Forum Discussion

bb567's avatar
bb567
New Contributor
2 years ago

Import Test Cases into Zephyr Scale and keeping original test case number

I created test cases in Zephyr scale, then exported them to an Excel spreadsheet for our testers. They don't test within Zephyr but work from the spreadsheets.  If I make changes to the test cases in the Excel spreadsheet, is there a way to import them into Zephyr Scale retaining the original test case id (Key)?  I've tried it before but Zephyr gives the tests new Keys and all my testing documentation has to be updated manually with the new key, which is very frustrating and time-consuming.  Any ideas would be appreciated.

Zephyr Scale (general)
  • MisterB's avatar
    MisterB
    Champion Level 3
    2 years ago

    Hi,

     

    <shudder> 🙂

     

    I'm afraid there's no perfect solution for the approach you're taking.  I'm sure there are good reasons why you're having to work in this way, but IMO it's not great.  You're missing out on some great features for testers and test managers, and you're missing out on the power of Jira and Scale combined.  But if that's not an option...

     

    ... as you've discovered, you can't update test cases via an import into Scale - it just creates new test cases.  You should however be able to update test results into Scale using the API, but you'll need some (or someone with) technical experience using an API to be able to make that work, and I expect there will be a fair bit of transformation between your spreadsheets and Scale, particularly if your testers are sharing test cases - that, I imagine, would be very hard to manage.

     

    • bb567's avatar
      bb567
      New Contributor
      2 years ago

      Thanks for the info. So, our business line testers do the testing and their management doesn't want them to spend their time learning it, as easy as it is.  My former employer had business line testers too but they had the option of testing in HP Quality Center or testing from worksheets.  The worksheets were uploadable via an Excel plugin and it was able to upload updates, test results, and screenshots. It appears Zephyr Scale is limited in that area.  I have over 120 test cases that I've downloaded to Excel and edited, since editing en masse is much easier in Excel than doing 1 at time in Zephyr.  Unfortunately, it appears I have only 2 choices - upload and renumber or update them manually.  But, thanks for the confirmation.  Maybe they'll update Zephyr with greater flexibility in the future, but as we know, testing improvements usually take a backseat! 

  • MisterB's avatar
    MisterB
    Champion Level 3
    2 years ago

    That is disappointing, and short-sighted, and a lot of other words I could use 🙂

     

    Something that might help is to use a custom field or use the label field to record the original test case ID.  And then going forward use that label or custom field as your ID reference.  Your workflow would then look like this:

     

    Export test cases

    Sent to testers

    Testers update/you update

    Add a new field to your Scale import template for label or a custom field that you've created

    Transfer updated test case data to import sheet (remembering to transfer the test case ID)

    Move test case ID into label or custom field

    Upload data into Scale

    Archive old test cases

    In the Test Case screen view, add a column for Labels (or the new custom field you created)

    Sort by that new column you just added, et voila!

     

    I think that should work.  Let me know if it does.

  • MisterB's avatar
    MisterB
    Champion Level 3
    2 years ago

    By the way, this approach will work while you are developing the test cases, but it might not work when it comes to test execution, assuming you want to keep test results: each time you import and archive a test case, you are also archiving the test results.

  • bb567's avatar
    bb567
    New Contributor
    2 years ago

    I will give that a try. Thank you so much.

  • rodolfo-romero's avatar
    rodolfo-romero
    New Contributor
    2 years ago

    Hi,

    My situation is a bit different but it results in the same problem.

     

    We are in the process of testing the migration of Zephyr Scale to a new server. As we are testing, we have found some errors with the user mapping that are forcing us to delete all the Test Cases and import them again. This is causing the new test to create the Test Cases with different numbers. How can we preserver the exact number that were originally used? This will also be important when we add all the Test Cycles and Plans associated to these Test Cases as they are referencing the key.

     

    We have access to the database if we need to run some SQL and we are using the REST API to transfer the Test Cycles and Plans.

  • MisterB's avatar
    MisterB
    Champion Level 3
    2 years ago

    As you have access to the DB you might be able to reset the seed of the Test Case ID for a project, but if you're unsure I guess your only option is SmartBear support.

     

    In terms of what you could do in the UI to preserve the original ID, there aren't many options available and I can only think of the suggestion I made above, placing the ID into a custom field or label.

    • rodolfo-romero's avatar
      rodolfo-romero
      New Contributor
      2 years ago

      That is what I was looking for but I honestly don't know which table contains the seed and if this change will impact only the Zephyr count or the Jira issue key count as well. I probably will contact SmartBear support.

       

      Thanks!