Release 4.5 brings industry-first, comprehensive branching capability to the codeless world, along with a range of other rich features and enhancements. Here is the listing of important feature additions in Release 4.5.
Comprehensive Branching and Merge capability
ACCELQ now brings a comprehensive Branching and Merge capability to support test development across multiple parallel application versions/releases. Branching allows testing teams to create copies (Branches) of Projects in test development to work in parallel versions. ACCELQ’s offering is the first in the codeless world, with the same simplicity and intuitiveness as the broader platform itself.
Test teams can cut a branch from the central master repository and work on it without impacting the test assets in the Master branch. When the changes are ready and tested, you can merge them back to the Master branch. All these capabilities are handled in a codeless environment, with a functional perspective to asset updates. Internal dependencies across test assets are automatically resolved and the user is guided in a step-by-step manner to accomplish a smooth Merge process. A detailed article is found here.
Dynamic Agent selection for test execution
When running a job, you can now specify a pattern for the Agent name instead of hardwiring to a specific agent name. This allows the system to automatically load-balance the test executions and at the same time, provides flexibility to avoid hard-coded agent names. ACCELQ can pick the best available Agent based on its job thresholds and other factors. Click here for further details.
Mainframe automation with TE Elements
With Release 4.5, you can now create TE elements natively in ACCELQ. This allows TE automation and validation API to work against a central element repository, just like Web testing. Several enhancements are added to ease out the operational aspects of the TE automation server. TE server lifecycle is now managed completely transparently by the system. TE server is started/stopped during the test execution automatically without the need for a user to manually manage it. Here are some relevant articles:
Webinar | ACCELQ 4.5 Release
Multi-View Recording with the Plugin
View Recorder plugin is revved up with several enhancements, including the ability to record multiple page Views in one session. When you are in a View capture session, you can navigate between multiple application screens and incrementally add to the View repository. An entire workflow can be captured in one go avoiding back and forth between the ACCELQ screen and the plugin. Here is the detailed article.
Configuring Test Report Emails
You can now configure the content of Email test report with the ability to select which columns to display in the report. Custom fields assigned to a Scenario or a test case are eligible to be selected for display.
In addition, you can also configure the summary view in the email report with the custom fields on which the result breakdown charts (perspectives) should be displayed. Here is the detailed article.
Enhanced Advanced Element Creation
You can now specify an element’s advanced selector while creating an abstract web element. The view-based approach is still the preferred method for setting up element ID in ACCELQ. But this enhancement makes it easy to define XPath/CSS for the elements in a single step while you create an abstract element.
Command Explorer help in Logic Editor
The Command Explorer help module is significantly enhanced for better usability and command search. While you are building statements in Action logic, you can contextually open the command explorer and find further help and options.
Additionally, you can directly invoke Module-level help by clicking on the “Building Action Logic” link at the bottom of the help-center.
Enhancements to CI integrations
CI integration is standardized across multiple supported platforms (Jenkins, Bamboo, Team City, Azure DevOps, etc.) with a consistent plugin look & feel and the API calls. This includes the ability to configure a proxy server (where needed), usage of an API key instead of a user password, etc. You will no longer find session overrides resulting due to concurrent test run activity from CI end-points.
Default Selector optimization
Significant enhancements are implemented in the calculation of the default selector for an element. When you are interacting with a new element on a View, the system automatically calculates the optimal default selector. In many cases, there are multiple options possible to arrive at element uniqueness. This enhancement further strengthens the AI-based algorithm to arrive at the most optimal and minimal selector. Remember, it is always a good practice to review the selector and make any necessary updates.
Bug fixes and security enhancements
Bug fixes related to functionality, stability, and security are included in the Release. Performance improvements in loading large Scenarios and projects with thousands of shared Actions are also part of the Release.