Forum Discussion

rmnrdi's avatar
rmnrdi
Contributor
6 years ago

reading ini without using Storages

I need to be able to read from a .ini file as it stores information needed for testing.   The problem is, it doesn't contain a [Root] section (which is mandatory) and one will not be added.   ...
  • AlexKaras's avatar
    AlexKaras
    6 years ago

    > As always, I just created my own function to handle this.

    :) (Y)

     

    P.S. Possible performance improvement for large INIs: as it is pefrectly fine if [Root] section is at the end of the file, you may just make a copy of the file and append the [Root] line at its end.

     

AlexKaras's avatar
AlexKaras
Champion Level 3
6 years ago

Hi Rob,

 

Option a):

-- Use some simplified script-based parser that fits your needs. For example: http://www.robvanderwoude.com/vbstech_files_ini.php, https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21825192/read-data-from-ini-file or https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3870019/javascript-parser-for-a-string-which-contains-ini-data;

 

Option b):

-- Use GetPrivateProfileString() WinAPI function (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/api/winbase/nf-winbase-getprivateprofilestring) and call it via the DLL object provided by TestComplete (see TestComplete help for more information and DLL code samples.) It might be impossible to call this function from your JavaScript code because JavaScript does not support out parameters used by the GetPrivateProfileString() function. As a possible workaround, you may implement the code as Script Extension using VBScript.

 

P.S. There seem to be no simple and acceptable solution using .Net for this: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/217902/reading-writing-an-ini-file and https://code.msdn.microsoft.com/windowsdesktop/Reading-and-Writing-Values-85084b6a

 

  • rmnrdi's avatar
    rmnrdi
    Contributor
    6 years ago

    As always, I just created my own function to handle this.

     

    The only thing that makes it incompatible is the [Root] subsection, so I created a procedure that created a new version of an ini and added [Root] to the top.

     

    function CreateTCCompatibleINI(sourceINI,targetINI)
{
    //Deletes the file if it exists 
    aqFile.Delete(targetINI);
//-------------------------------------------------  
    // Opens source ini for reading
    if (aqFile.Exists(sourceINI)) 
    { 
      var iniFile = aqFile.OpenTextFile(sourceINI, aqFile.faRead, aqFile.ctANSI);      
    }
    else
    {
      Log.Error("Cannot find " + sourceINI);
    }
//-------------------------------------------------
    // Opens targetINI for writing
    if (!aqFile.Exists(targetINI)) 
    {  
      aqFile.Create(targetINI);
      var testINIFile = aqFile.OpenTextFile(targetINI, aqFile.faWrite, aqFile.ctANSI);
      //Writes root to the top of the ini file to make it compatible with Test Complete
      testINIFile.WriteLine("[Root]");
    }
    else
    { 
      var testINIFile = aqFile.OpenTextFile(targetINI, aqFile.faWrite, aqFile.ctANSI);
    }
//-------------------------------------------------

  //Reads lines from source ini and writes them to target ini
  while(!iniFile.IsEndOfFile())
  {
    var line = iniFile.ReadLine();
    testINIFile.WriteLine(line);
    Log.Message(line);
  }
//-------------------------------------------------
  //Closes files so they can be manipulated again.
  iniFile.Close();
  testINIFile.Close();  
}
    • AlexKaras's avatar
      AlexKaras
      Champion Level 3
      6 years ago

      > As always, I just created my own function to handle this.

      :) (Y)

       

      P.S. Possible performance improvement for large INIs: as it is pefrectly fine if [Root] section is at the end of the file, you may just make a copy of the file and append the [Root] line at its end.

       

      • rmnrdi's avatar
        rmnrdi
        Contributor
        6 years ago

        Holy cow, that would make it much faster!

         

        Copy ini to folder with new name

        Open it

        Append [Root]

        Close it

         

        Yeah. That would definitely be faster than copy the contents.

         

        I  should have tried putting [Root] at the end first, it just didn't seem to make sense that it would work.

         

        UPDATE TO PREVIOUS CODE:

        function CreateTCCompatibleINI(sourceINI,targetINI)
{
    var didCopy;
    
    //Deletes the ini file if it exists 
    aqFile.Delete(targetINI);
//-------------------------------------------------  

    // Copy source ini to target folder
    if (aqFile.Exists(sourceINI)) 
    { 
      didCopy = aqFile.Copy(sourceINI,targetINI, false); 
    }
    else
    {
      Log.Error("Cannot find " + sourceINI);
    }
//-------------------------------------------------

    // Opens targetINI for writing
    if (didCopy) 
    {  
      var targetINIFile = aqFile.OpenTextFile(targetINI, aqFile.faWrite, aqFile.ctANSI);
      //Writes root to the bottom of the ini file for TC compatibility.
      targetINIFile.WriteLine("[Root]");
    }
    else
    { 
      Log.Error(sourceINI + " did not copy to " + targetINI);
    }
//-------------------------------------------

  //Closes files so they can be manipulated again.
  targetINIFile.Close();  
}

        Way faster!