About the Automation Control Tab

Use the Automation Control tab in the Test Session window to define the test flow when the test executes multiple test cases. You can set the order in which the test cases are executed, trigger a test case command when another test case (the predecessor) reaches a particular state, and set a delay time for the command. You can also add test control functions such as iterative loops or steps that execute one step indefinitely until you tell the test to continue to the next step.

Learn more about Automation Control

Automation Control tab components:

TIP: Define Automation Control steps if you need certain test cases to Start/Stop in certain order, i.e., Start Node TCs first then Nodal TCs and Stop Nodal TCs and then Node TCs. (As Parallel Tests does not support this requirement).

Num of Iterations

When the test execution is governed by Automation Control, you can use Num of Iterations to repeatedly execute the test session.

Parallel Test Duration

When Automation Control is not used, you can also use Test Duration to define the length of time to simultaneously execute the test cases in a test session.

NOTES:

If you do not add any Automation Control steps, the test cases run in Parallel automatically.
If you do not set a Parallel Test Duration (i.e. all 0’s), the tests run forever.
If you set a Parallel test duration, the Test Session will run until the duration expires, performs Stop function for each test case, then performs Cleanup for each test case.

Auto-Stop

Select to automatically stop a running parallel test when all test cases are either STOPPED or UNITIALIZED. This is useful with auto-stopping TCs (Test Cases) and when directly commanding TCs.

Abort after (s)

Select to automatically abort the test after a given Elapsed Time as a catch all to protect against a stuck Test Server or automation control steps.

Enter the number of (Elapsed Time) seconds to wait before automatically aborting the test. The number must be greater than or equal to 0/Never or Parallel Test Duration and less than or equla to 9999999.

Table/Grid

The test steps are defined and displayed in a grid that identifies:

The active step (green) during test operations.
The sequential order of test steps (Step #).
The function or test case used in the step and (Function or Test Case). Test cases are identified by name and type, as on the Session Builder tab, and by log identifier (Instance).
The command performed in a test case step (Test Case Command).
The Predecessor Test Case on which the step is dependent (optional).
The State that the Predecessor must reach before performing the current step (optional).
The number of seconds to wait (Delay) before performing the current step (optional).

Step Control Buttons

Use the step control buttons to add, remove, and reorder the events or right-click a step to access the Step menu.

Step Builder Button

Use the Step Builder button quickly build steps of automation control.

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