What is it? Running Tests outside of codebeamer???

Normally TestCases and their results (=the Test Runs) are managed completely inside codebeamer. codebeamer has a built in Test Runner which is driving the Test-running process: when a set of Test is executed then it will automatically show the next Test and allows the Testers to enter Test Results and close the completed Test Runs.

While the built in Test-Runner is powerful tool, a popular and often appearing request from our customers was that they wanted to execute their Tests without codebeamer, but somehow later wanted to get back those Tests' results to codebeamer. (For example if there was no internet connection available at their test site).

So a feature arriving in codebeamer 8.0 does this:

• Users will be able to export a TestRun to an Excel document
• The Excel document is prepared for easy filling of the Tests' results
• Once the testing is complete these Excel documents can be imported back to codebeamer and will look just like if they had been running "inside" codebeamer.

How to Run-in-Excel: exporting the Tests for running outside

So the first step in order to execute Tests in Excel is to generate an Excel document which contains all the information necessary for testing. Assuming you have a Test Set with potentially lots of Test Cases inside and some Tests are parameterised, and you want to run those. To do so:

• First create a Test Run for the Test Set to run as you would do normally
• Go into the Test-Run's details page, and there you will notice an new link "Run in Excel". By clicking on this the Excel document will be generated and the download for the Excel file will start.

• Once the "Run in Excel" action is executed a download of the generated Excel file "testRun.xls" will start. Also the Test Run will become SUSPENDED status to prevent that manual execution is happening inside codebeamer, while it is being run outside using Excel.

So the next step is to take the Excel document and open it to be able to execute the Tests using Excel...

Running Tests in Excel and filling the Test Results

In the previous step we have exported a Test Set for running in Excel. If you open the exported "testRun.xlsx" file you will see something like this:

The exported Excel document contains:

• For each TestCase there is at least two row added to the Excel sheet. For TestCases with multiple steps each steps goes in a new row.
• The Name/Description/Pre-Action and all other necessary data from the TestCase is exported and appear in the Excel sheet.
• If the TestCase has parameters then one TestCase with the resolved parameters is appearing in the Excel sheet as you would see in the normal TestRunner. The Test Parameters are merged in to the text of the TestCase (for example they appear in the Description or the Test Step's text too).
• All editable fields have a light yellow background, these are: "Actual Result", "Run Result" and "Running Time" and "Conclusion".

So when "running" the Tests in Excel you should read the TestCase's description, steps, and then enter the Test's results. The results go to:

• Actual Result column: any text here will be loaded into the corresponding Test Steps' Actual Result field.
• Run Result column: a choice field with the NOT RUN YET, PASSED, FAILED, BLOCKED are the possible values here. That becomes the Step's Result field if that is a Test-step's row, or the Result of the TestCase if the TestCase has no steps at all.
• Running Time: optional field, enter the time it took to execute the TestCase. This is a text cell, the data should be in "HH:MM:SS" format (1:10:05 means 1 hour 10 mins 5 seconds)
• Conclusion: optional comment wiki text, will be added to the TestRun as a new comment.

Once all Test Results are filled in, the Excel document is ready to be imported back to codebeamer. See next section for this.

Importing the Test Results from Excel

Once the Excel's TestRun is complete, just go back to codebeamer, use the link from the exported excel document.

After the page is opened you can see an upload section under the Test Results panel.

If all TestCases of the original TestRun have been completed inside Excel, then the original TestRun will be completed, and the Results appropriately loaded into the Steps.

If you forgot to "run" some TestCases inside the Excel sheet – meaning that some "Run Result" cells are set to 'NOT RUN YET' – then those TestCases will not be completed, but will remain open. These TestCases can later be completed inside codebeamer using the built-in TestRunner tool.

Tips & tricks and limitations

How do I re-generate a run-in-Excel document?

In case you lose the exported Excel document, or just want to regenerate it:

• Go to your Test-Run's edit page, click on the Child tab, and select and delete all children – or just delete those you want to run again.
• Click on the "Resume" transition so the TestRun will leave its Suspended status.
• Now the "Run In Excel" appears again; you can redo the Excel export.

Limitations of Run-in-Excel functionality

• Only a single TestRun can be exported to an Excel file, so it is not possible to run multiple Test-Set-Runs in Excel.
• The Excel sheet will contain raw wiki text, because Excel can not contain full-html rich text inside cells. So if you had a bold text in a Test Case's description that will appear just as "__bold__"
• If a description or a Test Step text is longer than 32000 characters that will be truncated during Export. The reason is simple: Excel can not contain text longer than that in a cell.
• Images are not exported to Excel.