Show Table Data from AL Test Runner

Why?

If you are writing Business Central automated tests then you are probably creating some data as part of those tests. Sometimes it can be useful to see the records that have been created, especially if you are trying to create the correct scenario for the GIVEN part of your test and are experimenting with the library codeunits in that part of the system.

Of course you can debug your tests and most of the time being able to see the variable values in the debugger is all you need. Other times it would be better to be able to see the whole table e.g. “why were there no Reservation Entries in the filter?” Opening the table, applying the filters and taking a look yourself can be faster than trawling through the debugger and tweaking the test code. See here for a little background.

What?

While you are debugging your test you can open a new web client session and navigate directly to the table by adding &table=[table id] to the end of the URL. You don’t need anything just to do that – just a browser. v0.5.4 of AL Test Runner adds a new command to launch the browser to the correct table id from the code. Just right click on the variable name and choose Show Table Data.

• 

Table Locks

Depending on what data you are reading and when you are reading it you might find that the table is locked and the web client will not open it. There are a few things you can do in that case:

• Try stepping through the code until the lock has been released on the table that you are interested in
• Add a Commit after the data has been inserted (don’t worry – even code that is explicitly committed during a test is rolled back at the end)
• Use a SQL query to read uncommitted data

Update Test Runner Service

You need v0.1.2 of the Test Runner Service app (because it adds a new method to return the table id for a given table name). You can install it using the Install Test Runner Service command in VS Code. If you’ve already got an older version installed you’ll need to start the app data upgrade yourself to complete the installation. You can get the app from here: https://github.com/jimmymcp/test-runner-service/raw/master/James%20Pearson_Test%20Runner%20Service.app

Video

If you prefer your demos prefaced with questionable accents I’ve got you covered here…