Release Notes
September 2013
Quest Code Tester for Oracle is a tool to help you test Oracle code, written in the PL/SQL language. Code testing is generally acknowledged to be one of the biggest challenges and disappointments in the world of software.
We all know we should test our code. More than that, we all want to test our code, but there are many challenges to implementing a strong regression test of our code.
These challenges include having to write a large volume of test code, keeping that test code in synch with our application code as it changes, verifying the results of running our tests, and more.
Quest Code Tester for Oracle tackles these challenges by making it easy to define your tests, generate your test code, and run the tests, all within an easy-to-use graphical interface.
The bottom line with Quest Code Tester: you don't write test code. You describe your tests, and the tool then generates the test code (as a PL/SQL package) that implements your test definition.
2.6.1 introduces the resolved issues and enhancements listed below.
Code Tester for Oracle 2.6 supports Unicode in the following places in the product:
Note: Code Tester is not able to connect to Oracle schemas with Unicode symbols in their names.
To be compatible with Unicode:
Code Tester for Oracle 2.6 now supports the following data types:
Code Tester is able to test programs with arguments/return values of these data types, and create input and outcome values for such tests.
Note:For all of the above datatypes, you must specify values as expressions and not literals.
Starting with Code Tester 2.6, you can connect to databases with the Oracle 64-bit Client. The 64-bit client software must be installed on the computer on which the Code Tester client executes.
Here are some tips for using Code Tester with the 64-bit client:
The following is a list of issues addressed and enhancements implemented in this release of Quest Code Tester for Oracle:
| Feature | Resolved Issue | ID | Support ID |
|---|---|---|---|
| Import | Importing into 11.2.0.2 and higher 64-bit databases now functions properly. (ORA-03114 "Not connected to Oracle".) | 111,918 | 22255041 |
| Run to Test | Add capability to show content of ref cursor variables to "Run to Test" feature. | 100,674 | 10309141 |
| XMLType | Users no longer receive error message: Running programs with parameters of XMLTYPE types will be implemented later. | 108,255 | 2115906-1 |
| XMLType | Make sure that when creating Code Tester repository in Oracle 11.2.0.2 and above all XMLTYPE columns are created as CLOBs but not as BINARY ones (BINARY is a new default). | 110,279 | ToadWorld forum |
| Data types | Support BLOB datatype. | 110,449 | PM |
| Unit test | Unit test order is now used when defined. | 110,526 | 21775101 |
| Testing | MDSYS objects can now be recognized when tested program and testing code belong to different schemas (not MDSYS). | 111,396 | 22071011 |
| Testing | Duplicating a test case no longer causes a EInvalidPointer exception. | 111,693 | 22253591 |
| Customization | Editing the customization section for a test case no longer causes an access violation. | 111,695 | 22253931 |
| External initialization | Restored the ability to run external initialization and cleanup scripts including nested scripts from OS files using @. | 111,740 | 22304921 |
| Feature | Resolved Issue | ID | Support ID |
|---|---|---|---|
| Test Builder | String literals with '+' symbol in it were not processed correctly when using in inputs and outcomes. | 108139 | 21205851 |
| Test Builder | Don't show Detail Editor for outcomes while data type of expected results was empty. | 104961 | 10824491 |
| Test Builder | EQ function was not generated correctly for object type/record, which contains another object type/record more than once on different levels of nesting. | 109370 | 21438391 |
| Deep Parsing | Deep Parser was unable to resolve schema level type, which is collection of objects, which is nested in object type. Both the collection type and its row type (object) are from schema different from connected. All needed privileges exist. | 108707 | 21343131 |
| Deep Parsing | XML format error when string values of inputs/outcomes contains accented letter (like á é í ó ú in Spanish) | 106291 | 20442161 |
| Unicode | Test code did not run correctly when NLS_LANG's language and territory values were different from those, which were set when the test definition was created. | 108706 | 21087811 |
| Deep Parsing | Compilation error when data type to be tested had a nested collection of records. | 106651 | 20707171 |
| Error Handling | Code 1 should say USER-DEFINED EXCEPTION and the right word for codes 10010004 and 10010012 is CHILD not CHILDREN. | 80320 | (Forum) |
| Export | Export produced incorrect XML when set to ignore timestamps AND a test definition had code coverage stats. | 108404 | (Forum) |
The following is a list of issues known to exist at the time of this release.
| Feature | Known Issue | Defect ID |
|---|---|---|
| Unicode type schemas | Code Tester is not able to connect to Oracle schemas with Unicode symbols in their names. | N/A |
| CHAR Arguments | Handling of CHAR (fixed length) arguments not correct when the argument is defined as %TYPE against a column. | ST49010 |
| Results Viewer | Attributes are not displayed in Results Viewer for "IN argument values". The values of type OBJECT do display. | N/A |
| Default values for object type method parameters unavailable | The default value for parameters of object type methods are not visible inside Code Tester. You must explicitly type in the default value if you want to test that option. | N/A |
| Cannot run a test definition when locked by another user. | After a test definition is run, its "last run status" is updated. This cannot be done if the test definition has been locked by another user (say, to edit the test definition in some way). So if you try to run a locked test definition, Code Tester will stop you. | N/A |
| Argument Names That Contain Single Quotes Will Cause Test Code Compile Errors | If you argument name contains a single quote, as in "in_arg_with'", the code that Code Tester generates will be invalid. You will need to change your argument name in this case. | N/A |
| Cannot request default value for IN argument of object type method | In 1.9 and higher, you can now request that Code Tester not pass a value for any IN arguments that have a default value (thereby using the default value instead). This feature is only available for procedures and functions defined in packages or at the schema level. It is not supported for methods of object types. | N/A |
| A literal value of "null" (in any case variation) is treated as NULL | If you enter the four letters "null" as the literal value for an input or outcome expected value, Code Tester will record that value as a NULL, rather than a string of four letters. This will happen for any case variation of these four letters, such as "Null" and "NULL". If you need to pass a literal string consisting of these four letters, specify it as an expression and surround the string in single quotes. | N/A |
| Generate Outcomes incorrectly saves NULL values | If you use the Generate Outcomes wizard and a calculated value is NULL, it will by default be displayed as a string "{null}", and this will be saved into the outcome as the expected value. You will need to manually change this string to a real NULL value before running your test to get a correct result. | N/A |
| ALTER SESSION commands in your code could cause errors |
If you include statements like those shown below in your programs: EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'ALTER SESSION SET NLS_SORT=BINARY_CI'; EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'ALTER SESSION SET NLS_COMP=LINGUISTIC'; Then you will get runtime errors when you try to run your test. |
N/A |
| Test definitions with expressions or single value queries may fail to run first time |
If your test definitions contains outcomes for expressions or single value queries, then after importing you may get compile errors in your test code the first time you try to run the test. Errors will look like this: PLS-00103: Encountered the symbol ";" and the test code will contains lines of code like: l_fp_value ; (the datatype of the declaration is missing). In this case, simply open your test definition in Test Builder and immediately run your test. It should then compile without errors. After doing this, export your test definition and it should work properly after that point. |
N/A |
| Specification of table name in outcome may not contain a comment | When you specify the name of the table for a table outcome (for example: "Is a table empty?" or "Is this table equal to another table?"), you may not include any kind of comment next to the table name. Examples of invalid specifications of tables: EMPLOYEES /* employee table */ or EMPLOYEES – employees table. | N/A |
| Constraints on queries with unnamed expressions | If you test the contents of a query that contains unnamed expressions (that is, it is an expression rather than simply a column name and you do not provide a column alias), then that expression may not: contain a single quote, be equal to SYSDATE, or be equal to USER. Examples that will cause problems: SELECT name || 'abc', SELECT SYSDATE, SELECT USER. This is due to idiosyncratic behavior in the Oracle parser. | N/A |
| Suite import does not notify user of missing programs | When you import a single test definition, Code Tester will warn you if it cannot find the program that this test definition purports to test. When you import a suite, this same warning will not be shown if one or more of the test definitions in the suite reference a program that cannot be found. | N/A |
| Random number generation fails on Oracle 9i | You will be unable to define test cases that rely on random number generation in Oracle 9i. Limited support by Oracle for table function execution in SQL queries causes errors. | N/A |
| Cannot directly test a query | You cannot test a query directly. Instead, you will need to create a procedure that is, in essence, a "dummy" driver. Create a test definition for that procedure, then define an outcome for that query. | N/A |
| Cannot directly test a trigger | You cannot test a trigger directly. Instead, you will need to create and/or run a procedure that performs the DML operation necessary to fire the trigger. You then create outcomes to verify the changes made by the trigger. | N/A |
| Importing a suite | When you import a suite, it deletes any existing suite with the same name, even if it is actually a different suite owned by a different user. | N/A |
| Uninstalling a Code Tester Repository | When you uninstall a Code Tester repository, public synonyms are dropped, even if those synonyms are not owned by the schema from which you are uninstalling the repository. In this case, you will need to re-create the public synonyms. | N/A |
| Using a column named COLUMN_NAME | You cannot test the contents of a table or query with column named COLUMN_NAME. It must be renamed via the query's SELECT column alias. | N/A |
| 32K Query Strings | Query strings of more than 32k are not supported. | N/A |
| Dataset Comparison Logic Containing Expressions | New dataset comparison logic does not work with a query that contains expressions that are not given column aliases. | N/A |
| Entering SELECT Statements | When you enter a SELECT statement for a query, that query must not have any leading comments, nor should it start with OPEN FOR. It also should not have a terminating semi-colon. If you include such text, you may see compile errors in the generated test code or your query may be interpreted as a table name. | N/A |
| Testing contents of tables with non-scalar columns | Quest Code Tester does not perform dataset comparison checks for tables with CLOB columns and other complex datatypes. Instead, Code Tester will automatically ignore any columns of these types that cannot be used in the comparisons. | N/A |
| Testing the Contents of Cursor Variables | When testing the contents of cursor variables with very large numbers of rows, you may receive a "ORA-04030: out of process memory" error. This occurs because Quest Code Tester users nested tables to cache the cursor variable result set. You will need to reduce the number of rows analyzed in your test to avoid this issue. | N/A |
| Test data values consisting of very large strings | Test data values (values in Test Data Groups) cannot have more than 32,512 characters in them. While PL/SQL officially supports variable length strings of up to 32K (32767) characters, when using dynamic SQL the limit is reduced to 32,512. When working with Test Data Groups, Quest Code Tester applies those values using dynamic SQL, thus hitting the lower limit. | N/A |
| Tablespace Availability for Installation | Quest Code Tester performs some basic analysis to determine if you have sufficient tablespace available to install the product. This calculation is not always accurate, however, you may run out of space. The installer will notify you that the installation fails, but it will not report specifically on this error. If you have an install error, please check the qu_install.log file for tablespace errors. If present, you will need to install into a different tablespace or ask your DBA for more space. | N/A |
| Import test definition to different schema | When you export a test definition, you can specify that you want the export owner set to the owner to which the test will be imported. This step will remove most but not necessarily all of the schema names in the test definition. Some may still be prefixed on packaged types, such as collection types and record types. This will cause compile errors on the test code. Solution: go into your test definition and change/remove those schema names, or edit the export file directly. | N/A |
| Specifying times for TIMESTAMP | You may not enter sub-second values in your timestamp literal value. Quest Code Tester only supports time specifications down to the nearest second. You can, however, specify sub-seconds using expressions (like TO_TIMESTAMP function, for example). | N/A |
| Not connecting to ORACLE message | When enabling DBMS profiling with customization and then running a test, you may encounter an ORA-03114: not connected to ORACLE message or an ORA-03113: end of file on communication channel error message and find that they have been disconnected from the database. This is an Oracle bug in the profiler logic and occurs inconsistently. | N/A |
Before installing Quest Code Tester for Oracle, ensure your system meets the following minimum hardware and software requirements:
| Platform | 1.0 GHz x86 compatible CPU |
| Memory | 512 MB of RAM recommended |
| Hard Disk Space | 100 MB of disk space for installation |
| Operating System |
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Edition (Service Pack 4) Microsoft Windows XP 32-bit (Service Pack 2 or later) and 64-bit (x64; All Service Packs) Microsoft Windows Server 2003 32-bit and 64-bit (Service Pack 1 or later) Microsoft Windows Vista 32-bit and 64-bit (All Service Packs) Microsoft Windows Server 2008 32-bit and 64-bit (All Service Packs) Microsoft Windows Server 2012 32-bit and 64-bit (All Service Packs) Microsoft Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit (All Service Packs) Microsoft Windows 8 32-bit and 64-bit (All Service Packs) |
| Database Client |
Oracle SQL Net 9 Oracle SQL Net 10 Oracle SQL Net 11, plus Instant Client Note: Quest Code Tester for Oracle has been tested on Oracle Exadata 2.0 running Oracle database 11g R2. |
| Database Server | 9i Database Release 2 (9.2.0.6 or above), 10g R1, 10g R2, Oracle Express Edition, 11g R1, 11g R2 |
| Cloud Database Server | Oracle databases running on Amazon EC2. |
| Required Database Privileges |
The schema in which you install Quest Code Tester must have these privileges: CREATE PROCEDURE CREATE SEQUENCE CREATE SESSION CREATE SYNONYM CREATE TABLE CREATE TRIGGER CREATE VIEW CREATE TYPE Note 1: Quest Code Tester will create a schema with the necessary privileges as part of the installation process, when the create new user and install into new user schema option is selected on Step 2 of the Repository Wizard. Note 2: We recommend that you install Quest Code Tester into its own schema, and create public synonyms so that all developers will be able to use Quest Code Tester and share their test definitions. This will also help you keep application code distinct from the Quest Code Tester code base. To do this, your schema must also have CREATE and DROP PUBLIC SYNONYM privileges. Note 3: The Code Tester repository schema and any schema executing a test require the execute privilege on the DBMS_RANDOM package. |
Before installing Quest Code Tester for Oracle, review the following for virtualization support:
| Application |
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Note: Code Tester may work in virtualization environments other than the ones in which it was tested. |
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This section contains information about installing and operating this product in non-English configurations, such as those needed by customers outside of North America. This section does not replace the materials about supported platforms and configurations found elsewhere in the product documentation.
This release supports any single-byte character set. Double-byte or multi-byte character sets are not supported. In this release, all product components should be configured to use the same or compatible character encodings and should be installed to use the same locale and regional options. This release is targeted to support operations in the following regions: North America, Western Europe and Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe.
The Toad release package contains the following products:
Refer to Quest Code Tester for Oracle Installation and Administration Guide for installation instructions.
Get the latest product information, find helpful resources, and join a discussion with the Code Tester for Oracle Quest team and other community members. Join the Quest Code Tester for Oracle community at http://unittest.inside.quest.com/index.jspa.
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