The following section provides information about how to set up and execute an offline package as a part of an Azure DevOps pipeline. 

The advantage of the Offline Package integration is that you can set up and configure the required Qualitia and ADO components easily and quickly. You can map an Azure DevOps pipeline with an offline suite that contains the associated test cases, which are not updated regularly. 

However, it has the following disadvantages:

• Whenever any test case is updated or created, you must create the associated offline suites again and also map the associated pipelines with new offline suites.

• You cannot have parallel executions of test cases.

• Qualitia does not send the suite execution results to Azure DevOps.   

Hence, Qualitia also supports the Azure DevOps Advanced integration that solves all the above mentioned problems. For detailed instructions, refer to Azure DevOps Advanced Integration. 

Pre-Requisites

Ensure that your computer:

• Contains the Azure DevOps self-hosted agent.

• Contains the Qualitia Offline Package and necessary offline suites.
  Note: If the Qualitia client is not installed on your computer, you can create these components from another computer where the Qualitia client is installed, and then transfer them to your computer.

• Satisfies all the pre-requisites for offline suite executions. For more details, refer to Prerequisites for Offline Suite Execution. 

Qualitia also recommends that you must know the fundamentals of offline suite executions. For more information, refer to Offline Package.

Configuring the Qualitia and Azure DevOps Components

The process to enable offline suite execution through Azure DevOps includes the following steps:

Configuring the Offline Package File

To configure the Offline Package file:

1. Open the extracted Qualitia Offline folder.

2. Open the config folder.

3. Open the startupSettings file in a text editor, such as Notepad or Notepad++.

4. Set the value of CI_Tool to Azure DevOps.

Mapping an Azure DevOps Pipeline with an Offline Suite

After creating a build or a release pipeline, map it with the corresponding offline suite. In the Azure DevOps pipeline, create a task to iinvoke the Offline Package and the mapped offline suite as per their specified locations.

To map an Azure DevOps pipeline with an offline suite:

1. Open the pipeline in Azure DevOps.

2. Add Command Line Prompt Utilities pipeline task.
   To know how to add pipeline tasks, refer to https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/?view=azure-devops

3. Open the task and enter the following information in the Script:

   1. Enter the location of the 64-bit Java executable path enclosed with inverted commas.

   2. Add -jar separated by a space next to the Java path

   3. Add Qualitia offline suite jar path enclosed within inverted commas next to -jar.
      For example, "C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_261\bin\java.exe" -jar "D:\offlinesuites\Qualitia Offline\qualitiaoffline-8.3.1.jar"

   4. Optionally, you can enter the CLI Commands to override either the execution profile or specific settings of the mapped execution profile, such as browser type. For detailed instructions on how to use CLI Commands to override the settings, refer to Step 4 of Executing an Offline Suite using CLI Commands.

4. Expand Advanced, enter the location of the offline suite enclosed within inverted commas in the Working Directory.
   For example, "D:\offlinesuites\PaymentModule\Qualitia Offline".

Execution Guidelines and Best Practices

After mapping an Azure DevOps pipeline with an offline suite, you can now execute the mapped pipeline. To know how to execute an Azure DevOps pipeline, refer to https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops

Qualitia recommends considering the following best practices to optimize the Azure DevOps pipeline executions that are mapped with offline suites: 

• Whenever the test cases of the corresponding test suite are updated in QAS, perform the following steps:

  • Create the offline suite again.

  • Save the new offline suite in another location of your computer.

  • Open the Azure DevOps pipeline to replace the mapped offline suite.

• To allow the suite execution results to display in the Real Time Reporting portal, ensure that you specify the Qualitia Server URL and select the Real Time Reporting checkbox in the mapped execution profile.

• Before executing a pipeline, ensure that the mapped execution profile of the corresponding offline suite is configured as per the requirements. For detailed instructions, refer to Configuring the Settings for an Offline Suite.

• To execute a pipeline on different browsers, environments, and other execution settings. Create different execution profiles in the QAS client and export them into the Offline Suite folder of your computer. For detailed information on execution profile, refer to Working with Execution Profiles.

• You can edit the test data for an offline suite and execute the pipeline again to cover more test scenarios. For detailed instructions on editing test data for an offline suite, refer to Editing the Test Data for an Offline Suite.

Viewing the Suite Execution Reports

If you have configured the Qualitia Server URL in the mapped execution profile, you can track the Azure DevOps offline execution in the Real Time Reporting Portal.

The suite execution result is displayed as Offline | Azure DevOps next to the suite execution name.

However, in certain cases, the offline suite execution results are not pushed to Qualitia Server or are partially pushed when the connection to Qualitia Server fails during the execution. In such cases, you can upload the locally saved suite execution reports to the Real Time Reporting Portal. For more details, refer to the following topics:

• Uploading a Test Suite Execution Summary Report

• Uploading Multiple Suite Execution Reports to Real Time Reporting Portal

Limitations

• Whenever any test case is updated or created, you must create the associated offline suites again and also map the associated pipelines with new offline suites.

• You cannot have parallel executions of test cases.

• QAS does not send the suite execution results to Azure DevOps.