Agent

1. Overview

Agents enable you to perform remote testing on your local machines by functioning as a communication mechanism between your registered machines and Zoho QEngine. By default, Zoho QEngine executes test cases on Zoho Cloud. However, if the user prefers testing locally, an agent can be installed on the user's machine, granting them direct access and control over the testing environment. The agent then updates the results to QEngine, but only upon the user's request to run the test case.

With agents, you gain the ability to access and utilize browsers installed on your machine. For testing mobile cases, agents facilitate connection to virtual or real mobile devices. In API testing, the agent provides enhanced control over test cases by executing them directly within your local environment. Overall, this ensures comprehensive cross-platform testing.

When users register an agent, they can associate it with multiple projects in Zoho QEngine. This flexibility allows users to manage various testing environments from a single agent. Additionally, it enables easier debugging and faster testing cycles for each associated project.

1.1 Agent for Mobile

Agents allow you to run test cases on your preferred physical or virtual mobile devices, ensuring comprehensive device coverage for various operating systems and versions. This level of control enables testers to uncover potential compatibility issues more effectively. For example, you are running a test case on your virtual device, Android version 8 on a Pixel device. Here, the test case is run on an online simulator, like Android Studio. The device's screen is mirrored into Zoho QEngine, thereby giving you full control of the environment in which the test cases are executed. Similarly, you can run the same Android test on your physical Samsung device. This is achieved by a cross-platform user agent that has to be installed on your machine.

2. Navigation to agents page

You can access the agents page from the following two places:

From the setup page

Navigate to the Setup page by clicking the {} icon in the top-right corner of the Home page.
From the test execution drop-down, click Agents.

From within a project

Click on the required project in the Home page.
Navigate to Settings > Agents.

3. Configure Agents

3.1 Download and Install Agent Application

To configure an agent for your machine, you first need to download and install the agent application. Follow the steps found in the Download and Install Agent Application page.

3.2 Register Agent from Setup

Once the agent is installed, it must remain in its running state to function properly. The agent continually runs in the background, ensuring it's ready to execute tests as needed. After installation, you need to register your agent with Zoho QEngine, which is a one-time process. However, you can associate the agent with additional projects at any time, giving you the flexibility to manage and update your testing environments as needed.

Step 1: Agents Window

Click the Zoho QEngine {} icon from the system tray and select Register Agent from the dropdown. This will take you to the registration page for Zoho QEngine.
Click Generate Code.

Copy the generated code.

Step 2: In Zoho QEngine
Navigate to Setup in Zoho QEngine and select Agents from the Test Execution dropdown. On the Agents page, click Register Agent.
Provide an Agent Name, associate the required projects, and paste the registration code you copied. Click Register.
Once the agent is registered, you can access it from the listing page to view its configuration details.

This listing displays details like the agent's name, the owner who registered the agent, the agent's version, associated projects, and the agent's status: Connected, Disconnected, or Yet to Connect.

Note: If your agent is in a Yet to Connect state, it requires your attention, as the registration process may not have completed successfully. This could be due to several reasons:

The code entered may be incorrect. In this case, try regenerating a new code.
The agent may have been down during the registration process. Wait for some time and try again.
There could be a network or server issue. Ensure your network connection is stable.

To resolve the Yet to Connect state, click Update, which will open a pop-up window to retry the registration process. Enter the new code in the pop-up and click Update to complete the registration. If the issue persists, contact support at support@zohoqengine.com.

Alternatively, you can register your agent either from within a specific project or while customizing a test case run in that project.

From the Select Agent field, click +Register Agent.

Provide an agent name and paste the registration code you copied. Click Register.

Note: You can register a maximum of 20 agents.

4. Link Projects with Registered Agents

You can associate your projects with any registered agents using the following steps:

From Projects, navigate to Settings and select Agents.
Click Add Agent.

Select the agent you want to add and click Save.

5. Manage Agent

The Agents page enables you to view, edit, and remove registered agents. You can perform these actions from the Agents page within Setup, as well as from individual projects.

View Agents

Edit Agent

Delete Agent

5.1 View Agents

To view the list of registered agents, follow the steps below:

Click on the required agent to view its configuration details.

View the respective Agent Information, number of Parallel Threads, associated Projects, the Browser Option, and the connected devices.

Agent Information - This includes comprehensive agent information, including agent name, computer name, version, and IP address.
Parallel Thread - This refers to the simultaneous execution of multiple test cases that the agent can handle concurrently. This gives the maximum count of how many parallel execution of test cases are possible with your agent.

Note: The count is according to the machine's configuration.

Projects - This is the list of projects associated with this agent.
Browser Option - This gives the list of browser versions available in your machine.

Similarly, the agent's listing page will also be available within each respective project.

5.2 Edit Agent

Inside the agent details page, you can edit the Agent Name, associated Projects, and the Parallel Thread count fields.

Click Edit to make the required changes.

By default, you can see that all the browsers present in your machine are selected for test case executions. You can deselect any browsers you don't need. Only the selected browsers will be available in the environment dropdown when you set up the run or test plan for any test case, or test suite.

After making the changes, click Save.

Note: When an agent is edited from within a project, only the Agent's name and Number of threads can be edited.

5.3 Delete Agent

To revoke the registration of any agent with the associated projects, follow the steps below:

Navigate to the agents listing page within Setup or Projects.

Hover on the required agent and click Delete.

Note: If any of the agents are used in test plans, they'll have to be removed from those test plans before they can be deleted.

6. Agent Troubleshooting and Logs

This allows users to send logs to the Zoho QEngine team for support, issue resolution, or problem diagnosis.

Note: This action can only be performed from the Agents section within the respective projects.

Click Send Logs.

If needed, you can add any relevant comments to help provide more context for the logs. This step is optional.
Click Send.

7. Points to Note

The agent is optional to use, and is needed only when you want to run tests locally on your machine. You can also simply use the default agent that comes with Zoho QEngine if running tests on cloud is not a concern, in which case you don't need to have any agent installed.
You can only install one agent per machine.

8. Related Links

9. What's Next?

Next Steps

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