[selenium-users] test data management

[Amit]

Hi,

I need an advice on approach to maintain a test data rather than a code.
Though code would help of course :)

Anyways,

I have a website where i need to test a feature and the test steps are :
1. Login to the application
2. on the user profile page , there are certain search fields like
FirstName, LastName, PrintedNumber, ExpiryDate, DepartmentName etc.
3. For instance, search by firstname, the user inputs the text and clicks
on Search
4. The search results some text '20 matching records' and displays the
records in a table below it
5. The column values are CardNumber, Name ( consisting of firstname and
lastname), Department, Status and checkboxes against each record.
6. At a time 10 records are displayed and to go to the next page, there is
a button to next page

I want to understand , if i want to search by the above criterias, what is
the best approach for test data management

1. What do i use to store data ? XLS , CSV, database (MS SQL Server) or
anything else
2. Should i maintain seperate data sets for different search criterias ? As
few of the search criteria values do not appear in the rows of the table.
Like Printed Number does not show up in the table below.
3. How each test case is to be managed ? Like to search by firstname , i
login - search by firstname - validate results - logout , then for second
test case, login-search by lastname, validate results - logout etc. Is this
efficient way of testing ?

Suggestions/ Advice appreciated.

Thanks,
Amit