Troubleshooting

The JavaTest harness provides information you can use in troubleshooting problems:

Problems Using the JavaTest Harness

If the JavaTest harness should fail, you can use the harness.trace file in your work directory to help troubleshoot the problem. The harness.trace file is a plain-text file that contains a log of JavaTest harness activities during the test run. It is written in the work directory, is incrementally updated, and is intended primarily as a log of JavaTest harness activity.

Problems Running Tests

The goal of a test run is for all tests in the test suite that are not filtered out to have passing results.

If the root test suite folder contains tests with errors or failing results, you must troubleshoot and correct the cause to satisfactorily complete the test run. See Troubleshoot a Test Run for information about the resources that the JavaTest harness provides for troubleshooting.

Tests with errorsTests with Errors

Tests with errors are tests that could not be executed by the JavaTest harness. These errors usually occur because the test environment is not properly configured. Use the Test tabbed panes and the Configuration Editor to help determine the change required in the configuration.

The following is an example of how the Test Manager tabbed panes and the Configuration Editor can be used to identify and correct a configuration error:

  1. Use the test tree to identify the folder(s) containing test(s) that had errors.
  2. Click the folder icon to open its Summary tab in the Test Manager window.
  3. Click the Error tab to display the list of tests in the folder that had errors.
  4. Double-click a test in the list to display it in the test tree and view its detailed test information.
  5. Click the Test Run Messages tab to display detailed messages describing what happened during the running of each section of the test. The contents of each output section vary from test suite to test suite. Refer to your test suite documentation for detailed descriptions of the test section messages when troubleshooting a test run.
  6. Click the Configuration tab to display a two column table of the name/value pairs that were derived from the configuration file and actually used to run the test. The names in the table identify test environment properties used by the JavaTest harness to run the test. The values displayed were used to run the test. Refer to your test suite documentation for detailed descriptions of the name/value pairs for your test.
  7. Choose Configure > Show Question Log to view the Question Log of the current, saved configuration interview. Use the question log to identify the configuration value that is incorrect and its configuration question.
  8. Choose Configure > Edit Configuration from the menu bar or click the button on the tool bar to open the Configuration Editor.
  9. Search the interview for the specific characters or character strings that must be changed. See Search the Interview for a detailed description of how the configuration interview can be searched for a character or string of characters.
  10. Click the Done button to save your changes to the configuration file and rerun the tests.

Tests that failTests that Fail

Tests that fail are tests that were executed but had failing results. The test or the implementation may have errors.

The following is an example of how the Test Manager tabbed panes can be used to identify and correct a test failure:

  1. Use the test tree to identify the folder(s) containing test(s) that had errors.
  2. Click the folder icon to open its Summary tab in the Test Manager window.
  3. Click the Error tab to display the list of tests in the folder that had errors.
  4. Double-click a test in the list to display it in the test tree and view its detailed test information.
  5. Click the Test Run Messages tab to display detailed messages describing what happened during the running of each section of the test. The contents of each output section vary from test suite to test suite. Refer to your test suite documentation for detailed descriptions of the test section messages when troubleshooting a test run.

Problems Viewing Test Results

When you use filters to run tests (i.e., running tests based on their prior status), only the field of the filtered category appears to be updated in the Test Manager Summary tab. This is normal behavior of the GUI when a view filter is used.

The JavaTest harness only displays tests in the GUI that match the specified filter criteria. All other tests are displayed as filtered out.

As test results change, the JavaTest harness moves the tests to the filtered out category (not to a test result category) and turns the appropriate node in the test tree grey. Consequently, the fields for the other categories in the Test Manager Summary tab will not appear to be updated.

Example:
If you use filters to run only tests having a prior status of error and the new test result changes to a different status, the test is then moved to the filtered out category.

To view all test results, use a different view filter:

Problems Writing Reports

The JavaTest harness does not automatically generate reports of test results after a test run. You must generate test reports either from the command line in batch mode or from the JavaTest GUI.

You can also use filters to write test reports for a specific set of test criteria. Verify that you are using the appropriate filter to generate reports of test results.

Problems Moving Reports

Test reports contain relative and fixed links to other files that may be broken when you move reports to other directories.

You must update these links when moving reports to other directories. The JavaTest harness provides an EditLinks utility for you to use when moving reports.

Problems Using Agents

Troubleshooting a JavaTest agent generally consists of verifying that:

However, because an active agent initiates the connection with the JavaTest harness and a passive agent waits for a request from the JavaTest harness, troubleshooting details are different for each type of agent.

See Troubleshoot Active Agents for detailed information about troubleshooting problems using active agents.

See Troubleshoot Passive Agents for detailed information about troubleshooting problems using passive agents.