what is "ghost string" in testlink? ghost string is optionally generated many items in testlink

Question

In TestLink you will get a ghost string for various items such as test case, test suite etc. ghost string (like [ghost]"TestCase":"TC001-2","Version":"3"[/ghost]) will appear after clicking on the red ghost icon present on say test case name.

What is this ghost string and what's its purpose?

Answer 1

Ghost strings allow you to reuse text descriptions in different places. When you copy a [ghost] string and paste it in some other place you essentially create a reference to the source text (the source text will be shown to the user instead of the tag). If you change the source text, the ghost string will immediately update in all places where you've used it.

For example:

1. Create a test case TC001-2 with step 1: Test something
2. Create a test case TC001-3 with step 1: [ghost]"Step":1,"TestCase":"TC001-2"[/ghost]
3. Now TC001-3 step 1 description is: Test something
4. Change TC001-2 step 1 to: Test something different
5. Now step 1 of both TC001-2 and TC001-3 are: Test something different