Question

I need to create a few tests for the user roles in a web application. To minimize the description, one of the tests involves checking if a menu entry is displayed or not for an user.

For this test, I use a table called UserRoles, that looks like this:

sUserName    bDoesntHaveMenuX
User1        1
User2        0
User3        1

bDoesntHaveMenuX is of type bit.

I have a class derived from ValidationRule that checks if a certain text is present in a page, based on a XPath expression to locate the node where to look for the text.
The public properties of this class are:

string XPathExpression
string Text
bool FailIfFound

The last one dictates if the rule should fail if the text is found or not found.

In the test I added a datasource for the table mentioned in the beginning, called DS.
For the request I’m interested in I added a new instance of my validation rule class, with the following values:

Text=MenuX
XPathExpression=//div[@id='menu']//td
FailIfFound={{DS.UserRoles.bDoesntHaveMenuX}}

Unfortunately, this doesn’t work.
The reason seems to be that the data binding process creates a context variable
DS.UserRoles.bDoesntHaveMenuX has the value “False” or “True”. The value is a string, so the binding results in a casting error.

My options, as far as I can think of, are:

1. Change the validation rule to accept strings for FailIfFound. Not a valid
   option, for 2 reasons: it’s a hack and the same rule is used in
   other places.
2. Make a new validation rule that will use the above mentioned one,
   and implement the FailIfFound as string. I also don’t like this, for
   the same reason as above. It’s a hack.
3. Make the test coded and do the proper cast before passing the data
   to the validation rule. I don’t like this one because I prefer to
   have the test as coded only if there is no other way.

Which brings me to the question. Is there another way?

Thank you.

Answer 1

So the fundamental issue is that you have no control over how the data-binding treats the ‘bit’ data type, and it’s getting converted to string instead of bool.

The only solution I can think of (which is sadly still a bit of a hack, but not so egregious as changing FailIfFound to string) is to create a WebTestPlugin, and in the PreRequestDataBinding or PreRequest event, convert the value from string to bool. Don’t forget to add the plugin to your test(s) (easy mistake I have made).

Then when the validation rule is created it should pick up the nice new bool value and work correctly.

e.g.

  string val = e.WebTest.Context["DS.UserRoles.bDoesntHaveMenuX"].ToString();
  e.WebTest.Context["DS.UserRoles.bDoesntHaveMenuX"] = (val == "True");

I didn’t actually try this… hope it works.

EDIT: round two… a better solution

1. Change the FailIfFound property to string (in a subclass as you mentioned), so it can work properly with data-binding.
2. Implement a TypeConverter that provides a dropdown list of valid values for the property in the rule’s PropertyGrid (True, False), so in the GUI it looks identical to the rule having FailIfFound as a bool. You can still type your own value into the box when necessary (e.g. for data-binding).
3. Add the path of the .dll containing the TypeConverter code to your test project’s References section.

This is what I have started doing and it is much more satisfying than having to type ‘True’ or ‘False’ in the property’s edit box.