Running a TestComposer Script with Parallel Steps

This describes launching the run and inspecting information.

Whenever an TestComposer script executes parallel steps, in addition to the Main thread that is present in every script, a new thread is generated for each parallel step. At any moment during the script execution time or while execution is paused by the user or halted by a breakpoint, all active threads are listed in the Threads drop-down control and in the Threads tab.

From all active threads, the thread selected at one moment in the Threads drop-down is the thread whose currently executing steps are displayed.

A parallel thread executes simultaneously with the Main thread and can terminate before it, in which case the control is returned to Main.
For threads that take longer to execute than the duration of the Main thread, the behavior at the termination of Main can be specified as script creation time, as described in Defining Script Properties.

Whenever the execution of a thread is halted, either by reaching a breakpoint or when execution is halted by clicking the toolbar button, the script execution is halted on both the Main and all parallel threads.

To run a TestComposer script with parallel steps:

  1. Click the Play toolbar button and run the script according to the current play mode.
  2. The Main thread steps sequence executes with the currently executing step shown green .

  3. When a parallel step is reached and starts executing, its highlighting in the Test Steps table changes from light blue to light magenta and a new thread is created.
  4. While the parallel step is executing, you can navigate to the Threads drop-down control and select the parallel thread. The thread's entry point in the Test Steps table becomes highlighted using dark magenta and the steps shown as executing currently (highlighted green ) are the steps pertaining to the parallel thread instead of to the Main thread.

  5. When a breakpoint is reached, the execution stops at that location and the step on the current thread, Main or another parallel thread, is shown highlighted yellow . If the reached breakpoint was defined on a parallel thread, the thread's entry point in the Test Steps table is highlighted dark magenta .
  6. You can visualize the halted steps on any of the other active threads by selecting a thread from those available in the Threads drop-down.

  7. When the execution of a parallel thread ends, its highlighting changes from light magenta to light blue .
  8. The TestComposer script execution ends after the last step of the Main thread is terminated.

    In the Sessions Output pane, in addition to the main tab for the Tcl Code/Expression Analyzer, for each executed parallel step an additional information tab is displayed.

In order to avoid an unpredictable behavior at script runtime, special care has to be taken when configuring and executing parallel steps, as described in Parallel Steps Configuration Hints.