Qualitia Automation Studio (QAS) provides an easy-to-use interface for developing test cases. The QAS Debugger helps you understand the course of test case execution and change it if required, without re-executing entire test case every time changes are made.

When developing test cases in Qualitia, you can verify if it works as expected without running it end-to-end. Test case execution can be paused mid-way or modified during execution. If you encounter a fatal error due to a specific step or data in a given test case/task iteration, you can modify the test case while execution focuses on that step.

Additionally, the QAS Debugger helps you understand the number of test case and task iterations applicable to a test case and visualize the data associated with different steps across different task and test case iterations.

Key Features of QAS Debugger

The Qualitia Debugger offers a comprehensive test case debugging experience with the following features:

1. Debug and execute test cases step by step.

2. Pause execution at the point of failure. You can also pause execution at any step using breakpoint feature, allowing you to reach and analyze the point of failure without fully executing the test case or single stepping entire test case.

3. Modify test steps, its parameters, and its object details during debugging.

4. A user-friendly interface displaying test case and task iteration details.

5. Highlight any step in the test case using its line number.

Execution

Launching the Debugger

To debug a test case:

1. Once the test case and script are ready, click Execute from the top menu of the Test Case Editor screen.

2. Clicking Execute will open the Debugger screen.

3. On the Debugger screen, the toolbar offers the following options:

   • TC Iteration: Here, you can select the number of TC iterations from the dropdown. This is read-only and displays the values of other iterations.

   • Pause On Failure: If this is checked, the execution pauses upon failure.

   • Go to Line: If you want to go to any particular step, by inserting the number of the step, you can directly go to that step.

   • Jump to Selection: While executing the test cases, if you want to go to the selected step, clicking on Jume to Selection will take you to that step.

   • Expand All: This will expand all the steps.

   • Collapse All: This will collapse all the steps.

   • Refresh: If multiple users are working on the script, and one of the users update the test case or task you will see a Red Dot near the Refresh button. The Red dot indicates update in the Test Case or the task. Click Refresh if you want to incorporate those changes in your script else continue.

   • Execute: The browser will execute the script, when you click Execute. Once executed, this button will then be used to Pause the execution. After pausing, it will be transformed into Continue button. By clinking Continue you can restart the execution. So, the single button will perform Play, Pause, and Continue.

   • Stop: This can be used to stop the execution.

   • Next: This will help you with line-by-line execution. You need to click this button after every step to continue the execution. Suppose after two steps you want to continue with direct execution, you can click Continue to run the entire script.

4. Click Exit Debugger to exit the debugger.

Modifying Steps

While debugging test cases, there can be instances where you may want to change the parameters or object details such as locator type/value and so on. The Modify step functionality provides facility to do so when debugging the test case. This feature is most useful when you want to check the impact of a certain parameters' data change or an object locator type/value change or a conditional expression change on the test case.

Double-click the step under execution to launch the Modify Step dialog. This loads the selected step information in the dialog box.

Only a step which is currently under execution can be modified.

All the debugger operations are applicable to the tasks and test cases that are shared for Design Updates.

Points to Know

• In a step, you can modify the following:

  • Edit an object’s locator type and value.

  • Change static and variable parameters.

  • Edit the conditional expression.

• However, these changes cannot be saved in the test case. Only modification in Object’s locator type & value directly get applied in the Object toolkit. The other changes will get permanently applied in TC through Change log.

• When debugging a test suite of a desktop project, you cannot edit an OR object.  

Modifying Parameters of Step

To modify parameters of a step:

1. Right click on the parameter and select Modify Data to edit the parameter.

2. Selecting Modify Data will open the Modify Data window.

3. Change the value and click Save to continue; otherwise, Discard.

Modify operation on a step only allows modifying the parameters of that step (if any). The modified parameters can only have static/literal data. The modification of data is only applicable to that particular task iteration for a task step and only for that TC iteration for a TC level step. The change of parameter’s data does not get propagated to subsequent Task and TC iterations.

Modifying Objects of Step

Qualitia users can modify object's locator type and value of an existing step. The modified object will reflect in all the subsequent instances of the objects wherever it is used in the test case. In case of Desktop’s DP object, you can add/edit/remove property type & value.

To modify object of a step:

1. Right click on the object and select Modify Object to edit the Locator Type and Locator Value.

2. Selecting Modify Object will open the Modify Object window.

3. On the window, change the Locator Type from the dropdown menu and add the Locator Value. Click Save to continue; otherwise, Discard.

Modifying Conditional Structure

You can modify conditional structure using modify step functionality of debugger. For conditional structure, we can only modify the if condition expression.

To modify the condition structure:

1. Right click on the If condition expression and select Modify Condition to modify the condition.

2. Selecting Modify Condition will open the Modify Expression window.

3. Change values for the If condition and click Save to continue; otherwise, Discard.

View Test Case Information Per Test Case Iteration

The debugger view loads the test case information per test case iteration. The test case iteration number can be selected from the drop-down at the left-top corner of the debugger window.  

The status of the test case iteration execution is updated along with the test case iteration number. Only a step that is under execution is allowed to be edited during debugging, no other steps can be modified. The debugger view allows you navigating through all executed and unexecuted TC and Task iterations before the debugging starts, while the test case is either waiting on a break-point, being debugged step by step, has finished execution.  

The Details tab also displays the test case iteration number in addition to other detailed information of each step being executed during the test case. 

View Task Step Details by Task Iteration

You can view the task level details of respective task iteration. This can be done before test case debugging starts, debugger is waiting at some break-point, when doing step by step debugging using Next (F6), or the test case execution is complete.

You can view the TC level details by changing the TC iterations from the Test case iteration list. You can also view the Task iterations details by selecting appropriate task iteration number from the task iteration list which is present along with the task header at the start of every task.

Detail

The Detail tab provides the execution details of every step. The Object, Action, Parameters, and test step execution result is shown in the Detail tab. You will also get the snapshot of the browser, which can be downloaded. From Settings, you can enable the setting s to get either the browser screenshot or the desktop screenshot.

Change Log

Information about any modified steps is logged in the Change Log section. The change log view shows all the changes that have been made to test steps parameters or conditional structures, except for the objects. The change log for a debugged test case is maintained till any test case is debugged again.

1. The changes are not directly applied in the Test Case. You have to select a log by checking a check box and then click Apply Changes from the top-right corner of the screen to apply those changes to your test case.

2. Clicking Apply Changes will open a window Apply Changes. Click Confirm to continue; otherwise, click Discard.

3. Once you click Confirm, the Test Case will be saved and all the functions on the Change Log screen will be disabled.

📞📚 Here to Help: Support and Resources

If you have questions that are not addressed in the documentation, you may raise them in the Qualitia Community.