nexial-core 1.8 (2019-01-04)

Release 1.8

2019-01-04

General

Fixes:

• rename some System variables so that their name are prefixed with nexial. to avoid conflicts.
• ensure that macro/section expansion won’t inadvertently merge passed the “ignored” section.
• update code on macro handling logic; no longer cache macro steps in support of Nexial Interactive. Performance impact should be minimal.
• fixed GMail mail support due to namespace conflict in mail configuration.
• propagate data variable changes between iterations.
• fix on reading Excel cells that contain value other than STRING.
• reduce undesirable runtime errors.
• better handling of invalid or malformed test scenarios.

Improvements:

• improved support for XML/HTML during data variable substitution.
• minor stylistic updates to artifact templates.
• minor improvement on expanding the column width of #data worksheet during output generation.
• update execution output on “SKIPPED” test steps (description is now italicized).
• sort #data worksheet on the execution output to favor System variables over user-defined variables.
• improve the fatal error reporting in execution output.
• add [nexial] prefix to mail subject in mail notification.
• major improvement in memory footprint by applying aggressive memory conservation after each iteration and script execution.
• speed up batch script executions (bin/*.sh) for Mac/*NIX.
• improved output formatting for nexial-variable-update utility batch.

New:

• Step Disabling:
  • support skipping of command via “strikethrough”: Use Ctrl-5 on a “command” column to skip over the corresponding test step. This effectively add a SkipIf(true) flow control to the corresponding “flow controls” column. Use Ctrl-5 again to enable the corresponding test step.
  • supported on test script, macro and test plan.
  • overwriting instead of appending SkipIf(true) to any existing flow control.
• bin/nexial-project.cmd|sh:
  • automatically create .meta/project.id under the target project directory to identify each project. This manifest file can be useful (in the future) for tracking and comparison purpose.
  • create additional script/data files into existing project directory, without overwriting existing artifacts.
• HTML Output:
  • NEW HTML execution output aimed to consolidate all execution summary within 1 HtML page. Should be most helpful for plan-driven execution or iteration-laden execution.
  • automatically opens execution output HTML when nexial.openResult is set to true.

System Variables:

• nexial.lastOutputLink: NEW System variable to capture the location of the last output file (only generated via certain commands).
• nexial.scope.refetchDataFile: NEW System variable to preserve data variable changes between iteration.
  • if data file is to be re-fetched, then Nexial now correctly fetch the correct data file.
• nexial.executionCount: NEW System variable to indicate the number of steps executed in real-time.
• nexial.executionSkipCount: NEW System variable to indicate the number of steps skipped in current execution in real-time.
• nexial.executionPassCount: NEW System variable to indicate the number of steps passed in current execution in real-time.
• nexial.executionFailCount: NEW System variable to indicate the number of steps failed in current execution in real-time.
• os.hostname: NEW System variable to expose the host name of current test harness.

Event Notification

• now supports conditional event notification via nexial.notifyOn...If data variables:

Nexial Expression

• nexial.expression.OpenFileAsIs: NEW System variable to instruct Nexial on omitting data variable substitution during the opening of external file during the evaluation of a Nexial expression.

Nexial Interactive

• now supports reloading of project.properties (option: 9)
• improved support for iteration. Data is re-calibrated when iteration changed during a Nexial Interactive session.
• improved support for script/data file (re)loading. When a script or data file is (re)loaded, the activity assignment is re-calibrated as well to account for possible step or activity changes.
• improved support for assigning activities: use * to assign all available activities from the assigned scenario.
• improved support for assigning steps: use * to assign all available steps from the assigned scenario.
• improved support for assigning activities: use activity indices (digits) instead of activity names. Note: Use A to reset back to all activities.

Nexial Filter

• new unary filter to simplify boolean filter conditions.

Built-in Function

• $(execution|meta|user): NEW function to reveal execution-time user
• $(syspath): now supports plan as well.

aws.s3 commands

• support AWS Assume Role” during credential challenge. Now it is possible to include the switching of a AWS IAM role as part of your automation. This feature is available for all integrated AWS services, which is thus far S3 and SES. For more information, read the Granting a User Permissions to Switch Roles.

aws.ses commands

• support AWS Assume Role” during credential challenge. Now it is possible to include the switching of a AWS IAM role as part of your automation. This feature is available for all integrated AWS services, which is thus far S3 and SES. For more information, read the Granting a User Permissions to Switch Roles.

base commands

• saveVariablesByPrefix(var,prefix): NEW command to save all variable names with prefix as a list to var.
• saveVariablesByRegex(var,regex): NEW command to save all variable names that match regex as a list to var.

excel commands

• major improvement in memory footprint by applying aggressive memory conservation after writeDown(file,worksheet,startCell,array), writeAcross(file,worksheet,startCell,array), write(file,worksheet,startCell,data) and writeVar(var,file,worksheet,startCell).

image commands

• compare(baseline,actual): increase the thickness of the highlighting border to improve readability.
• increase thread stack size to support comparison of larger images.

io commands

• searchAndReplace(file,config,saveAs): NEW command to search/replace through the content of file via the name/value pair found in config.

json command

• fixed json array parsing logic when its textual representation contains whitespace.

web commands

• improved CrossBrowserTesting support:
  • now with execution status reporting (at the end of execution).
  • now support automation on mobile devices (Android and iOS).
  • delay safari window resizing (same as on BrowserStack).
  • automatically download/update/execute CrossBrowserTesting local executable.
  • additional logging added.
  • no switching of window when automating against mobile devices.
  • code fixes to handle CrossBrowserTesting local download changes (URL changes).
  • configurable wait time (millisecond) after CrossBrowserTesting local has been initiated, to allow sufficient time to stabilize the executable.
  • configuration wait time can now be set to auto (default) for Nexial to determine most appropriate time to proceed with test automation.
  • support updating of execution status per browser use within same execution. It is now possible to configure via cbt.reportStatus when the execution status update should occur - iteration, script, execution.
  • execution status update now accompanied with description (in CBT, description is shown in “Notes and Tags” section).
• improved BrowserStack support:
  • support updating of execution status per browser use within same execution. It is now possible to configure via nexial.browserstack.reportStatus when the execution status update should occur: iteration,script,execution.
• support mobile device emulation when automating on chrome browser (locally).
• shipped with Selenium v3.141.59. Significant changes include:
  • Restored remoteHost support
  • Implement WrapsElement by Select element wrapper (#6616)
  • Default the number of threads assigned to the server to 200, which is what it was in 3.13.0
• code fix to prevent unnecessary loading of web driver.

xml commands

• storeValues(xml,xpath,var): code fix to appropriately handle attribute values.
• assertValues(xml,xpath,array,exactOrder): code fix to appropriately handle attribute values.