[Webtest] [webtest][JIRA] Created: (WT-161) <property> values not initialized within <webtest> task

[John Kercher (JIRA)]

<property> values not initialized within <webtest> task
-------------------------------------------------------

         Key: WT-161
         URL: http://webtest-community.canoo.com/jira/browse/WT-161
     Project: WebTest
        Type: Bug
    Versions: 1.7    
 Environment: winxp pro, ant 1.6.5, found in webtest build 1209 
    Reporter: John Kercher


>From my post (28 Feb 2006) to the mailing list (subject "support of <property> via <antWrapper>"):

Recently I suggested adding support for nested <property> tags within
<steps> so that modules could declare default properties that could be
overridden by the caller.  Marc pointed me to the <antWrapper>.  I
grabbed the latest build (1209) and gave it try.  I modified my
createuser module to preset some properties that test authors might not
be concerned about in all cases:

<echo>module:createUser.xml</echo>
<fail unless="createuser.name">
The required property 'createuser.name' was not specified; this property
must specify a unique name for the user to be created.
</fail>

<property name="createuser.pwd" value="pwd"/>
<property name="createuser.pwd.confirm" value="pwd"/>
<property name="createuser.isUser" value="True"/>
<property name="createuser.isAdmin" value="False"/>
<property name="createuser.isEnabled" value="True"/>
<property name="createuser.email"
value="${createuser.name}@wherever.org"/>
<property name="createuser.notes" value="This user created by
WebTest."/>

<echo>checking default: pwd=${createuser.pwd}</echo>

<invoke         description="get create user page" url="/CreateUser!input.action"/>

<setinputfield  description="set user name" name="user.name" value="${createuser.name}"/>
<setinputfield  description="set user password" name="password" value="${createuser.pwd}"/>
<setinputfield  description="confirm password" name="confirmPassword" value="${createuser.pwd.confirm}"/>
(...etc...)

<clickElement   description="submit new user" xpath="//*[@name = 'createUser']"/>

The <echo> and <fail> tasks work as expected (without specifying
<antWrapper>, which is cool), but the default <property> setters do not.
The line that echos default properties outputs "checking default:
pwd=${createuser.pwd}", as if the property had never been set.  I also
tried putting these in an external properties file and including it in
the module, but the results were the same.

Is this expected/known behavior?  I can remove these defaults to an
external file and include them before the <webtest> task, but it seems
like being able to include them in the module would improve the module's
usability (as far as test writers are concerned).

>From Mark G.'s reply in the mailing list:

This is not expected and wasn't known.
I think that the reason is that we evaluate the properties to early (in fact
when the task is added to the container) instead of evaluating them just before
execution. I guess that following minimal test would show the problem too:

<webtest>
  <steps>
    <property name="myProp" value="foo"/>
    <echo message="myProp: ${myProp}"/>
  </steps>
</webtest>

I recommand you to open a bug issue for this problem. This won't be fixed before
the symbolic 2.0 (next week) but some changes I already had in mind will address
this problem too.

Marc.

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