The SMSDEBUG product contains an ACS test facility, ACS/QA, which can be useful in testing ACS routine execution and in performing regression testing when changes are made to the ACS routines. ACS/QA can be used to determine what the output of the ACS routines will be (including messages and exit codes), and can provide a side-by-side com- parison of different pairs of ACS routines residing in different SMS control data sets.
ACS/QA provides a number of advantages over the native ISMF test facilities, making ACS routine testing much faster, more accurate, and more practical. These include:
- Side-by-side comparison of the results
of testcase execution. This allows the user
to see exactly which constructs, exitcodes, and messages will change as a result of changes to the ACS routines. It is not necessary to save output
from prior tests
- ACS/QA shows the results of the testcase execution for each SMS control data- set specified and flags exceptions.
- Optional ACS routine logic tracing as each test case executes.
- Optional updating of the ACS read-only variables from the data class definition after the data class ACS routine executes. This allows much more accurate test- ing of the following routines, which unlike ISMF or Naviquest testing, will 'see' the correct values for the ACS read-only variables.
- Optional one-line-per-testcase summary report.
- List of all ACS read-only variables that were input to each testcase
- ACS routine exits (IGDACSxx) can be called, either the live system exits or ones loaded from a test load library. This allows testing of ACS routine exit code with- out the danger of affecting systemwide allocation and without the need for APF- authorized execution.
- Control statement overrides for SMS construct names, job names, and other read- only variables input to each testcase, allowing the test administrator more detailed control over the tests.
- Testcase execution can be limited to tests for particular jobs, datasets, or other criteria