Modifying parameters with code in Microsoft Reporting Services - reportingservices-2005

I made a report with about 30 different rectangles and textboxes that have different visibility expressions depending on the parameters. (It's a student invoice and many different messages have to appear depending on the semester) When I made all the expressions I coded in the parameters in all upper case. Now I have a problem when users enter lowercase letters, the SQL all works fine since it is not case sensitive, but the different rectangles and textboxes don't show. Is there a way in the report code to first capitalize all the parameters before running the SQL? Or do I actually have to go back to every visibility expression and add separate iif's for upper and lower case? (That seems incredibly silly to have to do). I can't change my parameters to numbers because I have been given strict requirements for input. Thanks.

I do not know if this is the most elegant solution, but you could accomplish this by following this procedure for every parameter on the Report Parameters page:
1)Re-name the parameter, leaving its prompt as that of the old parameter.
2)Add a new parameter with the same name as the old parameter.
3)Mark this new parameter as Hidden.
4)Make sure that the new parameter's available values are marked as non-queried(available values will never be actually used.)
5)Mark the Default Values as Non-queried, using the following syntax:
=ucase(Parameters!OldParameterName.Value)

Can't you just UCASE the params (do it in the xml view, it will be quicker and you might even be able to do a regex find/replace)

Related

What is the argument type and return type for web elements in qtp?

I keep seeing code like this:
.WebButton("locator1", "locator2", "locator3")
What is the type of arguments in WebButton, WebElement, WebEdit etc ? I tried passing an array to .WebButton. So, qtp told me its not the correct type. Is there an alternate way to pass multiple locators ?
Also, what is the return type of .WebButton, .WebElement etc. ?
The "arguments" which you are talking about are the set of properties which are needed by QTP/UFT to identify that particular object(WebElement, WebEdit etc.) uniquely so that one can perform actions on them.
Also, this is not some sort of a function that is going to return you any value.
If you are not sure about what properties you need to mention in those brackets, an easier way would be to add that object to the Object Repository and drag that object from OR to your script. After that you can perform any action on those objects.
If you do not want to use OR, then you need to make use of, what we call, Descriptive Programming(DP) wherein you have to mention the object property names and their values "explicitly" in the script.
Remember that the sole purpose of mentioning these properties is to help QTP identify the objects in your application so that you can perform actions on them(like click, set etc.)
Here are a few links which can help you:
http://www.learnqtp.com/descriptive-programming-simplified/
http://www.guru99.com/quick-test-professional-qtp-tutorial-6.html
http://www.guru99.com/quick-test-professional-qtp-tutorial-32.html
EDIT 2 - for answering your question in the comment:
.WebButton("Locator1","Locator2","Locator3") means .webButton("property1:=value1","property2:=value2","property3:=value3")
Now, I could have only mentioned property-value pair1(which you are referring to as "Locator1") only If it alone was sufficient for identifying that webbutton. If only 1 property-value pair cannot help UFT in UNIQUELY recognizing the webbutton, then I have to provide another property-value pair until I have provided enough of them so that QTP recognizes that webbutton uniquely. Since, I have provided multiple property-value pairs(or locators), they have to be separated by commas. If there was only one property-value pair, no comma is needed. All this explanation only applies to the case when we are using Descriptive Programming. If we are not using Descriptive programming, then in that case the objects and their properties&values are stored in the Object Repository and you just have to mention their logical names(say Button1 as stored in OR) in the script like:
.webButon("Button1")
To understand more, you need to do some more research on "How object Identification works in UFT/QTP"

Hiding parameter prevents other parameters from refreshing

I have the first parameter (client drop down) that passes an ID to the second parameter to be used in the 3rd and 4th parameter. During testing all the parameters are set to visible to verify what's being passed. As soon as I hide that second parameter the rest don't refresh. Again, visible, correct info flowing through, hidden, DOA. I have this set up exactly like this on at least a dozen other reports with no issue. I'm not real sure where this going wrong since I can see the correct value being passed while visible?
I was able to duplicate your issue. While I can't find a reference to support my supposition, I believe that hidden parameters (even those with a default value) are not evaluated until rendering, which would explain this behavior. Data sets that drive parameter values are run prior to the report being rendered.
As you're talking about having trouble with dependencies between the parameter values, I assume you're using queries to drive your available values for parameters three and four. If this is the case, then simply embed the logic that relates the value(s) of parameter 1 to the value(s) of parameter 3 into the query that drives parameter 3's available values. By cutting out Parameter 2 and incorporating it into the query logic for parameter 3, you will work around this issue.
If you're having trouble accomplishing this, reply in a comment and I'll see if I can help. As it stands, I don't know enough about what you're trying to do to help any more.

Is there any way to clear out the "Testers" field in Microsoft Test Manager (or in TFS)

Seems like once you set the Testers field on a Test Case in MTM, it will not allow you to clear it. You are only allowed to change it to a different value. Has anyone found a way to clear this field?
It is important to not get the "Assigned" Tester field confused with the Assigned To field. They are distinct fields on a Test Case work item. One reason why someone might want the Tester field to be blank is if a team all pitches in to help with testing during an iteration and leaving the assigned tester blank allows the team to know that no one has "picked up" this test to execute. The team member could then assign the test to his or herself and execute it.
The template pulls the Assigned Tester Values from a list using the 'AllowedValues' tag. Instead, simply change this to 'SuggestedValues'. That will allow for empty values - easy as that.
If you'd rather not allow free entry, you can also add a default value such as 'None' and use that rather than blank.
Unless you've customized your work item type, this field should never be blank after being saved. It defaults to the person who created the bug in all Microsoft supported process templates, and a value is required by default.
That being said, why would you want to change it to blank?
If you really, really want to be able to blank it out (which I don't think is a good idea at all), you'll need to customize your template. See the below guidance:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms243849(v=vs.110).aspx

XPath Query in JMeter

I'm currently working with JMeter in order to stress test one of our systems before release. Through this, I need to simulate users clicking links on the webpage presented to them. I've decided to extract theese links with an XPath Post-Processor.
Here's my problem:
I have an a XPath expression that looks something like this:
//div[#data-attrib="foo"]//a//#href
However I need to extract a specific child for each thread (user). I want to do something like this:
//div[#data-attrib="foo"]//a[position()=n]//#href
(n being the current index)
My question:
Is there a way to make this query work, so that I'm able to extract a new index of the expression for each thread?
Also, as I mentioned, I'm using JMeter. JMeter creates a variable for each of the resulting nodes, of an XPath query. However it names them as "VarName_n", and doesn't store them as a traditional array. Does anyone know how I can dynamicaly pick one of theese variables, if possible? This would also solve my problem.
Thanks in advance :)
EDIT:
Nested variables are apparently not supported, so in order to dynamically refer to variables that are named "VarName_1", VarName_2" and so forth, this can be used:
${__BeanShell(vars.get("VarName_${n}"))}
Where "n" is an integer. So if n == 1, this will get the value of the variable named "VarName_1".
If the "n" integer changes during a single thread, the ForEach controller is designed specifically for this purpose.
For the first question -- use:
(//div[#data-attrib="foo"]//a)[position()=$n]/#href
where $n must be substituted with a specific integer.
Here we also assume that //div[#data-attrib="foo"] selects a single div element.
Do note that the XPath pseudo-operator // typically result in very slow evaluation (a complete sub-tree is searched) and also in other confusing problems ( this is why the brackets are needed in the above expression).
It is recommended to avoid using // whenever the structure of the document is known and a complete, concrete path can be specified.
As for the second question, it is not clear. Please, provide an example.

Do you validate your URL variables?

When you're passing variables through your site using GET requests, do you validate (regular expressions, filters, etc.) them before you use them?
Say you have the URL http://www.example.com/i=45&p=custform. You know that "i" will always be an integer and "p" will always contain only letters and/or numbers. Is it worth the time to make sure that no one has attempted to manipulate the values and then resubmit the page?
Yes. Without a doubt. Never trust user input.
To improve the user experience, input fields can (and IMHO should) be validated on the client. This can pre-empt a round trip to the server that only leads to the same form and an error message.
However, input must always be validated on the server side since the user can just change the input data manually in the GET url or send crafted POST data.
In a worst case scenario you can end up with an SQL injection, or even worse, a XSS vulnerability.
Most frameworks already have some builtin way to clean the input, but even without this it's usually very easy to clean the input using a combination of regular exceptions and lookup tables.
Say you know it's an integer, use int.Parse or match it against the regex "^\d+$".
If it's a string and the choices are limited, make a dictionary and run the string through it. If you don't get a match change the string to a default.
If it's a user specified string, match it against a strict regex like "^\w+$"
As with any user input it is extremely important to check to make sure it is what you expect it is. So yes!
Yes, yes, and thrice yes.
Many web frameworks will do this for you of course, e.g., Struts 2.
One important reason is to check for sql injection.
So yes, always sanitize user input.
not just what the others are saying. Imagine a querystring variable called nc, which can be seen to have values of 10, 50 and 100 when the user selects 10, 50 and 100 results per page respectively. Now imagine someone changing this to 50000. If you are just checking that to be an integer, you will be showing 50000 results per page, affecting your pageviews, server loads, script times and so on. Plus this could be your entire database. When you have such rules (10, 50 or 100 results per page), you should additionaly check to see if the value of nr is 10, 50 or 100 only, and if not, set it to a default. This can simply be a min(nc, 100), so it will work if nc is changed to 25, 75 and so on, but will default to 100 if it sees anything above 100.
I want to stress how important this is. I know the first answer discussed SQL Injection and XSS Vulnerabilities. The latest rave in SQL Injection is passing a binary encoded SQL statement in query strings, which if it finds a SQL injection hole, it will add a http://reallybadsite.com'/> to every text field in your database.
As web developers we have to validate all input, and clean all the output.
Remember a hacker isn't going to use IE to compromise your site, so you can't rely on any validation in the web.
Yes, check them as thoroughly as you can. In PHP I always check the types (IsInt(i), IsString(p)).

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