Modernization of the legacy export screen (lib/testcases/tcExport.php, gui/templates/dashio/testcases/tcExport.tpl) — GitHub issue #803.

The legacy Smarty screen is replaced by a standalone Dashio page (gui/templates/testcases/tcExport.html) backed by a plain-PHP REST BFF API (api/testcasesexport/index.php). The Test Case Viewer toolbar Export button now opens the modern screen instead of submitting the legacy form.

Path: Test Spec → Test Case Viewer → toolbar Export URL: gui/templates/testcases/tcExport.html?tproject_id=..&testcase_id=..&tcversion_id=.. BFF API: GET /api/testcasesexport/?action=info + POST /api/testcasesexport/?action=export Rights: any authenticated session (parity with legacy export, which is read-only). Tracking issue: #803

The screen mirrors the three export contexts of the legacy tcExport.php:

The mode/title/default filename are resolved by the BFF info route using the same logic as the legacy initializeGui() and init_args().

Prefix mirroring: unchecking Include external ID disables and unchecks With project prefix (external prefix only applies when external ID is on).

The Markdown type produces a structured document that round-trips through the modern MD importer (api/testcasesimport/?action=import_md):

# <project name>
**Project:** <project name>
**Prefix:** <prefix>

## <suite name> (Suite ID: N)
### TC-<tcase-node-id>: <title>
- **ExternalID:** TLU-190          (prefix + glue + tc_external_id)
- **Importance:** High | Medium | Low
- **Preconditions:** ...           (single bullet line, newlines flattened)
- **Steps:**
     1. Do something
        *Expected:* something happened
- **Steps:**_none_                 (when a TC has no steps)

Format rules (kept symmetric with the MD parser):

• Importance labels use the TestLink canonical mapping High=3 / Medium=2 / Low=1.
• The exported block always reflects the latest test case version (the ExternalID, title, preconditions and steps all come from the same latest version).
• ExternalID is omitted when the case has no external id.
• TC-<N> in the heading is the test case node id — used only for display and for the internalID hit-criteria on re-import; duplicate detection prefers the ExternalID line.

Re-importing the exported document with hit_criteria=externalid + action_on_hit=update_last_version updates each existing test case in place by its ExternalID and never creates duplicates.

1. On load the page calls GET /api/testcasesexport/?action=info to resolve the context (mode, project name, default filename, supported types, grants).
2. The user edits options and clicks Export.
3. The page POSTs action=export with the option flags and reads the response as a blob (XMLHttpRequest responseType='blob'), then triggers a browser download via an object URL.
4. Any JSON error payload (unauthenticated, nothing to export, invalid input) is detected from the blob content-type and shown as a localized toast.

Legacy lib/testcases/tcExport.php:145 reads the exportSkel request flag and, for every export that is NOT a single test case, sets $opt['skeleton'] = 1 before calling exportTestSuiteDataToXML(). The exporter honours that with $topt['excludeTC'], producing a structure-only XML: the <testsuite id name><node_order/><details/> tree with NO <testcase> elements. In the tl-classic template the flag was a second submit button exportSkel ("Export skeleton"), which the Dashio theme dropped while the controller feature stayed live — so the modern tcExport.html could not reach it (gap, [#1326]).

The BFF already implemented the flag (api/testcasesexport/index.php:320-322, byte-identical output to legacy); the gap was the missing UI affordance plus doExport() never sending the parameter. Implemented:

• A "Export skeleton" checkbox (#exportSkel, labels/hint via tcx.exportSkel / tcx.exportSkelHint).
• Visibility gated to the suite/project export modes (test-suite deep, suite children, whole project); hidden for the single-testcase mode (legacy contract: exportSkel is a no-op for one-TC exports) and gated to the XML type (Selecting Markdown hides + unchecks it).
• doExport() appends exportSkel=1 to the POST body when checked.

Verified end-to-end on the TP1326 fixture: checkbox on → POST exportSkel=1 → 322-byte structure-only XML (byte-identical to legacy); off → full 2291-byte XML with test cases.

Legacy 1.9.20 reached the suite export from containerView.tpl (test project control panel, btn_export_all_testsuites) and from the test-suite control panel (include/containerViewTestSuiteTextButtons.inc.tpl — btn_export_testsuite → deep suite export + btn_export_tc → children test cases). Modern parity was completed with two suite-context launch points:

Both open tcExport.html?tproject_id=<project>&containerID=<suite_id>[&useRecursion=1] in a popup; the BFF resolves the mode (testsuite vs suite_tc), default filename (<suite>.testsuite-deep.xml vs <suite>.testsuite-children-testcases.xml) and export options exactly as the legacy screen did. No BFF change was needed — the export API already handled both suite modes. New i18n keys: tspec.exportSuite, tspec.exportSuiteCases, suvw.exportSuite, suvw.exportSuiteCases (all locales).

• The BFF reuses the exact legacy export methods — testcase::exportTestCaseDataToXML() and testsuite::exportTestSuiteDataToXML() — so the generated XML is byte-for-byte identical to the legacy screen.
• The MD export path uses the new markdownTcExport class (lib/functions/markdown_tc_export.class.php), streaming a .md attachment with Content-Type: text/markdown; charset=utf-8.
• nothingTodo is computed with a countExportChildren() helper that mirrors the legacy $check_children logic (excludes testplan/requirement/build/platform nodes).
• Two pre-existing legacy E_WARNINGs in testsuite.class.php::exportTestSuiteDataToXML() ($$tsuiteData typo leaving $tsuiteData undefined at the project root, and an uninitialized $attachXML) were fixed (lib/functions/testsuite.class.php) so the recursive export no longer pollutes the Event Viewer.

All routes require a valid session; POST is protected by the shared same-origin CSRF guard (_guard.php).

All labels, titles, placeholders and messages use client-side TLi18n keys under the tcx.* namespace (32 keys) present in all 10 locale bundles (gui/templates/i18n/{en,ro,de,es,fr,it,ja,pt,ru,zh}.json). Bundle consistency is enforced by tools/lint_i18n.py. Type labels use tcx.type.xml / tcx.type.md; both were added to the 8 bundles that lacked them (previously the dropdown fell back to the backend label), together with tcx.fileFormatsDoc (file-format docs link).

Parity run of the modern screen vs legacy lib/testcases/tcExport.php (2026-09-09). Outcome: XML output is byte-for-byte identical to legacy for the single test-case (835 B) and the project-deep (1061 B) exports; all four modes produce the same default filenames and checkbox defaults; Markdown works in every mode (superset — legacy recursion was XML-only); empty-suite shows the localized warn box (superset — legacy hid the form). Two gaps were fixed in-run (file-format documentation link; tcx.type.* keys in 8 bundles). One gap remains open: the suite-level export has no modern launcher (legacy containerView.tpl → tcExport.php?containerID=<suite>); tracked in #1325. The skeleton export gap is closed (see above, #1326). Cleanup of the legacy files: #1324.

TestLink 2.0.1 · Test Case / Suite / Project Export · Refs #803 · MD round-trip #842 / #852 / #853 · SCREEN-COMPARE #1323 (gaps #1324 #1325) · skeleton #1326