Test suite templates

Test suite templates are another feature for providing generic test suites. A typical case for defining test suite templates are value domain tests. When testing value ranges for maximum and minimum value, five test cases result from the requirement (lower than and equal to minimum, between minimum and maximum, equal to and greater than maximum). Normally, one will not define all those test cases, but just say "test p1 to be equal to or greater than 0 and equal to or lower than 10". Passing p1, 0 and 20 to a value domain test suite template allows generating the five required tests or test suites (e.g. as subordinated test suites) and running those afterward.

One solution for this approach is illustrated within the example framework by providing a specific preprocessing action, which generates and fills the 5 required subordinated test suites, which will be called automatically after finishing generation.

It depends on specific test strategies, whether test templates are executed once or for each test run. When generating the test suite once, test run conditions will not change when rerunning the test. On the other hand, template improvements will apply on a test run, only, when generating test suites all the time a test run is executed.