Creation of Database Check Point

To create a database checkpoint in QTP following steps should be followed Insert

statements to update the record in your Script.
1. Go to Insert > Checkpoint > Database Checkpoint. You will see a database
query wizard.
2. Select either of the two option there

Create query using Microsoft query Select this if you want to use

Microsoft query.
Specify SQL statement manually Select this to manually provide the
sql query to the database. We will use and go with this option now. Click
Next once you selected the query definition.

3. Click Create button, which will open the data source window, Select Machine
Data Source and click new. ( To Connect to flight application database there
is already a data source as QT_Flight32, we can directly select this press OK
and jump to step 7)

4. Create New Data Source window opens, Select the type of data source and click
Next.
5. Select the Driver depending on the database type from the list. For example if
your database is SQL select SQL Server, for Oracle select Microsoft ODBC for
Oracle and follow the onscreen wizard with the details of your database like server
name database name etc. Finally Test the connection and press OK.

6. You will see the data source name just created in the list at Machine Data source.
Select and Click OK.
7. Specify your sql query e.g. for above mentioned example Select
Customer_Name from Orders. Click Finish.
8. It will Open the Database Checkpoint Properties, modify your checkpoint settings,
enter the expected data and Click OK.

It will add a line in the expert view as:

DbTable("DbTable").Check CheckPoint("DbTable")
When you will run the script QTP will check the database whether the record is
updated with the customer name or not and will give you the result as pass or fail.
DbTable is the database table object, which has following properties and methods
associated with it.

Exist Property checks whether the database table exists

GetToProperty method is the same method used for test objects to get the

specified identification property.

SetToProperty method is to set the specified identification property.

There could be three identification properties of a database table object Source,

dbuniqueid and connectionstring. So we can parameterize the database checkpoint
using these properties and methods, for example if you want to use the same
checkpoint to run for more query use the SetToProperty method to set the source of
the DBTable. Following example illustrates above methods.
If DbTable("DbTable").Exist (0) Then
Print " Current query : " & DbTable("DbTable").GetTOProperty
("Source")
DbTable("DbTable").SetTOProperty "Source", "Select * from Orders"
Print " Modified query : " & DbTable("DbTable").GetTOProperty
("Source")
End If

In the earlier part of this series we have learnt how to use database checkpoint in
database testing. If you dont want to use the database checkpoint in your database
testing, you will have to script it to connect to database and test the records. This
gives you more flexibility and options to play around the records. Let us see how we
can connect to a database using QTP through scripting.
ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) is COM objects which can be used to gain

access to a database through QTP. While using ADO you will need to
understand three objects
Command Command object is like a container for a command which you

send to the database to do some actions. Mostly a sql statement is used as a

command to the database.
Connection Connection object is the link between QTP and the database.

For any operation you will need to open the connection link initially and make
sure you have closed the link once you are done. It requires a connection
string to initialize the properties needed to connect to a db .
RecordSet RecordSet object is the container for the command results. The

container is called as the cursor. A cursor is like a temporary table in the

memory which contains all the characteristics of a table like rows, columns,
record pointers etc. This is the object on which plays significant role in your
test.
To connect to the database, you will need to use CreateObject method to get the
object
Set MyConnection = CreateObject(ADODB.Connection)

Next you will need to pass the connection string to the connection object. The
connection string is created using certain keywords and values in it depending on the
database you need to connect. The keyword Provider (identifies the OLE DB provider
to be used.) is used in almost all type of connection and other keywords depends on
the database you are connecting. [Note From Ankur: You can use the
site ConnectionStrings to build strings corresponding to your database.]
A typical connecting string for database connection will be like
Access
Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; Data Source=C:\mydatabase.mdb;User
Id=admin;Password=;
Access 2007
Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;
Data Source=C:\myFolder\myAccess2007file.accdb;Persist Security
Info=False;
SQL Server
Provider=sqloledb;Data Source=myServerAddress;
Initial Catalog=myDataBase;User Id=myUsername;Password=myPassword;
Oracle
Provider=msdaora;Data Source=MyOracleDB;
User Id=myUsername;Password=myPassword;
Once you have the connection string you can now open the connection using Open
method of Connection object
MyConnection.Open Provider=sqloledb;Data Source=myServerAddress;
Initial Catalog=myDataBase;User Id=myUsername;Password=myPassword;
That is all and now QTP is linked with the database. Now we need to pass the
required command and verify the data.
Below is a generalized function to connect to DB
Function 1
Function getConnection ()
On Error Resume Next
Dim oConnection,ConnectionString
ConnectionString ="Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;
Data Source=C:\Program Files\HP\QuickTest
Professional\samples\flight\app\flight32.mdb;

User Id=admin;Password=;"
Set oConnection = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
oConnection.Open ConnectionString
Set getConnection = oConnection
End Function
The function creates a new connection session to a database using the connection
string passed. Connecting can be set as per the requirement.
Let us see how we can connect to the database of flight application. The database for
sample application is an Access Database located at C:\Program Files\HP\QuickTest
Professional\samples\flight\app\flight32.mdb. To connect to this database we will
need to create a connection string for Access which is used in the above function.
Example 1 illustrates the usage of function mentioned above.
Example 1

If you are having difficulties using connection string, dont worry you can create the
connection using Data Source Name as well.
To create the DSN Click Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, and then
double-click Data Sources(ODBC). On the user DSN tab, click Add. And follow rest of
the wizard. Now in place of the connection string you need to have the DSN that you
provide while creating.
Connect to flight application database using already created DSN
Example 2
ConnectionString = "QT_Flight32
Set oConnection = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
oConnection.Open ConnectionString

In the same you can now connect to any database using the connection. Note that
for connecting to Oracle database you need have the TNS Setup located in your
tnsnames.ora. the file can be found at <Oracle Client Installation folder>
\network\admin. And use the TNSname as the Datasource in your connection string.
A typical tnsnames.ora content will be like

YourTNSName =
(DESCRIPTION =
(ADDRESS_LIST =
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = <YourServerNameOrIP>)(PORT =
<YourPortOrDefault1521>))
)
(CONNECT_DATA =
(SID = <YourDBSID>)
(SERVER = DEDICATED)
)
)
Use Close method to close the connection.
MyConnection.Close
In Part1 we saw the wizard method to use Database checkpoint. In Part2 we
learned how to connect to a database using scripts in QTP. In this part we will see
how we can retrieve data from database using scripts.
Similar to connection object, you can use ADODB.Recordset to get the recordset
object.
Set MyRecordSet = CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")
Before starting let us first understand the properties and methods of recordset object
which will help further.

RecordSet Properties
Description
AbsolutePage
Page of current position
AbsolutePosition
Current position
ActiveConnection
Active Connection Object
BOF
Beginning of File
Bookmark
Bookmark of current position
CacheSize
Number of records cached
CursorLocation
Server or Client
CursorType
Forward, Static, Dynamic, Keyset
EOF
End of File
EditMode
Whether or not an edit is in progress
Filter
What kind of records to hide
LockType
Record lock type for edits or updates
MaxRecords
Maximum number of records to retrieve
PageCount
Total number of pages
PageSize
Number of records per page
RecordCount
Total number of records
Source
Source Command Object
Status
Status of last action
Recordset Methods
Description
AddNew
Add a new record to the RecordSet

CancelBatch
CancelUpdate
Clone
Close
Delete
GetRows
Move
MoveNext
MovePrevious
MoveFirst
MoveLast
NextRecordSet
Open
Requery
Resync
Supports
Update
UpdateBatch

Cancel pending batch updates

Cancel pending update
Copy the RecordSet
Close the RecordSet
Delete current record
Retrieve multiple records
Move the record pointer to a specific record
Move the record pointer to the next record
Move the record pointer to the previous record
Move the record pointer to the first record
move the record pointer to the last record
Load the next RecordSet in a multi-set query
Open the RecordSet (execute the query)
Re-execute the last query executed
Synchronize the data with the server
Determine if a feature is supported by provider
Update the current record
Update pending batched record updates

Dont worry if you feel this listing is too big, you may never use many of these, all
this is for your reference in case you need. The most commonly used property and
functions are:

EOF to identify no records returned. You run a query and need to determine

the pointer is at last record or not or no records has been returned.

Open To retrieve the RecordSet we use open method which requires two

arguments connection object and command object

Syntax for this would be
<RecordSetName>.Open source, connection, cursor, lock, type
Source is actually the command object, it could be a sql statement
Connection is the connection object connecting the database
Cursor optional parameter to define recordset cursor type (default

Forward only)
Lock optional parameter to set the lock type property(default Read Only)
Type optional parameter to define the command type (default unknown(8))

For example
oRecordSet.Open Select * from Orders,oConnection, adOpenStatic
Here oConnection is connection session to the database, we have used the static
cursor which allows us to open the record in readonly mode, and not used a lock
type so it will use the default lock.

a generic function for retrieving the recordset would be like

Function 2
Function getRecordset(strSQL)
Dim oConnection, oRecordSet
Set oConnection = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
Set oRecordSet = CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")
oConnection = getConnection()
oRecordSet.Open strSQL,oConnection, adOpenStatic
= oRecordSet
End Function

Set getRecordset

Let us now try this to retrieve data from Orders table of Flight application database.
To get the customer name from table Orders with Order Number 1 will need to
execute the query
Select * from Orders where Order_Number = 1
Example 2
Set MyRecordset = getRecordset("Select * from Orders where Order_Number
= 1")
If MyRecordset.EOF <> True Then
msgbox MyRecordset.Fields("Customer_Name").Value
End If

Result

In this example we are using the function 2 by passing the required query and we
get the result recordset in the MyRecordset object. Then we are checking whether
there is some records there or not using the EOF property.
In the same way we can use other methods as well for different operations

Move to next record We have a method MoveNext which we can use in a loop until
the max record in recordset. Below example illustrates the use of this method to get
all the records from table
Example 3

In the same way you can use other methods and properties of RecordSet object to
achieve your task. I have listed her some example which you may encounter in your
test.

Function 3 Number of Records We can traverse through all the records in the
recordset to get the number of records in recordset.

Function 4 Execute Query

If you need to update, insert or delete records from database, you can use this
function. But if you are working on the database for application under test, you
should not perform such actions until unless it is required or a database used for
QTP.

Example 5 Import Database Table into Data table

 Get recordset
Set MyRecordset = getRecordset("Select * from Orders")
Get number of columns in table
nColumns = MyRecordset.Fields.Count
Add a sheet in your datatable
Datatable.AddSheet ("DBImport")
For n = 0 to nColumns 1
Get column name
ParamName = MyRecordset.Fields(n).Name
Add DTParameter
Datatable.GetSheet("DBImport").AddParameter ParamName,""
nRow = 1
MyRecordset.MoveFirst
Retrieve and place data in data table
Do while MyRecordset.EOF <> True
Datatable.SetCurrentRow(nRow)
Datatable(ParamName,"DBImport") =
MyRecordset.Fields(ParamName)
nRow = nRow + 1
MyRecordset.MoveNext
Loop
Next

Apart from this, if you need to connect to a excel file using ADODB connection, you
will have to specify a different connection string, which will be like
" DRIVER={Microsoft Excel Driver (*.xls)};DBQ= FileName ;Readonly=True"