Overview
Users may occasionally find that test steps have been unexpectedly removed or overwritten. This can manifest as a large number of steps being replaced by a few new steps from a discarded test run, or as all steps under an instruction title disappearing, particularly after a headless execution or test recreation.
How It Works
The unintentional removal or overwriting of test steps typically occurs due to a few specific workflows:
- Stopping a Discarded Run in Live debug Edit: When a test is run in Live debug mode, the system captures architectural changes in real-time. If you stop the execution and choose to discard the results, these auto-saved changes may still be applied to the test case, overwriting the original steps with those from the discarded session.
- Mixing Create and Architect Workflows: This issue can happen when workflows from both the Create and Architect features are mixed in an unsupported way. If a test is initially built with a Create script, and a line in that script is not a recognized command, the Create agent treats it as a simple text label for an instruction block. If you then use Architect to manually add steps under that instruction title, those new steps exist only in the Architect-modified version and not in the original Create script.
Limitations
It is important to understand that the system may auto-save structural changes made during a Local Edit session, even if the test run's results are ultimately discarded. Additionally, the Create feature is designed to build and rebuild tests based on a defined script, and it is not aware of manual modifications made later in Architect.
Best Practices
To prevent the accidental loss of test steps, please follow these recommendations:
- Avoid stopping and discarding test executions while in Local Edit mode unless you intentionally want to save the architectural changes captured during that session.
- Avoid mixing Create and Architect workflows in this manner. If using the Create feature, ensure all steps are defined as recognized commands within the script so they persist through test recreations.