Data Objects © Grid-Tools Ltd 2009

What they are and how Datamaker uses them

• Data objects can be simple table/columns definitions
  
• Data objects can be complex transactions
  
• Data objects are assembled into development and testing inputs

Data objects are assemblies of data structures and actual data that can be put together to simulate data either inside a database or to simulate data that will be fed into applications by capture playback tools, application APIs or service architectures such as SOAP.  Data objects are built up by examining the data structures of tables or data interfaces and assigning attributes to each of the columns or data elements.  The attributes can include: fixed values; ranges of values; references to other elements in the data objects; references to data in related tables; lookup values from seed tables and pivot variables.  The pivot variables allow the data objects to be turned into real data by assigning the values as the data is created (published).  For example, create a 1000 orders with an order date of tomorrow, orders are to be shipped to New York City and commission will be assigned to local sales staff.  The pivot variables in the example are New York City and t he shipment date, all the other data attributes are defined within the data object definition.

A further method that can be applied to data objects is “inheritance.”  Data objects can be inherited such that all of the components of a data object are included in a child data object, if any of the attributes of the parent objects are changed then the child will inherit the data values or data attributes.  For example, once you have defined a Standard Order you may wish to create a Web order, many of the characteristics of an order are the same and to save time you can create a Web Order data object by inheriting all the attributes from the Standard Order.  You can then add in extra table information say for example Web Audit information that needs to be captured along with Credit Card approval logs to the Web Order definition.  If you change a Standard Order by adding in, say a new column called QA_CHECKED_BY with a default value (lookup_supervisor) then Web Orders will also now contain this attribute.

How to use Data Objects

Data Object Definition

• A Data Object contains fixed and variable data
• Data Objects can be inherited by other data objects
• Data Objects can contain multiple other data objects
• Data Objects are mutable up and down through versions
• Data Objects are independent of physical data structures
• Data Objects have internal structures
• Data Objects can relate to external data
• Data Objects have attributes
• Data Object attributes can relate to each other
• Data Objects attributes can relate to external data
• Data Objects encapsulate data behind attributes
• Data Objects can contain expected results
• Data Objects can contain test coverage data
• Data Objects can be driven by test coverage