XAware, Inc. has embraced a data-driven approach to testing the XAware Engine. One requirement for data-driven testing is of course that the test tool in use goes beyond straight event recording and replaying and offers a full-fledged scripting language for test scripts. XAware, Inc. has chosen Rational Robot to perform this function.

A data-driven test means that a test case contains data file

s which the application under test (AUT) will use in some way during the test. In the simplest case these might be files the application needs to read during the test execution. In such a case, the test framework should offer an API to manage such data files. XAware, Inc. uses all of the connector APIs to test the Engine. These include Batch, the HTTP-Servlet Connector, Java API Connector, SOAP Connector(s), EJB Connector, and the JMS Connector.

A more sophisticated way of data-driven testing is that the testing framework actually understands the contents of the data files and it is possible to iterate over the contents in the test script. This is useful to specify the data which should be used during the test. Instead of hard-coding this data into the test script, it will be stored in a data file which can be easily extended with new data. Such data might also be read from a database or any other data source. XAware, Inc. uses spreadsheets to drive each test. The framework supports a precondition BizDocument for clearing SQL tables or other setup requirements, input parameters, the BizDocument under test, expected results, input xml, security, and the result.

We have expanded the framework to include property files which will provide specific variables at run time such as XAWARE_HOME, PUBLISH_DIRECTORY, _GEN_OUT, _XADATA, and _URL to name a few.

The Automation Suite runs run approximately 1200 tests nightly against the 5.0 Engine. And that's how we do it.....