Deleted AUC files are restored as is and not reseted

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Posted on by fguerin

Hello,

I need to have my AX client look and feel reset as if I was a fresh user. I was told that it required to delete the %userprofile%\appdata\local\*.AUC files.

I have deleted those files on the Terminal Server where AX is installed but as soon as I launch AX again, the AUC files are copied from somewhere exactly as they were before the deletion : it's a restore, bot a reset!

So, I worked with system guy and checked my centralized romaing profile, but the AUC files where not there. It seems that the copied files does not come from my roaming profile.

So where are they stored?

FYI, I did not stopped the AOS before deleting my AUC. Could they be in memory there? I read that stop/start AOS was optional for AUC deletion...

Please help, as I really need to understand why it seems that the deletion of AUC is not working as I need to find a way to manage the "look and feel" of the AX client accross several users accounts and I thought that by resetting the AUC, then configuring correctly a user and copying its AUC files to other user profiles would do the trick...

Regards, FG.

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Martin Dráb 237,965 Most Valuable Professional on at

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If you say that you want to "reset AX client look and feel", don't you actually means removing form personalization and things like that? They're stored in database; .auc files merely cache objects so they don't have to be obtained from server every time, which would slow client down.

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fguerin on at

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Thanks for your quick answer.

What I try to find out is how to reset the AX client to its original configuration when I had never used it before (including all the welcome message and all).

The reason is that I am developping Citrix script using LoadRunner to load test the application and I need to have a total control on how the client will look like for each of my generic accounts. Therefore, I need to reset their current state to its former when they were fresh new users: let says that manually I have moved the menu bar to the far right, then I need to have it back at its exact pixel where it was the first time I connected. Tricky...

I was told that this client side setting were also in AUC files and that a deletion should reset everything as if fresh new. My idea was also to try copy those files to another account and verify that the client is in the same state. Therefore I can copy paste files to all the generic account profil and be sure they all have the same screens and that my Citrix script will pass without any issue.

Do you know how this client side setting works in AX? Maybe in the registry? The reason is that Citrix script are mainly positional and I must have all my test accounts working as "one guy"!

Regards, FG.

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Martin Dráb 237,965 Most Valuable Professional on at

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No, these things are not stored in .auc files on each client. They're stored in a database, so if you connect from another machine, you'll get all your settings from server. Form personalization is stored in SysLastValue table.

Note that tests that depends on particular pixel positions are extremely fragile; I'm personally not convinced that maintaining them is worth the effort. Consider test frameworks that can identify form controls (using their names and automation IDs), such as TFS Test Runner.

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Martin Dráb 237,965 Most Valuable Professional on at

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By the way, I also wonder why you're trying to clean up and existing user instead of creating a dedicate user for your automatic tests.

And if your ultimate goal is load testing, maybe you should use the solution provided by Microsoft for this purpose: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Performance Benchmark SDK.

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fguerin on at

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Thanks again for your fast answer, very appreciated.

Can the values from SysLastValue be deleted from the AX Client? I do not remember exactly the path but under Files/Tools or Options... well, somewhere you can delete the user data cache that is stored in the DB. Because I already tried it and deleted all the values there and it did not change my AX layout: my ridiculously small menu tab was still there at the reconnexion and was not reset to its default position.

I agree that positional scripting is very sensitive and hard (or impossible) to maintain but my customer wants to load test as it will be done in real life hence through Citrix (we will even have load generators located in the various offices around the country). Also, LoadRunner has a Citrix agent to install on the Terminal Servers that enable some kind of very basic object recognition (but for less powerful than a TFS Test Runner or other functional testing tool).

So it's the real user experience my customer wants to know and not some server side response time (I believe some tests were done using AX Performance Benchmark SDK but it was hard for them to identify "how long" it takes on the client to the business process they selected).

For SysLastValue if it needs to be deleted from a SQL script, what is the PK in order to identify my user? I hope that the settings I want to manage is really located there because it should be easy then to create a SQL script in order to copy the correct values to all my generic users at once and have them all using the same AX layout providing an easy way to have the Citrix script running without any issue.

Regards? FG.

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Chaitanya Golla 17,225 on at

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Hi,

Yes. Values from table SysLastValue can be cleared by clearing the usage data(from Ax client).

Path: Tools > Options > General tab > Reset(button)

Cache can be refreshed(from Ax client) through the path:

Tools > Caches > Refresh dictionary, Refresh data, Refresh elements, Refresh report server.

If you want to clear data using sql, u can use delete command based on user.

Samething is done by Ax, you can refer the following code at the path:

\Forms\SysLastValue\Designs\Design\[Tab:Tab]\[TabPage:General]\[Group:ResetGrp]\Button:Reset\Methods\clicked

MethodName: reset()

Code:

SysLastValue lastValue;

ttsbegin;

delete_from lastValue

where lastValue.UserId == userId;

ttscommit;

Thanks,

Chaitanya Golla

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Martin Dráb 237,965 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Personalization, dialog parameters and such things stored in SysLastValue are known an "Usage data" in the GUI. I didn't say that everything you may be interested is stored there, I was explicitly talking about form personalization.

Pressing a button detected by its name doesn't sound any less "real" to me than pressing exactly the same button by invoking a click on the same button by position. It's sounds to me like that the customer isn't an expect in software testing techniques, which is understandable - client have their own business, that's why they hire professionals like us to help them with software development and testing. It's up to us to educate them and help them to make right decisions.

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fguerin on at

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Thanks Chaitanya, you are right the Tools > Options > User Data > General Tab Reset button seems to delete the SysLastValue for my account; Then I log of and log in again : some layout are reset that is true, but my small left menu is still small... but maybe at the logoff a value with this setting was saved in SysLastValue? I will try to delete all the data in this table for my account while I am not connected to check if it works better. Anyway, it seems to do at least most of what I need. Thanks. AUC files were indeed a false lead...

As for positional click vs. object recognition... well have you done load test on AX before? The purpose is not functional testing where you can afford to have a test client running for each AX client (with the cpu/memory overhead on the Terminal Server); what my customer wants to know is also if the Citrix farm is well sized and well balanced for 500+ users at the same time starting an AX client and navigating through a business process (from creating a PR on the web EP to receiving the goods, or creating financial postings, etc). By using LoadRunner Citrix scripts it will ensure that we can test if the Citrix farm is well sized and by doing a business process we will also ensure that the backend is performing well and has no bottleneck. I would have love to have a better "object recognition" tool enbedded inside Citrix, but besides LoadRunner (which offer a first level of obejct recognition with their agent) I could not find any alternative. Do you? Also, the network impact is important as a Test Run inside the TS is not the same as an wan access through Citrix to the server (what Citrix script will test). But I would like to know how you would do it as it might not be the right way to do it afterall...

Reegards, FG.

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Martin Dráb 237,965 Most Valuable Professional on at

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I don't think that combining several types of tests to a single huge one testing a million of things is an ideal approach, especially if use such an architecture that any tiny change of UI or data in AX database will destroy all your effort.

I would split testing of AX tests and tests of Citrix farm size testing to two separate sets of tests. Then you can combine them again in a loosely coupled manner if you want: you can develop better AX UI tests (not depending on pixel positions) and then execute them from Citrix load tests, instead of implementing the whole thing from scratch via limited options of LoadRunner.

If you want to use your original architecture, all right, do it. I was just saying trying to show you alternative ways which - I believe - you to achieve the same goal without the problems you're (and will be) dealing with (such as that your Citrix farm load tests don't work just because you've resized a menu in Dynamics AX).

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fguerin on at

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Thanks Martin for your valuable insight into this topic.

To develop better AX UI tests would require a tool, right. Let's say the embedded TFS Test Runner (which I never used); I suppose in order to work this Test Runner has to start a process on the server where the AX client is started; hence using cpu/memory to do its task of identifying objects on the client and applying methods like click, type, etc. That's usual functional automatic test features.

But in some cases, I have seen those automatic test tool requiring more cpu/memory thant the client under test itself... hence this is not really a solution to use for hundreds of simulated robot users on an application.

Now, you say that I should execute the automatic test (with object recognition) from Citrix... But how is that? To use Citrix to start the Test Runner that will start the client under test (AX Dynamics)? In any case, it will be the Test Runner that will do on the server all the tasks... Citrix will have no part on it being merely a remote viewer of what's going on...

I agree that Citrix scripting in LoadRunner is not optimal and very sensitive to change (but remains manageable for small change in the UI) but it requires great deal of control over the client layout... hence my question in the first place :-) because I believe that if we are able to setup the layout exactly as we whish over the 100s of generic accounts we will have for our load test campaign, the Citrix script should be able to do the job (well... I hope!).

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