Home
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 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.
Working with functional test scripts (Windows-only)
This section describes the process of creating functional test scripts to test your applications.
Changing the default script helper superclass
By default, all Functional Test scripts extend the RationalTestScript class, and thereby inherit a number of methods (such as callScript). Advanced users may want to create their own helper superclass which extends RationalTestScript and can add additional methods or override the methods from RationalTestScript.

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.
  - Preparing the functional test environment
    This section describes the tasks you must perform to configure the functional test environment.
  - Managing functional test projects
    A functional test project stores application test assets such as scripts, object maps, verification point baseline files, and script templates. You must create a functional test project before you can record scripts.
  - Working with functional test scripts (Windows-only)
    This section describes the process of creating functional test scripts to test your applications.
    - Simplified scripting
      Simplified test scripts are functional test scripts in the form of simple English statements that are easy to understand and edit. This feature is enabled by default in the Rational® Functional Tester Preferences window.
    - Enabling simplified scripting
      Simplified scripts are functional test scripts in the form of simple English statements that are easy to understand and edit. When you record actions on the test application using the recorder, the functional test script is generated and displayed as a simplified test script in the Script editor.
    - Creating a simplified test script
      Use the recording feature of Rational® Functional Tester, to record actions on the test applications. The actions on the test applications are generated in the form of a simplified test script when you stop recording. The generated simplified test script is displayed in the simplified Script editor in Rational Functional Tester. You can also view the corresponding Java™ code of the recorded test script in the Java script editor.
    - Editing a simplified script
      You can edit a test line in the script editor and also modify the test line properties, such as the control actions in the Properties View.
    - Inserting conditional statements
      You can insert conditional statements to verify the values of the variables in the script and perform actions in the application.
    - Specifying the playback options for a simplified script
      You can set the wait time for a control to be displayed or pause an execution of a test line for a simplified script.
    - Handling exceptions during script playback
      If an exception occurs during script playback, you can specify how Rational® Functional Tester handles these exceptions.
    - Specifying the log details for a test script
      You can specify the message to be displayed in the log for a test line that has run. You can also specify the type of screen capture that must be taken during playback and displayed in the log so that you can view the state of the control or the screen in the test application.
    - Deleting a test line
      You can delete a test line from a script in the script editor. The application visual that is captured and displayed while recording the test script is not deleted from the Application view.
    - Working with application visuals
      Application visuals are snapshots of the controls or screens of the test application that are captured while recording scripts. The visuals of the test application are captured only if both the simplified scripting and the application visuals feature preferences are enabled.
    - Switching to Java scripting
      You can switch to Java scripting to insert Java code to perform additional operations such as extending an API or functions that cannot be performed directly in the simplified script editor. To use both the simplified script and Java scripting, you must use the Insert Java Code Snippet or Insert Java Method feature that is available in the simplified script editor and switch to Java scripting. If you modify the Java script directly without using these features, the Java script changes are lost and the simplified script runs during playback.
    - Exporting a simplified script
      You can export the simplified scripts in a .txt, .xml or .html format so that the script can be viewed outside Rational® Functional Tester.
    - Java scripting
      When you record a functional test script to test an application, simplified scripts are generated and displayed in the Script editor. The corresponding Java test script is displayed in the Java editor.
    - Recording a Java™ test script
      Java™ scripts are generated when you work with the simplified scripts. You can switch to Java scripting using the Insert Java snippet and Insert Java module features in the simplified script editor.
    - Creating a new test script without recording
      As an alternative to recording, you can create a script to enter Java™ code manually.
    - Recording scripts in an existing script
      You can record test scripts at the cursor location of an existing script, to start test applications, insert verification points, and add script support functions.
    - Recording scripts for an AUT with different user credentials
      When an application under test (AUT) is configured with a different user credential by using a batch file on the Windows operating system, you can record scripts for the AUT.
    - Recording scripts to test HTML applications
      Record scripts to test HTML applications on a single browser as you record any functional test script.
    - Recording cross-browser and cross-platform scripts
      This topic provides an overview of the procedures to set up your environment to record cross-browser scripts.
    - Displaying test object information
      You use the Test Object Inspector to examine graphical components visible in the running application and display information about those objects, such as parent hierarchy, inheritance hierarchy, test object properties, non value properties, and method information.
    - Getting a property value
      You can get a single property value for the selected object while you are recording. It puts a getProperty into your script and returns the value during playback.
    - Setting a wait state for an object
      This feature is used to set a wait state for an object during playback to check for its existence. This is useful when waiting for an object right after starting your application, or after other actions that may take a long time.
    - Recording and playing back double byte characters on Chinese systems
      The following information pertains to record and playback of DBCS on Chinese systems.
    - Changing the default script helper superclass
      By default, all Functional Test scripts extend the RationalTestScript class, and thereby inherit a number of methods (such as callScript). Advanced users may want to create their own helper superclass which extends RationalTestScript and can add additional methods or override the methods from RationalTestScript.
      - Script helper superclass/base class
        A helper superclass or base class is an optional, user-written class that provides override support for base-level methods, in particular, the event handler methods.
      - Creating a script helper superclass
        By default, all Functional Test scripts extend the RationalTestScript class, and thereby inherit a number of methods (such as callScript). If you are an advanced user, you might want to create your own helper superclass, which extends RationalTestScript and adds additional methods or overrides the methods from RationalTestScript.
      - Changing the default script helper superclass
        By default, all Functional Test scripts extend the RationalTestScript class, and thereby inherit a number of methods (such as callScript). Advanced users may want to create their own helper superclass which extends RationalTestScript and can add additional methods or override the methods from RationalTestScript.
    - Using script services
      The Script Support Functions dialog box contains tabs that enable you to insert code into the current Functional Test script to perform a variety of tasks, such as inserting a callScript command, a log message. a timer, a sleep command, or a comment into a Functional Test script.
    - Starting your test applications
      When recording tests on your application, it is best to have Rational® Functional Tester start the application during recording. This makes playing back the tests more reliable because the application configuration information is used. Rational Functional Tester can open specified Java applications, HTML pages in your browser, or run executable applications.
    - Renaming a test asset
      You can rename simplified test scripts, Java test scripts, test object maps, or other files in a project.
    - Saving test scripts and files
      You can save a functional test script or file in several ways: save the current test script or file, save all test scripts and files, save a functional test script or file with another name in a different location.
    - Deleting a functional test script
      You can delete a functional test script from the Projects view or the Solution Explorer. Deleting a script cannot be undone.
    - Tips for recording functional tests
      Following are some tips on ways around some potential recording issues.
    - Recording a script
      To start recording scripts against your applications, you must first configure your test environments, configure your applications, and create a project. Under certain conditions, you can start recording scripts without preparing your functional test environment.
  - Working with verification points
    Verification points verify that a certain action has taken place, or verify the state of a control or an object. When you create a verification point, you are capturing information about a control or an object in the application to establish this as baseline information for comparison during playback.
  - Driving functional tests with external data
    This section describes techniques you can use to data-drive functional tests with external data.
  - Managing functional test assets
    You can integrate Rational® Functional Tester with Rational Team Concert™ and manage functional test assets using any of these source control management tools.
  - Testing terminal-based applications
    Use the Rational® Functional Tester Terminal-based Applications feature to create test scripts and automate your host-application test cases. You can test host attributes, host field attributes, and screen-flow through a host application. It uses terminal verification points and properties, as well as synchronization code to identify the readiness of terminal for user input.
  - Troubleshooting issues
    You can find information about the issues or problems that you might encounter while you work in the Functional Test perspective of Rational® Functional Tester. You can also find the details about the causes and resolutions that you can apply to fix the issues.
- 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.
- 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.

Changing the default script helper superclass

By default, all Functional Test scripts extend the RationalTestScript class, and thereby inherit a number of methods (such as callScript). Advanced users may want to create their own helper superclass which extends RationalTestScript and can add additional methods or override the methods from RationalTestScript.

About this task

You can specify a helper superclass that Rational® Functional Tester will use whenever you create or record a script in your project. This default superclass is specified in the Functional Test Project Properties page. You can also specify a helper superclass for an individual script in the Functional Test Script Properties Page. Once a script has been created, it retains the reference to the default superclass as its own helper superclass.

To change the default script helper superclass for a project:

Procedure

Select a project in the Projects view.
Right-click and select Properties.
Click Functional Test Project.
The Functional Test Project Properties page opens. The helper superclass listed here will be used by default for all new scripts created or recorded in this project.
Note: This is a user-specific preference and will not be shared by other users of this project.
To change the default superclass for the selected project, enter the fully-qualified class name of your custom helper superclass in the Default Script Helper Superclass field. Note that your helper superclass must extend RationalTestScript.

Results

Note: If you change your superclass and then want to reset it back to RationalTestScript later on, you can either type RationalTestScript in the superclass field or just clear the field. Leaving this field blank resets the script so that it uses RationalTestScript.

To change the script helper superclass for an individual script:

Procedure

Select a script in the Projects view.
Right-click and select Properties.
Click Functional Test Script.
The Functional Test Script Properties Page opens. The helper superclass listed here will be used for the script you selected.
To change the default superclass for the selected script, enter the fully-qualified class name of your custom helper superclass in the Helper Superclass field. Note that your helper superclass must extend RationalTestScript.

Results

Note: If you change your superclass and then want to reset it back to RationalTestScript later on, you can either type RationalTestScript in the superclass field or just clear the field. Leaving this field blank resets the script so that it uses RationalTestScript.