Ignores
Larva-tests verify whether values that are read from the tested Frank configuration are equal to the expected constant values. However, some tested systems produce different results each time that they are executed, even though the inputs are the same. Examples are systems that return a time stamp. In Larva, you can address this issue using ignores. With ignores, values returned from the tested system are transformed, before they are compared to the expected value. As a Frank developer, you have to choose these transformations wisely and retain meaningful aspects of your returned value.
This section gives an overview of the transformations (ignores) that are available to you. Below is an overview table followed by explanation and examples for every transformation.
Options |
Description |
|---|---|
ignoreRegularExpressionKey |
Replaces all occurrences of regular expression with IGNORE |
ignoreKey |
Replaces all matching occurrences of provided key with IGNORE |
ignoreContentBetweenKeys |
Replaces all characters found between key1 and key2, excluding key1 and key2, with IGNORE |
ignoreKeysAndContentBetweenKeys |
Replaces all characters found between key1 and key2, including key1 and key2, with IGNORE |
ignoreContentBeforeKey |
Ignores everything before provided key has been found |
ignoreContentAfterKey |
Ignores everything after provided key has been found |
ignoreCurrentTimeBetweenKeys |
Ignore current time between key1 and key2 |
replaceRegularExpressionKeys |
Replaces all matches of regular expression (key1) with the value of key2 |
replaceKey |
Replaces all matches occurrences of provided key with provided value |
replaceEverywhereKey |
Replaces all matches occurrences of provided key with provided value, same as replaceKey |
removeRegularExpressionKey |
Replaces all matches of regular expression with “” |
removeKeysAndContentBetweenKeys |
Removes all characters found between key1 and key2, including key1 and key2 |
removeKey |
Removes all matching occurrences of provided key |
decodeUnzipContentBetweenKeys |
Decode and unzip content between key1 and key2 |
canonicaliseFilePathContentBetweenKeys |
Canonicalise filepath content between key1 and key2 |
formatDecimalContentBetweenKeys |
Format decimal content between key1 and key2 |
The ignores use the following structure: <ignoreOption><numberOrName>.key=<text>.
Some ignores require 2 keys to indicate start and end, which are denoted as key1 and key2. Both require the same identifier. The <numberOrName> is an increasing sequence of integers starting at 1 for each ignore or an string starting with a “.”. The <text> indicates what to look for.
Usually those ignores are written in the common.properties file where you define your services (see section Services), in this way they apply to all test scenarios which have included this common.properties file. If you want to use ignores in a particular test scenario, then you can put them in that related scenario.properties file.
In the subsections below, the ignores are explained by showing their effect on a target XML document. This target XML reads as follow:
<Result>
<RecordID>12</RecordID>
<FilePath>C:\Users\..\myZipfile.zip</FilePath>
<File>UEsDBBQAAAAAAABUqlKWlLkWCgAAAAoAAAASAAAAbXlaaXBmaWxlL3Rlc3QudHh0TGFydmEgVGVzdFBLAQIUABQAAAAAAABUqlKWlLkWCgAAAAoAAAASAAAAAAAAAAEAIAAAAAAAAABteVppcGZpbGUvdGVzdC50eHRQSwUGAAAAAAEAAQBAAAAAOgAAAAAA</File>
<Decimal>12.34</Decimal>
<Category>ABC</Category>
<Timestamp>2019-10-02T10:12:43.788+0100</Timestamp>
<Message>In this record, RecordID='12', RecordID and Timestamp change every time when you run the test</Message>
</Result>
Using ignore
ignoreRegularExpressionKey
This replaces all occurrences of regular expression with IGNORE. By writing
ignoreRegularExpressionKey1.key=[A-Z]
OR
ignoreRegularExpressionKey.contentA.key=[A-Z]
all uppercase letters of the current result and the expected result will be replaced with IGNORE.
ignoreKey
This replaces all matching occurrences of provided key with IGNORE. By writing
ignoreKey1.key=RecordID
OR
ignoreKey.contentA.key=RecordID
all 4 “RecordID” which appeared in the above example will be replaced with IGNORE. In this case, comparing RecordID will still fail, because it won’t replace the content of RecordID.
ignoreContentBetweenKeys
This replace all characters found between key1 and key2 with IGNORE. By writing
ignoreContentBetweenKeys1.key1=<RecordID>
ignoreContentBetweenKeys1.key2=</RecordID>
OR
ignoreContentBetweenKeys.contentA.key1=<RecordID>
ignoreContentBetweenKeys.contentA.key2=</RecordID>
content between those two tags will be replaced with IGNORE, so comparing RecordID will always succeed no matter what the value is of it.
And by writing
ignoreContentBetweenKeys1.key1=RecordID='
ignoreContentBetweenKeys1.key2='
OR
ignoreContentBetweenKeys.contentA.key1=RecordID='
ignoreContentBetweenKeys.contentA.key2='
this will replace the RecordID value in the element <Message> with IGNORE.
ignoreKeysAndContentBetweenKeys
This is similar to ignoreContentBetweenKeys, the only difference is that it replaces all characters found between key1 and key2, including key1 and key2, with IGNORE. Write as
ignoreKeysAndContentBetweenKeys1.key1=<RecordID>
ignoreKeysAndContentBetweenKeys1.key2=</RecordID>
OR
ignoreKeysAndContentBetweenKeys.contentA.key1=<RecordID>
ignoreKeysAndContentBetweenKeys.contentA.key2=</RecordID>
ignoreContentBeforeKey
This replaces everything before provided key has been found with IGNORE. By writing
ignoreContentBeforeKey1.key=ABC
OR
ignoreContentBeforeKey.contentA.key=ABC
content before “ABC”, in this case is “<RecordID> 12</RecordID> <Category>”, will be replaced with IGNORE.
ignoreContentAfterKey
The opposite of ignoreContentBeforeKey is ignoreContentAfterKey, this replaces everything after provided key has been found with IGNORE. By writing
ignoreContentAfterKey1.key=ABC
OR
ignoreContentAfterKey.contentA.key=ABC
it will replace everything after “ABC” with IGNORE.
ignoreCurrentTimeBetweenKeys
This replaces time found between key1 and key2 with IGNORE_CURRENT_TIME, pattern can be null. Write as
ignoreCurrentTimeBetweenKeys1.key1=<Timestamp>
ignoreCurrentTimeBetweenKeys1.key2=</Timestamp>
ignoreCurrentTimeBetweenKeys1.pattern=yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSZ
ignoreCurrentTimeBetweenKeys1.margin=12345
ignoreCurrentTimeBetweenKeys1.errorMessageOnRemainingString=false
OR
ignoreCurrentTimeBetweenKeys.contentA.key1=<Timestamp>
ignoreCurrentTimeBetweenKeys.contentA.key2=</Timestamp>
ignoreCurrentTimeBetweenKeys.contentA.pattern=yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSZ
ignoreCurrentTimeBetweenKeys.contentA.margin=12345
ignoreCurrentTimeBetweenKeys.contentA.errorMessageOnRemainingString=false
Other way of using ignore
Since IAF 7.6 version, it allows ignoring the result of a specific test step by writing step.service.read=ignore. For example, in the scenario.properties file, you write step7.database.Generic.read=ignore to ignore the result of this step.
Using replace
replaceRegularExpressionKeys
This replaces all matches of regular expression (key1) with the value of key2. By writing
replaceRegularExpressionKeys1.key1=RecordID
replaceRegularExpressionKeys1.key2=ID
OR
replaceRegularExpressionKeys.contentA.key1=RecordID
replaceRegularExpressionKeys.contentA.key2=ID
all 4 “RecordID” will be replaced by “ID”.
replaceKey / replaceEverywhereKey
replaceKey and replaceEverywhereKey work the same, both replace all matching occurrences of provided key with provided value, write as:
replaceKey1.key1=RecordID
replaceKey1.key2=ID
OR
replaceKey.contentA.key1=RecordID
replaceKey.contentA.key2=ID
and
replaceEverywhereKey1.key1=RecordID
replaceEverywhereKey1.key2=ID
OR
replaceEverywhereKey.contentA.key1=RecordID
replaceEverywhereKey.contentA.key2=ID
Using remove
removeRegularExpressionKey
This replaces all matches of regular expression with “”, write as
removeRegularExpressionKey1.key=\\d
OR
removeRegularExpressionKey.contentA.key=\\d
all digits will be removed from the result.
removeKeysAndContentBetweenKeys
This removes all characters found between key1 and key2, including key1 and key2. By writing
removeKeysAndContentBetweenKeys1.key1=<RecordID>
removeKeysAndContentBetweenKeys1.key2=</RecordID>
OR
removeKeysAndContentBetweenKeys.contentA.key1=<RecordID>
removeKeysAndContentBetweenKeys.contentA.key2=</RecordID>
“<RecordID> 12</RecordID>” will be removed from the result.
removeKey
This removes all matching occurrences of provided key, by writing
removeKey1.key=RecordID
OR
removeKey.contentA.key=RecordID
all 4 “RecordID” will be removed from the result.
Others
decodeUnzipContentBetweenKeys
This decodes and unzips file content between key1 and key2, if replaceNewlines is true, it will replace all “\r” with “[CARRIAGE RETURN]” and all “\n” with “[LINE FEED]”. In the example, there is an element <File>UEsDB...</File>, it is an encoded zip file named “myZipfile.zip”, which contains a text file “test.txt” with content “Larva Test” written in it. By writing
decodeUnzipContentBetweenKeys1.key1=<File>
decodeUnzipContentBetweenKeys1.key2=</File>
decodeUnzipContentBetweenKeys1.replaceNewlines=false
OR
decodeUnzipContentBetweenKeys.contentA.key1=<File>
decodeUnzipContentBetweenKeys.contentA.key2=</File>
decodeUnzipContentBetweenKeys.contentA.replaceNewlines=false
it will first decode the content and then unzip this zip file to format “<tt:file xmlns:tt="testtool"><tt:name>myZipfile/test.txt</tt:name><tt:content>Larva Test</tt:content></tt:file>”, and put it in between the 2 keys.
canonicaliseFilePathContentBetweenKeys
This canonicalizes file path content between key1 and key2. In the example, there is an element <FilePath>C:\Users\..\myZipfile.zip</FilePath>, by writing
canonicaliseFilePathContentBetweenKeys1.key1=<FilePath>
canonicaliseFilePathContentBetweenKeys1.key2=</FilePath>
OR
canonicaliseFilePathContentBetweenKeys.contentA.key1=<FilePath>
canonicaliseFilePathContentBetweenKeys.contentA.key2=</FilePath>
it replaces “C:\Users\..\myZipfile.zip” with the canonical pathname of the file object “C:\myZipfile.zip”.
formatDecimalContentBetweenKeys
This formats decimal content between key1 and key2, the goal of using it is to be able to compare strings by formatting a decimal number to a canonical representation. For an integer, it will be presented as a string of digits, for example, “100” will still be “100”. And for a number which has a decimal fraction, it will be presented as a string, because the decimal precision is not known, for example, “003.0100” will become “3.01”. In the example, there is an element <Decimal>12.34</Decimal>, by writing
formatDecimalContentBetweenKeys1.key1=<Decimal>
formatDecimalContentBetweenKeys1.key2=</Decimal>
OR
formatDecimalContentBetweenKeys.contentA.key1=<Decimal>
formatDecimalContentBetweenKeys.contentA.key2=</Decimal>
it will format this numeric value to <Decimal>12.34</Decimal>, in this case nothing has changed.
Example solution
To make the target XML document at the beginning of this subsection pass the Larva test, you can write the following ignores in your test:
ignoreContentBetweenKeys1.key1=<RecordID>
ignoreContentBetweenKeys1.key2=</RecordID>
ignoreContentBetweenKeys2.key1=<Timestamp>
ignoreContentBetweenKeys2.key2=</Timestamp>
ignoreContentBetweenKeys3.key1=RecordID='
ignoreContentBetweenKeys3.key2='
OR
ignoreContentBetweenKeys.contentA.key1=<RecordID>
ignoreContentBetweenKeys.contentA.key2=</RecordID>
ignoreContentBetweenKeys.contentB.key1=<Timestamp>
ignoreContentBetweenKeys.contentB.key2=</Timestamp>
ignoreContentBetweenKeys.contentC.key1=RecordID='
ignoreContentBetweenKeys.contentC.key2='