Overview
The brand new plugin called "Automated Testing for Virtual Agent" (com.glide.cs.atf) allows us to run ATF on Virtual Agent Topics by embedding its functionality into the "Virtual Agent Designer". This plugin comes installed out of the box in new instances, but if you have an older instance you may need to install it.
Testing Virtual Agent Topics is paramount if we want to prevent issues caused by a modification in any of the topics we have covered.
Creating test cases
Once our topics have been published we should start creating test cases for the different paths users can follow within the topics. The idea is that we don't start creating test cases before the topic is published because it may suffer modifications, meaning we will have to amend our test cases accordingly.
In order to create Test cases we should go to the "Virtual Agent Designer" and click on the "Manage test cases" button atop.
This button will take us to the existing test cases list, and to the topics we can create test cases for. If no test cases was created yet, we will see this page showing us the "Get Started" button and the "Learn more" documentation page. By clicking on "Get Started" we will be redirected to the "Create test cases" tab.
In this tab we can see those topics we can create test cases for. For this blog article I created a topic called "Computer not working correctly" which will be used to demonstrate how ATF for Virtual Agent works. All I have to do at this stage is clicking on its name.
The topic will open the topic with a message reading "Test the topic to create test cases and capture ideal conversational flows". This means we have to click on "Test" on the top right corner and test each of the possibilities users have recording them in test cases.
Once we click on "Test" we will see the standard Virtual Agent test window that allows us to debug the topic, but we need to focus on the "Create test case" button that appears at the top. By clicking on it, ServiceNow will understand we will start recording a new path.
Now we have to answer each of the questions, and that will highlight on the designer the path we are following, so that we know which one is being covered.
Once we have finished, we click on "Stop" and provide a recognisable name by clicking on "Save" as shown below:
ServiceNow will now create a test case in ATF for the path we have followed. Now we repeat the process with the other paths to cover our Topic thoroughly, not leaving any path uncovered.
Once we have finished we will see our Test cases under the "Run test cases" tab, where we can execute them when we want. As these are also ATF test cases, they can be included under the scheduled ATF test cases to be covered, so that we don't have to test them manually.
In case you cannot run these test cases by using the "Run" button...
... remember you have to have check the "Enable test/test suite execution" property. Just do not do this on a production instance!
After the property is enabled, you will see the "Run" button available.
Now you will be able to run the test cases and see their results. After clicking on "Run", you will see the results on the same page.
The result column will show "Passed" or "Failed" depending on how each of the test cases went. You can click on the result to see it in the ATF record format as usual to understand what could have gone wrong or what was tested.
Finally, as mentioned above, our test cases are saved as regular ATF Test cases records, which means we can do anything on them we could do on any other ATF Test Case.
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