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Test Author Guide
This guide describes how to create test scripts and enhances them by applying different test elements such as dataset, variables, and verification points.
Extending the Functional Test perspective
You can use custom code to extend the default functional testing capabilities. You can write custom code and call the code from the test. You can also specify that results from the tests that are affected by your custom code to be included in reports.
Rational® Functional Tester proxy SDK
Extend automated functional testing support for your application's user interface controls.
Proxy development
A challenge in functional testing is the variety of user interface (UI) frameworks that are available (for example, Java™ and HTML) and controls (for example, button and table) that testing must support. UI frameworks differ in architecture and programming models and the controls differ in their inheritance hierarchy, methods, properties data, and user actions.
Extending proxies
Rational® Functional Tester needs UI control-specific information to perform functional testing operations such as recording, playback, verification points, and data driving. It tries to map the closest proxy if it finds a new control for which it has no proxy.

Test Author Guide
This guide describes how to create test scripts and enhances them by applying different test elements such as dataset, variables, and verification points.
- Testing in the UI Test perspective
  When you develop web applications, Windows-based applications, or mobile applications, you can use IBM® Rational® Functional Tester to create functional tests for these applications. You must first record the tests and then use Rational Functional Tester to run the tests before you can view the test results.
- Testing in the Functional Test perspective
  When you develop Java, HTML, or Terminal-based applications, you can use IBM® Rational® Functional Tester to create traditional functional tests for these applications. You must first record the tests and then use Rational Functional Tester to run the tests before you can view the test results.
- Extending the UI Test perspective with custom code
  You can use custom code to extend the default Web UI testing capabilities. You can write custom Java™ code and call the code from the test. You can also specify that results from the tests that are affected by your custom code to be included in reports.
- Extending the Functional Test perspective
  You can use custom code to extend the default functional testing capabilities. You can write custom code and call the code from the test. You can also specify that results from the tests that are affected by your custom code to be included in reports.
  - Rational® Functional Tester proxy SDK
    Extend automated functional testing support for your application's user interface controls.
    - Introduction to proxy SDK
      With Rational® Functional Tester proxy software development kit (SDK) you can extend automated functional testing support for your application's user interface controls (GUI test objects), beyond what is provided by Rational Functional Tester by default. The proxy SDK provides detailed documentation, API references and ready-to-use samples and tutorials on how to extend Rational Functional Tester to add support for testing new controls. It also helps you to extend already supported controls from the existing domains. You can develop proxies manually or by using the proxy wizards driven approach.
    - Rational® Functional Tester architecture
      Rational® Functional Tester can be extended to perform additional functions for which it needs to communicate with the application under test (AUT). To do that Rational Functional Tester first establishes a communication channel to the AUT which is called enablement.
    - Proxy development
      A challenge in functional testing is the variety of user interface (UI) frameworks that are available (for example, Java™ and HTML) and controls (for example, button and table) that testing must support. UI frameworks differ in architecture and programming models and the controls differ in their inheritance hierarchy, methods, properties data, and user actions.
      - Understanding proxies
        A proxy object implements the prescribed Rational® Functional Tester interface for a UI control in the application under test (AUT). When you enable your application for testing, the proxy classes are loaded into the application and become part of it. A proxy object wraps around the actual control (the native object) in your application, making it testable in Rational Functional Tester. It is a connection point between the TestObject and the real control (object) being tested at the AUT.
      - Proxy development environment
        Rational® Functional Tester proxies can be developed either in Java™ or C# programming languages based on the UI framework of the application under test (AUT).
      - Setting up proxy projects
        ProxyObjects are deployed as either JAR files which are proxies written in Java™, or as Assembly DLLs which are proxies written in C#, along with customization file with the .rftcust extension.
      - Current level of proxy support that Rational® Functional Tester provides
        To develop proxies for a control, you must understand the current level of support that Rational® Functional Tester provides for that control. Consider that you want to add testing support for the Java™ swing UI control, javax.swing.JFormattedTextField.
      - Extending proxies
        Rational® Functional Tester needs UI control-specific information to perform functional testing operations such as recording, playback, verification points, and data driving. It tries to map the closest proxy if it finds a new control for which it has no proxy.
        Creating a proxy class
        You can write a ProxyObject class either in Java™ or C#, depending on which control you are developing the proxy for. Creating a new ProxyObject class is similar to creating a new Java or C# class extending the respective base ProxyObject class.
        Adding more control properties
        Rational® Functional Tester provides a set of control properties for access and property verification. You can add more control properties by extending the getProperties() and getProperty() APIs.
        Adding more data types for a control
        Rational® Functional Tester provides a set of control data types for data verification point. You can add more control data types by extending the getTestDataTypes() and getTestData() APIs.
        Enhancing the recording behavior
        You can enhance the recording behavior for a user action on a control by extending the processMouseEvent() API. Rational® Functional Tester framework calls the processMouseEvent() API when a mouse event happens on a control. The processMouseEvent() API tells the Rational Functional Tester framework which method has to be recorded for the mouse action.
        Enhancing the recording behavior with SubItems
        SubItems are Rational® Functional Tester defined portions of a control under test. In some cases, you get best results by recording the user interaction with SubItem details rather than recording just with the coordinate information. The disadvantage of using the coordinate information is that when portions of a control are resized or rearranged, playing back the user actions might not return the same results.
        Extending data driving
        You must implement the GetDataDrivableCommand() method in the proxy to add data driving support to a control. This method returns a method specification to implement data driving support for a control. While using the data driving wizard, the method specification that GetDataDrivableCommand() returns is sent to the test script. Proxies can override and return any method that you specify for data driving.
        Changing the role of a control
        The role of a control determines which icon is displayed in the Object Map for a TestObject. You can do this by extending the getRole() method and returning one of the Rational® Functional Tester predefined role values.
        Modifying the recognition properties and weight of a control
        Rational® Functional Tester uses recognition properties to uniquely identify a control. Various recognition properties are assigned different weights for recognition analysis. Rational Functional Tester uses these values and weights to identify a control during playback. You can customize the recognition properties and the weights that best suit the controls you are testing.
        Changing the mappability of a control
        There are certain types of controls in applications under test (AUT) that do not need to be exposed as a TestObject. For example, container controls have no useful testing value and are not exposed. Rational® Functional Tester needs these container controls to run certain methods to retrieve information about their children.
        Mapping proxies to controls
        Rational® Functional Tester identifies each application under test (AUT) control by its class name. Running the testObject.getProperty(".class") method in the test script gives you the class name. The mapping is established through the class names of the respective control and ProxyObject.
        Deploying a proxy
        After you have developed the proxy binary and customization files, you must deploy them for the changes to take effect.
        Debugging the proxy code
        Debugging the proxy code is an essential part of the proxy development process for problem determination. The proxy code containing the JAR file or .Net assembly file with the .dll extension is loaded into the application under test (AUT) process. To debug the proxy code, attach the respective debugger to the AUT process after the proxy binary files are loaded into the AUT.
      - Extending proxies for Flex custom controls
      - Developing proxies using the Proxy SDK wizard
        Rational® Functional Tester proxy SDK supports wizard driven development of proxies. Proxy development life cycle stages such as creating a proxy project, creating a proxy class, exporting the proxy packages and deploying these proxies is done using the proxy wizards.
    - TestObjects
      TestObjects are the script-side interfaces for proxies and application under test (AUT) controls. A TestObject is a connection point between the test script and a ProxyObject that connects to the real object in the AUT. During recording, statements are recorded and objects are added to the Object Map. The script uses the information from the Object Map to construct and find TestObjects.
    - ProxyObject hierarchy
      While developing new proxies by extending existing proxies for any domain, it is important to understand the existing proxies and the hierarchies, so that you extend the right proxy.
    - TestObject class diagram and canonical names
      Rational® Functional Tester has a predefined set of TestObjects that are hierarchically grouped and each TestObject has a set of predefined methods.
    - SubItems
      SubItems are part of TestObjects. The ObjectMap does not contain the SubItems, because they are not mapped.
    - Value classes and value managers
      The following code examples show several value classes and value managers.
    - TestData types
      The Rational® Functional Tester framework calls the getTestDataTypes() and getTestData(String) proxy methods for extracting data from controls for verification and reference. These methods are used during the creation and play back of data verification points. You can override the getTestDataTypes() method to add more specific data types for a control.
    - Proxy exceptions
      Rational® Functional Tester has a set of predefined exceptions that covers wide ranges of errors that are usually expected while functional testing. These exceptions are available for both the Java™ and .NET proxy development frameworks.
    - Proxy development best practices
      Following best practices while you develop proxies can help make your work more efficient and effective. Consider these methods to enhance your development efforts.
  - Customizing a script template
    Rational® Functional Tester uses its default script templates to format and provide basic information when you create a script. You can customize the information and format by customizing the script templates.
  - Using the API to edit functional test scripts
    These topics describe how you can take advantage of the Rational® Functional Tester application programming interface (API) or the scripting framework to make changes to functional test scripts. As a general rule, the modifications that you make with the scripting SDK, should emulate as closely as possible, the user interactions to test with the application-under-test.
- Experimental Features
  Rational® Functional Tester contains a set of pre-releases that enable you to test various experimental features. These experimental features, while still in progress, are introduced early in the release to seek your feedback on its overall functionality and performance. You can play around with these capabilities before they are made available and supported as a general feature in an upcoming release.

Extending proxies

Rational® Functional Tester needs UI control-specific information to perform functional testing operations such as recording, playback, verification points, and data driving. It tries to map the closest proxy if it finds a new control for which it has no proxy.

The Rational® Functional Tester architecture enables developers to write a proxy for a particular UI control. Developers can enable Rational® Functional Tester to process the specifics of a control by writing proxies. Relevant functional testing capabilities can also be provided.

Proxies provide Rational® Functional Tester with details about a control for which it is written. Rational® Functional Tester has a predefined set of methods for any proxy and calls each method to get specific details. For any proxy written for a control, these predefined methods are implemented specific to the control.

For any control, Rational® Functional Tester provides a set of properties and data types for verification. If the currently provided set of properties and data types is not enough to test the control, a new proxy can be created and by overriding certain methods more properties or data types can be included. The recording behavior of Rational® Functional Tester can also be changed by creating new proxies.