Fixed width files contain columns of data that are in fixed
positions within the file (for example, "Emp/Last Name" uses the first
15 characters, "Emp/First Name" uses the next 15 characters).
A file data source can be used to populate tag values from
the contents of complete files. Two file types delimited and
fixed width are available when you are using a file data source.
When you are use fixed width files, you must define the contents of
the file so that Test Integrations and APIs knows how to extract the data
from each line.
- Click Browse to select
the data source file and select the Fixed Width option.
If the test data source location is on a mapped
network drive, you might get errors when running performance tests.
To prevent any errors, ensure that the files are available on a local
drive that can be accessed by Test Integrations and APIs.
- Indicate how you are going to define the
data field locations in the source file:
- Offset/Width: "offset" equals
the number of characters that precede the field and "width" equals
the number of characters that are used by the field.
- Start Char/End Char: "start
char" is the position directly before the field starts and "end char"
is the last position of the field. "Start char" for the first field
is always zero, which is one less than the first position in the file
(that is, one). "End char" for all fields equals the length of the
field plus its starting value, and this value is carried to "Start
char" for the next field.
- Click Import to set
the rules for determining the data locations. The Import
Config dialog is displayed.
- Enter the rules or paste rules that were
previously copied to the clipboard. Rules must be entered in the following
format: Field Name<tab>value<tab>value
As an example, take the following file content:
Thompson Aaron Developer 72000
Miller James Developer 68000
Bryant Samuel Tester 54000
Jones Richard Tester 56500
In this file, "Emp/Last Name" uses
the first 15 characters, "Emp/First Name" uses the next 15 characters,
"Emp/Position" uses the next 12 characters, and "Emp/Salary" uses
the last six characters. The fields are "padded" with spaces.
The corresponding rules for this file are shown:
Offset/Width Rules Start Char/End Char Rules
Emp/Last Name 0 15 Emp/Last Name 0 15
Emp/First Name 15 30 Emp/First Name 15 30
Emp/Position 30 42 Emp/Position 30 42
Emp/Salary 42 48 Emp/Salary 42 48
Note: Start Char/End Char rules are converted
to Offset/Width figures when displayed in the data source configuration
dialog.
- If the fields in your files are padded with
extra characters so that they fill their space in the line, select
the Trim cell padding option and specify the
padding character. This character is removed when data is extracted.
- If Auto map new columns to tags at runtime is
selected (the default value), then the values in any new columns that are added to the test
data set are used as test data. This assumes that a tag exists that exactly matches each new
column name and that the column count property is not set.
- If the number of test iterations can exceed
the number of rows in the file, enable the Loop Data option
to force Test Integrations and APIs to process the same rows over and over.
- Click Refresh to
generate a preview of the data that are returned.
- Save the data source when finished, then
see Creating tags from data source fields for details about copying column names to create
tags from them.