Table data missing after closing TestComplete

[Josh_147]

Hi all,

I'm using Table Checkpoint to verify the data and I found that the data of certain tables are missing after I closed TestComplete. There are no issue for other tables but the affected are the same tables. I have checked the tc.Tbl file, the data still exist but it seems like TestComplete unable to load the tc.Tbl files properly.

Attached image shows the data before and after closing the TestComplete. Is there any clue for this issue?

Thanks.

[AlexKaras]

Hi,

My guess based on your description and screenshot provided is that table data might contain some characters that confuse TestComplete.

Can you try to check this somehow?

Anyway I would recommend to create a Support ticket via the https://support.smartbear.com/testcomplete/message/ form.

[Josh_147]

Hi @AlexKaras 

This is the finding where I open the tc.Tbl file using Notepad++.

Line12 is the original line, Line13 and 14 are the line that I added to do the comparison.

It seems like the [GS] is the character that confuse TC which interpret as ?

From here, the [GS] is mean by Group Separator in Notepad++.

Thanks.

[AlexKaras]

Hi,

Are those  symbols added by TestComplete itself or by some other tool/editor?

Considering that table data are stored in an XML file it might be that these symbols break correct xml file structure and cause TestComplete to interpret data in an incorrect way.

[Josh_147]

Hi @AlexKaras ,

Those  symbols are added by the TestComplete itself. Those symbols are there as I directly open the tc.Tbl files using Notepad++ after I saved the changes of the table in TestComplete. Same result if I'm using Notepad to open the tc.Tbl file.

[AlexKaras]

> Those  symbols are added by the TestComplete itself.

Hm-m-m, interesting...

What if you delete them in Notepad++, save file (backup first! 😉 ) and try to open it in TestComplete. If table is opened fine in TestComplete (you will see expected table data) you may try to execute your test(s) to check if the problem appears again. Do you think this is something that is worth trying?

BTW, don't you (occasionally) have enabled setting to update table with actual data? In this case it might be that those symbols are present in the database data (but just are not displayed on screen), so TestComplete saves them into table and then fails to open the table because those data corrupt expected internal file structure.

[Josh_147]

Hi @AlexKaras ,

Yes, I tried the exactly same thing to manually delete those symbols but in the end Table Checkpoint failed after I execute the test.

 

I have go through the Tools>Options>Engines>Stores, the 'Update Table elements' checkbox is unchecked.

[AlexKaras]

Hi,

Checkpoint result reports visually same values for the stored and actual data. (Unless I overlooked something)

This makes me think that actual data in the database contain some non-printable symbols which are not displayed but are considered during comparison and cause compare to fail.

What if you try to query data from the database just for this problematic row and cell and also query length of cell's data. If the returned length differs from the length of displayed data this will mean that cell data indeed contain some non-printable symbols.

Whether this is correct for your tested application/database will be a question to you.

Whether this is expected behavior for the checkpoint will be a question to Support.

If the returned data length matches the length of displayed data then I have no better idea at the moment but to create Support ticket via the https://support.smartbear.com/testcomplete/message/ form.

[Josh_147]

Hi, 

I have tried the following steps to check the length of the string:

1. Using table checkpoint to retrieve the table data and copy the string in Preview tab.

2. Select all the string, right click and checked on the 'Show Unicode control characters'. 

3. There is no new character showing.

4. Copy the whole string and paste into a C++ online compiler. This is the result.

5. The total string length is 41, included the 2 red dots. While pointing on the red dot, it shows /u1d

By referring to here, HTML Entity (decimal) is  (similar to what TestComplete saved in tc.Tbl) while C++ is "\u1D" (quite similar compare to \u1d, the red dot).

So, it should be a non-printable character and considered during the comparison with the tc.Tbl file that I manually edited.

[AlexKaras]

Hi,

So, if I got your results right:

-- Data to be compared contain non-printable characters. Is this OK?

-- Non-printable data causes checkpoint to fail. I think that this is a question that should be asked to Support and I will appreciate it if you update this thread with their answer.