testIDEA as standalone application and Eclipse plug-in

testIDEA was originally designed as Eclipse plug-in, but it was deployed as standalone application. Eclipse framework was used under the hood, but without any other UI plug-in.

To make it possible for Eclipse users to use one application for development and testing, testIDEA has also been released as Eclipse plug-in. Menus have been adapted to co-exist with other plug-ins, and launchers have been implemented to better integrate testIDEA with existing Eclipse framework. testIDEA launcher provides functionality of running several testIDEA files with single action. This functionality is not available in standalone testIDEA.

Recommendation
Eclipse enables users to configure views and editors in many different ways. However, for most use cases it is recommended to use testIDEA functionality in testIDEA perspective (Window | Open Perspective | Other... | testIDEA). Although editing and running of tests is possible also in other perspectives, they originally do not show testIDEA's Test Status view, which displays warnings and errors during editing, and test results after test run. Not all testIDEA menus and tool-bar buttons are visible in other perspectives.

testIDEA as Eclipse plug-in

This section describes functionality specific for testIDEA when used as Eclipse plug-in.

testIDEA perspective

To get the familiar testIDEA layout of views, menus, and tool-bar, testIDEA perspective should be opened with menu Window | Open Perspective | Other... | testIDEA. If we change the layout of this perspective, but would like to restore it to the original settings, we can select menu command iTools | Reset test view.
testIDEA perspective is recommend for test editing and running. While some test related actions are available also in other perspectives, only this perspective provides all information and commands related to tests.

Creating new testIDEA file

To create new testIDEA file as part of Eclipse project, open testIDEA perspective, and select menu command File | New | Test Specification file. A wizard opens, where we can select project and enter file name.

Project Explorer

Eclipse's view called Project Explorer enables management of project resources, including testIDEA files.
testIDEA files can be expanded to show all test cases. If Link with Editor button in Project Explorer's tool-bar is pressed, test cases selected in Project Explorer is also shown in editor, if the file is opened in Eclipse editor.
It is also possible to start tests with context menu. Right-click testIDEA file (*.iyaml), and select Run As or Debug As | testIDEA launch. If the file is opened in editor, it should be saved before launching, so that results can be unambiguously shown in editor.

Export/Import

Standard Eclipse commands File | Export, and File | Import open a wizard, which provides several export/import formats. For testIDEA export/import we should select testIDEA | Test Cases and click Next button. The standard testIDEA export/import dialog opens.
Alternatively, Outline view contains Export and Import buttons in its tool-bar when testIDEA file is displayed there. These buttons open testIDEA export/import dialogs directly.

Launch configurations

Eclipse launch configurations support execution of groups of testIDEA iyaml files. This way we can run tests from several files with a single action. These files do not need to be opened in Eclipse editors. The first page contains list of files, which contain tests to be run:

The first column defines, how to initialize target before running tests from the selected file - init sequence can be taken from the file, it can be skipped, or init sequence specified in this launch configuration (tab Test init) can be used.

The second page contains target init sequence for this launch configuration. It is used, when Launch configuration is selected as Test Init Source in the table above:

When tests are run with launch configurations, they are read from file, not editor. It is recommended to save all editors before running tests.
If report configuration in selected files is empty, then blue style-sheet is selected as default.

All other sections in this file apply to standalone and plug-in version of testIDEA.