.

Kafka

A distributed event streaming platform used for building real-time data pipelines and streaming applications. Kafka is widely used as a message queue to facilitate asynchronous communication between producers (who send messages) and consumers (who receive messages).

Microservice

A software development technique where an application is structured as a collection of loosely coupled, independently deployable services. Each microservice focuses on a specific business function and communicates with other services through well-defined APIs. This approach enhances scalability, flexibility, and maintainability, allowing teams to develop, deploy, and scale parts of an application independently.

Nested Function

A nested function is a function that is defined inside another function. It allows for code organization, data hiding, and, in some languages, the creation of closures.

Operator

An operator is a function that performs an operation on given arguments and returns a result as Passed or Failed. BDD operators are used in the Validation section of the Test Step.

Project

A STAP project organizes and manages automation assets within the STAP framework.

Pattern Matcher

A pattern matcher retrieves a substring using a regular expression. In STAP, the regular expression used by the pattern matcher contains characters that need to be escaped. If these characters are not escaped, the publish scenario scripts might fail.

REST

A widely used interface for web services due to its simplicity and scalability. Automation plugins for REST typically facilitate tasks such as making HTTP requests, handling JSON/XML payloads, and validating responses.

Scenario

Outlines the conditions and expected outcomes of a test, focusing on the overall flow and user interactions.

Seagull

An open-source tool for testing and simulating network protocols.

Seed Data

An initial set of data that is loaded into a system or database to set it up for use. This data is typically used to populate the database with essential information that the application needs to function correctly.

SFTP

Widely used for secure file transfers between systems. Automation plugins streamline tasks such as uploading, downloading, and verifying files.

SOAP

A widely used interface for web services due to its simplicity and scalability. Automation plugins for REST typically facilitate tasks such as making HTTP requests, handling JSON/XML payloads, and validating responses.

Solution Test Automation Platform (STAP)

Allows users to automate their end-to-end business use cases without writing a single line of code.

SSH

SSH plugins automate interactions with remote servers, making them invaluable for configuration management, server monitoring, and application deployment.

STAP Data Service

The Data Service microservice is responsible for managing the data used in STAP. It stores test case data, test results, and other important information related to testing. The Data Service is designed to be highly scalable, allowing it to handle large amounts of data without impacting performance.

Step

Represents a single action or verification within the overall case flow.

String

A sequence of characters used to represent text. Strings can include letters, numbers, symbols, and spaces.

Substring

Substring refers to a function used to extract a part of a string based on specified indexes. It takes a string and a starting index as input and returns the portion of the string from the starting index to the end of the string. The starting index is inclusive, meaning the character at the starting index is included in the resulting substring.

Synthetic Data

The Synthetic Data Generator is a critical component of a test automation platform, designed to produce diverse, scalable, and high-quality data for testing applications. It eliminates the reliance on real-world data by generating customizable datasets that emulate production-like conditions, ensuring comprehensive test coverage and improving testing efficiency.

A Appendix