Set custom metadata in Test Observability

Learn how to set custom metadata in Test Observability.

In addition to using build tags and test tags, you might want to assign key-value pairs to your tests for advanced categorization. Such custom metadata unlocks advanced use cases with Test Observability dashboards.

For example, you can set environment as a metadata category and have dev, staging, preprod, and prod as the possible values. Team-name could be another metadata category with possible values teamA, teamB, and teamC. Such key-value pairs provide a flexible option for you to categorize your tests the way you want them.

You can view custom metadata under the Info tab in the Timeline Debugging view of a test.

You can also filter tests using custom metadata.

Follow these steps to filter tests based on custom metadata:

1. When viewing the Test listing, click the filter button.
2. Scroll down and click Add in Custom fields filter.
   
3. Select any key name.
   
4. Select the key values you want to include. You can use the search option to find all values available. Note that you can select multiple key values here.
   
5. Click Add Filter and Apply.

The tests get filtered based on the custom metadata filters you choose.

How to add custom metadata to tests

Currently, you can add custom metadata for Java and Python frameworks. We will be adding this feature to other frameworks soon.

import com.browserstack.v2.utils.BrowserStack; 

BrowserStack.setCustomTag("keyName", "Value");

BrowserStack.setCustomTag("environment", "staging");

BrowserStack.setCustomTag("environment", "staging, preprod, production");

driver.set_custom_tag("keyName", "keyValue1, keyValue2, keyValueN")

driver.set_custom_tag("environment", "staging, preprod, production")

Allure.label("component", "Core");
Allure.label("version", "1.23");

Principles of custom metadata

• Custom metadata keys can be dynamically updated throughout a test execution. This allows you to reflect changing information or states within your test case.

  For example, you could initialize a key named Campaign with the value Winter. Later in the test, you can overwrite the key with a value like Holiday by using the same method you used to set the original key. The key will be automatically overwritten with the latest assigned value. This mechanism ensures that your metadata always represents the most current state or information relevant to your test.

• You can assign multiple values to a single metadata key by using a comma-separated string. This allows you to associate a test with several categories, modules, or attributes simultaneously.

  For example, you could set a key like User Permissions and have multiple values like Read, Write and Update associated with it by passing Read,Write, Update, while setting the key.

• Key values are strings with a maximum of 512 characters.