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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.
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 mobile applications
You can test the Android or iOS mobile applications by recording and playing back mobile tests on Android devices or emulators, iOS mobile devices or simulators by using Rational® Functional Tester.
Editing a mobile test
You can edit a mobile test by using the test editor. You can edit a mobile test by modifying the test steps, adding verification points, and so on.

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 web applications
    You can test web applications in Rational® Functional Tester by using the industry-standard browsers such as Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge. You can record Web UI tests and then play back the tests to evaluate the test results. You can also test the web applications on dual monitors when you extend the display of your computer to a secondary monitor.
  - Testing mobile applications
    You can test the Android or iOS mobile applications by recording and playing back mobile tests on Android devices or emulators, iOS mobile devices or simulators by using Rational® Functional Tester.
    - Testing Android applications
      You can automate the testing of Android mobile applications in Rational® Functional Tester by recording and playing back the recorded mobile tests.
    - Testing iOS applications
      You can test the native and hybrid iOS applications in Rational® Functional Tester by recording and playing back mobile tests on computers that run on Mac operating systems.
    - Editing a mobile test
      You can edit a mobile test by using the test editor. You can edit a mobile test by modifying the test steps, adding verification points, and so on.
  - Testing Windows desktop applications
    You can configure the Windows applications to record and play back tests on the Windows desktop applications. You can also test the Windows applications on dual monitors when you extend the display of your computer to a secondary monitor.
  - Working with Selenium or Appium tests
    You can manage your Selenium or Appium Java™ tests from the UI Test perspective, where you can import and modify the tests, add them to compound tests, and run them. You can also create new Appium Java tests from the Perfecto perspective on Windows™ and Mac OS, add the tests to compound tests, and run them. Perfecto is not currently supported on Linux®.
  - Compound tests
    You can create compound tests to help you organize smaller tests into scenarios that can then be run end-to-end. You can combine tests from different extensions to achieve end-to-end flow.
  - Accelerated Functional Tests
    When you create Web UI, mobile, or Windows tests, you can use the Accelerated Functional Test (AFT) feature in Rational® Functional Tester to distribute test effort during the play back of the recorded tests.
  - Working with keywords
    In Rational® Functional Tester, you can record and then associate Test Workbench tests with the keywords that are created in IBM® Rational Quality Manager. The keywords are used in manual tests in Rational Quality Manager. When you run a manual test that contains a keyword associated with a Rational Test Workbench test, the Test Workbench test is run on the workstation where the adapter has been started.
- 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.
- 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.

Editing a mobile test

You can edit a mobile test by using the test editor. You can edit a mobile test by modifying the test steps, adding verification points, and so on.

The test scripts are displayed in the test editor. The test steps are generated as simplified test scripts in the form of English statements which are easy to understand. The test steps display the list of keyboard actions and UI elements that were captured during the recording phase.

Note: Editing of a mobile test is similar to editing a Web UI test. If you are familiar with the recording, editing, and playing back the Web UI tests, it is easy for you to test a mobile application in Rational® Functional Tester. See Editing Web UI tests.

The test editor has multiple views that are explained in the following table:


View name	Description
Test Contents view	The area at the top left is the Test Contents view. This view displays the chronological sequence of events in the test.
User Action Details view	The area at the top right is the User Action Details view. This view displays details about the currently selected action in the test script. In this area, you can select a graphic object and specify the action related to the object, specify how the object is identified and its location, and other such details.
SmartShot View	The area at the bottom left is the SmartShot View, which includes two tabs: SmartShot and Elements. The SmartShot tab displays the graphical objects captured during the recording of each test step. To the right is the Properties view, which shows the properties of the selected object.

You can use the SmartShot View to perform the following actions on the mobile test:

Actions on the mobile test	More information
Modifying a test step	Modifying a step in a test from the SmartShot View
Adding verification points	Creating verification points in a test
Adding a loop	Adding a loop
Assigning variables to an object property	Assigning a test variable to an objects property
Adding user actions in a test	Adding user actions in a test
Applying the guided healing feature	Overview of guided healing and self-healing
Identifying the UI elements by using image property	Validating images and user interface elements by using the image property
Modularizing test scripts	Splitting UI actions