Extended Computer Aided Test Tool

eCATT –Extended Computer Aided Test Tool

Introduction to eCATT.

The Extended Computer Aided Test Tool is a new automated testing tool that allows you to create automated functional test cases for the majority of applications running in the SAP GUI for Windows and SAP GUI for Java environments. Like other test tools, it works by making a recording of an application, which you can then parameterize and replay with differing sets of input values. You can test the behavior of the application by reading and testing the values returned by the application .
eCATT is available from Release 6.20 of the SAP Web Application Server, and is an integral part of the mySAP Technology underlying SAP R/3 Enterprise Release 4.7.
Designed as a successor to the existing CATT, it allows a user to record and replay any application running under SAP GUI for Java or SAP GUI for Windows. Furthermore, because it is embedded within the SAP application server, it has access to other interfaces, such as function modules, BAPIs, or the SAP database (so that users can perform checks), and the ABAP runtime, which lets users write ABAP routines into test cases.


With SAP eCATT, users are also able to test business processes that cross system boundaries. Each command in a test script can have a separate destination so, within one script, a user can call a transaction in mySAP Customer Relationship Management, and also check table entries in an SAP R/3 system. Within a script, logical names are used to refer to target systems. These logical names are mapped to actual RFC destinations in a separate object called a system data container, which is, effectively, a description of the company’s system landscape. Thus by linking a different system data container with a script, a user can execute it in a completely different system landscape without having to alter the script coding at all. The only prerequisite is that all the logical system names that the script uses are defined in the relevant system data container.
Because of the wide variety of applications that may need to be tested, eCATT does not have a single "one-size-fits-all” way of recording and replaying applications. Instead, there are various drivers that encompass the following kinds of scenarios:

• Table operations– interacting with the SAP database
• Function modules and BAPIs
• ABAP
• Transactions and reports
• Applications running outside the SAP GUI for Windows or Java environments

For the last of these scenarios, eCATT offers an interface that third-party tool manufacturers can implement to integrate their tools with eCATT.
You can migrate test cases from Computer Aided Test Tool (CATT) to take advantage of the better features of eCATT.
eCATT is also integrated with the Object Navigator (SE80).

Features
Using eCATT we can:

• Test transactions, reports, and scenarios
• Call BAPIs and function modules
• Test remote systems
• Check authorizations (user profiles)
• Test updates (database, applications, GUI)
• Test the effect of changes to customizing settings
• Check system messages

Constraints
eCATT runs in a system based on SAP Web Application Server 6.20 or higher. However, you can use this system to test systems with Release 4.6C or higher.

In my forth coming weblog’s I will be going through the following topics :

1. Creating Test Scripts .
2. Creating Test Data Containers .
3. Understanding System Data Containers .
4. Executing Test Configurations .
5. Understanding Logs .

I will also demonstrate the use of eCATT with following applications:

• Testing a Standard SAP Business Scenario .
• Testing a Web Dynpro Application .
• Migrating Test Cases from CATT to eCATT

Sumeet Kaul is presently working for HCL Technologies Ltd, as a NetWeaver Consultant.

Reblogged from SDN SAP blogs.