Configure your script - Using Subroutines/Instructions

What are subroutines/instructions?

Subroutines is a capability to define reusable snippets of code that can be used as part of action parameter values. In that way, a similar piece of configuration needs to be defined only once and can be reused many times. It can be compared to a spreadsheet function. As a user, you need to know the function name and what it does, not how it works in the background.

There are two categories of subroutines:

• Built-in subroutines (provided by the framework)
• User-defined subroutines (defined by the automation engineer)

Built-in subroutines

Built-in subroutines cover different types related to lookups, data generation, variable retrieval and much more. The outcome of the subroutine will be substituted in the parameter field.

How are subroutines defined?
The syntax of a subroutine contains out of the following elements:

• <instruction>: refers to the functionality - i.e. look-up, generate or variable
• <subroutine>: refers to the name of the function - i.e. person.firstname, connection, time.travel, …
• <args>: refers to the parameters that need to be used as input for the subroutine function

Subroutines can also be nested, containing subroutines in subroutines (e.g. for date formatting)

Instruction Function (<instruction>)

Syntax	Function	Description
=	Look-up	Lookup relevant information
*	Generate	Generate synthetic data on the fly
$	Variable	Get the variable of a specific (framework) variable

Subroutine Types (<subroutine><args>)

Instruction Type	Subroutine Type	Description
Look-up		All instructions related to data look-up
Generate		All instructions related to data generation
	Generic instructions	Generating and formatting of person values
	Date instructions	Generating and formatting of date values
	Time instructions	Generating and formatting of time values
	Number instructions	Generating and formatting of number values
	List instructions	Generating and formatting of list values
	Math instructions	Generating and formatting of math formulas
	Text instructions	Generating and formatting of string - xml - json responses
Variable		All instructions related to fetching of framework variables

Testing of subroutines

Subroutines can be easily used in datasets and scripts. Want to test/try it first? Find an example below:

---
type: "script"
data:
  name: "Example 1"
  description: "Script to test subroutine functions"
  parameters: []
  actions:
  - number: 1
    type: "fwk.setParametervalue"
    name: "test"
    description: "test the subroutine function"
    component: ""
    condition: ""
    iteration: ""
    errorExpected: "N"
    errorStop: "N"
    parameters:
    - name: "name"
      value : "test"
    - name: "value"
      value : "{{*date.today()}}"

---
type: "script"
data:
  name: "Example 2"
  description: "Script to test subroutine functions"
  parameters: []
  actions:
  - number: 1
    type: "fwk.outputMessage"
    name: "test"
    description: "test the subroutine function"
    component: ""
    condition: ""
    iteration: ""
    errorExpected: "N"
    errorStop: "N"
    parameters:
    - name: "message"
      value : "{{*date.today()}}"
    - name: "onScreen"
      value : "Y"