# Questions recording test case

**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/questions-recording-test-case/9941
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [June 29, 2022, 3:29pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/questions-recording-test-case/9941 "2022-06-29T15:29:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Fabian](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/f6c823/32.png) [@Fabian](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Fabian)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2022, 3:29pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/questions-recording-test-case/9941/1 "2022-06-29T15:29:57Z")

</div>

I ask the question here, as the topic might be of interest also for others and it is easier to find here than in merge request commentary.

I try to create a test case for a reader plugin. I orientate myself with the GmshIO reader which has a test. From that example it is also clear how a file is loaded. I recorded loading and visualizing data and come to a point, where my screen shows the following content.

How do I continue? Thanks!

BTW: This is stuff, where a youtube-video would be really cool 🙂

 ![Bildschirmfoto 2022-06-29 um 17.22.11](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/default/original/2X/6/6e334af36e625a07bee9f8a04a7192caf84f744d.png)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/mwestphal/32/17_2.png) [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2022, 8:17am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/questions-recording-test-case/9941/2 "2022-06-30T08:17:02Z")

</div>

> [@Fabian](#):
>
> How do I continue? Thanks!

What is the question here ?

> BTW: This is stuff, where a youtube-video would be really cool

We do have a few webinars ! Please take a look: [https://www.paraview.org/webinars/](https://www.paraview.org/webinars/)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Fabian](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/f6c823/32.png) [@Fabian](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Fabian)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2022, 3:31pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/questions-recording-test-case/9941/3 "2022-07-08T15:31:02Z")

</div>

I found no test case recording and playing in the webinars, did I miss it?

I guess I need to first record loading the plugin, as this is what I need to do when I start paraview.

What I do is:

- start paraview with --dr
- start recording a test
- load the plugin
- load my file
- stop recording.

The recording is

```auto
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<pqevents>
  <pqevent object="pqClientMainWindow/PluginManagerDialog/splitter/localGroup/localPlugins" command="setCurrent" arguments="vtkPVInitializerPlugin" />
  <pqevent object="pqClientMainWindow/PluginManagerDialog/splitter/localGroup/localPlugins" command="setCurrent" arguments="CFSReader" />
  <pqevent object="pqClientMainWindow/PluginManagerDialog/splitter/localGroup/localPlugins" command="expand" arguments="5.0" />
  <pqevent object="pqClientMainWindow/PluginManagerDialog/splitter/localGroup/loadSelected_Local" command="activate" arguments="" />
  <pqevent object="pqClientMainWindow/PluginManagerDialog/buttonBox/1QPushButton0" command="activate" arguments="" />
  <pqevent object="pqClientMainWindow/FileOpenDialog" command="filesSelected" arguments="/Users/fwein/project" />
  <pqevent object="pqClientMainWindow/FileOpenDialog" command="filesSelected" arguments="/Users/fwein/project/simp" />
  <pqevent object="pqClientMainWindow/FileOpenDialog" command="filesSelected" arguments="/Users/fwein/project/simp/mech.cfs" />
</pqevents>

```

But when I run the test, I get

```auto
Process started
17:23:06 : 0: Test (0): Event: /localPlugins: setCurrent : vtkPVInitializerPlugin
critical: In unknown, line 0
critical: In event 'object=pqClientMainWindow/PluginManagerDialog/splitter/localGroup/localPlugins' 'command=setCurrent' 'arguments=vtkPVInitializerPlugin':

Couldn't find object `pqClientMainWindow/PluginManagerDialog/splitter/localGroup/localPlugins`
Found up to `pqClientMainWindow`
    Available widget: `pqClientMainWindow/_layout`
    Available widget: `pqClientMainWindow/menubar`
    Available widget: `pqClientMainWindow/menubar/qt_menubar_ext_button`
    Available widget: `pqClientMainWindow/menubar/menu_File`
    Available widget: `pqClientMainWindow/menubar/menu_File/QAction0`
    Available widget: `pqClientMainWindow/menubar/menu_File/actionServerConnect`
    Available widget: `pqClientMainWindow/menubar/menu_File/actionServerConnect/pqServerConnectReaction0`
    Available widget: `pqClientMainWindow/menubar/menu_File/actionServerDisconnect`
    Available widget: `pqClientMainWindow/menubar/menu_File/actionServerDisconnect/pqServerDisconnectReaction0`
    Available widget: `pqClientMainWindow/menubar/menu_File/actionFileSaveScreenshot`
    Available widget: `pqClientMainWindow/menubar/menu_File/actionFileSaveScreenshot/pqSaveScreenshotReaction0`
    Available widget: `pqClientMainWindow/menubar/menu_File/actionFileSaveAnimation`
    Available widget: `pqClientMainWindow/menubar/menu_File/actionFileSaveAnimation/pqSaveAnimationReaction0`
    Available widget: `pqClientMainWindow/menubar/menu_File/actionFileSaveData`
    Available widget: `pqClientMainWindow/menubar/menu_File/actionFileSaveData/pqSaveDataReaction0`
    Available widget: `pqClientMainWindow/menubar/menu_File/actionFileLoadServerState`
    Available widget: `pqClientMainWindow/menubar/menu_File/actionFileLoadServerState/pqLoadStateReaction0`
    Available widget: `pqClientMainWindow/menubar/menu_File/actionFileSaveServerState`
    Available widget: `pqClientMainWindow/menubar/menu_File/actionFileSaveServerState/pqSaveStateReaction0`
    Available widget: `pqClientMainWindow/menubar/menu_File/actionFileSaveCatalystState`
    Available widget: .... (and 3869 more!)
    Set PQOBJECTNAMING_MATCH_LIMIT environment var to a +'ve number to limit entries (or 0 for unlimited).

17:23:06 : 0: Done

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![aron.helser](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/aron.helser/32/13_2.png) [@aron.helser](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/aron.helser)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2022, 4:39pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/questions-recording-test-case/9941/4 "2022-07-08T16:39:47Z")

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Oh, on Mac, because the menu is separated from the main window, menu events are not recorded. I recorded opening the plugin-manager on Linux and got:

```auto
  <pqevent object="pqClientMainWindow/menubar" command="activate" arguments="menuTools" />
  <pqevent object="pqClientMainWindow/menubar/menuTools" command="activate" arguments="actionManage_Plugins" />

```

If you add that to the top of your test, it should work.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Fabian](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/f6c823/32.png) [@Fabian](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Fabian)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2022, 5:21pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/questions-recording-test-case/9941/5 "2022-07-08T17:21:13Z")

</div>

Thank you, that brought me further!

With hard coded filenames it works!

When I look into GmshIOTest I see for opening the file  
_“$PARAVIEW\_DATA\_ROOT/Plugins/GmshIO/Testing/Data/Gmsh/hemisphere.msh”_  
and for the comparison  
_$PARAVIEW\_DATA\_ROOT/Plugins/GmshIO/Testing/Data/Baseline/GmshIOTestA.png_

Both variables seem not to to work for me. Shall I define them in my system environment?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Fabian](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/f6c823/32.png) [@Fabian](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Fabian)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2022, 5:46pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/questions-recording-test-case/9941/6 "2022-07-08T17:46:07Z")

</div>

Well, I simply tried and it worked!

Even when I set the viewport to 400x400 (by the test) the screenshot was 800x800 - this is probably due to my Retina MacBook? I got an error about different image size. When I scale my screenshot offline to 400x400 I get

```auto
Using View API for capture

<DartMeasurement name="ImageError" type="numeric/double">0</DartMeasurement><DartMeasurement name="BaselineImage" type="text/string">Standard</DartMeasurement><DartMeasurement name="WallTime" type="numeric/double">0.00630999</DartMeasurement>

<DartMeasurement name="CPUTime" type="numeric/double">0.006321</DartMeasurement>

debug: In unknown, line 0

debug: Test "CFSReaderTest.xml" is finished. Success = true

```

I assume `<DartMeasurement name="ImageError" type="numeric/double">0</DartMeasurement>` just means no error?!

If this is true I just need to find out, how to handle my test data (200KB, cannot easily be smaller) and the reference image (7 KB).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![aron.helser](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/aron.helser/32/13_2.png) [@aron.helser](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/aron.helser)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2022, 5:58pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/questions-recording-test-case/9941/7 "2022-07-08T17:58:14Z")

</div>

Yes, `$PARAVIEW_DATA_ROOT` is define by ctest, you can see what it’s doing by running with `ctest -V`

ParaView handled testing data and baseline images using VTK’s external-data mechanism. You can see the [develop docs](https://github.com/Kitware/ParaView/blob/master/Documentation/dev/git/develop.md) and the [vtk data docs](https://gitlab.kitware.com/vtk/vtk/-/blob/master/Documentation/dev/git/data.md). Are you intending your plugin to be part of the ParaView repo?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Fabian](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/f6c823/32.png) [@Fabian](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Fabian)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2022, 6:06pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/questions-recording-test-case/9941/8 "2022-07-08T18:06:15Z")

</div>

Yes, merging it is my great hope 🙂

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/mwestphal/32/17_2.png) [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2022, 4:55pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/questions-recording-test-case/9941/9 "2022-07-10T16:55:01Z")

</div>

> [@Fabian](#):
>
> load the plugin

Not how to test a plugin, there is many test example in the existing plugins, you may want to take a look

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/mwestphal/32/17_2.png) [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2022, 6:55am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/questions-recording-test-case/9941/10 "2022-07-11T06:55:00Z")

</div>

eg: [https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview/-/tree/master/Plugins/GmshIO/Testing](https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview/-/tree/master/Plugins/GmshIO/Testing)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Fabian](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/f6c823/32.png) [@Fabian](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Fabian)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2022, 10:12am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/questions-recording-test-case/9941/11 "2022-07-15T10:12:47Z")

</div>

With the hint of the to be added command on macOS the topic “recording a test case” is solved in this context. Thanks.

With respect to the MR of the CFSReader plugin, I guess it is better to go back to the MR-discussion?!  
[https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview/-/merge\_requests/5635](https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview/-/merge_requests/5635)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Fabian](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/f6c823/32.png) [@Fabian](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Fabian)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2022, 3:48pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/questions-recording-test-case/9941/12 "2022-07-18T15:48:39Z")

</div>

As a comment when creating a plugin test case:  
In addition to [https://gitlab.kitware.com/vtk/vtk/-/blob/master/Documentation/dev/git/data.md](https://gitlab.kitware.com/vtk/vtk/-/blob/master/Documentation/dev/git/data.md) on shall not forget in the plugin’s CMakeLists.txt a

```auto
if (BUILD_TESTING)
  add_subdirectory(Testing)
endif ()

```

I could not make the GmshIO example run, as both make GmshIO and ctest -R GmshIO fail. However, it works for GMVReader.

My test was running, when I run the recording manually. As a test case with external data I have an issue.  
I have

```auto
ExternalData_Expand_Arguments(ParaViewData _
    "DATA{${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/Data/openCFS/Single_Region_Opt.cfs}"

    "DATA{${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/Data/Baseline/Single_Region_Opt_last_PSD.png}"
  )

```

But that gave me the following error on make

```auto
SHA512/106137f13bae250b692fb8f6f221de6821fb66ac01ae6b27b371dde0431d6a3953cea8f09f606e4fd01053dd47a7873f82f070f28444b5613e1ed6700b34f182
-- Linked Plugins/CFSReader/Testing/Data/Baseline/Single_Region_Opt_last_PSD.png.sha512 to ExternalData SHA512/09b9b43589921733ac06af33f71b1230c4118e99f4ba641c3d49accf27af37bf7684b5f247157e03395f0e762f39f78330c9bf083e9bd110e384186a116e29a6
CMake Warning (dev) at /opt/homebrew/Cellar/cmake/3.22.2/share/cmake/Modules/ExternalData.cmake:738 (message):
  Data file referenced by argument

    DATA{/Users/fwein/code/pv_10/paraview_cfsreader/Plugins/CFSReader/Testing/Data/Baseline/CFSReaderTest.png}

  corresponds to source tree path

    Plugins/CFSReader/Testing/Data/Baseline/CFSReaderTest.png

  that does not exist as a file (with or without an extension)!
Call Stack (most recent call first):
  /opt/homebrew/Cellar/cmake/3.22.2/share/cmake/Modules/ExternalData.cmake:542 (_ExternalData_arg)
  /opt/homebrew/Cellar/cmake/3.22.2/share/cmake/Modules/ExternalData.cmake:355 (ExternalData_expand_arguments)
  CMake/ParaViewTesting.cmake:232 (ExternalData_add_test)
  CMake/ParaViewTesting.cmake:289 (_paraview_add_tests)
  Plugins/CFSReader/Testing/CMakeLists.txt:13 (paraview_add_client_tests)

```

An this `Plugins/CFSReader/Testing/Data/Baseline/CFSReaderTest.png` instead of `Data/Baseline/Single_Region_Opt_last_PSD.png` seems to be problem.

When I run the test, I see, that everything works, but I get the error

```auto
80: debug: Test "CFSReaderTest.xml" is finished. Success = true

80: <DartMeasurement name="ImageError" type="numeric/double">0</DartMeasurement><DartMeasurement name="BaselineImage" type="text/string">Standard</DartMeasurement><DartMeasurement name="WallTime" type="numeric/double">0.00658298</DartMeasurement>

80: <DartMeasurement name="CPUTime" type="numeric/double">0.006587</DartMeasurement>

80: <DartMeasurement name="ImageNotFound" type="text/string">/Users/fwein/code/pv_10/paraview_cfsreader/Plugins/CFSReader/Testing/Data/Baseline/CFSReaderTest.png</DartMeasurement>

```

So it is again `CFSReaderTest.png` instead of `Single_Region_Opt_last_PSD.png`.

This is my CMakeLists.txt in my plugins’s Testing

```auto
set(module_tests
  CFSReaderTest.xml)

if (BUILD_SHARED_LIBS)
  set(_paraview_add_tests_default_test_data_target ParaViewData)

  ExternalData_Expand_Arguments(ParaViewData _
    "DATA{${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/Data/openCFS/Single_Region_Opt.cfs}"

    "DATA{${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/Data/Baseline/Single_Region_Opt_last_PSD.png}"
  )

  paraview_add_client_tests(
    LOAD_PLUGIN "CFSReader"
    BASELINE_DIR "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/Data/Baseline"
    TEST_DATA_TARGET ParaViewData
    TEST_SCRIPTS ${module_tests})

  paraview_add_client_server_tests(
    LOAD_PLUGIN "CFSReader"
    BASELINE_DIR "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/Data/Baseline"
    TEST_DATA_TARGET ParaViewData
    TEST_SCRIPTS ${module_tests})

  paraview_add_client_server_render_tests(
    LOAD_PLUGIN "CFSReader"
    BASELINE_DIR "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/Data/Baseline"
    TEST_DATA_TARGET ParaViewData
    TEST_SCRIPTS ${module_tests})
endif ()

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/mwestphal/32/17_2.png) [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2022, 9:40am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/questions-recording-test-case/9941/13 "2022-07-19T09:40:05Z")

</div>

Thanks for sharing @Fabian, you may want to reader data.md :  
[https://gitlab.kitware.com/vtk/vtk/blob/master/Documentation/dev/git/data.md](https://gitlab.kitware.com/vtk/vtk/blob/master/Documentation/dev/git/data.md)