Events page of the integration test client

In the Events page of the integration test client, you can perform numerous test activities that enable you to interact with your module during testing, such as selecting an operation to test, specifying values for the operation, and invoking the operation.

The Events page is shown in the following figure:
Picture of the Events page in the integration test client

As shown in the figure, there are five major areas of the Events page. These areas are described in the following sections:

Status area

The status area is located at the top of the Events page. It displays messages for the event that is currently selected in the Events area. Typically, these messages provide instructions about how to work with interactive events, such as Invoke events and manual Emulate events. For example, the status area in the above figure indicates that for the Invoke event selected in the Events area, you should choose the component, interface, and the operation that you want to invoke and then click Continue to invoke the operation.

Events area

The Events area displays a hierarchal execution trace for the events that are generated during a test. These events are typically grouped together under a top-level event. For example, if you are testing an operation, the events are nested together under the Invoke event that was used in the invocation of the operation. The Events area is shown in the following figure:
Picture of the Events area

In the figure above, the manual Invoke event at the top of the Events area is a client-side event. All of the events nested below the manual Invoke event are server-side events that collectively represent the complete lifecycle of a single invocation. Similarly, if an Attach or Emit event appeared at the top of the Events area rather than a manual Invoke event, the Attach or Emit event would be a client-side event and all of the events nested below the Attach or Emit event would be server-side events that together represent the lifecycle of a single invocation.

If an interactive event like an Invoke event or a manual Emulate event is encountered during your test, the invocation of the operation pauses at the event to enable you to specify values for the operation or emulation.

In the Events area, the event trace can display multiple concurrent invocations at the same time. For example, you could begin a new test while other tests are still executing. The event trace is dynamic, which means that it is continuously updated as events occur during a test. You can save your execution trace to an execution trace file at any time by pressing Ctrl-S.

If the test client and the assembly editor are both open in the workbench and you organize the views so that you can see both of them at the same time, you will see that when you select an event in the Events area of the test client, the corresponding entity is automatically selected in the assembly editor. For example, if you select a manual Emulate event in the Events area, the component or reference that is being emulated will automatically be selected in the assembly editor. By clicking on one event after another in the Events area, you can get a rudimentary animation in the assembly editor that represents the flow of control during the invocation.

Control area

The control area provides the following buttons to help you manage events and operations:
  • Invoke Generates an Invoke event in the Events area, which enables you to select an operation, specify values for the operation, and invoke and test the operation.
  • Attach Generates an Attach event in the Events area and attaches the integration test client directly to a test configuration module. This is useful if you want to use your own invocation mechanism rather than that provided by the integration test client, such as a JMS message, Web service, or JSP.
  • Emit Generates an Emit event in the Events area, which enables you to select an event definition, specify values for the event definition, and emit a common base event to test the event definition.
  • Data Pool In the Detailed Properties area of the Events page, any values that you specify for an operation, manual emulation, or event definition in the value editor can be saved to the data pool. The Data Pool button opens the data pool editor, which enables you to view, edit, select, and use the saved data pool values.
  • Stop Generates a Stopped event in the Events area and detaches the integration test client from the server. All running operations that are waiting on user input from the test client are terminated. All other running applications will continue until they terminate, but no status will be reported in the test client.

General Properties

The General Properties area shows the time that an event selected in the Events area was generated.

Detailed Properties

The Detailed Properties area displays the specific properties of any event that is selected in the Events area. For some events, the specific properties may include information about the resources associated with the selected event, such as the name of the test configuration and module being used in the test. For other events, the specific properties may simply provide the name of the event type. If a hyperlink appears on a resource name, you can click on the link to open the resource in the assembly editor.

For example, the Detailed Properties area for an interactive Invoke event provides fields that enable you to select properties for your tests, such as the test configuration, module, component, interface, and the operation that you want to invoke. For those events that are not interactive, the fields simply display the properties that are associated with the events.

The Detailed Properties area for an Invoke event is shown in the following figure:
Picture of the Detailed Properties area

As shown in the figure above, the Detailed Properties area also provides a value editor. For an Invoke event or a manual Emulate event, the value editor enables you to specify, view, edit, and pass values for the operation that you want to invoke. For an Emit event, the value editor enables you to specify, view, edit, and pass values for the event definition that you want to emit as a common base event. The value editor also enables you to save values to the data pool, where you can view and edit them using the data pool editor. Both the value editor and the data pool editor are described in the topic "Value and data pool editors."

Related reference
Value and data pool editors
Configurations page of the integration test client
Icons and symbols for the integration test client
Keyboard shortcuts for the integration test client

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