Test Data Storage – Terminology and common solutions

[Matt]

Hello,

What method do you use to store static test data (files) used in test automation?

I assumed google could help, but searches did not turn up much.

Storing flat files on disk with a backup solution is simple and easy, but you have no version history.  Furthermore you cannot update N files directly today, and still see the complete set of test files, as they were, during previous test automation runs.

Alternatively files could be kept in git, or git+LFS can be used also.

A type 2 database could also be used, but with additional costs.  Furthermore you have to extract the data and create the test data files in the correct format.  There are databases for unstructured data also.

However I expected this to be a fairly common problem in test automation, with a common and popular solution.  So I’m surprised not to find it discussed more often.

What’s your view?

Thanks,
Matt

[Author]

Posts