Using State Processes

State processes are processes that are used by the execution engine to:

Load and unload the application
Log on and log out of the application
Terminate the application

These processes are created similarly to other processes; however, they are marked as state processes so that they can be executed automatically during specific times during test execution. In Certify, you can add the following two state processes for an application version:

Process Name

Behavior

Start Process

The first time an application version is encountered during execution, Certify checks to see if a start process exists for the application version. If the application version does not have a start process, Certify assumes that you have the application already in context and attempts to execute the first step of the process.

If the application version has a start process for loading the application version, Certify executes the steps in the start process before executing the steps in the selected process.

End Process

The end process is automatically run by Certify at the end of the process execution as a clean-up process. If the application version does not have an end process, Certify assumes that the selected process has a step to exit the application version, or that you manually exit the application version.

End processes are run for all application versions encountered during execution that have an end process defined.

Each state process can contain one or more steps. For example, the start process may include steps to launch a program, enter data to log on, and click buttons to put the application into the position for the first test to execute.

Running State Processes

You can control whether or not to run the start or end process when executing a process. In the Configuration dialog, the Application Version Startup Data section lists all of the application versions in context. Application versions only appear in this field when you have defined a start or end process.

Application versions in context means that you have already loaded your application version and positioned the application at the state where the selected process begins. If you select a start or end process in this field, then Certify ignores the start or end process and only executes the steps in the selected process. If you do not select any application versions in this field and have defined start and end processes, then Certify runs the start and end process that you created for the application version.