Testing Databases

You may be testing a distributed application that accesses a database or you may be directly testing database software. In either of these cases, you might want to manipulate the database directly from Silk Test Classic for several purposes:
  • To exercise certain database functions that are present in a GUI that runs directly on the server machine and is not a client application. For example, administrative functions used for setting up the database.
  • To set the server database to a known state.
  • To verify an application’s database results without using the application.
  • To read information from the database to use as input to a test case.

Silk Test Classic can drive a server application’s GUI by means of the Silk Test Classic Agent exactly as it drives a client application. In addition, the database tester provides direct access, using SQL, from a test script to any database supported by ODBC drivers. These database functions enable you to read and write database records without using the client application. Thus, you can verify client test results without assuming the ability of the client to do that verification.

In addition to using the SQL functions in your tests, you can also use these functions to help manage your testing process as follows:
  • Maintain a bug database, updating it with the results of your testing.
  • Manage your test data in a database instead of in a text file.

The database functions, among other things, allow you to connect to a database, submit an SQL statement, read data from the selected record(s) if the SQL statement was SELECT, and subsequently disconnect from the database. About a dozen of these functions allow you to access your database’s catalog tables.

The functions that support these operations begin with the letters "DB_".