ExecutionProfilesLoader v1.0

I have published a GitHub project:


Problem to solve

I have developed and published a tool named VisualTestingInKatalonStudio project on top of Katalon Studio, which enables me to take screenshots of Web services on browser and to compare the images between environments (e.g. Development and Production) or between 2 different timings (e.g. before and after work of system changes).

Last year (2020) I worked for an Application Service Provider (ASP) in Financial industry. They had approximately 40 customers, they provided many URLs to customers: 50 URL as average per a single customer. They maintained 3 environments (Development, Staging, Production) for every customers. This resulted 40 * 50 * 3 = 6000 URL for developers to test frequently to ensure the service quality.

A diligent staff in charge of the Web service mainteined a large Excel file which contained 40 sheets where the urls for each customers were listed. The following picture shows how it looked like:

config.png

I developed a Katalon Studio project which works on top of the Visual Testing framework supplied with the Excel file. I wanted to perform visual testing over the mass of URLs.

However, a problem arose. The Visual Testing tool takes approximately 10 seconds per a single URL to test. So if I ran the tool against all 6000 URL as a batch, it would take me 6000 * 10 seconds = over 17 hours. Obviously it’s too long to repeat frequently.

Therefore I wanted to select smaller number of URLs by some criteria out of the Excel file to make the test run in a shorter time period. If I choose 60 URLs, then the tool will run in 600 seconds = 10 minutes. That’s OK. 10 minutes break of work for tea will be welcomed.

Also I wanted the tool to be flexible enough. For example, yesterday, I tested the production URLs for CompanyA; today, I want to test the development URLs for CommpanyB; tomorrow, I would want to test the staging URLs for CompanyL + CompanyM + CompanyN; next week, I will test the production URLs which ends with a string login.html of all 40 customers; etc.

I tried to find a solution, and decided to introduce a set of GlobalVariables to the testing project which would express URL selection criteria. I enumerated 5 GlobalVariables, each of which may take a range of possible values as follows:

No. GlobalVariable name possible values
1 CONFIG './Include/fixture/Config.xlsx'
2 ENVIRONMENT
  • Development
  • Production
  • Staging
3 CATEGORY
  • 0
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
4 INCLUDE_SHEETS
  • []
  • ['CompanyA']
  • ['CompanyB']
  • ['CompanyC']
  • ['CompanyL', 'CompanyM', 'CompanyN']

in fact the value range is wider … say 40

5 INCLUDE_URLs
  • []
  • ['login.html']
  • ['top.html']

OK. I can restate my problem to solve. How can I specify a particular set of values for these 5 GlobalVariables when I execute my test in Katalon Studio?

Katalon Studio provides a feature named Execution Profile . In an Exceution Profile, you can define a set of name=value pairs of GlobalVariables. You can prepare as many Execution Profiles as you want using Katalon Studio GUI. So I createded bunch of Profiles, each of which contains 5 GlobalVariables with values assigned. The following screenshot shows an example:

SelfContainedProfileExample

Now you should remember, Katalon Studio allows you to appoint only a single Execution Profile for a test execution.

I realized a difficulty. I had a lot of possible selection criterias: 1 CONFIG * 3 ENVIRONMENTS * 5 CATEGORIES * 6 INCLUDE_SHEETS * 3 INCLUDE_URLs = 180. I had to prepare 180 Execution Profiles in Katalon Studio GUI. It was a crasy job. The following screenshot shows how the project looked like:

180ExecutionProfiles

Further more, the range of `GlobalVariable.INCLUDE_SHEETS’ values was initially 4, but it could possibly increase to 40. In that case, should I prepare 1800 Profiles? No way!

I found a fundamental design problem in Katalon Studio here. This issue has remained unresolved for me since May 2020.

Solution

If I can appoint multiple Execution Profiles for a single test run in Katalon Studio, then my problem will be resolved.

Solution Description

Let me tell you my idea. I will create just 16 Execution Profiles. Each of them contains only a single name=value pair of GlobalVariable, as follows:

main_Base

No. Profile name GlobalVariable name value
1 main_Base CONFIG './Include/fixture/Config.xlsx'

main_env*

No. Profile name GlobalVariable name value
1 main_envDevelopment ENVIRONMENT 'Development'
2 main_envProduction ENVIRONMENT 'Production'
3 main_envStaging ENVIRONMENT 'Staging'

main_category*

No. Profile name GlobalVariable name value
1 main_category0 CATEGORY 0
2 main_category1 CATEGORY 1
3 main_category2 CATEGORY 2
4 main_category3 CATEGORY 3

main_includeSheets*

No. Profile name GlobalVariable name value
1 main_includeSheets_ALL INCLUDE_SHEETS []
2 main_includeSheets_CompanyA INCLUDE_SHEETS ['CompanyA']
3 main_includeSheets_CompanyB INCLUDE_SHEETS ['CompanyB']
4 main_includeSheets_CompanyC INCLUDE_SHEETS ['CompanyC']
5 main_includeSheets_GroupG INCLUDE_SHEETS ['CompanyL', 'CompanyM', 'CompanyN']

In fact, GlobalVariable.INCLUDE_SHEETS could have a lot more variations of values … nearly 40.

main_includeURLs*

No. Profile name GlobalVariable name value
1 main_includeURLs_ALL INCLUDE_URLS []
2 main_includeURLs_login INCLUDE_URLS ['login.html']
3 main_includeURLs_top INCLUDE_URLS ['top.html']

The following screenshot shows these Execution Profiles prepared in my project:

ExecutionProfilesAsComponent

Loading multiple Execution Profiles to a test run

Now I would restate my problem: how can I appoint multiple Execution Profiles for a single test run?

Unfortunately Katalon Studio does not provide a feature that satisfies my requirement. Therefore I have developed custom Groovy classes in the Keywords directory.

These classes enables me to create GlobalVariables by code on the fly.

The API Documentation is available here

Demo

I have made Test Suites/main/TS1 which demonstrates how I utilize the custom classes. The TS1 executes 2 test cases in this sequence:

  1. Test Cases/main/loadExecutionProfiles
  2. Test Cases/main/TC1

Here I copy&past the code fragments for easier reference:

Test Cases/main/loadExecutionProfiles

import com.kazurayam.ks.globalvariable.ExecutionProfilesLoader

ExecutionProfilesLoader loader = new ExecutionProfilesLoader()

loader.loadProfiles(
	'main_Base',
	'main_envDevelopment',
	'main_category0',
	'main_includeSheets_GroupG',
	'main_includeURLs_top'
	)

I have developed a tool that generates the source of loadExecutionProfiles from the XXXX.glbl files in the Profiles directory.

Test Cases/main/TC1

import internal.GlobalVariable as GlobalVariable
import com.kazurayam.ks.globalvariable.ExpandoGlobalVariable

/**
 * Test Cases/TC1
 */
def tc = 'TC1'
println "${tc} CONFIG         : ${GlobalVariable.CONFIG}"
println "${tc} DEBUG_MODE     : ${GlobalVariable.DEBUG_MODE}"
println "${tc} ENVIRONMENT    : ${GlobalVariable.ENVIRONMENT}"
println "${tc} CATEGORY       : ${GlobalVariable.CATEGORY}"
println "${tc} INCLUDE_SHEETS : ${GlobalVariable.INCLUDE_SHEETS}"
println "${tc} INCLUDE_URLS   : ${GlobalVariable.INCLUDE_URLS}"

println "\n--- Names of GlobalVaraibles statically listed in any of Profiles ---"
ExpandoGlobalVariable.keySetOfStaticGlobalVariables().each { name ->
	println "GlobalVariable.${name}"
}

println "\n--- Names of GlobalVaraibles additionally loaded by ExecutionProfilesLoader ---"
ExpandoGlobalVariable.keySetOfAdditionalGlobalVariables().each { name ->
	println "GlobalVariable.${name}"
}

println "\n--- All name:value pairs as GlobalVariable available in the current context ---"
ExpandoGlobalVariable.keySetOfGlobalVariables().each { name ->
	println "GlobalVariable.${name} : " + GlobalVariable[name]
}

When I execute the TS1, I got the following output in the Console:

2021-01-26 22:26:23.786 INFO  c.k.katalon.core.main.TestCaseExecutor   - START Test Cases/main/TC1
TC1 CONFIG         : ./Include/fixture/Config.xlsx
TC1 DEBUG_MODE     : false
TC1 ENVIRONMENT    : Development
TC1 CATEGORY       : 0
TC1 INCLUDE_SHEETS : [CompanyL, CompanyM, CompanyN]
TC1 INCLUDE_URLS   : [top.html]

--- Names of GlobalVaraibles statically listed in any of Profiles ---
GlobalVariable.AVAR1
GlobalVariable.AVAR2
GlobalVariable.AVAR3
GlobalVariable.BVAR1
GlobalVariable.CATEGORY
GlobalVariable.CONFIG
GlobalVariable.DEBUG_MODE
GlobalVariable.EMPTY_VARIABLE
GlobalVariable.ENVIRONMENT
GlobalVariable.FOO
GlobalVariable.INCLUDE_SHEETS
GlobalVariable.INCLUDE_URLS
GlobalVariable.NULL_VARIABLE
GlobalVariable.myList

--- Names of GlobalVaraibles additionally loaded by ExecutionProfilesLoader ---
GlobalVariable.CATEGORY
GlobalVariable.CONFIG
GlobalVariable.DEBUG_MODE
GlobalVariable.ENVIRONMENT
GlobalVariable.INCLUDE_SHEETS
GlobalVariable.INCLUDE_URLS
GlobalVariable.LOADED_ENTRY1
GlobalVariable.loaded_entry2

--- All name:value pairs as GlobalVariable available in the current context ---
GlobalVariable.AVAR1 : null
GlobalVariable.AVAR2 : null
GlobalVariable.AVAR3 : null
GlobalVariable.BVAR1 : null
GlobalVariable.CATEGORY : 0
GlobalVariable.CONFIG : ./Include/fixture/Config.xlsx
GlobalVariable.DEBUG_MODE : false
GlobalVariable.EMPTY_VARIABLE : null
GlobalVariable.ENVIRONMENT : Development
GlobalVariable.FOO : BAR
GlobalVariable.INCLUDE_SHEETS : [CompanyL, CompanyM, CompanyN]
GlobalVariable.INCLUDE_URLS : [top.html]
GlobalVariable.LOADED_ENTRY1 : VALUE
GlobalVariable.NULL_VARIABLE : null
GlobalVariable.loaded_entry2 : 999
GlobalVariable.myList : null
2021-01-26 22:26:24.183 INFO  c.k.katalon.core.main.TestCaseExecutor   - END Test Cases/main/TC1

These output will tell you that the ExecutionProfilesLoader enabled me to load multiple Execution Profiles for a single test run, and hence I could specify a particular set of values of 5 GlobalVariables that I liked. Please note that I could avoid preparing 180 combinational Profiles; I prepared only 16 elemental Profiles. This design is much cleaner than what I did last year.

Alternative approach: creating GlobalVariables by code on the fly

ExecutionProfilesLoader class implements another method loadEntries(Map<String, Object>). There is a sample code ‘Test Cases/main/defineGlobalVariablesByCode’, which goes as follows:

import com.kazurayam.ks.globalvariable.ExecutionProfilesLoader

import internal.GlobalVariable

ExecutionProfilesLoader loader = new ExecutionProfilesLoader()

loader.loadEntries([
	"CONFIG"         : "./Include/fixture/Config.xlsx",
	"DEBUG_MODE"     : false,
	"ENVIRONMENT"    : "Development",
	"CATEGORY"       : 0,
	"INCLUDE_SHEETS" : ["CompanyL", "CompanyM", "CompanyN"],
	"INCLUDE_URLS"   : ["top.html"],
    "newVar" : "foo",
	])

println "GlobalVariable.CONFIG=" + GlobalVariable.CONFIG
println "GlobalVariable.DEBUG_MODE=" + GlobalVariable.DEBUG_MODE
println "GlobalVariable.ENVIRONMENT=" + GlobalVariable.ENVIRONMENT
println "GlobalVariable.CATEGORY=" + GlobalVariable.CATEGORY
println "GlobalVariable.INCLUDE_SHEETS=" + GlobalVariable.INCLUDE_SHEETS
println "GlobalVariable.INCLUDE_URLS=" + GlobalVariable.INCLUDE_URLS
println "GlobalVariable.newVar=" + GlobalVariable.newVar

I think, this script looks intuitive. When I ran this script, I got the following output in the console:

2021-01-27 09:38:55.181 INFO  c.k.katalon.core.main.TestCaseExecutor   - START Test Cases/main/defineGlobalVariablesByCode
GlobalVariable.CONFIG=./Include/fixture/Config.xlsx
GlobalVariable.DEBUG_MODE=false
GlobalVariable.ENVIRONMENT=Development
GlobalVariable.CATEGORY=0
GlobalVariable.INCLUDE_SHEETS=[CompanyL, CompanyM, CompanyN]
GlobalVariable.INCLUDE_URLS=[top.html]
GlobalVariable.newVar=foo
2021-01-27 09:38:56.363 INFO  c.k.katalon.core.main.TestCaseExecutor   - END Test Cases/main/defineGlobalVariablesByCode

You may feel puzzled how GlobalVariable.newVar is dynamically created and become accessible just in the same way as those defined by Execution Profiles in Katalon Studio GUI. That’s the magic performed by com.kazurayam.ks.globalvariable.ExpandoExecutionProfile.addGlobalVariable(String name, Object value) method. It employs Java Reflection API and Groovy Metaprogramming API extensively.

How to reuse this solution in your Katalon Project

You can reuse my custom Groovy classes: com.kazurayam.ks.globalvariable.ExecutionProfilesLoader and com.kazurayam.ks.globalvariable.ExpandoExecutionProfile as External Library. You want to download the ExecutionProfilesLoader-x.x.jar file from the Releases page, save the jar into the Drivers folder in your own Katalon Project. You should stop/restart KS to let it acknowledge the new jar file.

See also

I have published the jar of “ExecutionProfilesLoader” at the Maven Central Repository. You can get it at

I have updated this to v2.0