The middle column of the test editor is the steps pane, and most people only ever read it. It is also where you edit a test directly — search it, select across it, reorder it, and turn part of it into something reusable.
More importantly, it is where Studio shows you what it understood. If you only take one thing from this page, take the second section.
Instructions and actions are not the same thing
You write an instruction — one sentence, in plain language. Studio generates one or more actions from it, and those are what actually run against the browser.
The numbering makes the relationship visible. Instruction 1 produces
actions 1.1, 1.2, 1.3.
So a single sentence like "Navigate to Electronics and open the Air Conditioner
category" becomes three actions: load a URL, click the link whose text is
ELECTRONICS, load the resulting category URL.
When a test does something you did not expect, the gap between your sentence and the generated actions is almost always where the surprise came from. Read the actions before you change the instruction.
The parameters are colored so you can scan them: the element type, the attribute being
matched on (TEXT, URL), and the value. An action that matched on
something fragile is visible here long before it fails.
The four controls above the list
| Search actions | Filters the list as you type. Worth reaching for as soon as a test is long enough that scrolling is the slow part. |
| Bulk select actions | Puts a checkbox on every action, not just every instruction — and opens each instruction so you can see them. This is the fastest way to inspect a whole test. |
| Expand all instructions | Opens every instruction at once without entering select mode. Use this when you want to read rather than edit. |
| Add component | Inserts a saved component — a sequence you built somewhere else. |
The lime ring marks the currently selected action. Whatever is selected is what the Data, Log and Extension tabs at the bottom are describing — see Understanding a Test Run and Its Results in Functionize Studio.
Three things you can do to a selection
Once you are in bulk select mode, three operations appear at the top of the pane.
| Create component | Turns the selected actions into a reusable component. This is how a sign-in sequence stops being repeated in fourteen tests, and it is the single highest-value habit in this article. |
| … and they are account-wide | Components are shared across the whole account. The Add component list shows every component anyone has built, in any project — so a component called login is a name your whole organization can only use once meaningfully. Qualify it: storefront — guest sign-in. See Naming, Tagging and Not Drowning. |
| Skip selected | Leaves the actions in place but stops them running. Better than deleting while you are still working out whether they are the problem. |
| Delete selected | Removes them. The instruction stays; its generated actions go. |
Skip before you delete. A skipped action is a hypothesis you can reverse in one click. A deleted one is a hypothesis you have to rebuild.
Renaming, deleting and reordering one instruction
Every instruction carries an options menu with two items, Rename and Delete, and a drag handle for reordering.
- Rename changes the sentence, not the behavior. It does not regenerate the actions underneath. If you need the test to do something different, ask the agent for it instead — see Exercise 4 - Change a Test by Asking. If you only need a clearer label, rename.
- Reordering moves the generated actions too. An instruction and its actions travel together.
- A reordered test is an unverified test. Passing before a reorder tells you nothing about after it. Run it.
When to edit here, and when to ask the agent
The two ways of changing a test are not interchangeable, and choosing wrongly is a common source of wasted effort.
| Edit in the steps pane | Structural changes that need no new understanding of the application: reordering, removing a step you no longer want, skipping something while you diagnose, renaming for clarity, pulling a sequence out into a component. |
| Ask the agent | Anything requiring the application to be understood again: a different assertion, a changed flow, a new field, a different outcome. The agent regenerates the actions; editing by hand does not. |
A useful rule: if your change can be described as moving or removing, do it in the pane. If it is proving something different, ask.
Where to go next
- Understanding a Test Run and Its Results in Functionize Studio — the evidence tabs underneath the pane, including what the Log tab tells you.
- Diagnosing a Failed Test in Functionize Studio — using all of this when something goes red.
- Writing Prompts That Produce Durable Tests — how to write the instruction so the generated actions age well.
- Exercise 4 - Change a Test by Asking — ten minutes of practice on the demo store.
A PDF of this page, for reading offline, printing, or passing to somebody who does not have a Studio account yet.
Operating the Steps Pane: Instructions, Actions and Components (PDF, 420 KB)