Figure out if a Keyword Test is used

[guido_riedweg]

Hi there

I recently stumbled upon a keyword test that has been written by myself a long time ago. I am not sure if it is still used in a Test Item or a Test Script, since a lot of people have been working on it. Therefore, I am not sure if I can delete the test safely. Is there a (simple) way to figure out if a keywort test (and/or a Script Routine) is still used somewhere in a project? I'd prefer a solution other than deleting the test first and then running the whole test project 🙂

Many thanks in advance

Guido

[leandroaraujoso]

Hello guido_riedweg,

You could use the Testcomplete's Find functionality, Menu: Edit » Find. There you may select "Project suite" in the "Look in" field.

Search for the name of your Keyword test and TC will list all the places where your test are being used.

Let me know if that helps.

Regards,

Leandro de Araújo Souza

[guido_riedweg]

Hello Leandro

Unfortunately, the find function only seems to search in texts. It only listed the occurance if it was in a script file, or in the value column of test operations. All other occurances were not listed, e.g. the keywordtest itself. And definitely not the occurances in test items, which is what I needed.

Best regards

Guido

[joe_2]

You could rename it instead of deleting.

Or remove it instead of deleting, so its out of the project but still exists as a file.

Then just operate as normal.  

If you don't get a runtime error then after a while you'll know that nothing references it and it can be deleted.  

If you do get the runtime error, then you know you need to restore it because it's still used.

I never delete anything but test logs.  And then I only delete the ones that I ran while developing my scripts.  Not the 'for-the-record' test runs.  

For scripts and tests, I just remove them and then after a while put them in an archive folder.  Who knows when you'll need something back that you discarded three years ago?  

90% of all papers that get filed are never looked at again for any reason.  That other 10% could bite you in the end, though, if you didn't file them.

[guido_riedweg]

Hi Joe_2

thanks for your advice. Since all our tests are stored in our code repository, I am not afraid of deleting any unused tests. If we find out we need a test again in a couple of years, we're save to get it from there. But until then, I would like to keep my test base as clean as possible. That's why I want to delete unused keywordtests.

If I rename a keywordtest, TestComplete is (most of the time) smart enough to rename all usages of that test. So, the only way to find out if a test is needed would be to delete it and run all tests afterwards. I would like to avoid that additional test run, since it can be very time consuming. I would expect TestComplete to provide this information somehow, since it is needed to support an efficient renaming mechanism.

Best regards

Guido