Orlando: Automated Test Framework Changes

#Orlando Release , #Automated Test Framework

Andrew Barnes

3 minute read

The first part of the platform I will be highlighting for the Orlando release is the Automated Test Framework(ATF). The reason I choose ATF first is the relationship between upgrading and testing. Automated testing helps accelerate validation after deployments and upgrades to the instance. Check out the overview page for ATF changes for Orlando.

Testing Agent Workspace Forms

With the addition of the Now Experience and Agent Workspace, which is the first part of the platform leveraging the Now Experience, automated testing was not initially available. In Orlando, the ability to utilize automated testing for Forms in Workspaces is now available. Note: IE can’t test workspace forms. Limit tabs in a workspace to 10.

Agent Workspace

To test forms in a workspace, the same open form test step should be used. In the picture above, you can see the selector for traditional form UI or Agent Workspace. Once you have selected open a form, the standard testing process of providing values, submission, and validation can be performed. The future steps like setting field value will already have Form UI chosen as Agent Workspace if you create that step following an open form step in the same test.

Coming to an ATF near you, Lists & Related Lists! Several new test steps have been added to improve the ability to test list-based functions. It is now possible to check if a related list is visible or not on a form. ‘Open Record in List’ adds the ability to use lists to open records when the record is present on the list. The apply a list filter step combined with ‘validate record is present in the list’ is useful to have before the open record in the list, to validate the filtering ability and the existence of the record.

The final additions to list validation come in the form of ‘Validate List UI Action Visibility’ and ‘Click List UI Action’ steps, which are very self-descriptive. With these additional list and related list steps, much more client interactions can be tested and validated with Automated Testing Framework.

List Steps

Generate Random Text String

Generating test data should not be a chore. To the rescue is the Generate Random Text String step. Set a length, and then leverage the random string step to generate test data for use in future steps.

Test Email

Email Steps

Orlando has packed a punch with the email test step features. Inbound emails can be generated as New or Replies to test your inbound actions or flows with email triggers and any processes that are triggered from that email arriving in your instance. The steps are relatively simple, needing a from/to/subject/body fields set. A significant improvement over injecting sys_email records directly yourself or even generating and sending real emails through your organization’s email system and into a sub-production instance of ServiceNow.

With the inbound emails and handling processes now able to be testing, it would be remiss not to test the outbound email processes. Many sub-production instances don’t have outbound email sending enabling, which meant visiting the sys_email table directly to validate email records by hand. No more says ATF. Use the new steps, ‘Validate Outbound Email, Validate Outbound Email Generated by Flow, or Validate Outbound Email Generated by Notification,’ to handle the validation.

Automated Testing

With each release, the Automated Test Framework gets more and more features. If you are not using ATF, I suggest you take a look at our other blog entries and get started today! As noted in our getting started with ATF - you can begin with ServiceNow’s quick start tests to accelerate your use and coverage.

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