Managing Keywords in a Test in Silk Central

The Keywords page enables you to manage the keywords of the selected keyword-driven test. The following actions are possible:
Task Steps
Opening a test or keyword sequence in Silk Test Click Open with Silk Test to open the selected test or keyword sequence in Silk Test.
Adding a keyword
  1. Click New Keyword at the bottom of the keywords list, or right-click a keyword and select Insert Keyword Above from the context menu.
    Note: You can let Silk Test recommend keywords based on their usage. Toggle the recommendations on or off with Enable Recommendations or Disable Recommendations in the context menu. For additional information, see Which Keywords Does Silk4J Recommend?.
  2. Select a keyword from the list of available keywords or type a new name to create a new keyword.
  3. Click Save.
Alternatively, double click an existing keyword in the All Keywords pane on the right or drag and drop it.
Tip: You can select multiple keywords with Ctrl+Click. When dropping them, they will be sorted in the order that you selected them in.
Deleting a keyword Click Delete in the Actions column of the keyword that you want to delete. Click Save.
Changing the order of keywords Drag and drop a keyword to the desired position. Click Save.
Creating a keyword sequence (a keyword consisting of other keywords)
  1. Select the keywords that you want to combine in the keywords list. Use Ctrl+Click or Shift+Click on the row number column to select multiple keywords.
  2. Right-click your selection and click Combine.
  3. Specify a Name and Description for the new keyword sequence.
Extracting keywords from a keyword sequence Right-click a keyword sequence and click Extract keywords. The original keyword sequence is then replaced by the keywords that it contained, but it is not removed from the library. Click Save.
Copying and pasting keywords into tests or keyword sequences
  1. Select the keywords that you want to copy in the keywords list. Use Ctrl+Click or Shift+Click on the row number column to select multiple keywords.
  2. Press Ctrl+C to copy your selection, or Ctrl+X if you want to move the keywords.
  3. Open the test or keyword sequence that you want to copy the keywords to and select the row above which the keywords will be inserted.
  4. Press Ctrl+V.
Tip: You can also paste your selected keywords into Excel, and copy and paste them from there into your tests or keyword sequences.
Defining parameters for a keyword sequence
  1. Click Parameters above the keywords list. The Parameters dialog box appears.
  2. Click Add Parameter.
  3. Specify a Name for the new parameter. If the parameter is an outgoing parameter (delivers a value, instead of requiring an input value), check the Output checkbox.
  4. Click OK.
  5. Click Save.
Note: A keyword or a keyword sequence can have a combined total of 20 input and output parameters.
Editing a draft keyword
  1. Click Edit in the Actions column of the draft keyword that you want to edit.
  2. Select a Group or specify a new group for the keyword.
  3. Type a Description for the keyword. This information is valuable for the engineer who will implement the keyword.
  4. Click OK.
  5. Optional: Click into a parameter field to add parameters for the keyword. If the keyword is implemented with Silk Test, these parameters will appear in the generated code stub.
  6. Click Save.
Searching for a keyword
Use the search field in the Keywords view to find a specific keyword. When you enter alphanumeric characters, the list is dynamically updated with all existing matches. Tips for searching:
  • The search is case-insensitive: doAction will find doaction and DOAction.
  • Enter only capital letters to perform a so-called CamelCase search: ECD will find Enter Car Details, Enter Contact Details and EnterContactDetails.
  • Keyword and group names are considered: test will find all keywords that contain test and all keywords in groups where the group name contains test.
  • ? replaces 0-1 characters: user?test will find userTest and usersTest.
  • * replaces 0-n characters: my*keyword will find myKeyword, myNewKeyword and my_other_keyword.
  • <string>. only searches in group names: group. will find all keywords in groups where the group name contains group.
  • .<string> only searches in keyword names: .keyword will find all keywords that contain keyword.
  • <string>.<string> searches for a keyword in a specific group: group.word will find myKeyword in the group myGroup.
  • Use quotes to search for an exact match: 'Keyword' will find Keyword and MyKeyword, but not keyword.
Parent topic: Keyword-Driven Tests