RunProcess Step in Configuration Wizard

A RunProcess statement runs an external command, such as .exe or a script file.

To add a RunProcess statement step:

  1. While in the Test Steps pane, add a step by choosing the Actions > Add step... command.
  2. Select a RunProcess step type, click the button to validate the selection, and specify the following parameters:
    • Run Type: A RunProcess step can be executed only sequentially (Sequentially).
    • Delay: A delay specifying by how much step start is delayed. A delay value is automatically set when the step is added using the Capture functionality.
    • Timeout: A period of time after which the step execution is considered to have timed out.
    • Ignore step: When this option is selected, the step is skipped at execution time. Selecting this option is equivalent to right-clicking a step in the Test Steps table and choosing the Exclude command from the context menu that appears.
    • Description: An optional step description can be associated with the step.
    • Click Next.

  3. Define the Conditional Execution settings as explained below.
  4. Conditional Execution settings enable you to define the system conditions a test step execution is monitored for. When such a predefined condition occurs – a step error or a step timeout – an user-defined procedure is executed and an additional action is performed. For example, on encountering a step error, you could enforce the execution of a cleanup procedure and then terminate the test.

    To monitor the step for a predefined Timeout or Error condition, select the corresponding condition, then define the associated procedure – local or shared (external) – by clicking the control of the Procedure field and selecting a procedure from the the drop-down pane that appears.

    For the selected procedure you can view its defined arguments by clicking the control of the Input Arguments field, which displays a cascading table-format pane containing the argument list. To specify the actual runtime argument(s) enter the desired values in the Current Value field(s).

    Configure an additional action by clicking into additional actions column and selecting either of the following options:

    • Continue: After performing the specified procedure, the test execution continues.
    • Exit Test: After performing the specified procedure, the test execution is terminated.
    • Click Next.

    Whenever the step execution is monitored for predefined events, an icon is displayed in the step's corresponding Events selected column entry. For information on turning on the displaying of the Events selected column refer to Customizing the Script Steps Table Layout.

  5. Specify the following parameters:
    • External command: An existing external command to execute. Specify the command by clicking into the field and selecting a command file from the window that appears.
    • Process arguments: A list of arguments to pass to the command.
      The multiple line procedure arguments list, with one argument defined per line. When the procedure is executed, these arguments are passed to the procedure call.
    • Run in background: If selected, a new thread is spawned and the command is run in the background.
    • Kill process on timeout: If selected, the process is killed unconditionally when the step timeput expires.
    • Working directory: A directory in which the external command is started. If the external command generates any output files, this is the directory these files are stored in.
    • Click Next.

  6. Verify the step summary information and revert to a previous configuration step if needed. Click Finish.

Example:

RunProcess C:\WINDOWS\system32\arp.exe -a
 ....