TestArchitect Tutorial Part 2: Becoming a TestArchitect power user Lesson #7: Creating data-driven tests

 Creating a data set

Creating a data set

Data sets are sources of simulated real-world user data, and expected outcomes, for TestArchitect tests.

Before proceeding: Ensure that you are logged in to the SampleRepository. In the TestArchitect explorer tree, expand the Car Rental project.

Data-driven tests require simulated user input in the form of multi-column data files, otherwise known as data sets.

1. Right-click the Data node in the TestArchitect explorer tree and select New Data Set.

   The New Data Set dialog box appears.

2. In the Name field, type Rented Cars, then click Create.

   A new data set opens in the test editor, ready for your input.

3. In the editor, beginning with cell B4, type the header values rental month, model rented, pickup state and quantity rented, as shown in the table below.

   Within the test, these headers are used as the variable names for the values coming from their respective columns.

4. Enter the test data.

   Beginning with the leftmost column of row 5, enter a row action, followed by the data values for that row, as shown in the table below. Repeat for each row.

   	rental month	model rented	pickup state	quantity rented
   row	March	Prius	Colorado	1
   row	March	Mustang	Colorado	1
   row	March	Prius	Nevada	3
   row	March	LeSabre	Nevada	1
   row	March	Grand Am	Arizona	2
   row	April	Mustang	Colorado	2
   row	April	Grand Am	Nevada	1
   row	April	Mustang	Nevada	3

   All data set values required by the test have now been entered.

5. Skip down a few lines in the test editor. Enter three filter actions, as shown in the table below, to create three named filters.

   Notes: 
   Alternatively, select the contents of the table and paste it into the editor.

   A named filter is defined in the data set and may be used within the test to limit the number of used records to a subset of the data set based on the filter criteria.

   	name	criterion
   filter	Arizona only	pickup state = “Arizona”
   filter	Colorado only	pickup state = “Colorado”
   filter	Nevada only	pickup state = “Nevada”

6. Click Save on the toolbar.

Your data set is now complete and should resemble the following:

Next, you will learn how to feed the values from this data set into a test.