Known Issues - working with ALM

This topic describes known issues when working with ALM.

ALM and Windows security issues

The security settings in Windows 2012 may prevent you from performing an OpenText Functional Testing related installation, such as a patch installation, or connecting to an ALM project (either directly or from OpenText Functional Testing).

This can occur when the UAC (User Account Control) option is set to ON, and you have not yet connected to an ALM project (if relevant).

Workaround: Temporarily turn off the UAC option.

After disabling the UAC option as described above, perform the required installation or connect to ALM as usual. When you are finished, turn the User Account Control (UAC) option on again.

Connecting to ALM on Windows Server machines

You must have administrator privileges on your Windows server machine to connect to ALM run tests in ALM from OpenText Functional Testing.

Do one of the following:

Connect to ALM with administrator permissions immediately after installing OpenText Functional Testing.
Before connecting to ALM from OpenText Functional Testing, connect to ALM using Internet Explorer or ALM Explorer. This enables you to download the ALM Client onto the Windows server using administrator privileges.

ALM authentication

Configuring ALM proxy credentials

If there is a forward proxy with Basic Authentication between the server and client machines, before the first connection to an ALM platform, each ALM client must configure the proxy credentials by using the Webgate Customization Tool.

If you do not run WebGate, you may be unable to connect, or you may need to enter your credentials multiple times.

To run the tool:

Go the following location on the ALM client machine: http:\\<ALM Platform server name>[<:port number>]/qcbin/Apps/
Click on the Webgate Customization Tool link and select Run.
In WebGate Customization, click in the Proxy Credentials area. Select the Use these credentials checkbox, and type values in the Proxy Username and Proxy Password boxes.
Click Save and then Close.

Default browser used for login

When connecting to an ALM server, version 15.51 or later, that requires SSO authentication, authentication may use your default web browser.

You may want to avoid this if your default browser is not supported by ALM.

Use the WebGate Customization tool to set your own preference on the authentication browser setting. For details, see the Webgate Customization Tool readme.

Running tests from ALM servers requiring authentication configuration

Configure authentication

To run OpenText Functional Testing tests from an ALM server where authentication must be configured, you must download the relevant ALM Webgate Customization Tool from the ALM server.

For example, you'll need the ALM Webgate Customization Tool when connecting to ALM using SSO.

Download the ALM Webgate Customization Tool from: http(s)://<ALM server>:<ALM port>/qcbin > Tools > ALM WebGate Customization

Configure your authentication using the Webgate Customization Tool UI, or silently using the command line. For more details, see the ALM Webgate Customization Tool Readme, provided together with the Webgate Customization Tool download.

Note:

When working with an ALM server that requires SSO authentication, you must use ALM API Keys as credentials.

Running tests

Running ALM tests from OpenText Functional Testing on an ALM server that uses SSO is not supported when the OpenText Functional Testing machine has no SSO credentials installed.

Server-side execution

To run ALM tests from OpenText Functional Testing using server-side execution on an ALM server that uses SSO, you must first perform the following:

Start the ALM client as an administrator.
Register the ALM client with the following URL: <ALM server>/start_a.jsp?common=true

Switching ALM servers

If you are connected to an ALM server, and you want to connect to a different server, disconnect from the first ALM server, restart OpenText Functional Testing, and then connect to the second server.

Adding Defects from Run Results Viewer to ALM

When working with ALM 15.x and Windows 10 or later, in order to add defects from the Run Results Viewer to the ALM client:

Start the ALM client as an administrator.
Register the ALM client with the following URL: <ALM server>/start_a.jsp?common=true

Documents saved in ALM

Locked ALM assets	If OpenText Functional Testing closes unexpectedly while an asset is open from ALM, the asset may remained locked by ALM for more than fifteen minutes. In some cases, you may be able to reopen OpenText Functional Testing and reopen the test, but when trying to save it, you will receive an error message indicating that the test entity is already locked by you. Workaround: Wait fifteen minutes or more and try again.
Renaming tests / components	Renaming a test or component from ALM may cause the test or component to behave unexpectedly. Workaround: To rename a test or component, open it in OpenText Functional Testing and rename it using the Save As option. If the test or component has already been renamed from ALM, use the rename option again to restore the old name, and then use the Save As option in OpenText Functional Testing. Renaming a test parameter from OpenText Functional Testing causes any run-time parameter values already set for this parameter in ALM to be lost.
Checkout from ALM	For tests or business components saved on ALM, if you perform a checkout from within ALM, it is not reflected in OpenText Functional Testing for the current test—the test or business component still appears to be checked in. Workaround: Close and reopen the test in OpenText Functional Testing.
Save test locally with results	When you open a GUI test stored on ALM and use File>Save As to save it locally, the save run results option is not supported.

QuickTest tests saved in ALM

If a test is stored in ALM, and was last modified using a version of QuickTest earlier than 9.5, it opens in read-only mode.

To edit the test, it must be upgraded to QuickTest 11.00 using the QuickTest Asset Upgrade Tool for ALM (found on the QuickTest 11.00 installation DVD).

Adding documents stored in ALM to a solution

Testing documents that are part of the same solution cannot be stored in different ALM projects, domains, or servers.

Working with non-Unicode ALM projects

ALM supports non-Unicode projects. If you are working with an ALM project that is not Unicode compliant:

You should not use Unicode values (such as the name of the test or component, the name of an application area, the default value of a test, action, component parameter, or method argument values).
Data that is sent to OpenText Functional Testing from ALM (such as values for test, action, or component parameters) is not Unicode compliant.
OpenText Functional Testing results containing Unicode characters may appear corrupted in the ALM result grid. You can, however, open and view results containing Unicode characters in the OpenText Functional TestingRun Results Viewer.

For additional details on OpenText Functional Testing Unicode issues, see Known issues - Multilingual applications.

Linking test parameters

Linking to AUT Parameters in ALM

When trying to link test parameters to AUT Parameters defined in ALM, the Select ALM application parameters button is not displayed.

Workaround:

Install the ALM Client in common registration mode. Use the following URL in Internet Explorer: http://<ALM server URL>:8080/qcbin/start_a.jsp?Common=true.

API tests: test parameters linked to ALM data tables

When running API tests from ALM, using test parameters linked (in ALM) to data tables stored in ALM is not supported.

Workaround:

Instead of associating test steps with test parameters, link the steps to an Excel data source added to the test.
When you add the data source to the test, select Allow other tools to override the data.
Then, in the ALM Test Plan, instruct ALM to overwrite this Excel with data tables stored in ALM. For details on instructing ALM to overwrite data sources, see the ALM documentation.

GUI testing: Parameters names in the Data table

If the parameter names in your Global data table are identical to the parameter names in an external data table, running a test configuration with data table parameter mapping to other data table parameters causes unexpected results.

Example:

If : Your Global data table parameters and Login and Password, and;

Your external data table parameters are Login, Password, Login_localized, and; Password_localized;

Then: A test configuration run with mapping from Login to Login_localized and Password to Password_localized will cause unexpected results.

Workaround: Split the external data table into multiple tables.

GUI testing: Renaming parameters

Renaming an OpenText Functional Testing test parameter from OpenText Functional Testing will cause any run-time parameter values already set for this parameter in ALM to be lost.

API testing: Changing licenses

While connected to an ALM project, if you change the available license for an API test, ALM continues to use the original license.

Workaround: Log out from your ALM project and restart Internet Explorer.

Resources and dependencies

When you save a resource to ALM (either from OpenText Functional Testing or using the Upload option from the ALM Test Resources module), and the resource file has a comma in the file name, the resource appears to be saved successfully, but the file is not actually uploaded to the ALM server.
For GUI testing: If you insert a call to an external action that is associated with a data table, and that data table was previously renamed or moved in the Test Resources module of Quality Center or ALM, OpenText Functional Testing tries to locate the data table in its original location.

Workaround: Save the test, close it, and reopen it.
If you are working with the Resources and Dependencies model, and the test containing the action you are renaming is stored the Test Plan module in ALM, the internal (default) action name is always displayed in the Used By Tab (Action Properties Dialog Box). This is true even if you rename the action.

Connecting to ALM

Running OpenText Functional Testing tests from ALM

When running a test in OpenText Functional Testing from ALM on Windows 10 or later, you must connect to the ALM server using Internet Explorer (or IE mode on Edge) with Administrator permissions and with the following URL format:

http://myserver:8080/qcbin/start_a.jsp?common=true