Forum Discussion

jrforeman's avatar
jrforeman
Occasional Contributor
4 years ago

How to prevent ReadyAPI from randomly changing how it stores empty XML elements?

Why does ReadyAPI change how it stores a blank XML tag from, say <con:properties/> to <con:properties></con:properties>   If I make one change and save, I may see many of these differences, whic...
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  • jrforeman's avatar
    jrforeman
    3 years ago

    So the solution really is: You can't prevent it. Whenever you upgrade, the new version of ReadyAPI will do whatever it wants with regard to the empty XML fields... some versions will generate a beginning tag and end tag <tag></tag>, then the next version may decide to use the shortcut <tag/>, and the version after that may revert to the expanded <tag></tag> again, and there is nothing to be done but allow it. 😞

     

mkrausem's avatar
mkrausem
Occasional Contributor

Hi,

 

please try to reproduce it and raise an issue in the customer portal.

I raised some issues and most of them could be reproduced and later fixed by the team.

 

My problem: I tried to reproduce this also but it fails on my machine.

 

Kind Regards, Michael

 

jrforeman's avatar
jrforeman
Occasional Contributor
4 years ago

To reproduce this, I think you have to have a project that you import through multiple versions of ReadyAPI. Here's how I imagine reproducing it, but it will take me more time than I have.

1. Open ReadyAPI. Create a project with a test case that has a properties step, populate that step with at least one property with a name and a value. Save the project, then clear the properties values from the properties steps, so that all that remains is the property name and blank value, and save again. Close ReadyAPI.

2. Upgrade ReadyAPI.  Open project, populate the properties step again; save; clear properties values. We should be back at the original state again after you save and exit ReadyAPI.  But in some versions of ReadyAPI, the way it saves unpopulated properties will differ, as described in the original post.

 

I have not been able to chase this down further.  Is the ReadyAPI upgrade really the key, or is there some undefined export behavior that may change the XML for an empty element from '<myTag></myTag>' to '<myTag/>' even within the same version of ReadyAPI?

  • mkrausem's avatar
    mkrausem
    Occasional Contributor
    4 years ago

    Hi,

     

    I decided for my team that everone has to use the same version (and with same configuration)

    This was our "solution"

     

    Kind Regards, Michael

    • jrforeman's avatar
      jrforeman
      Occasional Contributor
      3 years ago

      So the solution really is: You can't prevent it. Whenever you upgrade, the new version of ReadyAPI will do whatever it wants with regard to the empty XML fields... some versions will generate a beginning tag and end tag <tag></tag>, then the next version may decide to use the shortcut <tag/>, and the version after that may revert to the expanded <tag></tag> again, and there is nothing to be done but allow it. 😞