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Wamboo's avatar
Wamboo
Community Hero
6 years ago

Project without NameMapping

Hey,   We write a project for an application written in Delphi which is a monolith. The application has been developed for over 20 years and its size is huge. In the project we are using NameMa...
Name Mapping
  • AlexKaras's avatar
    AlexKaras
    6 years ago

    Hi,

     

    To add to what was said by Lino:

     

    > SVN, GIT working in a few people 

    Only script unit files can be merged with the reasonable risk level. Though even this is not recommended. All other project files must not be merged by any means. Thus one of the most important tasks for you will be to split test code between different script units and assign tasks to people in a way that minimizes concurrent changes. Merging is a price that is paid for distributed development and must be avoided as much as possible.

     

    > Why use NameMapping?

    Strictly speaking, you should use not NameMapping, but Aliases. NameMapping is just a translation table between the physical objects layout of your tested application and logical organization of same objects convenient for your test code.

     

    > Example:
    > a) without NameMapping
    > var Edit = Sys.Process("pulse").VCLObject("LogOnForm").VCLObject("GroupBox").VCLObject("UsernameEdit");
    > b) with NameMapping
    > var Edit = Aliases.impuls.wndLogOnForm.Panel.Edit;

     

    More correct example would be:

    For version A of tested application:

    a) without NameMapping
    var Edit = Sys.Process("pulse").VCLObject("LogOnForm").VCLObject("GroupBox").VCLObject("UsernameEdit");
    b) Your test code with Aliases:
    var Edit = Aliases.impuls.wndLogOnForm.UserName; // intermediate panel was excluded as it does not matter for test code

     

    Now for version B of tested application:

    a) without NameMapping
    var Edit = Sys.Process("pulse").VCLObject("LogOnForm").VCLObject("LoginUsingADGroupBox").VCLObject("GroupBox").VCLObject("LoginCredentials").DevExpressObject("UserLogin");
    b) with Aliases:
    var Edit = Aliases.impuls.wndLogOnForm.UserName; // <== Aliased name remained not changed because only NameMapping translation table had to be adjusted for the new objects structure.

     

    From the above example it should be obvious that with Aliases (and proper configurations of NameMapping)test code can remain the same for different versions of tested application.

     

    > If the NameMapping file grows to a large size, is it a performance problem?

    Yes it is. Thus not everything must be mapped. Best practice is to create a 'sceleton' map of your tested application and use created mapped objects as anchors for dynamic objects search via .FindXXX() methods.

     

Wamboo's avatar
Wamboo
Community Hero

> SVN, GIT working in a few people
I cannot imagine working on such a large project without a version control system.
hmmm and what if I use ImageRepository and Events in my project?

This shouldn't be placed in the repository either?

How do you share your work on the project? Do you also not use version control system with files other than those containing scripts?

 

> Why use NameMapping?
If every module of my program is created in such a way that:

1) CashModuleAliases - in it there are variables containing the path of mapped objects
2) CashModuleActions - in this file there is //USEUNIT to file 1 and it contains the function which is then used again in the project in other file modules.

 

In this case, if each of my modules has such a "small" repository as a list of variables, can I assume that working without nameMapping will be good?

 

If the programmer changes something in the object then I also have to change the name of the object only in the CashModuleAliases file (as if I changed it in the NameMapping repository)

 

Am I assuming right? Did I skip something?

 

> If the NameMapping file grows to a large size, is it a performance problem?


Can I ask you to share an example of a feature you are using in such a search?

 

If I understand correctly you mean that (in the case of my application) in NameMapping I put the formats for the scenario, e.g.

 

Main application form ->
I click in menu ->
I open the module e.g. Warehouse (these elements should be the skeleton in NameMapping?)
and already in the warehouse module search for e.g. the "add" button using the .find() function?