Lesson 8: Reporting

The detailed log messages generated by a recording or by a code module shown in the figure above consist of a time stamp, a report level, a category and message text. By default logging is turned on for recordings. Use the Recorder's settings dialog to change the default value and to turn off logging for new recordings. In order to turn logging off or on for a particular action item, open the properties and set the 'Use Default Logging' attribute to false.

Jump to Item/Testcase and Analyze with Spy

Expand the report as shown above and move the mouse pointer over the first log message.

Filter Log Messages

Report Folder

For each run of a test suite, a single test case or a recording a new log file (*.rxlog) is generated and saved in the project's 'Report' folder. You can open older report files by double-clicking the file in the project view. Specify the file names used for the report files within the test suite's settings dialog.

Within Ranorex you are able to use different levels of reporting information importance, from a debug message to a failure information. In addition to predefined report levels, you can also easily define your own levels.

Report Levels describe the importance of a message that is delivered to the report. Using different kinds of report levels can help you keep your reports short and better readable.

Within a test suite or even within a test case, you are able to define a report level that describes the minimum level of reporting information (see Lesson 4: Ranorex Test Suite - Test Suite Settings for more information). Report information with a lower level of importance is ignored and does not fill up your report, whereas decreasing a test case's report level could assist you in finding errors in your testing scenario.

Predefined Report Levels

Ranorex provides the following predefined report levels - the level itself is indicated by integer values (which are written in parenthesis):

• Debug (10)
• Info (20)
• Warning (30)
• Error (40)
• Success (110)
• Failure (120)

The first five items describe different levels of importance for report messages. For instance an error message in the report indicates a logical test step error whereas a warning message should only get your attention but not indicate an error.

From report levels 'Debug' to 'Success', the result of the current module is still classified as a success whereas the 'Failure' report level classifies the module result as a failure; this is indicated by a red mark in the report.

Individual information can be sent to the report either by using usercode (i.e. code modules) or by using the recorder action 'Report'.

Logging Information via Code

You can use one of the following methods from the Ranorex 'Report' class in order to report information at a specific level:

• Ranorex.Report.Debug ("Debug Message");
• Ranorex.Report.Info ("Information Message");
• Ranorex.Report.Warn ("Warning Message");
• Ranorex.Report.Error ("Error Message");
• Ranorex.Report.Success("Success Message");
• Ranorex.Report.Failure("Failure Message");

Category

These methods can be used with a single parameter, the message text. Alternatively they can be used with an additional parameter indicating the category which is set to the default value 'User' in the first overload of such methods. The default category can also be set via code by assigning the 'Ranorex.Report.DefaultCategory' property. The category can be seen in a distinct column in the report. The following code lines demonstrate different reporting methods (and different reporting categories), resulting in the report shown after the code example.

// Reporting information (debug, info) using default Category "User"
Ranorex.Report.Debug("This is a Debug Information");
Ranorex.Report.Info("This is a Information");

// Setting Parameter Category to specific value and report a warning and an error
Ranorex.Report.Warn("Specific Category","This is a Warning Information");
Ranorex.Report.Error("Specific Category", "This is an Error Information");

// Setting the Default Category
Ranorex.Report.DefaultCategory = "My new default category";

// Reporting information (success, failure) using the new default category
Ranorex.Report.Success("This is a success information");
Ranorex.Report.Failure("This is a failure Information");

' Reporting information (debug, info) using default Category "User"
Ranorex.Report.Debug("This is a Debug Information")
Ranorex.Report.Info("This is a Information")

' Setting Parameter Category to specific value and report a warning and an error
Ranorex.Report.Warn("Specific Category", "This is a Warning Information")
Ranorex.Report.Error("Specific Category", "This is an Error Information")

' Setting the Default Category
Ranorex.Report.DefaultCategory = "My new default category"

' Reporting information(success, failure) using the new default category
Ranorex.Report.Success("This is a success information")
Ranorex.Report.Failure("This is a failure Information")

Note: Please consider that the report information at the failure level provides a screenshot automatically (if tracing screenshots is enabled). In order to visually retrace the last steps that lead to the current error, screenshots will be provided for the last three actions.

User-defined Report Levels

You are able to define your own report levels with a custom name and a value for the level:

Ranorex.ReportLevel MyNewReportLevel = new ReportLevel("My low Report Level", 25, null);
Ranorex.Report.Log (MyNewReportLevel, "This is unimportant information");

Dim MyNewReportLevel As Ranorex.ReportLevel = New ReportLevel("My low Report Level", 25, Nothing)
Ranorex.Report.Log(MyNewReportLevel, "This is unimportant information")

Depending on the current Report Level (see next chapter), the report information with the user-defined report level should appear in the report as follows:

Current Report Level

Report information only appears in the report if the parent test case has a report level setting lower than or equal to the current report information level. The current report level can also be set using code:

Ranorex.Report.CurrentReportLevel = Ranorex.ReportLevel.Parse("Only Highest Importance;90");

"Ranorex.Report.CurrentReportLevel = Ranorex.ReportLevel.Parse("Only Highest Importance;90")

This assignment causes the inclusion of reporting information only at a level greater the or equal to 90, which is 'Success' and 'Failure'. The resulting report, which is caused by the same code from above but with a different current report level, can be seen below.

Note: The current report level can always be overridden by logging information with the report level 'Always'.

Ranorex.Report.Log (Ranorex.ReportLevel.Always, "User", "Any-Case message");

Ranorex.Report.Log (Ranorex.ReportLevel.Always, "User", "Any-Case message")

Reporting Screenshots

Screenshots of the current state of the system under test or any UI element can be easily sent to the report.

Ranorex.Report.Screenshot (MyRepo.KeePass.Toolbar.Self);

Ranorex.Report.Screenshot(MyRepo.KeePass.Toolbar.Self)

If you call the screenshot method without any arguments, a screenshot of the whole desktop will be available in your report.

Note: Screenshots from UI elements can only be made if the element is visible at the time a screenshot is made. Controlling your application using code does not necessarily bring your application to the front and make it visible. To ensure the visibility of UI elements, use the 'EnsureVisible' method which is provided by any element that is derived from Ranorex Adapter class (e.g. 'Text', 'RadioButton', 'Button', etc.). Consequently, rooted folders from repository or even application folders do not ensure visibility. Alternatively you can ensure visibility by using the 'Self' property from that object types (rooted folder or application folder).

Reporting System Summary

The Ranorex reporting class provides a way to simply report a system summary:

Ranorex.Report.SystemSummary();

Ranorex.Report.SystemSummary()

Logging Information from Recorder

The Ranorex Recorder provides a way to send information directly to the report. Just use the 'Add New Action' button from the toolbar and add a 'Report' Action.

Predefined Report Level

Just like a call from code, you can specify one of the predefined report levels directly within the recorder's actions table.

Custom Report Level

Report messages with a custom report level can also be submitted. Simply choose the 'Custom' report level in the drop-down.

Screenshots and Snapshots

Since Ranorex Version 3.3, you can send screenshots and even snapshots to your report directly from the recorder's actions table. These two actions require a connection to a repository item in order to specify from which object the screenshot or snapshot should be made.