#ss takes screenshot on the step it's attached to

[vptes1]

Hashtags:

• #ss takes screenshot on the step it's attached to, after the step is done executing
• #ss-both takes screenshot before and after its step

Flags:

• When --screenshots=false, no screenshots are taken
• When --screenshots=true, screenshots are taken before and after every step
• When --screenshots=ss, or if --screenshots isn't passed in at all, only steps with #ss/#ss-both have screenshots taken

Step data:

• This is all independent of --step-data, which describes what kind of data is safe to delete after a test (to prevent overuse of disk space)

[vptes1]

Let's discuss this feature request here

[craigvl]

Ok I think that this is good, a few comments below:

• Regarding the --screenshots value I notice that the doco does not tell the user that "True" is the default.

• Would it be worth having the values:

#ss takes before and after
#ss-before takes before step
#ss-after takes after

Or is this to many options?

Also would it be worth while changing the --step-data flag to something like
--keep-screenshots

I know that the intent here is that there might be other things that are deleted but at the moment it is only screenshots?

This would maybe make the flag more clear / say what it is and give more control in the future if you have other things to delete. Just a thought.

[vptes1]

Those are some good points. I like the whole #ss, #ss-before, and #ss-after thing (where #ss means both before and after).

https://smashtest.io/ui-testing/screenshots does say that screenshots are automatically taken (by default). I'll look into how to make this sound more clear, and if I need to add anything to the --screenshots documentation and/or -? output. Suggestions welcome!

I am noticing that the "screenshot everything" approach slows down tests considerably, so much so that the average user probably doesn't want screenshots to be on all the time. That's why I want to make --screenshots=ss the default (if --screenshots is omitted).

As for step-data, it does delete a lot of stuff from the step, like meta-data. That alone can get pretty bulky if there are a large number of steps/branches (each step contains stuff like start/end timestamps, elapsed time, pass/fail state, etc.).

We also want to avoid renaming flags for backwards-compatibility :)

[craigvl]

Ok yes I thought that the rename of the step-data would be a breaking change :0)

I agree that #ss should be default

So to summarize the solution would be:

• add an "ss" option to --screenshots (becomes the default)
• if --screenshots=ss then will look for tags #ss or #ss-before or #ss-after (what happens if more than one used on same step, just take first?)
• true and false values behave as they currently do

[vptes1]

Yes. And if #ss and #ss-before are listed, it should take it before and after.

[juliensz]

ok i work on it, i create the solution for #ss-before #ss-after i going to create fail and #ss normal.
I go push new PR tomorrow

[vptes1]

(Reposting from other ticket) So there's this pattern that we recommend on the site, particularly in CI/CD environments.
Run smashtest, then run smashtest -s, then run smashtest -s, etc. as many times as you feel you want to repeat failed tests.
Maybe we should just recommend they do smashtest -s --screenshots=true instead? That way they get thorough screenshots, but only for the tests that failed at least once.

[slowmonkey]

ok i work on it, i create the solution for #ss-before #ss-after i going to create fail and #ss normal.
I go push new PR tomorrow

Hi,

I'm wondering if the #ss feature was implemented and if the PR still exists and if this feature will be available soon?

[craigvl]

No this ticket has not been done.