Forum Discussion

cshukusky's avatar
cshukusky
Contributor
13 years ago

TestComplete Tracing Windows Dumps

I ran one of the tests I created in TC 8.2 with TC 9.

It ran fine except at the very end, when the script closed the tested application, the log says the application crashed and linked me to the dump file.

However, it did not look like the tested application actually crashed.

I don't see the windows pop up saying the application stopped working.

I found the Tracing Windows Dump Reports help topic, and that helped explain some of it for me, but I still have a couple of questions.

It does explain why I didn't see the pop up, but when trying it manually, I don't see the pop up either.

When it says TestComplete detects that Windows generated a dump report, how does it do that?

Does it literally just watch for a dmp file to appear in a specific location?

If so, where is that location, as I would like to see if a dmp appears with manual testing?

If not, what does TestComplete do to detect the crash?
  • AlexeyK's avatar
    AlexeyK
    SmartBear Alumni (Retired)
    13 years ago

    Chris,


    The operating system generates certain notifications when it detects an unhandled exception in the application. The way the operating system responds to this notification is specified by a certain Registry key. By default, the OS calls the program that displays the error message and suggests sending data to Microsoft. TestComplete can detect this notification and command Windows to generate a dump file. Since the exception is processed, TestComplete does not display any window and, according to the project settings, stops or continues running the test.


    You said that the exception does not occur when you are testing your app manually. This may happen for the following reasons:

    * During the manual testing you don't perform the same operations as your TestComplete test does.

    * The Registry does not specify the standard program for handling exceptions.


    I'd suggest that you examine the dump file with some of your developers to determine if an error exists in your application.

    If everything seems to work fine, I'd suggest that you contact our Support Team and send them the dump file along with an issue description. Our guys will look into the file to check if it is something in TestComplete that causes the issue.

  • cshukusky's avatar
    cshukusky
    Contributor
    13 years ago
    Thank you for clearing that up.

    We have determined that our tested application was in fact crashing.