Copado QEditor

QEditor is the next-generation highly advanced test development environment for QWord and Robot Framework test scripts. By leveraging a massive amount of test case data, it guides you through the scripting process and helps you to create scripts by constantly monitoring and analyzing your actions. The guidance is then provided from various directions. It supports numerous features to aid in your test development and make it extremely efficient.

Here are a few benefits of doing test development with QEditor:

• IntelliSense features for Robot FrameWork and QWords scripts: code completion, parameter info, quick info, colour coding, etc.
• Develop locally run in Copado Robotic Testing cloud.
• Prediction of next possible steps based on your test cases and flows so far. Thus ensuring the overall goals of test case scripting which often include completeness and quality
• Automatic detection of deviations in the test scripts’ logic from what was expected.
• Predictive estimations on a test case’s probability of success, execution time, correlation with other test cases, and more information on test generation. All this way before the test cases are ready for test execution.

There are two ways of using QEditor: directly within Copado Robotic Testing or as a VS Code extension. For the former, you need to have a Copado Robotic Testing account. If you don’t have a Copado Robotic Testing account, you can quickly create one at https://robotic.copado.com/signup in US and http://eu-robotic.copado.com/signup in EU.

For the latter, you can install QEditor to your Visual Studio Code (VS Code). All the predictive features and cloud execution capabilities are made available to you when you integrate your VS Code with your Copado Robotic Testing account. If you do not wish to sign up for Copado Robotic Testing and wishes to use this extension as a standalone for writing Robot framework test scripts that is possible too.

Now, we will tell you how to configure your VS Code and Copado Robotic Testing.

Configuring QEditor

QEditor leverages massive amount of test case data when its guiding the user through the scripting process. In order for the QEditor to get access to the data, it must be configured properly. The first and foremost you need to define a "Personal access key":

1. Navigate to https://robotic.copado.com/settings/users/me in US and https://eu-robotic.copado.com/settings/users/me in EU
2. Select "New key" next to "Personal access keys"
3. You can freely set the name of the key, for example QEDITOR, and click "Save"
4. Copy the access key

QEditor will ask you to enter the access key when you start QEditor. Note that the access keys are specific to the region which you are logged in (EU or U.S.). You should also make sure that the access key that you provide matches the environment and region defined in QEditor settings (Press F1 and run QEditor: Update region for Copado Robotic Testing).

In order to use advanced predictive features or Copado Robotic Testing features from QEditor such as test execution and live testing, each test suite that you locally work with must be associated with corresponding test suite in Copado Robotic Testing. This also means that you must have have the very same test suite defined in Copado Robotic Testing as you are locally working with.

The integration is defined through a configuration file called pace.yml which must be placed to the root directory of your test suite. An example configuration file is shown below

#
# QEditor test suite configuration
#
name: Copado Robotic Testing configuration
description: Configuration for Copado Robotic Testing integration
version: 0.0.1

# Specify the URL to your test suite in Copado Robotic Testing
url: https://robotic.copado.com/robots/1111/r/2222/suite/3333/

The easiest way to get the URL is simply to navigate to your test suite in Copado Robotic Testing and copy the URL from your browser.

If you have not defined the above configuration file and you attempt to start test execution, QEditor will ask and guide you to create this configuration file.

Predictions and Completion Suggestions

Using a massive set of test cases data, QEditor has trained machine learning algorithms to predict next most likely test steps in your test cases. Based on your test cases and test flow so far, QEditor makes predictive suggestions to what your next test steps is likely going to be. Along with predictive suggestions, QEditor also provides you with completion suggestions. The various places in a test cases where you can leverage such predictive and completion features are as follows:

• Enable predictive editor features based on Machine Learning models
• Enable predictions of QWords and other keywords
• Enable predictions of test case settings
• Enable predictions of test generation configuration options

Test Case Analytics

With help of the massive test case data, QEditor can provide advanced analytics on your test case. By looking at you test case and its flow the editor can make predictive estimations on a test case’s probability of success, execution time, correlation with other test cases and more information on test generation. You can turn on/off from a list of advanced analytics features.

• Enable test case analytics and estimates
• Enable general test case analytics
• Enable test case execution result predictions and analytics
• Enable test case execution time predictions and estimates
• Enable test generation analytics and estimates

Test case analytics is accessible from annotation at the top of every test case.

Annotations and Guidance

There are a lot of places where QEditor provides you with annotations and guidances. You have probably used a few of them already while launching a live testing session, viewing advanced analytics etc. Annotations and guidances are often in the editor with light grey fonts.

• Script annotations and guidance
• Scripting guidance and hints through annotations placed on top of the current line
• Test case summary annotations

Selecting library QWord for QWord Palette

You can choose the QWord library that the QEditor uses in the QWord Palette. Status Bar of Visual Studio Code on the bottom right of the editor will show you the active library and you can switch the library simply by clicking the status bar element. Alternatively you can press F1 (or Ctrl + Shift + P) in the Visual Studio Code editor and start typing "QWords". This will bring up commands that you can use to switch between Web, Mobile and Vision libraries.

BrowserStack Viewer

BrowserStack Viewer allows you to monitor BrowserStack mobile and web sessions executed on BrowserStack. It shows a summary of the completed session as well as screenshots of an ongoing session. The main purpose is to provide visual help when developing and debugging tests locally. However, it is not recommended to use this tool as a viewer for normal test executions, as it will pollute the log with “Take screenshot” entries.

Prerequisites

• On-Premise Development Add-On for Copado Robotic Testing is active for your account
• QConnect Dev installation
• BrowserStack Username and Access Key - If you are using a service account provided by Copado, please contact customer support to acquire these credentials.
• The QEditor Visual Studio Code extension is connected to your Copado Robotic Testing account using the Personal Access Key (See Configuring QEditor).

Quick Start

1. Open a .robot file in the QEditor VS Code extension.
2. Click View in the top navigation menu and select the Command Palette.
3. Start typing QEditor: Open BrowserStack session viewer and select the command.
4. Click Setup to enter your BrowserStack Username, Access Key and Session ID.
5. Select the BrowserStack Automation Product from the dropdown depending on your session type (i.e. Desktop for web testing and Mobile for mobile testing).
6. Close the Setup dialog.
7. Depending on the session status, a summary, or the screenshots of an ongoing session are displayed. The Viewer tab title also indicates the session status.

How to acquire the Session ID

In order to get the Session ID, execute any test suite using the QConnect Dev terminal with the following command:

robot -d logdir -v USERNAME:<my_bs_username> -v APIKEY:<my_bs_access_key> <filename>.robot

Once the suite is executed, you will find the Session ID in the console Log like in this snippet:

QWeb version number: 2.0.0
Browser: Safari
Browser version: 15.3
BrowserStack session ID: 2f81e4cff8bd64dbb242647e0e45994e4f0a780c
Test the home page :: Go to the web shop, and verify that the slog... | PASS |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Check the navigation menu items :: Go to the shop homepage and ver... | PASS |

Release Notes

The release notes are available here.

Supported platforms

QEditor for VS Code is supported on the following systems:

• Windows, 64-bit, x86
• macOS, x86 (Intel), version 10.12.6 (Sierra) or higher
• macOS, Apple Silicon, version 13.1 (Ventura) or higher

Linux operating systems are currently not supported.

Troubleshooting

Here are some solutions to problems you might encounter working with QEditor. It also advised to review the content of QEditor "output channels" (View > Output and then select QEditor and QEditor Language Server from the dropdown on the top right of the output panel) in case of a problem.

QEditor fails to start

QEditor activation problems are often due to conflicting Robot Framework extensions which may prevent QEditor from starting. In order to resolve, go to Extensions panel (Ctrl + Shift + X) and disable the conflicting extension(s).

QEditor language server fails to initialize

QEditor leverages a language server component for most of its features which is launched automatically as part of the QEditor activation routine. QEditor language server will only run on the supported platforms and an attempt to run QEditor on other platforms may trigger this error.

QEditor does not make predictions during the scripting

QEditor leverages Machine Learning algorithms when guiding the user through the test creation process. The editor requires assets that it downloads from the Copado Robotic Testing cloud entity. In order to do so, you must provide a proper Access Key that matches the region in which you are working in. Once a proper Access Key has been provided, the QEditor will provide predictions, etc. See Configuring QEditor for details.

QEditor does not predict argument values

Argument values can be predicted by the QEditor when it has been configured with (1) access to Copado Robotic Testing environment through an Access Key and (2) we have associated the current work in VS Code with a project in Copado Robotic Testing. See Configuring QEditor for details.

Questions, Feedback, Contributing

You can post your questions and feedback on our community pages. If you are a Copado Robotic Testing user, you can raise a question using in-app messaging.

We really hope you like our product. Write your reviews here.

When submitting a feature request, bug report, etc. please include the output from both "QEditor" and "QEditor Language Server" (View > Output and select QEditor and QEditor Language Server from the dropdown on the top right of the output panel).

License

By downloading and using the Visual Studio Copado QEditor extension and its related components, you agree to the Copado Robotic Testing product license terms and privacy statement.