Q: How to set a general variable?

[thim81]

Hi Ken,

Another question, is it possible to set a general variable at the beginning of a flow, that can be used everywhere in the flow?

Example:

js var project_name = "MarcoPolo" + Math.floor(Math.random()*200);

// Step 1 create project
enter //input[@placeholder="Project name"] as '+project_name+'
click submit

// Validate
echo project_name
test.assertSelectorHasText(tx('body'), project_name,'Project '+project_name+' created successfully');

[kensoh]

Hi @thim81 yes, you can use below statement directly as TagUI will recognize the ; at the end of the line and interpret it as JavaScript. Using var is not wrong but in many cases, defining as local variable (for example in a popup step or frame step) will make it inaccessible in later parts of your automation. In general, defining directly using variable_name = value; is easier to make it accessible throughout.

project_name = "MarcoPolo" + Math.floor(Math.random()*200);

Sample automation flow 9 has some more examples of using variables -
https://github.com/tebelorg/TagUI/blob/master/src/samples/9_misc

[thim81]

Hi @kensoh,

You were right removing the var helped with the strange behaviour that sometimes the variable became undefined

Thanks for the great help.

[kensoh]

Adding on for future reference by other users the technical reason for that -

TagUI converts the natural-language-like syntax into CasperJS syntax JavaScript code to run automation. So a simple 1 line step in many cases will be converted into a more elaborate code block which does auto-waiting of the web element to appear, error handling and timeout when it does not appear, and taking the action when it appears.

Using var declares a local variable within the context of that particular code block, which may allow the variable to be accessed directly if the reference happens within the same code block. But that will most likely fail in subsequent steps, unless the next steps are simple steps such as echo which does not really do all those handling of web element.

Declaring directly using variable_name = value; is recommended and should make it accessible throughout the automation steps.

[kensoh]

Added 2 commits related to this issue. Readme improvement to show how to define variable. And a new commit to simply recognize a = 1 as a valid statement to define variable. So that ; is not needed at the end. Commit comments below with more info, especially the note why where possible TagUI tries to throw error if it is not valid JavaScript code.

#30 - add variable_name step to show how to define a variable manually for use

#30 - set variable without typing ; at the end
; is used to detect that it is a valid JavaScript code
variable assignments are so often used that detecting = should be
acceptable, since that check is done at the very end of checking for
TagUI steps and other JavaScript keywords.

So the following will now work and be more convenient. Update readme
only when making new release and packaged installations.

a = 1
b = ‘b’
c = ”c”

Adding on, reason for JavaScript checking instead of taking anything
that is not TagUI step as JavaScript is to try to catch as much user
error as possible before even running an automation flow. This speeds
up development time rapidly without going through all the steps during
automation just to run into a user code error.