Avignon Customer Cookbook

Avignon is intended to give you the maximum flexability in writing your tests. Because it uses XML as its scripting language, it gives you a very simple syntax but allows you to express any semantic idea you choose. There are a few predefined tags available for you to use, but you'll want to define your own tags to describe tests in your own language. When writing test, be aware that the Avignon script processor is designed to handle tags and attributes but not body text.

Test Control Tags

The following tags are for test definition and also provide a basic subroutine calling mechanism.

• TestSuite

  This tag defines a set of acceptance tests with a common theme. It is used as the top-level element of a TestSuite file.

  Attributes

  • name -- Helps define the name of a test in any error output.

• AcceptanceTest

  This tag delimits an individual acceptance test. At the start of the tag, the application state will be reset to its default status. When it ends, the application will be closed and any database state restored to its previous condition.

  Attributes

  • name -- Helps define the name of a test in any error output.

• TestScript

  This tag allows you to include another script within the execution of the current script.

  Attributes

  • name -- The file name of the script to execute. The file reference should be relative to the same directory in which the main scripts are stored.

• ScriptBlock

  This tag does nothing but can be used as the top-level element for scripts included by the TestScript tag.

  Attributes

  • none

• ScriptParam

  This tag allows you to pass parameters to a test script included by the TestScript tag. Parameters are passed with simple text replacement.

  Attributes

  • name -- The name of the parameter to pass. It corresponds to the text #name# in the target file. The hash marks (#) are used to distinguish formal parameters from the text of the actual script.
  • value -- The text to replace in the target script.

Database Control

These tags allow you to perform low-level operations on a relational database. This is tolerable for relatively simple applications, but you may wish to define some high-level operations for more complex applications.

• DatabaseState

  This tag should enclose any other database modification tags. It works with the AcceptanceTest tag to restore the state of the database at the end of a test.

  Attributes

  • none

• DatabaseTable

  This tag defines the name of a table on which you wish to operate.

  Attributes

  • name -- The name of the table to operator on.

• ClearTable

  This tag causes all of the data in the surrounding table to be removed.

  Attributes

  • none

• DatabaseInsert

  This tag allows you to insert into a database table using a standard SQL "INSERT INTO ... VALUES(...)" statement.

  Attributes

  • values -- The text that will be used in the VALUES clause of a SQL statement. You must format it with the appropriate SQL syntax.

• DatabaseUpdate

  This tag works with the UpdateField to allow you to update information in a table using a standard SQL "UPDATE ... SET ... WHERE ..." statement.

  Attributes

  • where -- A SQL expression defining what rows in the table should be updated. All rows will be updated if this attribute is not present.

• UpdateField

  This tag defines the name of a column to be updated and the value to which it should be set.

  Attributes

  • name -- The name of the column to be updated.
  • value -- A SQL expression defining the value you want the column to become.

Web Page Interaction

These tags allow you to interact with and check the results of performing some basic operations on web pages. Page comparisons with the default system are quick strict. You may wish to loosen your requirements if you're testing an existing application.

• PageClick

  This tag cliks a hyperlink on a web page. It will also, optionally, check the page that comes back from clicking the link.

  Attributes

  • itemText -- The text of the hyperlink to click.
  • pageDescription -- If present, this attribute defines the name of the XML file against which to check the page returned by clicking on the link. If no preTranslation is present, the specified file will be transformed by the default XSL. If the preTranslation attribute is present, the file will first be transformed by that XSL and the result of that transformation will be transformed by the default XSL.
  • preTranslation -- The name of the XSL by which to transform the pageDescription file before it is transformed by the default XSL.

• SubmitPage

  This tag works with the InputValue to allow you to submit a web form. Like the PageClick tag, it will take pageDescription and preTranslation attributes to allow you to assert what the results of the submission should be.

  Attributes

  • pageDescription -- If present, this attribute defines the name of the XML file against which to check the page returned by clicking on the link. If no preTranslation is present, the specified file will be transformed by the default XSL. If the preTranslation attribute is present, the file will first be transformed by that XSL and the result of that transformation will be transformed by the default XSL.
  • preTranslation -- The name of the XSL by which to transform the pageDescription file before it is transformed by the default XSL.

• InputValue

  This tag allows you to change the values submitted by the SubmitPage tag. If you do not include an InputValue tag, the value will be whatever was originally on the page.

  Attributes

  • name -- The name of the HTML input or select control that should be updated.
  • value -- The value to which the control should be set. For select controls, this should be the value of the item to be selected rather than its text.