1) Save you time documenting test scripts
2) Reduce the likelihood that you'll make mistakes in that process
A separate lesson shows how to add automatically-generated Expected Results into your Auto-Scripts. Another one is focused on Hexawise Automate.
With Hexawise's Auto-Scripts feature, you can quickly transform sets of optimized test CONDITIONS like these...
... into customizable SCRIPTS that contain detailed tester instructions.
You can even add automatically-generated Expected Results to your steps if you want to - that topic is covered in how to save test documentation time.
Remember Mad Libs?
Creating Auto-scripts in Hexawise is similar to that. Instead of adding adjectives and nouns into pre-formed sentences, however, you’ll be more like the author of the Mad Libs sentences themselves. You need to:
1) Create sentences containing execution instructions that will be common to most of the test scripts and
2) Identify "spaces" to indicate where Hexawise should "fill in the blanks" you’ve left with test conditions appropriate to each scenario.
First, navigate to the Scripts -> Manual Auto-Scripts screen and (optionally) add instructions to be completed before test execution on ALL these scenarios begins.
1) Navigate to the Scripts -> Manual Auto-Scripts screen.
2) Optionally in the "Start" section at the top of the screen, enter instructions that should be completed before any of the tests are executed. The instructions that you enter into the "Start" box will only appear once at the beginning; they will not repeatedly appear before each and every scenario.
3) Save your starting instructions.
Next, click on the "pencil" icon to enter instructions for your first test step. Alternatively, you may click the text already present for the step.
Next, enter detailed instructions for a tester for each step. For now, type Mad Libs-like sentences, as shown below with blank lines to indicate where Values are to be inserted.
zoomed in version of the step text
On the "Flight Details" screen, at the top, select __ for the class.
Then, enter the destination as __ and the country you are flying from as __.
As shown above, for example, you will want to type the words that will remain the same from test to test and leave three blanks (one for each place that Values will change from test to test):
1) One blank for the class,
2) One blank for the destination, and
3) One blank for the country you are leaving.
Next, replace those blank lines with the appropriate Parameter names.
1) Highlight the first blank line
2) Confirm that the Parameter Name to be inserted is in the Parameter Name dropdown list in the top right (adjust if necessary)
3) Press "ctrl-y" on the keyboard (or the "Insert" link if you prefer, but the cool kids do the ctrl-y shortcut)
4) Press "ctrl-enter" on the keyboard (or the "Save link," but again cool kids use appropriate shortcuts)
5) Rinse and repeat for the other blank lines
For Lazy Users / Efficiency Nuts: You'll notice that the Parameter Name automatically advances to the next one in line. This is done to save you time. Being the busy person that you are, with things to do and places to go, we thought it only right to give you the option of saving that fraction of a second you'd spend moving your mouse over to that drop down list. Highlighting each blank line and pressing ctl-y on the keyboard would get this job done in the blink of an eye.
You'll notice when you're entering and editing your Auto-Scripts that your sentences probably look strange.
The words inside the { curvy brackets } are Parameter Names. When you're editing the Auto-Script, your sentences won't look like "normal" sentences. The trick is to think about what your steps will look like when the names of the actual Values will be inserted into each sentence.
As soon as you save each step, sanity prevails. You will now see the "normal" sentences you've constructed (with Coach, the Philippines, and India as the examples below).
Don't forget to save each step before you add your next one! Thankfully, Hexawise notifies you under the last edited step that there are unsaved edits. The words that are the same between tests are in normal text. Words that change from test to test (the Values you entered on the Parameters screen) are shown in bold.
Click on different table rows at the bottom half of your screen (preview section that mirrors Scenarios screen) to see how your script steps will change.
When you click on Scenarios 3 below, the wording of the test script automatically adjusts. Cool, huh? That's what data-driven, template-based scripting is all about!
Finally, in the "Finish" section you may want to add some instructions that will appear only once at the end of all of the scenario scripts.
When you have many scenarios to document, this Auto-Scripting feature will save you boat-loads of time that you can put to more productive use on other endeavors. Things like improving your Angry Birds skills, making overdue calls to your mother, baking cookies, or even constructing a "bacon lance of death."