42.6

Control structures

Besides the standard sequence types QF-Test has a set of special control structures. Conditional processing is handled via If, Elseif and Else nodes. Loops and While nodes can be aborted with a Break node. Exceptions are handled by Try, Catch and Finally nodes.

Beyond that, full scripting is available for the Jython language (formerly called JPython), Groovy and JavaScript as documented in chapter 11.

42.6.1

Loop

This node is basically the same as a Sequence except that its children can be executed more than once. This is useful in two ways. For one thing, a test sequence that executes OK a hundred times is more trustworthy than a sequence that only runs once. The other use is to run a number of similar jobs with slight variations. To that end, the count of the current iteration is bound as a variable during execution. Special Loops with varying increments can be achieved by changing the value of the Iteration counter during execution. Execution of a Loop can be terminated prematurely with the help of a Break node. An optional Else node may be placed at the end of the Loop. It is executed if all iterations of the Loop are run through completely without hitting a Break.

Contained in: All kinds of sequences.

Children: Any

Execution: The Variable definitions of the Loop are bound. The Iteration counter is initialized to 0 and the child nodes are executed one by one. For each iteration the Iteration counter is increased by one and the children are executed again. After the final execution of the last child is complete, the Iteration counter and the Variable definitions are unbound again.

Attributes:

Name

The name of a sequence is a kind of short description. It is displayed in the tree view, so it should be concise and say something about the function of the sequence.

Variable: No

Restrictions: None

Number of iterations

The number of iterations of the loop.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: > 0

Iteration counter

The name of the variable that will hold the iteration count during the execution. Make sure to use different Iteration counter names for nested loops.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: None

Variable definitions

This is where you define the values of the variables that remain bound during the execution of the sequence's child nodes (see chapter 6). See subsection 2.2.5 about how to work with the table.

Variable: Variable names no, values yes

Restrictions: None

Maximum error level

When a warning, error or exception occurs during a test run, the state of the corresponding node of the run log is set accordingly. This state is normally propagated to the parent node in a way that ensures that the error state of a run log node represents the worst of its child nodes' states. Using this attribute, the maximum error state that the run log node for a sequence will propagate, can be limited.

Note This value has no effect on the way exceptions are handled. It only affects the error states of the run log nodes and by that the exit code of QF-Test when run in batch mode (see. section 1.7). It also has no effect on the creation of compact run logs (see command line argument -compact). The node for a sequence in which a warning, error or exception occurs is never removed from a compact log, even if the error is not propagated due to the setting of this attribute.

Variable: No

Restrictions: None

QF-Test ID

The QF-Test ID of the Loop node can be used in a Break node to terminate an outer loop explicitly when loops are nested.

Variable: No

Restrictions: Must not contain any of the characters '\', '#', '$', '@', '&', or '%' or start with an underscore ('_').

Delay before/after

These attributes cause a delay before or after the execution of the node. If a value is empty, the Default delay from the global options is used.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: Valid number >= 0

Comment

Here you can enter a comment that explains the purpose of this node. This is the preferred way of documenting the test suite.

Note For detailed documentation, especially for Test set, Test case or Procedure nodes, this text area might not be the right place. There are many excellent editors that are much better suited to this task. The option External editor command lets you define an external editor in which comments can be edited conveniently by pressing Alt⁠+⁠Return or by clicking the button.

You can trigger special behaviors of some nodes using doctags, please see Doctags.

If you enter text in the comment field of a Component node, the node will be considered as 'used' when you want to mark or delete unused components.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: None

42.6.2

While

This is a sequence that is executed repeatedly as long as a condition is fulfilled. The loop can be terminated prematurely with the help of a Break node.

Contained in: All kinds of sequences.

Children: Any

Execution: The Variable definitions of the While node are bound. If the condition evaluates to true, the child nodes are executed one by one. This is repeated until the condition evaluates to false or the loop is terminated through a Break node or an Exception. Finally the Variable definitions are unbound again.

Attributes:

Condition

A condition is an expression that evaluates to either true or false. QF-Test discriminates between simple expression that it evaluates itself and complex expressions that are passed to the Jython script language to evaluate.

An empty string or the string false (regardless of case) is interpreted as false, the string true as true. Whole numbers are true if and only if they are non-zero.

Evaluating expressions in Jython opens the way for powerful expression handling. Jython supports the standard operators ==, !=, >, >=, < and <=. You can combine expressions with and and or and define their priority with braces.

Note Accessing QF-Test variables in a condition follows the same rules as in Jython scripts (see subsection 11.3.3). You can use the standard QF-Test syntax $(...) and ${...:...} for numeric or boolean values. String values should be accessed with rc.getStr.

Important: Im you want to compare strings (as opposed to numbers) you need to excape them by single or double inverted commas for Jython. Else Jython would interpret the string as a Jython variable, which, of course would not be defined, and thus lead to a syntax error.

Some examples:

Expression	Value
Empty String	False
0	False
21	True
False	False
True	True
abc abc	Syntax error
25 > 0	True
${qftest:batch}	True if QF-Test is run in batch mode
not ${qftest:batch}	True if QF-Test is run in interactive mode
rc.getStr("system", "java.version") == "1.3.1"	True if JDK Version is 1.3.1
rc.getStr("system", "java.version")[0] == "1"	True is JDK Version starts with 1
(1 > 0 and 0 == 0) or 2 < 1	True

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: Valid syntax

Script language

This attribute determines the interpreter in which to run the script, or in other words, the scripting language to use. Possible values are "Jython", "Groovy" and "JavaScript".

Variable: No

Restrictions: None

Name

The name of a sequence is a kind of short description. It is displayed in the tree view, so it should be concise and say something about the function of the sequence.

Variable: No

Restrictions: None

Variable definitions

This is where you define the values of the variables that remain bound during the execution of the sequence's child nodes (see chapter 6). See subsection 2.2.5 about how to work with the table.

Variable: Variable names no, values yes

Restrictions: None

Maximum error level

When a warning, error or exception occurs during a test run, the state of the corresponding node of the run log is set accordingly. This state is normally propagated to the parent node in a way that ensures that the error state of a run log node represents the worst of its child nodes' states. Using this attribute, the maximum error state that the run log node for a sequence will propagate, can be limited.

Note This value has no effect on the way exceptions are handled. It only affects the error states of the run log nodes and by that the exit code of QF-Test when run in batch mode (see. section 1.7). It also has no effect on the creation of compact run logs (see command line argument -compact). The node for a sequence in which a warning, error or exception occurs is never removed from a compact log, even if the error is not propagated due to the setting of this attribute.

Variable: No

Restrictions: None

QF-Test ID

The QF-Test ID of the While node can be used in a Break node to terminate an outer loop explicitly when loops are nested.

Variable: No

Restrictions: Must not be empty, contain any of the characters '#', '$', '@', '&', or '%' or start with an underscore ('_').

Delay before/after

These attributes cause a delay before or after the execution of the node. If a value is empty, the Default delay from the global options is used.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: Valid number >= 0

Comment

Here you can enter a comment that explains the purpose of this node. This is the preferred way of documenting the test suite.

Note For detailed documentation, especially for Test set, Test case or Procedure nodes, this text area might not be the right place. There are many excellent editors that are much better suited to this task. The option External editor command lets you define an external editor in which comments can be edited conveniently by pressing Alt⁠+⁠Return or by clicking the button.

You can trigger special behaviors of some nodes using doctags, please see Doctags.

If you enter text in the comment field of a Component node, the node will be considered as 'used' when you want to mark or delete unused components.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: None

42.6.3

Break

This node is used to terminate a Loops or a While node prematurely.

Contained in: All kinds of sequences.

Children: None

Execution: A BreakException is thrown. If it is caught by a matching loop, the loop is terminated, otherwise it will lead to an error.

Attributes:

QF-Test loop ID

For nested loops you can specify the loop to terminate by specifying the QF-Test ID of a Loop node and refer to it here. It works with QF-Test ID for a While node respectively. In case this field is empty the innermost loop is terminated. In case you want to break an iteration raised by a Data driver node, you should specify the value of the 'Name' attribute of the respective Data driver node.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: None

QF-Test ID

At the moment the QF-Test ID attribute has no meaning for this type of node.

Variable: No

Restrictions: Must not contain any of the characters '\', '#', '$', '@', '&', or '%' or start with an underscore ('_').

Delay before/after

These attributes cause a delay before or after the execution of the node. If a value is empty, the Default delay from the global options is used.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: Valid number >= 0

Comment

Here you can enter a comment that explains the purpose of this node. This is the preferred way of documenting the test suite.

Note For detailed documentation, especially for Test set, Test case or Procedure nodes, this text area might not be the right place. There are many excellent editors that are much better suited to this task. The option External editor command lets you define an external editor in which comments can be edited conveniently by pressing Alt⁠+⁠Return or by clicking the button.

You can trigger special behaviors of some nodes using doctags, please see Doctags.

If you enter text in the comment field of a Component node, the node will be considered as 'used' when you want to mark or delete unused components.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: None

42.6.4

If

Like in Java the child nodes of this node are executed only if a condition evaluates to true. However QF-Test differs from common programming languages in the way alternative branches are arranged.

Contained in: All kinds of sequences.

Children: Any executable node, followed by an arbitrary number of Elseif nodes with an optional Else at the end.

Execution: The Variable definitions of the If node are bound. If the condition evaluates to true, the normal child nodes are executed one by one. Otherwise the conditions of the Elseif nodes are evaluated and the first Elseif node whose condition evaluates to true is executed. If none of the conditions are true of no Elseif nodes exist, the Else node is executed, if one exists. Finally the Variable definitions are unbound again.

Attributes:

Condition

A condition is an expression that evaluates to either true or false. QF-Test discriminates between simple expression that it evaluates itself and complex expressions that are passed to the Jython script language to evaluate.

An empty string or the string false (regardless of case) is interpreted as false, the string true as true. Whole numbers are true if and only if they are non-zero.

Evaluating expressions in Jython opens the way for powerful expression handling. Jython supports the standard operators ==, !=, >, >=, < and <=. You can combine expressions with and and or and define their priority with braces.

Note Accessing QF-Test variables in a condition follows the same rules as in Jython scripts (see subsection 11.3.3). You can use the standard QF-Test syntax $(...) and ${...:...} for numeric or boolean values. String values should be accessed with rc.getStr.

Important: Im you want to compare strings (as opposed to numbers) you need to excape them by single or double inverted commas for Jython. Else Jython would interpret the string as a Jython variable, which, of course would not be defined, and thus lead to a syntax error.

Some examples:

Expression	Value
Empty String	False
0	False
21	True
False	False
True	True
abc abc	Syntax error
25 > 0	True
${qftest:batch}	True if QF-Test is run in batch mode
not ${qftest:batch}	True if QF-Test is run in interactive mode
rc.getStr("system", "java.version") == "1.3.1"	True if JDK Version is 1.3.1
rc.getStr("system", "java.version")[0] == "1"	True is JDK Version starts with 1
(1 > 0 and 0 == 0) or 2 < 1	True

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: Valid syntax

Script language

This attribute determines the interpreter in which to run the script, or in other words, the scripting language to use. Possible values are "Jython", "Groovy" and "JavaScript".

Variable: No

Restrictions: None

Name

The name of a sequence is a kind of short description. It is displayed in the tree view, so it should be concise and say something about the function of the sequence.

Variable: No

Restrictions: None

Variable definitions

This is where you define the values of the variables that remain bound during the execution of the sequence's child nodes (see chapter 6). See subsection 2.2.5 about how to work with the table.

Variable: Variable names no, values yes

Restrictions: None

Maximum error level

When a warning, error or exception occurs during a test run, the state of the corresponding node of the run log is set accordingly. This state is normally propagated to the parent node in a way that ensures that the error state of a run log node represents the worst of its child nodes' states. Using this attribute, the maximum error state that the run log node for a sequence will propagate, can be limited.

Note This value has no effect on the way exceptions are handled. It only affects the error states of the run log nodes and by that the exit code of QF-Test when run in batch mode (see. section 1.7). It also has no effect on the creation of compact run logs (see command line argument -compact). The node for a sequence in which a warning, error or exception occurs is never removed from a compact log, even if the error is not propagated due to the setting of this attribute.

Variable: No

Restrictions: None

QF-Test ID

At the moment the QF-Test ID attribute has no meaning for this type of node.

Variable: No

Restrictions: Must not contain any of the characters '\', '#', '$', '@', '&', or '%' or start with an underscore ('_').

Delay before/after

These attributes cause a delay before or after the execution of the node. If a value is empty, the Default delay from the global options is used.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: Valid number >= 0

Comment

Here you can enter a comment that explains the purpose of this node. This is the preferred way of documenting the test suite.

Note For detailed documentation, especially for Test set, Test case or Procedure nodes, this text area might not be the right place. There are many excellent editors that are much better suited to this task. The option External editor command lets you define an external editor in which comments can be edited conveniently by pressing Alt⁠+⁠Return or by clicking the button.

You can trigger special behaviors of some nodes using doctags, please see Doctags.

If you enter text in the comment field of a Component node, the node will be considered as 'used' when you want to mark or delete unused components.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: None

42.6.5

Elseif

This node is an alternative branch in an If node. If the condition of the If node evaluates to false, the first Elseif node whose condition is true is executed.

Contained in: If

Children: Any

Execution: The Variable definitions of the Elseif are bound and its child nodes executed one by one. After the execution of the last child is complete, the variables are unbound again.

Attributes:

Condition

A condition is an expression that evaluates to either true or false. QF-Test discriminates between simple expression that it evaluates itself and complex expressions that are passed to the Jython script language to evaluate.

An empty string or the string false (regardless of case) is interpreted as false, the string true as true. Whole numbers are true if and only if they are non-zero.

Evaluating expressions in Jython opens the way for powerful expression handling. Jython supports the standard operators ==, !=, >, >=, < and <=. You can combine expressions with and and or and define their priority with braces.

Note Accessing QF-Test variables in a condition follows the same rules as in Jython scripts (see subsection 11.3.3). You can use the standard QF-Test syntax $(...) and ${...:...} for numeric or boolean values. String values should be accessed with rc.getStr.

Important: Im you want to compare strings (as opposed to numbers) you need to excape them by single or double inverted commas for Jython. Else Jython would interpret the string as a Jython variable, which, of course would not be defined, and thus lead to a syntax error.

Some examples:

Expression	Value
Empty String	False
0	False
21	True
False	False
True	True
abc abc	Syntax error
25 > 0	True
${qftest:batch}	True if QF-Test is run in batch mode
not ${qftest:batch}	True if QF-Test is run in interactive mode
rc.getStr("system", "java.version") == "1.3.1"	True if JDK Version is 1.3.1
rc.getStr("system", "java.version")[0] == "1"	True is JDK Version starts with 1
(1 > 0 and 0 == 0) or 2 < 1	True

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: Valid syntax

Script language

This attribute determines the interpreter in which to run the script, or in other words, the scripting language to use. Possible values are "Jython", "Groovy" and "JavaScript".

Variable: No

Restrictions: None

Name

The name of a sequence is a kind of short description. It is displayed in the tree view, so it should be concise and say something about the function of the sequence.

Variable: No

Restrictions: None

Variable definitions

This is where you define the values of the variables that remain bound during the execution of the sequence's child nodes (see chapter 6). See subsection 2.2.5 about how to work with the table.

Variable: Variable names no, values yes

Restrictions: None

Maximum error level

When a warning, error or exception occurs during a test run, the state of the corresponding node of the run log is set accordingly. This state is normally propagated to the parent node in a way that ensures that the error state of a run log node represents the worst of its child nodes' states. Using this attribute, the maximum error state that the run log node for a sequence will propagate, can be limited.

Note This value has no effect on the way exceptions are handled. It only affects the error states of the run log nodes and by that the exit code of QF-Test when run in batch mode (see. section 1.7). It also has no effect on the creation of compact run logs (see command line argument -compact). The node for a sequence in which a warning, error or exception occurs is never removed from a compact log, even if the error is not propagated due to the setting of this attribute.

Variable: No

Restrictions: None

QF-Test ID

At the moment the QF-Test ID attribute has no meaning for this type of node.

Variable: No

Restrictions: Must not contain any of the characters '\', '#', '$', '@', '&', or '%' or start with an underscore ('_').

Delay before/after

These attributes cause a delay before or after the execution of the node. If a value is empty, the Default delay from the global options is used.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: Valid number >= 0

Comment

Here you can enter a comment that explains the purpose of this node. This is the preferred way of documenting the test suite.

Note For detailed documentation, especially for Test set, Test case or Procedure nodes, this text area might not be the right place. There are many excellent editors that are much better suited to this task. The option External editor command lets you define an external editor in which comments can be edited conveniently by pressing Alt⁠+⁠Return or by clicking the button.

You can trigger special behaviors of some nodes using doctags, please see Doctags.

If you enter text in the comment field of a Component node, the node will be considered as 'used' when you want to mark or delete unused components.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: None

42.6.6

Else

An Else node is executed if neither the condition of its If parent, nor the condition of its Elseif siblings evaluate to true.

Contained in: If, Loop, Try

Children: Any

Execution: The Variable definitions of the Else are bound and its child nodes executed one by one. After the execution of the last child is complete, the variables are unbound again.

Attributes:

Name

The name of a sequence is a kind of short description. It is displayed in the tree view, so it should be concise and say something about the function of the sequence.

Variable: No

Restrictions: None

Variable definitions

This is where you define the values of the variables that remain bound during the execution of the sequence's child nodes (see chapter 6). See subsection 2.2.5 about how to work with the table.

Variable: Variable names no, values yes

Restrictions: None

Maximum error level

When a warning, error or exception occurs during a test run, the state of the corresponding node of the run log is set accordingly. This state is normally propagated to the parent node in a way that ensures that the error state of a run log node represents the worst of its child nodes' states. Using this attribute, the maximum error state that the run log node for a sequence will propagate, can be limited.

Note This value has no effect on the way exceptions are handled. It only affects the error states of the run log nodes and by that the exit code of QF-Test when run in batch mode (see. section 1.7). It also has no effect on the creation of compact run logs (see command line argument -compact). The node for a sequence in which a warning, error or exception occurs is never removed from a compact log, even if the error is not propagated due to the setting of this attribute.

Variable: No

Restrictions: None

QF-Test ID

At the moment the QF-Test ID attribute has no meaning for this type of node.

Variable: No

Restrictions: Must not contain any of the characters '\', '#', '$', '@', '&', or '%' or start with an underscore ('_').

Delay before/after

These attributes cause a delay before or after the execution of the node. If a value is empty, the Default delay from the global options is used.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: Valid number >= 0

Comment

Here you can enter a comment that explains the purpose of this node. This is the preferred way of documenting the test suite.

Note For detailed documentation, especially for Test set, Test case or Procedure nodes, this text area might not be the right place. There are many excellent editors that are much better suited to this task. The option External editor command lets you define an external editor in which comments can be edited conveniently by pressing Alt⁠+⁠Return or by clicking the button.

You can trigger special behaviors of some nodes using doctags, please see Doctags.

If you enter text in the comment field of a Component node, the node will be considered as 'used' when you want to mark or delete unused components.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: None

42.6.7

Try

A Try is a special sequence whose semantic equates the Java try-catch-finally composition. As in Python, this composition was extended to support optional else blocks. A Try behaves the same way as a special Sequence with the extension, that exception handling is possible. Like a Sequence it has a set of normal child nodes that it executes one by one. After these may come an arbitrary number of Catch nodes with an optional Else node followed by an optional Finally node at the end. If an exception is thrown during the execution of one of the normal child nodes, the Catch nodes are tested for whether they are able to catch that exception. The first one found is executed and the Try will be exited normally afterwards without continuing with the execution of the normal child nodes and without passing the exception on. If no matching Catch is found, the exception will terminate the Try immediately (almost, see below) and be passed onto the Try's parent. A possible Else child node at the end of a try node will be executed, if and only if no Catch nodes had been executed. This means, it is executed, when no exception in the try block was thrown. If the Try has a Finally child node, this node will be executed just before the Try finishes, no matter whether an exception is thrown and whether it is handled or not.

Contained in: All kinds of sequences.

Children: Any executable node, followed by an arbitrary number of Catch nodes with an optional Else node and/or an optional Finally node at the end.

Execution: The Variable definitions of the Try are bound and its normal child nodes executed one by one. If an exception is thrown, execution of the normal children is terminated. If a Catch node with a matching Exception class is found it is executed. Before exiting the Try its Finally node is executed unconditionally. After unbinding the Variable definitions, the Try is either exited cleanly if no exception was thrown or the exception was caught, or it passes on the uncaught exception.

Attributes:

Name

The name of a sequence is a kind of short description. It is displayed in the tree view, so it should be concise and say something about the function of the sequence.

Variable: No

Restrictions: None

Variable definitions

This is where you define the values of the variables that remain bound during the execution of the sequence's child nodes (see chapter 6). See subsection 2.2.5 about how to work with the table.

Variable: Variable names no, values yes

Restrictions: None

Maximum error level

When a warning, error or exception occurs during a test run, the state of the corresponding node of the run log is set accordingly. This state is normally propagated to the parent node in a way that ensures that the error state of a run log node represents the worst of its child nodes' states. Using this attribute, the maximum error state that the run log node for a sequence will propagate, can be limited.

Note This value has no effect on the way exceptions are handled. It only affects the error states of the run log nodes and by that the exit code of QF-Test when run in batch mode (see. section 1.7). It also has no effect on the creation of compact run logs (see command line argument -compact). The node for a sequence in which a warning, error or exception occurs is never removed from a compact log, even if the error is not propagated due to the setting of this attribute.

For a Try node, the error state of the run log is additionally affected by the Maximum error level of the Catch node that handles an exception.

Variable: No

Restrictions: None

QF-Test ID

At the moment the QF-Test ID attribute has no meaning for this type of node.

Variable: No

Restrictions: Must not contain any of the characters '\', '#', '$', '@', '&', or '%' or start with an underscore ('_').

Delay before/after

These attributes cause a delay before or after the execution of the node. If a value is empty, the Default delay from the global options is used.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: Valid number >= 0

Comment

Here you can enter a comment that explains the purpose of this node. This is the preferred way of documenting the test suite.

Note For detailed documentation, especially for Test set, Test case or Procedure nodes, this text area might not be the right place. There are many excellent editors that are much better suited to this task. The option External editor command lets you define an external editor in which comments can be edited conveniently by pressing Alt⁠+⁠Return or by clicking the button.

You can trigger special behaviors of some nodes using doctags, please see Doctags.

If you enter text in the comment field of a Component node, the node will be considered as 'used' when you want to mark or delete unused components.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: None

42.6.8

Catch

A Catch is a special Sequence that can only be placed inside a Try node or a Dependency. Its job is to catch exceptions that may arise during the execution of a Try's or a Test case with a Dependency. A Catch can handle an exception if the class of the exception is the same as the Catch node's Exception class attribute or a derived class thereof, just as in Java.

Contained in: Try, Dependency

Children: Any

Execution: The Variable definitions of the Catch are bound and its child nodes executed one by one. After the execution of the last child is complete, the variables are unbound again.

Attributes:

Exception class

This ComboBox lets you select the class of the exception that is to be caught. All QF-Test exceptions are derived from the class TestException. For details about the possible exceptions see chapter 43.

Variable: No

Restrictions: None

Expected message

You can further qualify the exception to catch by specifying a message to look for. If this attribute is empty, all exceptions of the specified class are caught. Otherwise it is compared to exception.getMessage() and the exception is caught only in case of a match.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: Valid regexp if required.

As regexp

If this attribute is set, the exception message is matched against a regexp (see section 49.3) instead of comparing plain strings.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: None

Match against localized message

Most exceptions have two kinds of error message: The raw message is typically some short English text whereas the localized message contains more details and is either English or German, depending on the current language settings of QF-Test. Both are shown in the run log. If this attribute is set, the localized exception message is used for comparison, otherwise the raw message. The latter is usually preferable as it doesn't depend on language settings so no regexp is needed in order to ensure the correct handling of the different languages.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: None

Name

The name of a sequence is a kind of short description. It is displayed in the tree view, so it should be concise and say something about the function of the sequence.

Variable: No

Restrictions: None

Variable definitions

This is where you define the values of the variables that remain bound during the execution of the sequence's child nodes (see chapter 6). See subsection 2.2.5 about how to work with the table.

Variable: Variable names no, values yes

Restrictions: None

Maximum error level

In contrast to the Maximum error level of other sequences, this attribute does not determine the error state propagated by the run log node for the Catch node itself, but for the log of its parent Try node, provided that the Catch is executed in order to handle an exception.

The error state for any warnings, errors or exceptions that happen during the execution of the Catch node are not limited by the setting of this attribute. Otherwise problems occurring during exception handling might accidentally go unnoticed.

Variable: No

Restrictions: None

QF-Test ID

At the moment the QF-Test ID attribute has no meaning for this type of node.

Variable: No

Restrictions: Must not contain any of the characters '\', '#', '$', '@', '&', or '%' or start with an underscore ('_').

Delay before/after

These attributes cause a delay before or after the execution of the node. If a value is empty, the Default delay from the global options is used.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: Valid number >= 0

Comment

Here you can enter a comment that explains the purpose of this node. This is the preferred way of documenting the test suite.

Note For detailed documentation, especially for Test set, Test case or Procedure nodes, this text area might not be the right place. There are many excellent editors that are much better suited to this task. The option External editor command lets you define an external editor in which comments can be edited conveniently by pressing Alt⁠+⁠Return or by clicking the button.

You can trigger special behaviors of some nodes using doctags, please see Doctags.

If you enter text in the comment field of a Component node, the node will be considered as 'used' when you want to mark or delete unused components.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: None

42.6.9

Finally

A Finally node, which can only be placed at the end of a Try node, will always be executed as the last thing just before exiting the Try, no matter what happened there. This is used primarily to ensure that cleanup code like removing a temporary file or terminating a process is executed under any conditions.

Contained in: Try

Children: Any

Execution: The Variable definitions of the Finally are bound and its child nodes executed one by one. After the execution of the last child is complete, the variables are unbound again.

Attributes:

Name

The name of a sequence is a kind of short description. It is displayed in the tree view, so it should be concise and say something about the function of the sequence.

Variable: No

Restrictions: None

Variable definitions

This is where you define the values of the variables that remain bound during the execution of the sequence's child nodes (see chapter 6). See subsection 2.2.5 about how to work with the table.

Variable: Variable names no, values yes

Restrictions: None

Maximum error level

When a warning, error or exception occurs during a test run, the state of the corresponding node of the run log is set accordingly. This state is normally propagated to the parent node in a way that ensures that the error state of a run log node represents the worst of its child nodes' states. Using this attribute, the maximum error state that the run log node for a sequence will propagate, can be limited.

Note This value has no effect on the way exceptions are handled. It only affects the error states of the run log nodes and by that the exit code of QF-Test when run in batch mode (see. section 1.7). It also has no effect on the creation of compact run logs (see command line argument -compact). The node for a sequence in which a warning, error or exception occurs is never removed from a compact log, even if the error is not propagated due to the setting of this attribute.

Variable: No

Restrictions: None

QF-Test ID

At the moment the QF-Test ID attribute has no meaning for this type of node.

Variable: No

Restrictions: Must not contain any of the characters '\', '#', '$', '@', '&', or '%' or start with an underscore ('_').

Delay before/after

These attributes cause a delay before or after the execution of the node. If a value is empty, the Default delay from the global options is used.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: Valid number >= 0

Comment

Here you can enter a comment that explains the purpose of this node. This is the preferred way of documenting the test suite.

Note For detailed documentation, especially for Test set, Test case or Procedure nodes, this text area might not be the right place. There are many excellent editors that are much better suited to this task. The option External editor command lets you define an external editor in which comments can be edited conveniently by pressing Alt⁠+⁠Return or by clicking the button.

You can trigger special behaviors of some nodes using doctags, please see Doctags.

If you enter text in the comment field of a Component node, the node will be considered as 'used' when you want to mark or delete unused components.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: None

42.6.10

Throw

If you need to handle an exceptional situation, you can use this node to throw an explicit Exception.

Contained in: All kinds of sequences.

Children: None

Execution: A UserException is thrown, its message taken from the Exception message attribute.

Attributes:

Exception message

An arbitrary message for the UserException to throw.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: Must not be empty.

QF-Test ID

At the moment the QF-Test ID attribute has no meaning for this type of node.

Variable: No

Restrictions: Must not contain any of the characters '\', '#', '$', '@', '&', or '%' or start with an underscore ('_').

Delay before/after

These attributes cause a delay before or after the execution of the node. If a value is empty, the Default delay from the global options is used.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: Valid number >= 0

Comment

Here you can enter a comment that explains the purpose of this node. This is the preferred way of documenting the test suite.

Note For detailed documentation, especially for Test set, Test case or Procedure nodes, this text area might not be the right place. There are many excellent editors that are much better suited to this task. The option External editor command lets you define an external editor in which comments can be edited conveniently by pressing Alt⁠+⁠Return or by clicking the button.

You can trigger special behaviors of some nodes using doctags, please see Doctags.

If you enter text in the comment field of a Component node, the node will be considered as 'used' when you want to mark or delete unused components.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: None

42.6.11

Rethrow

An exception that was caught by a Catch node can be thrown again with the help of a Rethrow node. This is especially useful if you need to catch all kinds of exceptions except one. To handle that case, create a Try node with a Catch for the special exception followed by a Catch for a TestException. Then place a Rethrow in the first Catch node.

Contained in: All kinds of sequences. The Rethrow node doesn't have to be placed directly below a Catch node.

Children: None

Execution: The last exception caught by a Catch node is thrown again. If no such exception exists, a CannotRethrowException is thrown.

Attributes:

QF-Test ID

At the moment the QF-Test ID attribute has no meaning for this type of node.

Variable: No

Restrictions: Must not contain any of the characters '\', '#', '$', '@', '&', or '%' or start with an underscore ('_').

Delay before/after

These attributes cause a delay before or after the execution of the node. If a value is empty, the Default delay from the global options is used.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: Valid number >= 0

Comment

Here you can enter a comment that explains the purpose of this node. This is the preferred way of documenting the test suite.

Note For detailed documentation, especially for Test set, Test case or Procedure nodes, this text area might not be the right place. There are many excellent editors that are much better suited to this task. The option External editor command lets you define an external editor in which comments can be edited conveniently by pressing Alt⁠+⁠Return or by clicking the button.

You can trigger special behaviors of some nodes using doctags, please see Doctags.

If you enter text in the comment field of a Component node, the node will be considered as 'used' when you want to mark or delete unused components.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: None

42.6.12

Server script

Server side scripts are executed by an interpreter (Jython, Groovy or JavaScript) embedded into QF-Test. Scripting is explained in chapter 11 and chapter 50. As server side scripts run embedded to QF-Test those scripts cannot interact with the SUT. It is recommended that Server side scripts be used for cases that work without the SUT or time consuming operations like accessing databases or files.

Contained in: All kinds of sequences.

Children: None

Execution: The script is executed by an embedded interpreter.

Attributes:

Script

The script to execute.

Note You may use QF-Test variables of the syntax $(var) or ${group:name} in Jython scripts. They will be expanded before the script is passed to the Jython interpreter. This can lead to unexpected behavior. rc.getStr is the preferred method in this case (see subsection 11.3.3.1 for details).

Note In spite of syntax highlighting and automatical indentation this attribute might not be the right place to write complex scripts. There are many excellent editors that are much better suited to this task. The option External editor command lets you define an external editor in which scripts can be edited conveniently by pressing Alt⁠+⁠Return or by clicking the button. Complex scripts can also be written as separate modules which can then be imported for use in this attribute. See chapter 50 for details.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: Valid syntax

Templates

This dropdown menu contains a list of useful template scripts. The available templates will differ depending on the chosen script type and interpreter.

When you choose one of these templates, the current contents of your script will be replaced.

You can add your own templates to this menu by choosing "Open user templates directory" and placing your template files there. The following file types are valid:

• [directory]: Will be converted into a submenu.
• .py: A Jython script template.
• .groovy: A Groovy script template.
• .js: A JavaScript script template.

Script language

This attribute determines the interpreter in which to run the script, or in other words, the scripting language to use. Possible values are "Jython", "Groovy" and "JavaScript".

Variable: No

Restrictions: None

Name

The name of a script is a kind of short description. It is displayed in the tree view, so it should be concise and say something about the function of the script.

Variable: No

Restrictions: None

QF-Test ID

At the moment the QF-Test ID attribute has no meaning for this type of node.

Variable: No

Restrictions: Must not contain any of the characters '\', '#', '$', '@', '&', or '%' or start with an underscore ('_').

Delay before/after

These attributes cause a delay before or after the execution of the node. If a value is empty, the Default delay from the global options is used.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: Valid number >= 0

Comment

Here you can enter a comment that explains the purpose of this node. This is the preferred way of documenting the test suite.

Note For detailed documentation, especially for Test set, Test case or Procedure nodes, this text area might not be the right place. There are many excellent editors that are much better suited to this task. The option External editor command lets you define an external editor in which comments can be edited conveniently by pressing Alt⁠+⁠Return or by clicking the button.

You can trigger special behaviors of some nodes using doctags, please see Doctags.

If you enter text in the comment field of a Component node, the node will be considered as 'used' when you want to mark or delete unused components.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: None

42.6.13

SUT script

Client side scripts are executed by an interpreter (Jython, Groovy or JavaScript) that QF-Test embeds into the SUT. Scripting is explained in chapter 11 and chapter 50. As client side scripts run in the SUT you should use them to access the components and properties of the SUT.

Contained in: All kinds of sequences.

Children: None

Execution: The script is executed inside the SUT by an embedded interpreter.

Attributes:

Client

The name of the SUT client process in which to execute the script.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: Must not be empty.

Script

The script to execute.

Note You may use QF-Test variables of the syntax $(var) or ${group:name} in Jython scripts. They will be expanded before the script is passed to the Jython interpreter. This can lead to unexpected behavior. rc.getStr is the preferred method in this case (see subsection 11.3.3.1 for details).

Note In spite of syntax highlighting and automatical indentation this attribute might not be the right place to write complex scripts. There are many excellent editors that are much better suited to this task. The option External editor command lets you define an external editor in which scripts can be edited conveniently by pressing Alt⁠+⁠Return or by clicking the button. Complex scripts can also be written as separate modules which can then be imported for use in this attribute. See chapter 50 for details.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: Valid syntax

Templates

This dropdown menu contains a list of useful template scripts. The available templates will differ depending on the chosen script type and interpreter.

When you choose one of these templates, the current contents of your script will be replaced.

You can add your own templates to this menu by choosing "Open user templates directory" and placing your template files there. The following file types are valid:

• [directory]: Will be converted into a submenu.
• .py: A Jython script template.
• .groovy: A Groovy script template.
• .js: A JavaScript script template.

Script language

This attribute determines the interpreter in which to run the script, or in other words, the scripting language to use. Possible values are "Jython", "Groovy" and "JavaScript".

Variable: No

Restrictions: None

GUI engine

The GUI engine in which to execute the script. Only relevant for SUTs with more than one GUI engine as described in chapter 45.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: See chapter 45

Name

The name of a script is a kind of short description. It is displayed in the tree view, so it should be concise and say something about the function of the script.

Variable: No

Restrictions: None

QF-Test ID

At the moment the QF-Test ID attribute has no meaning for this type of node.

Variable: No

Restrictions: Must not contain any of the characters '\', '#', '$', '@', '&', or '%' or start with an underscore ('_').

Delay before/after

These attributes cause a delay before or after the execution of the node. If a value is empty, the Default delay from the global options is used.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: Valid number >= 0

Comment

Here you can enter a comment that explains the purpose of this node. This is the preferred way of documenting the test suite.

Note For detailed documentation, especially for Test set, Test case or Procedure nodes, this text area might not be the right place. There are many excellent editors that are much better suited to this task. The option External editor command lets you define an external editor in which comments can be edited conveniently by pressing Alt⁠+⁠Return or by clicking the button.

You can trigger special behaviors of some nodes using doctags, please see Doctags.

If you enter text in the comment field of a Component node, the node will be considered as 'used' when you want to mark or delete unused components.

Variable: Yes

Restrictions: None