Create And Manage Workspaces In Tricentis TOSCA Automation Tool

This Tutorial Explains How to Create and Manage TOSCA Workspaces. You Will Also Learn About Import, Export And Checkout Process for TOSCA Objects:

In this TOSCA Series For Beginners, we discussed the overview of the TOSCA automation tool, that was just the introduction to the tool to help beginners get started with it in our previous tutorial.

Now in this article, we will gain some more knowledge about the tool i.e. workspaces types, check-in/checkout concept, and import/export features. Let’s discuss them in detail.

TOSCA Workspaces

There are mainly two types of workspaces in TOSCA.

1. Single User Workspace
2. Multi-User Workspace

Single User Workspace: Unrestricted access for one user which means only one user/tester can use it. This is a sort of single license.

Multi-User Workspace: This type of access is for the test team members. As multiple users can use the workspace at a time, this type of workspace has the Checkout concept.

Now we will see how to create these workspaces.

Creation of new Single User Workspace

• Launch TOSCA Commander
• On the top menu select “Workspace -> New”

• Select type “None (Creates single user workspace)” for the repository in a pop-up window
• Give it a path where the workspace project data will be stored
• Enter a preferred name for the new workspace
• Press the “Ok” button.

• Wait for the result and then
• Press the “Close” button

This is how the workspace is created. Now we will see how to open the created workspace.

Open an already created Workspace

• Launch TOSCA Commander
• On the top menu select “Workspace -> Open”

• After that, select the workspace in which you have to work by following the path defined in the project i.e. (the path that was given while creating the workspace)

In the above example:

C:\Data\Documents\TOSCA\TOSCA_Workspaces\Test\test.tws (name of the workspace and the user has to be entered. Here “Test” is the workspace name and “test” is the username)

• The workspace file extension is .tws, select workspace file (test.tws) and click on the “Open” button.
• Enter the username and password to login to the respective workspace.

Checkout Concept

The checkout concept is only applicable to the multi-user workspace where many users work in the workspace at the same time. There is a high possibility of data getting overwritten in this type because multiple users are involved.

So to avoid overwriting data i.e. created by other test experts/testers, all elements to be used and changed must be checked out first. Elements in the database (objects) can be changed or deleted only after checkout. When the elements are checked-out by one particular user, all other users can not make changes to those checked-out elements.

Checkout

• Checkout of a folder or a single element

Checkout Tree

• Checkout of a folder including all subfolders all elements

Update all

• Changes of other users are updated

Checkin all

• Checkin of all new and checked-out elements

Checkin Tree

• Checkin of a folder including all subfolders and elements

Checkout Status

Check out status is indicated by colored icons left to the element in the tree structure. Details are given in the image below-

We explained the checkout concept above. Now, let us see the practical aspects of the concept.

If you want to create a new folder in the existing folder structure, use the checkout command to checkout the existing folder where you need to create this new folder. In this case, only the new folder will be checked out. If you want to change or use other folders at the same level, then use the command Checkout Tree.

You can make all changes done in your workspace permanent in the main database by clicking the button or using the command Checkin all.

When you start your work in the morning, launch the TOSCA commander, open your workspace, the first thing to do is to click on the button Update all. By doing that you will get all the work updated by others in your workspace. It is very essential to get all the updates before you make any changes in your workspace. Your saved work will only be seen in every user’s workspace when you activate Checkin all and all others activate Update all.

Checkout

Checkout Tree

Checkin all (TOSCA provides Checkin all icon in the top menu bar)

Update all (TOSCA provides Update all icon in the top menu bar)

Import And Export Of TOSCA Objects

TOSCA provides import & export features, it helps to transfer data from one project to another. Data from a single user project can be copied to a multiuser project and vice-versa.

All objects in TOSCA Commander™ can be exported in subsets using the command Export Subset.

Subsets are XML files; these are actually compressed data files which are having file extension as .tce, if you want to call the objects from one project to another, TOSCA Commander™ automatically exports all the objects which are necessary to restore the selected objects in another project.

The import of a subset in TOSCA Commander™ is done through the context menu of the project root element. The import process does not overwrite any existing data. It always adds data to a separate folder in the project. Subsets allow unrestricted data transfer between the single user and multiuser projects. The use of subsets is possible for all user groups.

The import subset and export subset options are available either on the project root element or on a component folder. Just right click on the root folder or any component folder and in the context menu, you will find Export Subset and Import Subset options.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we discussed TOSCA workspace, check-out concept, some of the guidelines while using the checkout process. We also discussed import, export features in TOSCA.

We hope you got a good idea of how to create and manage workspaces in the TOSCA Automation Tool.

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