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dcfecker's avatar
dcfecker
Contributor
8 years ago
Solved

TestComplete crashed, and on return my scripts/Unit tests were all gone

Something causes TestComplete to crash, I'm not sure what. But when I re-opened it an error popped up about a corrupted log file. I click "OK" (only other option was "Help" which open the standard he...
  • tristaanogre's avatar
    tristaanogre
    8 years ago

    Understandable... high pressure.

    Obviously, we cover the "duh" cases... are you certain that, when you run TestComplete and go to File -> Open you're selecting the project you were working with? I know that one of the first bits of confusion that some new users have is the whole difference between project, project suite, etc.  Making sure that you actually have the correct project file open is step one to potentially recovering your work.  It's easy enough to open the wrong project.  And since the default code unit created is "Unit1" it's entirely possible you might be looking at the wrong "Unit1" if it's under the wrong Project/Script folder.

    Helpful to have screenshots to see what you're doing to make sure there's no misunderstanding.

     

     

Marsha_R's avatar
Marsha_R
Champion Level 3
8 years ago

Try right-clicking on the folder where the scripts belong and do Add->Existing Item.  You should still be able to find them in your directory there.

  • dcfecker's avatar
    dcfecker
    Contributor
    8 years ago

     

    Marsha_R wrote:

    Try right-clicking on the folder where the scripts belong and do Add->Existing Item.  You should still be able to find them in your directory there.

    That's one of the first things I did after backing up the entire projects folder. But it was an empty file. I assume I have lost everything and I'm now spending time looking for other App/UI testing tools. Any suggestions are appreciated.

     

    Thanks,

     

    Dave

    • tristaanogre's avatar
      tristaanogre
      Esteemed Contributor
      8 years ago

      So... you put all your tests that you were working on in a single code unit file, basically the default code unit file of Unit1 that is created when you create your Automation project?  And it's enough code in that file that losing all of it is devastating enough of an event to warrant dumping the tool and looking for another one?

      That seems a bit drastic, especially if the tool is being utilized in a way that doesn't make sense from a code development perspective.  When writing application level code, you wouldn't write your entire application in a single code unit unless it's an extremely simplistic application. Additionally, there's the general rule "save and save often" when it comes to working with code.  Always save your code as frequently and as often as possible to make sure you don't lose something.

       

      Now, you mentioned something just now... you backed up your project folder... was that before or after the crash? If before, you should be able to grab your code from there.  If after... well... closed the barn door after the horses escaped as my grandfather used to say.

      That said... do you know what you were attempting upon TestComplete crashing? Again, I'm assuming since you were using the single unit of code (Unit1) that there probably wasn't a LOT of stuff in there. Is this something you can set up quick and reproduce?  What kind of application are you testing? What were you attempting to do against that application? What version of TestComplete?  There are reports and such of TC crashes occasionally happening for other folks... and patches that have been released to correct them.  So, if you can give information as to what was going on, it is something that could potentially already have a fix.

      • dcfecker's avatar
        dcfecker
        Contributor
        8 years ago

        Given that the work I was doing was to build a P.O.C. to validate continue moving forward with Test Complete, and I was trying out several different solutions to "unique" features of our application, I hadn't put any effort into project management, version control, etc. 

         

        I could probably spend 1/2 a day and recover all that work, so no it wasn't a grand test suite. I also hit "Save" prior to every "run" so the assumption is that it saved. The fact that during the crash of TestComplete it actually erased all the scripts in unit1.js and the unit1.js.bak file was also empty means to me the tool isn't robust and/or mature enough to be safe to use. Which is why I'm looking at some of the other solutions. 

         

        I probably should have created a local git repo and commited several times over the past few days, but I didn't. And the backup was after the crash, and I only did that after the crash to preserve the state of the project prior to my attempts to try and recover the scripts.

         

        The crash was a result of an attempted run of my scripts within our application. The small "running" window was active but frozen, and I was unable to alt-tab back into TestComplete.

         

        I am well aware of the rules of software development, "Save and save often", but never in my wildest dreams would have thought an entire file and it''s backup would get wiped out on one shot by the application you are using to build those scripts.

         

        Lesson learned...

         

        Dave