Data-Driven testing feature in Worksoft SaaS offers you a very powerful but easy way to “increase” and/or “dynamically change” your test coverage by using a smaller number of automation assets (test scripts, test scenarios, and test run definitions). 

Worksoft SaaS offers to its customers a variety of simple-to-use but very powerful instruments to help you structure and maintain the “data” that you want to use to drive “test coverage” within your automated test executions (of both test scenario validations and the test run definition executions).

1.  Data Definitions: “Data Definitions” will help you 'define' the “structure” of your “data” that you want to feed into your automated test executions

2.  Data Files: “Data Files” will contain all the “data” combinations (of test inputs and expected test outputs) you want to include in the test coverage of your test.  

3. Filters on Data Definitions: "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. 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. 

4. Data Sets (aka Data Arrays): "Data Sets" are 2-dimensional arrays that can be used to 'temporarily' store arrays of data that can then be accessed in the context of a specific automated test in execution. Data Sets can be used in tandem with or instead of Data Files. 

5. User-Defined Variables: User-defined variables are name-value pairs that you can define and maintain at the project as well as product level within each project. While user-defined variables can be used for many reasons in the context of automation with Worksoft SaaS, in the context of data-driven testing, they too become a very useful mechanism for you to decouple the test script logic from the test data. For example, in an eCommerce application, if you are testing 'one-time-use' coupon functionality within the promotions module, you can define a user-defined variable called 'coupon-code' and bind the script logic in your test to that variable and then for each execution of your test update the value of that variable to a new coupon code dynamically.  

In addition to the above constructs, Worksoft SaaS offers powerful mechanisms for you to dynamically retrieve the data for your automated tests from your relational databases and/or web services behind your company's firewalls.

1. Worksoft SaaS dbCONNECT: This component of Worksoft SaaS allows you to integrate automated tests in Worksoft SaaS with databases behind your company's firewalls. Among many benefits of this component, a key benefit to you is in the context of data-driven testing wherein you can retrieve the data to drive your automated tests directly/dynamically from databases. You can use dbCONNECT if you choose to do so, to drive data to the automated tests without maintaining Data Files natively within Worksoft SaaS and dynamically (when your tests are running) retrieve the latest/greatest data directly from your databases and use that data within your automated tests.

2. Worksoft SaaS wsCONNECT: This component of Worksoft SaaS allows you to integrate automated tests in Worksoft SaaS with web services behind your company's firewalls (or those that are publicly accessible). 'ws' in 'wsCONNECT' stands for Web Services. Among many benefits of this component, a key benefit to you is in the context of data-driven testing wherein you can retrieve the data to drive your automated tests directly/dynamically from your web services. You can use wsCONNECT if you choose to do so, to drive data to the automated tests without maintaining Data Files natively within Worksoft SaaS and dynamically (when your tests are running) retrieve the latest/greatest data directly from your web services and use that data within your automated tests. 

3. Worksoft SaaS QaCONNECT REST API: When you combine the power of data-driven testing with the power of QaCONNECT REST API, you get a significant boost to your data-driven tests. QaCONNECT REST API allows you to dynamically change the configuration of the tests and the data that is fed into a test. A few examples: