Forum Discussion

jonrey's avatar
jonrey
Occasional Contributor
10 years ago

Random Date Project Property

Hello all!   I'm hoping that somebody can help me with this request - I'm a complete novice at this type of coding.  I need to create a Project Property variable to randomize a date in my Soap Requ...
  • rupert_anderson's avatar
    rupert_anderson
    10 years ago

    Hi,

    You're welcome, happy to help! :-)

    I'm not sure, but think the 00:00:00 is the HH:MM:SS part of the XML DateTime datatype e.g.

     

    <startdate>2002-05-30T09:00:00</startdate>

    see http://www.w3schools.com/schema/schema_dtypes_date.asp

     

    Are you using a SOAP or XML request with that data type? If so, it will probably force your date to include the time portion.

     

    Cheers,

    Rup

  • rupert_anderson's avatar
    rupert_anderson
    10 years ago

    Hi,

     

    Don't worry, I'm happy to help and wondered if you might also want to know how to use the script inline as a property expansion, as its more of a mouthful than the first expression was!

     

    I think the short answer is (use semicolons to separate the statements when using inline):

     

    ${=def now = new Date().parse("yy-MM-dd", "14-06-01");now.month = 6 + new Random().nextInt(18);now.format("yy-MM-dd")}

     

    But, personally, especially for larger scripts I don't do this as it isn't very readable. Instead I would simply add a Groovy TestStep before your Test Request TestStep and then add the result to a property on the (TestCase) 'context' e.g.

     

    def now = new Date().parse("yy-MM-dd", "14-06-01")
    now.month = 6 + new Random().nextInt(18)
    context["randomDate"] = now.format("yy-MM-dd")

     

    Then in the Test Request TestStep, all you need to reference and insert the value is:

     

    ${=randomDate}

     

    (this method may serve you better in the future)

     

    Make sense?

     

    Cheers,

    Rup

jonrey's avatar
jonrey
Occasional Contributor

HI Rupert,

 

This works great in Groovy Script!  I love how you have commented on each portion as well!

 

However, I've been working on this for a couple of hours now and can't figure out how to get it into the SOAP request.

 

Since this defines script variables and isn't using built-in commands like the previous one, I'm also not sure how to convert it to a property expansion.

 

I tried piecing out the components: 

${=new Date().parse("yyyy-MM-dd","2014-06-01") now.month = 6 + new Random().nextInt(18)}

 

I also tried defining the variables inside the property expansion:

${=def now = new Date().parse("yyyy-MM-dd","2014-06-01") + now.month = 6 + new Random().nextInt(18) + now.format("yyyy-MM-dd")}

Tried using different expression aggregators like comma, +, etc...  , 

 

Also tried simply

${=new Date().parse("yyyy-MM-dd","2014-06-01") + (6 + new Random().nextInt(18))}

with no luck.

 

I'm sorry for all of the trouble.  Could I trouble you for one last hint? :smileyfrustrated:

 

Thank you!!

rupert_anderson's avatar
rupert_anderson
Valued Contributor
10 years ago

Hi,

 

Don't worry, I'm happy to help and wondered if you might also want to know how to use the script inline as a property expansion, as its more of a mouthful than the first expression was!

 

I think the short answer is (use semicolons to separate the statements when using inline):

 

${=def now = new Date().parse("yy-MM-dd", "14-06-01");now.month = 6 + new Random().nextInt(18);now.format("yy-MM-dd")}

 

But, personally, especially for larger scripts I don't do this as it isn't very readable. Instead I would simply add a Groovy TestStep before your Test Request TestStep and then add the result to a property on the (TestCase) 'context' e.g.

 

def now = new Date().parse("yy-MM-dd", "14-06-01")
now.month = 6 + new Random().nextInt(18)
context["randomDate"] = now.format("yy-MM-dd")

 

Then in the Test Request TestStep, all you need to reference and insert the value is:

 

${=randomDate}

 

(this method may serve you better in the future)

 

Make sense?

 

Cheers,

Rup

  • jonrey's avatar
    jonrey
    Occasional Contributor
    10 years ago

    Rupert,

     

    You rock!

     

    I tried adding the context line to the Groovy Script TestStep (tried context.RandomDate also), but no matter how I format or sequence it, the Request keeps saying it cannot find the property.

     

    The one-liner works beautifully, though!  I've accepted that as a Solution as well :)

     

    I would like to figure out why the script isn't working though, as you're correct - that would be a very helpful tool in the future.

     

    Thank you so much for all your help!

  • rupert_anderson's avatar
    rupert_anderson
    Valued Contributor
    10 years ago

    Thanks - I'm glad you're happy with the one-liner, nice to get some thanks too :-)

     

    Ok, so regarding the other way, so if you have the following in the Groovy TestStep:

     

    def now = new Date().parse("yy-MM-dd", "14-06-01")
    now.month = 6 + new Random().nextInt(18)

    context["randomDate"]=now.format("yy-MM-dd")

    log.info context["randomDate"]

     

    Then do you see some output from the log.info? If you do then the property randomDate must be set.

     

    Then it should be acessible in the subsequent Request TestStep using ${=randomDate} ?

     

    Let me know,

    Cheers,

    Rup

  • jonrey's avatar
    jonrey
    Occasional Contributor
    10 years ago

    Here is what is in my Groovy Script Test Step:

     

    //Start with a date of 14-06-01
def now = new Date().parse("yyyy-MM-dd", "2014-06-01")
 
//Add to the month by adding a random integer to effectively range the date
now.month = 6 + new Random().nextInt(18)
 
//Add the result as a property to the TestCase
context["randomDate"] = now.format("yyyy-MM-dd")

log.info context["randomDate"]

     

     And the result is: 

    Wed May 27 16:35:37 PDT 2015:INFO:2015-06-01

    But when using ${=randomDate} in my Request TestStep, this is the error returned:

    <Message>The string 'No such property: randomDate for class: Script11' is not a valid AllXsd value.</Message>

     

    I take that to mean that it hasn't properly set the property.  Is this something I must do manually as a Custom Property of the project, like I did with the one-liner?

     

    Thanks!

  • rupert_anderson's avatar
    rupert_anderson
    Valued Contributor
    10 years ago

    Hmm... normally the context property -> property expansion works without any hassle...

     

    I did wonder if the error was to do with trying to insert the value into a request parameter of type date, but it does seem like you say in that it can't reference the property in the property expansion - have you tried the property in a string type request parameter? (assuming there is one for your service)

     

    Other  than that, if you are able to send me your project XML file then I can try to recreate the issue on my SoapUI and see if I can spot anything?

     

    Alternatively, I'd understand if you are happy with the one-liner for this. I don't expect you will have any other issues setting properties on the context and using them in property expansions, in general they work fine. We can go through some other examples if you prefer.

     

    Cheers,

    Rup