Configuring applications to be launched by the Agent Controller

One of the features of the Agent Controller is its ability to allow the remote test client to launch applications under test (AUTs) on the local host. However, before this can be done, a configuration description for the AUT must be present in the configuration file. This description is the role of the Application element and its children. Only AUT descriptions that are provided by the Application elements in the active configuration can be launched by the Agent Controller.

Creating a configuration description

To create a configuration description,...

Locate the serviceconfig.xml configuration file. See the related task.
Open it in an editor, and add an Application element. The application must be identified by an alias name and also the fully qualified path of the executable that this alias maps to.
For example, if you want to create a configuration for an AUT with the alias name of TestHarness, the configuration mapping to a real executable jtestclient.exe on the local host, you would add this fragment:
```
   <Application configuration="default" executable="TestHarness" path="c:\tools\jtestclient.exe" 
   location="D:\">
       <Variable name="PATH" value="C:\tools" position="prepend"/>
   </Application>
```

This fragment describes an Application called TestHarness, that maps to c:\tools\jtestclient.exe, and its preferred executable location is in the root of the D drive. TestHarness will always have c:\tools prefixed to the PATH.

The remote test client only asks the Agent Controller to launch TestHarness and has no notion of what actual executable is being run as a result of this request. Furthermore, it is not possible to remotely list the AUT descriptions available. As a result, the Agent Controller needs to be configured in order to respond to a remote test client's request to run an AUT.

Note: Application descriptions also have the ability to override or augment environment variable values for the AUT being launched as well as to override or augment the parameters that will be provided to the AUT executable at launch time.

Related concepts
Agent Controller