Traced Instances and Messages

Specification of the observation to be traced

Complementing the input interface definition, the 'Traced Instances and Messages' section of the interface definition tab allows the user to define, which messages shall be recorded in the generated test cases. Only the selected instances and messages will appear in the test cases.

When creating ATGComponent and ATGConfiguration using 'Apply ATG' on a test context, by default all supported instances and messages of test context and its parts will be selected in the 'Traced Intances and Messages' section of the created ATGConfiguration. This default is adequate for white box testing as well as for black box testing (Assertion based testing ignores internal messages of the SUT unless grey box testing is applied explicitly (cf. TC User Guide)).

Note: Note: It is always recommended to select the SUT and its operations and event recptions in order to generate meaningful test cases.

Similar to the input interface section, context menus are defined for the items in the 'Traced Intances and Messages' section (where item is one of: 'Traced Intances and Messages' section itself, class or actor, operation or event recection):

Reset Interface of context item: resets the selection for the 'Traced Intances and Messages' section itself, class or actor, operation or event recection.
Set Interface of context itemm: sets the selection for the 'Traced Intances and Messages' section itself, class or actor, operation or event recection - if not set already. The instance is set to '0' denoting the first created instance (cf. Identification of instances with qualified name vs. instance index).
Set Interface of context item according to TestContext: sets the selection for the 'Traced Intances and Messages' section itself, class or actor, operation or event recection - if not set already. The instance is set according to the instantiation role in the test architecture to which the ATGConfiguration refers (cf. Identification of instances with qualified name vs. instance index).

Identification of instances with qualified name vs. instance index

See Identification of instances with qualified name vs. instance index.

Tracing operations and receptions with arguments of unsupported types (as don't cares)

Similar to the definition of input interfaces, operations and receptions with arguments of unsupported types are greyed out in the dialog and can't be selected for the traced interface by default.

Sometimes it might be of interest, to trace the calls and receptions regardless of their argument values, e.g. if the argument of some operation is an address - which is as argument type not supported by ATG. Nonetheless, if the call of the operation is of interest, the particular argument value can be treated as don't care.

If boolean property AutomaticTestGenerator.Settings.DisableTypeApplicabilityCheckInTracedMessages of the code generation configuration - to which the ATGComponent or ATGConfiguration refers - is checked, then ATG will omit the argument type check for operation and reception arguments in the traced interface definition dialog. Arguments of unsupported types of the traced messages will then be traced as don't cares, denoted by '*' in the test scenarios.

Changing the property will have an effect on the dialog only after synchronizing ATG data with the model.