Configuring and Writing REXX › Testing REXX Programs › Test Message-driven REXX Programs Locally

Test Message-driven REXX Programs Locally

Because of the heavy processing that CA Automation Point rules perform, it is sometimes difficult to manually invoke and test the REXX portions of some types of message-driven automation that use a combination of rules and REXX programs.

You can test a REXX program within a rule by using the following methods:

• When you create a test procedure on the host to send dummy messages, the messages activate the CA Automation Point rule, which in turn invokes the REXX program. However, such a scenario may not be possible on the particular host that you are automating.
• If you use the CA Automation Point MSG command processor to issue dummy messages locally from the same workstation, write a separate REXX program to invoke the CA Automation Point MSG command processor one or more times to produce a controlled message stream for testing.
• If you enter a message ID into the host session as a command, the host echoes the command, and then rejects it as invalid, causing CA Automation Point to process the unknown command as a message. The rule that you have written to intercept that message ID executes and the rule then executes your REXX program.