[BUG] When did an error is actually expeted? (UPDATED!)

Honestly, no errors should be expected in any application, right? Everything should work flawlessly. But in the real world this is not what happens.

Not even with QTP.

Yesterday, I tried to check out an Object Repository (aka OR) from Quality Center which was not checked out to any one, when I came across something unexpected.

Let's be honest. What good does an error message like these ones do? No answer is required.

Well, let me tell you that I tried several different approaches to fix this problem, all in vain. Closed QTP up and restarted it. Didn't work. Closed all programs, restarted my computer. Didn't work.

Turns out that my coworker edited the same OR few minutes before me, and did the check out/check in normally. After the fact, I tried to check it out on my PC and ended up with these error messages.

Solution: **apparently** what happened is that my coworker's QTP silently crashed after editing the OR and didn't freed it up correctly. When closing his QTP down, it displayed a memory leak problem which as probably the main problem.

After making sure his QTP was a 100% dead on his PC, the OR was MAGICALLY available for checkouts as expected.

#facepalm.


UPDATE: a new message (or not) was reported by my coworker, on QTP 11. I swear, this is NOT fake!

[BUG] QTP 10 to 11 migration issues

Yeah folks... moving from QTP 10..0 to 11.0 is not as smooth and seamless as it's supposed to (well, at least HP didn't alarmed it would be).

We have to "test the testing tool" (which answers back my first post - yes, the answer is "us, the users") and make sure that, at least, the basic functionalities we had in the past are still in place (yes, regression test applies for QTP too).

And we found a few features to be out of place. Obviously, unfortunately. After all, it's QTP for someone's sake.

The migration issue example for this post refers to the Datatable, which does not allows you to edit the column titles from QTP 10.0 tests. We opened our tests up, check them out from Quality Center, double clicked the column titles and... nothing happens! Frustrating.

- Why's that? - you ask.
- Who knows! It's QTP! - I answer back.

Workaround: very quick way to fix this is by exporting and re-importing the excel shit sheet into your test.

1. Right click on the Datatable, choose File --> Export... and then Yes button.
2. Save wherever you want in your PC, edit it if required (but don't mess it up!), save, close.
3. Now, go back to QTP and right click the Datatable, choose File --> Import From File and choose the file you saved previously.
4. Click OK on whatever message QTP shows you.

Done. The Datatable column names are editable again. Duh.

[BUG] You can't edit your test because it's been checked out by... YOU." WHAT?!?!?

Wait a second, I can't edit my own test that has been checked out by me in QTP?? What the fuck heck?

Yes my friends, that's the ugly truth.

QTP has a VERY inconvenient bug which makes a test checked out on HP Quality Center by you, to be blocked for editing from you. Get it? You can't edit your own test. Crazy! You should ALWAYS be able to edit the test you checked out, unless you open it on a different computer, during a check out.

This annoying error happens every time you check any of your tests out from Quality Center. In the middle of your hard work, QTP awfully crashes, closes and leaves you with no other option but to redo all the work you've done up to the last Ctrl+S you typed.

And this is not the only problem. QTP won't let you edit your own test for the next 10~15 minutes time frame. Can you believe it?

Wait a sec, QTP crashed for no reason and I am the one who gets punished? Fuck! Not fair!

Workarounds: there are two major workarounds applied to this issue.

1. Wait for a 10~15minutes timeout from QC or QTP (I couldn't identify which one), and then re-open your test as nothing had happened. QTP will not tell your test is locked by you anymore.
2. But if you have no time to waste, then create a copy of your test in QC using the Save As option, renaming your test to a different name. The major drawback of this approach is that you lose all the versions history and all the results in Quality Center, as it will consider this as a new test, not the same one you had.

Hint: save your test every so often. And I'm talking about every 1 minute, max. Trust me, you won't regret it.