You can configure SOAtest settings once and propagate them across the team’s installations. You can also extend or override these settings as needed, such as for machine-specific paths. In this section

Workflow Overview

Implement the following workflow if your organization uses Parasoft DTP:

Choose Parasoft> Preferences from a SOAtest desktop installation and configure your settings.
Export the settings as a settings file. The settings file is a configuration file with a .properties file extension.
Add the settings to your team’s DTP server.
Connect your SOAtest desktops and/or servers to DTP and allow it to automatically configure your SOAtest installations. You can also manually extend or override those settings as needed.
When team-wide preferences need to be updated, update them on the DTP. Changes will automatically be propagated to the connected tools.

If your organization does not use DTP, you can export the settings configured in one SOAtest installation and import them manually to each desktop installation. For server configurations, use the following command to point to a locally-stored .properties file:

-settings <path/to/file>

Configuring Preferences in the UI

Choose Parasoft> Preferences and configure the following settings:
- E-mail, see Configuring Email Settings.
- License, see Licensing.
- DTP, see Connecting to DTP.
- Team Server (deprecated), see Connecting to Parasoft Team Server (Deprecated)
- Source control, see Connecting to Your Source Control Repository.
- Authors, see Specifying Author-to-Author and Author-to-Email Mappings.
- Any additional settings you want to share. See Preference Configuration Basics for details.
Click Parasoft in the sidebar menu to return to the top-level preferences page and click the Share link.
Specify where you want to store the settings file and which settings you want to include in the exported file.
Copy the contents of the .properties file to the project or global settings in DTP. See the DTP documentation for details.

About Multicast DNS

DTP uses multicast DNS to broadcast its services in the local network. This allows SOAtest to automatically detect available DTP servers, which enables easy configuration. In the file <INSTALL>/eclipse.ini, add the line -Dparasoft.jmdns.autoconf.disabled=true after the -vmargs parameter.

Configuring Preferences on Each Installation

Connect each desktop and/or server SOAtest installation to DTP and enable the option to automatically configure SOAtest. See Connecting to DTP for details.

Using Preference Settings for Command Line Execution

You can specify the preference settings stored in a file or allow DTP to auto-configure your settings.

Using an Existing, Locally Stored Settings File

For SOAtest server installations, use the following command to point to a locally stored settings file:

-settings <path/to/file>

See Configuring Settings for details on manually configuring the settings file.

Using the Settings Stored on DTP

Use the -dtp.autoconfig flag and specify the DTP project, host, and port to allow DTP to auto-configure your settings. This enables you to configure your tool without pointing to a settings file. For example:

-dtp.autoconfig [email protected]:8080

If you already have a settings file and want to import additional settings from DTP, use the dtp.autoconfig=true option and specify your connection settings. For example:

dtp.enabled=true
dtp.password=password
dtp.project=projectname
dtp.url=https://host.domain.com:8443
dtp.user=username
dtp.autoconfig=true

You can define common properties in DTP and configure per-test-run specific properties in various settings files for different test runs.

Specifying Multiple Groups of Settings

You can configure several settings files if you want to use a combination of settings. This enables you to use, for example, core project settings stored on DTP, test-specific settings associated with the particular machine, and custom settings for a specific set of analyses.

Export each group of settings as a settings file using the procedure described in Exporting GUI Preferences to a settings File
Use both -dtp.autoconfig and -settings at the command line. For example:
```
-dtp.autoconfig [email protected]:8080 -settings machine_override_properties -settings project_override_properties
```
Specify the most general settings first and your most specific settings last. Settings will be processed in the order in which they are listed; any settings that are duplicated across groups will be overridden each time a duplicate is found.

Updating Team-wide Settings

If you are using this recommended process, you can updated team-wide settings in Parasoft DTP, then those modifications will automatically be propagated to all the connected machines.

To prevent this automated updating (e.g., because you have updated settings locally and do not want them overridden), disable Use DTP settings on the Preferences page(s) you do not want updated from DTP.

Preference Categories

The following preferences are available in the UI:

Parasoft (Root-Level)	Sets general preferences and allows you to export settings to a settings file. Ignore solution and solution folder names in paths: Enables "reduced paths" mode. In this mode—where Parasoft Test uses only reduced (project relative) paths. Names of solution and solution folders will be skipped in these paths. New paths will be unique because project names are unique inside a solution. User name: Allows you to set a different user name than the one specified in the operating system. The user name is used in several Parasoft interfaces. Share/import: See Exporting GUI Preferences to a settings File. Send anonymous usage data to Parasoft: Allows you to enable or disable collecting and sending usage data to Parasoft. Read our privacy statement to learn more at https://www.parasoft.com/privacy-policy.
Authors	Maps a team member’s automatically detected username to a different username and/or email address. See Configuring Task Assignment and Code Authorship Settings.
Browser	Specifies which browser executables to use for web testing. See Browser Settings.
Configurations	Specifies the number of Test Configurations available in the Parasoft> Test History menu, the location where custom static analysis rules (user rules) are saved and searched for, and the location where user-defined Test Configurations and rules are saved and searched for. Size of recently run test configurations: Determines the number of Test Configurations available in the Parasoft> Test History menu. Custom directories: Indicates where user-defined Test Configurations and custom directories (e.g., for user rules, embedded cross-compilers, etc.) are saved. Run configuration on save: Tells the product to automatically run the specified Test Configuration each time a source file is saved. This enables fully-automated continuous desktop analysis.
Console	Specifies settings for the Console view. Low: Configures the Console view to show errors and basic information about the current step’s name and status (done, failed, up-to-date). Normal: Adds command lines and issues reported during test and analysis. High: Uses full-format violation listings and also reports warnings. Show console on any change: Determines whether the console is brought to the front any time its content changes
Continuous Testing Platform	Configures your connection to Continuous Testing Platform. See Continuous Testing Platform. Contact your Parasoft representative for additional information.
DTP	Configures your connection to DTP. See Connecting to DTP.
Dictionary	Configures the language dictionary.
E-mail	Specifies email settings used for report notifications and for sending files to Parasoft Technical Support. See Configuring Email Settings.
Global Data Sources	Specifies where the datasources.properties file is saved. See Adding a Data Source at the Test Suite, Project, or Global Level.
Issue Tracking Tags	Specifies custom tags that the team uses to associate a test case with an issue from an issue/feature/defect tracking system (for example, Jira). See Using Custom Defect/Issue Tracking Tags
JDBC Drivers	Specifies JDBC drivers that are needed to connect to a database. See Configuring JDBC Drivers
License	Specifies license settings. See Licensing.
MIME Types	Specifies recognized MIME types.
Misc.	Enables you to specify the following settings: Enable/disable tool descriptions in Add Test and Add Output Wizards Enable auto-beautify (formatting) for tools Character encoding Default timeout for connections Duplicate error handling Reset cookies for HTTP sessions Import preferences from a binary file Save settings Automatic backups (.bak files)
Proxy	Specifies custom proxy settings. The IDE proxy settings (General> Network) are used by default.
Quality Tasks	Specifies general options related to how tasks are displayed in the Quality Tasks view. See Configuring Task Reporting Preferences
Reports	Specifies what reports include and how they are formatted. The value used for the Session Tag field cannot contain colon characters (:). See Configuring Report Settings
Scanning	Specifies default user agent, FTP log, and script extensions.
Scope and Authorship	Specifies how code authorship is computed and how tasks are assigned to different team members. See Configuring Task Assignment and Code Authorship Settings
Scripting	Specifies additional scripting languages you can use in Scripting Tools. See Extensibility and Scripting Basics.
Security	Specifies settings for allowing the tool to connect to secure applications. See Configuring for Services Deployed Over HTTPS
Server	Specifies SOAtest server start-up and port settings. See Deploying the SOAtest and Virtualize Server WAR File.
SOAP	Specifies default SOAP settings.
Source Controls	Specifies the connection to your source control repositories. See Connecting to Your Source Control Repository
System Properties	Specifies additional JARs and class folders to add to the classpath.
Technical Support	Specifies options for preparing "support archives" and sending them to the Parasoft support team. See Contacting Parasoft Technical Support
UDDI	Specifies UDDI inquiry endpoint.
WSDL History	Enables you to set/reset the WSDL history.
XML Conversion	Specifies data model directories for XML conversion.
XML Schema History	Enables you to set/reset the XML schema history.
XML Schema Locations	Enables you to set/reset XML schema namespaces.

Using Variables

Some preferences, such as the report settings, enable you to use variables. This enables you to dynamically define outputs, such as report names or report metadata. See Configuring Settings for additional information about variables.

Using Variable Assist

For help specifying variables, you can use the variable assist feature, which automatically proposes possible variables when you type $. For example:

env_var	This variable specifies the value of an environmental variable. Use a colon followed by the name of a system environment variable before the closing curly brace to output the value of the environment variable. Usage: `${env_var:HOME`}
project_name	Outputs the name of the tested project. If more than one project is provided as an input, the name of the project tested is printed followed by an ellipsis (...). Usage: `${project_name`}
general_project	It outputs the name of the general DTP project that results are linked to. Only applies when connected to DTP. Usage: `${general_project`}
workspace_name	Outputs the workspace name or Visual Studio solution name. Usage: `${workspace_name`}
config_name	Outputs the name of executed test configuration. Only applies to reports and email settings. Usage: `${config_name`}
analysis_type	Outputs a comma separated list of enabled analysis types (for example: Static, Execution). Only applies to reports and email settings. Usage: `${analysis_type}`
tool_name	Outputs the name of the tool. Usage: `${tool_name}`

Overriding the System User Name Outside of the GUI

If you need to override the system user name (e.g., if you are integrating the product into an automated process and do not want the resulting tasks assigned to the default system name), you can do so as follows:

Provide the -Duser.name=<username> switch to the Java Virtual Machine

Note that this configuration is the equivalent to modifying the User name setting at the top level of the Preferences UI.

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Configuring Preferences Overview