In this guide:

Executive Summary

This guide is intended to help you collect coverage information for applications developed with .NET framework or Java technology.

The primary audience for this user guide is people responsible for ensuring compliance with your organization's policy regarding the application coverage level, including QA Engineers, developers, and build masters.

Prerequisites

We assume that you are familiar with Parasoft technologies and have already deployed and licensed the following products:

The following options must be configured in the .properties file where you configure your dotTEST or Jtest settings to ensure that coverage data is correctly displayed on DTP:

Application Coverage Workflow

  1. Generating the static coverage file.
    The static coverage file is generated by Jtest or dotTEST in the .xml or .data format and contains metadata about user classes, methods, and lines.
  2. Attaching the coverage agent to the application under test (AUT).
    The coverage agent ships with Jtest and dotTEST, and allows you to monitor the code being executed when the AUT is running.
  3. Configuring SOAtest.
         SOAtest must be configured to connect to the coverage agent and collect runtime coverage, merge it with static coverage, and upload the data to DTP.
  4. Performing tests on the AUT with SOAtest.
    SOAtest will collect runtime coverage, merge it with static coverage, and upload the merged data to DTP.
  5. Reviewing the application coverage on DTP.
    Application coverage is displayed in the DTP's Coverage Explorer.

Step 1: Generate the Static Coverage File

The static coverage file must be generated on the build machine that contains the source code. The name of the file is static_coverage.xml.

Generating Static Coverage with dotTEST

Run the following test configuration on the solution:

dottestcli.exe -config "builtin://Collect Static Coverage" -solution SOLUTION_PATH

The location of the static_coverage.xml file will be printed to the console.

Generating Static Coverage with Jtest

The static coverage file is included in the monitor.zip package generated by the Jtest Plugin for Maven, Gradle, or Ant during the build process.

  1. Add the monitor task or goal to your build command and execute the command in the AUT's main directory to generate the monitor.zip package. The location of the package will be printed to the console.

    Maven

    mvn package jtest:monitor

    Gradle

    gradle assemble jtest-monitor -I [INSTALL]/integration/gradle/init.gradle

    Ant

    ant -lib [INSTALL]/integration/ant/jtest-ant-plugin.jar -listener com.parasoft.Listener jtest-monitor

    Ant requires all classes to be compiled before the monitor task is executed. Modify your project prior to the build and configure the task to ensure the correct sequence. The following example shows how the target can be configured:

    <target name="jtest-monitor" depends="compile">
                 <jtest:monitor/>
    </target>

  2. Extract the contents of the monitor.zip package to the server machine.

Step 2: Attach the Coverage Agent to the Application Under Test (AUT)

Attaching the Coverage Agent to the AUT allows you to enable collecting dynamic (runtime) coverage.

Attaching the Coverage Agent with dotTEST

To attach the Coverage Agent to the AUT, you need to launch the IIS Manager tool shipped with dotTEST on the machine where IIS is installed and the AUT is deployed.

  1. Deploy the AUT to the application server.
  2. Copy the <DOTTEST_INSTALLATION_DIR>\integration\IIS directory to the machine where IIS is installed and the AUT is deployed.
  3. Run a console as Administrator.

  4. Invoke the following command to launch the IIS Manager tool:

    dottest_iismanager.exe

  5. Go to the following address to check the status of the coverage agent: http://host:8050/status. If the Coverage Agent is attached, you should receive the following response:

    {"session":null,"test":null}

Attaching the Coverage Agent with Jtest

To attach the Coverage Agent to the AUT, you need to add Jtest's -javaagent VM argument to the startup script of the server where the AUT is deployed.

  1. Deploy the AUT to the application server.
  2. Extract the contents of the monitor.zip package you generated (see Generating Static Coverage with Jtest) to the server machine. The package contains the agent.sh/agent.bat script.

  3. Run the agent.sh/agent.bat script to print the Jtest Java agent VM argument to the console:

    Jtest Agent VM argument:
-javaagent:"[path to agent dir]\agent.jar"=settings="[path to agent properties file]\agent.properties",runtimeData="[path to monitor dir]\monitor\ runtime_coverage"
  4. Add the -javaagent argument to the application server’s startup script.
  5. Restart the server.

  6. Go to the following address to check the status of the coverage agent: http://host:8050/status. If the Coverage Agent is attached, you should receive the following response:

    {"test":null,"session":null,"testCase":null}

Step 3: Configuring SOAtest 

You need to configure SOAtest, which SOAtest enables you to collect application coverage during automated functional test execution.  

Connecting SOAtest to the Coverage Agent and Enabling Coverage Upload to DTP

  1. Open SOAtest and go to Preferences > Reports > Coverage, then specify the installation directory of dotTEST or Jtest.
  2. Configure a SOAtest test configuration to collect, merge, and upload application coverage data. You can configure an existing test configuration or create and configure a new one.
    1. Open the test configuration that you want to configure to collect application coverage data.
    2. Open the Execution > Application Coverage tab.
    3. Enable the Collect application coverage option and specify the host name or IP address where the application under test and coverage agent are hosted and the port number of the agent. The port number should match the value of the jtest.agent.port setting in the agent.properties file (default is 8050). You can click Test Connection to verify that SOAtest can communicate with the coverage agent. 
    4. (Optional) Under Coverage agent user ID, you can specify a user ID so that coverage results can be associated with a specific user. A user ID should only be specified when application coverage for multiple users is enabled for the coverage agent.
    5. Enable the Upload coverage report to DTP option to enable merging static and runtime coverage data and sending the merged coverage results to DTP.
    6. Configure the Static coverage file location option to specify the path to the static coverage file generated with dotTEST or Jtest in the .xml or .data format (see Step 1).
    7. Configure the Coverage image tags option to specify a set of tags that are used to create coverage images in DTP. A coverage image is a unique identifier for aggregating coverage data from runs with the same build ID. For details, see the Parasoft DTP user guide at https://docs.parasoft.com.
    8. Enable the Report coverage agent connection failures as test failures option for test failures to be reported when the coverage agent connection fails, or when the static coverage file location is misconfigured. Otherwise, the problems will be reported to the console, but will not cause the test to fail.
    9. Click Apply to save your changes.
    10. (Optional) Save the test configuration to your workspace. This step makes running the configuration on the SOAtest command line more convenient:
      1. Right-click the new test configuration and choose Export.
      2. Save the test configuration to the SOAtest workspace. 

In the next step, you will execute your tests using the new test configuration from the command line. But in order for DTP to be associated the test results with the coverage information, you will need to create a properties file and specify the settings required for DTP to properly match and display application coverage data. The simplest way is to export the properties referenced by the SOAtest desktop.

  1. Choose Parasoft > Preferences from the SOAtest menu.
  2. Click the share link on the Parasoft page.
  3. Specify a name and location to export the settings file.
  4. Enable any settings you want to include in the file and click OK.
  5. Open the exported file and add the following properties:
    1. report.coverage.images – Specifies a set of tags that are used to create coverage images in DTP. A coverage image is a unique identifier for aggregating coverage data from runs with the same build ID. DTP supports up to three coverage images per report.
    2. session.tag – Specifies a unique identifier for the test run and is used to distinguish different runs on the same build.
    3. build.id – Specifies a build identifier used to label results. It may be unique for each build, but it may also label several test sessions executed during a specified build. If you want to merge SOAtest coverage results with results from other types of testing—such as unit testing and manual testing of the same application—they must all use the same build ID. The build ID set in this file must match the build ID set for dotTEST or Jtest when collecting static coverage.
    4. dtp.project – Specifies the project on DTP with which you want to associate the coverage results. The DTP project set in this file must match the DTP project set for dotTEST or Jtest when collecting static coverage.
  6. Save the changes.

Step 4: Perform Testing Sessions

Run SOAtest in the command line mode using the test configuration and the .properties file created in the previous step. You will also need to include the workspace and test assets (.tst files).

./soatestcli -config "/path/to/your/test-configuration/app-cov.properties" -data "/path/to/your/workspace" -resource "/path/to/your/tests/your_tests.tst" -localsettings "/path/to/your/localsettings/file/soatest-app-cov.properties"

Step 5: Reviewing Application Coverage Results in DTP

In order to view coverage in the DTP dashboard, you will need to associate the coverage data sent to DTP with the filter.

  1. Choose Report Center Settings from the DTP settings (gear icon) menu.
  2. Click Filters and locate your DTP project. By default, a filter is created in DTP for each project. The filter has the same name of the project.
  3. Click on the filter and verify that the appropriate run configurations have been added to the filter. A run configuration is a set of metadata about test and analysis executions that enable DTP to make the correct correlations for accurate reporting. If Jtest or dotTEST is configured to report to the project associated with the filter, then the run configurations will automatically be added to the filter by default.
  4. In the Coverage Images section, rename one of the image indexes to Application Coverage and choose the coverage image tag you specified from the Coverage Image menu. 

    You can include additional coverage images if you want to view all of your coverage data in one interface. 
    Changes are automatically saved.
  5. Return to the DTP dashboard and add a coverage widget configured to show the Application Coverage coverage image.
  6. Specify the filter and build ID in the dashboard settings and the widget will show your coverage data. 

  7. You can click on the widget to view details in the Coverage Explorer view.

Collecting Application Coverage from Multiple Users

You can collect coverage information for functional tests even when multiple users are simultaneously accessing the same Java or IIS web application server. This allows QA engineers to perform testing sessions in parallel with automation and associate coverage with functional tests.

Collecting coverage data from multiple users requires additional configuration steps before you start your testing session. You need to:

  1. Configure the Coverage Agent to enable the multiple-user mode; see Configuring the Coverage Agent to Run in the Multiple-User Mode.
  2. Specify your User ID for the connection with the Coverage Agent attached to the AUT. This will enable the Coverage Agent to identify and assign coverage information to individual users who are simultaneously interacting with the AUT. In SOAtest, provide your User ID on the Application Coverage tab of your test configuration; see Connecting SOAtest to the Coverage Agent.

Configuring the Coverage Agent to Run in the Multiple-User Mode

Enabling the Multiple-user Mode with dotTEST

You can enable the multi-user mode by modifying the invocation of the dotTEST IIS Manager tool (see Step 2: Attach the Coverage Agent to the Application Under Test (AUT)). Launch the tool with the -multiuser switch:

dottest_iismanager.exe -multiuser

Enabling the Multiple-user Mode with Jtest

You can enable the multiple-user mode by modifying the options in the agent.properties file, which is included in the monitor.zip package (see Generating Static Coverage with Jtest). Open the file and configure the following option:

jtest.agent.enableMultiuserCoverage=true