In this article we shall understand what are the different entities which are part of Oracle Flow Builder testing automation framework, how are they connected and learn more insights of all the entities.
Oracle Flow Builder has got the following entities which makes it a robust automation framework to test Oracle EBS Application.
- Framework tool.
- Framework design.
- Components
- Component Sets.
- End to End business Flows.
- Other entities.
Let us understand each of them one after the other. One can also learn how to test automate the Oracle EBS Application automation testing by going through Oracle Flow Builder course.
Framework tool:
The tool or the web portal takes care of the process and structure of how the test assets need to be arranged an used. The automation test engineer need not invest any of his intelligence or time in arranging them in a structured fashion. Also takes care of proper workflows like component approval to happen post proper review from senior members in the team, providing access to respective person based on their role and expertise.
Framework design:
It is a component based keyword driven automation framework, now the question is how is it different from any other existing automation testing frameworks? I would first want you to go through the article which describes what is an automation framework?
Keyword based:
In keyword based automation testing frameworks there would be an inline engine or piece of code which runs through the keyword, action combinations and perform the operations on the application under test, in turn increases the effort to debug when the automated script execution fails. The automation test engineer who is supposed to quickly identify if the issue is due to a bug in the functionality or some glitch in the automated script, they end up spending lot of time in identifying the root cause of script execution failure.
This problem has been solved by Oracle Flow Builder’s automation testing framework, it does not have any engine to run through keyword, action combinations and perform automated testing but it actually generates very easily understandable automated steps of openscript, in most of the cases it is the recorded steps. Now when there is any script execution failure the automation test engineer need not waste time in debugging any complex logics like functions or nested for loops. And interestingly it is still a keyword based framework which has many other advantages like easy maintenance.
Componentized:
Being a componentized framework it is more in line with business functional points and it is highly reusable and easily maintainable. In addition it reduces a considerable amount of effort that is required to develop new end to end automated business scenarios. Now that the components are already available it is just that one has to arrange them in a proper order to make a meaningful end to end automated business scenario.
Components:
Component in Oracle Flow Builder has a slightly different definition than any other component based frameworks which are available in the automated testing market.
Component has a minimum number of instructions which can independently make a meaningful functional entity. That is for example I have 2 pages to navigate but I may not be able to come to the second page in any other navigations but just need to come from page 1, in that case automation of both the pages are to be made as a single component.
Component Sets:
Component set is a collection of components in a specific order to make a meaningful business entity like Purchase order creation which has Purchase order Header, Purchase order line, purchase order shipment, purchase order distribution and purchase order approval as independent components, which when arranged in an order will allow you to create a successful purchase order.
End to End business Flows:
The end to end business flows is a collection of components or component sets arranged in a meaningful order to create a meaningful test case scenario that is like Procure to pay flow. Now this test scenario need to be provided with test data and it is ready to generate a test automated script for a Procure to pay business scenario.
Now in a flow each time we need to create a purchase order we need to arrange a minimum of 6 components in a meaningful order, rather it is more user friendly if we can just include one component set which has all the components arranged in a required order. This is where we see the advantage of having component sets.
Coming to test data, it can be done by a excel template that gets generated from a flow automatically, post filling up of the data it can be directly uploaded to make a complete automated end to end test scenario. This is how the flows are parameterized.
Other entities:
The other major entities of this framework are the pre build function libraries, these libraries contain the functions which can never be achieved through simple record play instructions, that is for example automation testing tool need to repeated click on a button until a status is changed in another field, these are the scenarios which we cannot predict as how many number of times we need to repeatedly click on the button.
The framework as a whole has achieves the following:
- Less maintenance
- Ease of execution
- Ease of debugging
- Re Usability
- Data parameterization
- Quick development of end to end business scenarios
We would request you to provide your valuable feedback or ask for any queries that you have in the form of comments in this article.
