TE: configure test sequence in external file

The framework that I presented in the October TestComplete Academy 301 does pretty much the same thing that Colin_McCrae described, albeit in a different implementation and not nearly so robust. Generally speaking, there are probably any number of ways of doing what you want done.

For example, let's say that you have a whole bunch of keyword tests, each one representing a particular test case. Every time you run the project, you don't necessarily want to run ALL your tests, just are targetted selection.  What you could do is create a different folder for each run configuration with either an Excel sheet or a CSV file in it.  Each row in the file would contain two columns.  Column 1 would be the name of the keyword test ('PageLogin', 'PrintFile', etc).  The second column would be a string of parameters to pass in, if necessary ("'myusername', 'mypassword'").  You would then write something like this (JScript/JavaScript).

function runMyTests(testListFile) {
    var myTestList;
    try {
        myTestList = DDT.CSVDriver(testListFile);
        while (!myTestList.EOF()) {
            if (aqObject.IsSupported(KeywordTests, myTestList.Value('TestName')) {
                eval('KeywordTests.' + myTestList.Value('TestName') + '.Run(' + myTestList.Value('ParameterString') + ')');
            myTestList.Next();
        }
    }
    catch (exception) {
        Log.Warning('Exception : ' + exception.message, exception.stack);
    }
    finally {
        if (myTestList != undefined) {
            DDT.CloseDriver(myTestList.Name);
        }
    }

Run this as the only TestItem in Project.TestItems for your project and, effectively, it will execute all the keyword tests in your project that you have configured in the indicated CSV file.  All you would have to do is pass in the necessary file name and path and you're good to go.

Again, this is not the ONLY way to do it but it demonstrates another methodology to do what you're asking.  This just goes to show that, depending upon your need and skill, you can implement what you're asking in a variety of different ways. It is left to you, then, to determine what meets your needs best.

relaymedTester

congrats, this sounds really good. I also use my own Framework, it also has been a LOT of work and is working fine. As an example, I'm using aliases only to identify dialogs, the rest is addressed using captions. Multiple instances of a Dialog are supported, too.

Using external test control will give the tester more control on what is to be tested when using TE.

I'll consider using Excel as a config file, too. It will be better structured than the simple text file I wanted to use at first.

The appropriate Location for the config file will be Project.ConfigPath. This is what I was asking for in this thread.