Number Ranges

Int4 Suite uses own number ranges for data processing needs. Quite often, when sending test data to test systems again and again, the message can’t be exactly the same. For example, sending the same purchase order to generate sales order in S/4 could result in an error, if the system is configured to treat such situations as duplicates. Also, having a specific data field in the document might be mandatory to find another document - e.g. by generating an unique PO number for the Sales Order, we can find the newly created Sales Order in the database. The actual mechanics for such replacements of original document numbers or other values is described in the section Variables & Variable processing.

Below you will find information how to create a new number range.

The number range used to replace the source system document number should always be configured to not overwrite the original numbers. It means that documents generated by Int4 Suite should have their own subset of the original document number. Usually, it might be a subset of the upper limit of the original number range.

It is essential that automated testing with Int4 Suite doesn’t consume numbers that the source system will generate during manual testing. Additionally, if testing environment data is refreshed from the production system, more documents would be created in the testing environment. If the Int4 Suite number were configured in the same range, it would start creating duplicates.

For example, the original number range for document numbers from the source system is 560000 - 590000. It would be wise to set the Int4 Suite number range from 590000 to 600000. However, suppose the SAP backend system uses an external number range. It is essential to stay in the original range. In that case, the Int4 Suite number range may be set as 585000-590000, which gives space for 5000 testing documents. Using range from upper interval reduces the risk that the number will be overwritten.

Additionally, the good practice is to use prefixes or suffixes that will quickly separate source system documents and the ones created by Int4 Suite. It should always be used when there is no document number validation by the SAP backend.

Each Object Definition can contain an unlimited number of number ranges. This way, each variable declared in an object can use its specific number range.

Parameter name	Description	Example
Number range	Provide a name for the number range. This name would be passed as a parameter in variable processing for actions that will generate values from it.	NUM_RAN
Prefix	The alphanumeric characters to be appended at the beginning of the document number to separate original documents from source systems and the one created during Int4 Suite testing (optional).	INT4_
Low value	The first number of our range.	1
High value	The last number of our range.	999999
Current value	When the number range is used during testing, it would increment per each use.	23
Suffix	The alphanumeric characters to be appended at the end of the document number to separate original documents from source systems and the one created during Int4 Suite testing (optional).	_TEST
Add zeros	If this box is checked, zeros will be automatically appended to the beginning of the document number, such as 000500.
Incr. per Test Run	If this indicator is selected, the number range is incrementing once per test run. If multiple test cases with the same Automation Object exist in the test run, they will receive the same value.