The LSL Test Harness is a platform for testing LSL scripts developed for Linden Lab by i3Dnow. Second Life developers may want to use this to confirm that their scripts function consistently from update to update. The test harness is freely available (under Creative Commons license: Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5) to download and use.

The LSL Test Harness consists of three or more inworld objects. You can create any object, even use the default plywood cube prim, just ensure that you place the appropriate scripts and notecards in the proper objects.

The Controller

The controller provides the interface for you to issue instructions to the test harness. It will listen to your commands on a chat channel and execute them. Alternatively you can make a touch-based controller.

Rez or create an object, name it Controller.
Add the script Controller_Controller (available to copy/paste here).

The Coordinator

The coordinator handles the communication between the controller and the actual test units themselves.

Rez or create an object, name it Coordinator
Add the following scripts: (available to copy/paste at the linked locations)
Now add the notecard Coordinator_nc and open it
- If you wish to have the harness send you reports via email, add your email address to the email field
- If you want the harness to http post the reports, add your url to the Http: field

The Test Unit(s)

The Test Units actually conduct the LSL tests. Therefore they consist of a generic script for running tests, plus the specific script (which you write) which holds the testing code. You may create as many test units as you need. To faciliate development of test scripts, several examples are included in the code repository (here) and these may be used as templates.

Rez or create an object and call it something descriptive (e.g. Test Unit - Rotations).
Add the script TestUnit_TestHarness
Add the notecard TestUnit_nc
- Open the notecard and edit the UnitName and GroupName fields
  - UnitName is the name you want for this particular test
  - GroupName specifies a family of tests, in case you want to do something like run all your math testing test units (you'd define a groupName "Math").
Add your test script which should be called [GroupName]_[UnitName]
- You can use TestUnit_TestScript.lsl as a template
- Just add your test lsl to the indicated section and report the result
Alternatively, there are some sample test scripts at Test Harness Sample Tests

Commands

Once you have the Controller, Coordinator, and all your Test Units rezzed, ensure that they are within chat distance of each other, and then you can issue the following commands in the toALL channel (default is 255)

ActivateRegistration will make the coordinator round up all test units in chat range
ActivateTest will start all selected test units
ActivateReport will generate your specified report (chat, email, http)
Reset will reset all test units
SetTestSelected will specify which test units should execute
- SetTestSelected::All all test units in range
- SetTestSelected::[GroupName] all units in that group
- SetTestSelected::[UnitName] a specific unit
SetReportMethod you can choose from three report methods
- SetReportMethod::CHAT::channel::0 for open chat
- SetReportMethod::EMAIL::address::you@yourdomain.com
- SetReportMethod::HTTP::url::www.yoururl.com
SetReportType - specify report type as NORMAL, QUITE, VERBOSE, STATS
- SetReportType::NORMAL
SetControlChannel used to change the internal comm channel
SetBroadcastChannel chat channel for report output (typically 0)