Understanding Data Definitions, Data Files and Data Filters
Data Definitions & Data Files:
In Worksoft SaaS, “Data Definitions” help you 'define' the “structure” of your “data” that you want to feed into your automated test executions and "Data Files” contain all the “data” combinations (of test inputs and expected test outputs) you want to include in your test coverage of your test.
It becomes very easy to understand 'Data Definitions' and 'Data Files' using a "Table" that contains (multiple rows of) data in a Spreadsheet as an analogy.
The column headers of the data equate to the “Data Definition” and the rows of data in the table equate to the “Data File”.
When you run your automated test in Worksoft SaaS in a "data-driven" mode, Worksoft SaaS will automatically run the same test (business logic embedded in the test) for each data set (from each row) of the Data File. We call this "Data Looping" (or data iterations).
Each column header from the spreadsheet in the context of a Data Definition is called an 'Attribute'.
Data Filters:
Data Filters:
Data Filters in Worksoft SaaS plays prominent role in Data Driven Framework and provides a quick way for you to get access to a subset of data contained in a Data File. This feature will allow to maintain a small list of Data Files across your automated tests and reduce the effort to maintain your Data Files.
"Filters" when applied to Data File(s) bound to an automated test will help you 'dynamically' feed a subset of data rows from the Data File into an automated test. Example - You have a data file with 500 rows in it. If you want to execute/ check the output of a particular product available on 445 row, you can directly apply a filter on this data and execute it which would provide the results faster rather than wait for large data to get executed or break the row to a different data file.
Data Filters are defined at the 'Data Definition-level' but assigned to the Data File bindings within automated tests.
A single Data Definition can have any number of Data Filters created.
A Data Filter can combine one or more (or all) of the 'attributes' that make up the Data Definition.