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Rational® Functional Tester
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 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.
Customization of a Windows test
To customize a recorded Windows test, you can edit the test by using the test editor. You can customize a Windows test by modifying the test steps, adding verification points, and so on.

Rational® Functional Tester
- Release Notes
  This document contains information about what's new, installation instructions, known problems in and contact information of IBM Customer Support.
- System Requirements
  This document includes information about hardware and software requirements for Rational® Functional Tester.
- Getting Started Guide
  This guide provides an overview of Rational® Functional Tester. You can find the task flows to get you started with Rational Functional Tester. This guide is intended for new users.
- Tutorials
  This section contains the tutorials which explains the main features of Rational® Functional Tester.
- Samples
  This section describes about the sample project which can be used with Rational® Functional Tester to test the functionality of an application.
- Administrator Guide
  This guide describes how to install IBM® Rational® Functional Tester software. After you install the software, you can perform administration tasks such as license configuration and integration with other products. This guide is intended for administrators.
- 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 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.
      - Prerequisites for testing Windows desktop applications
        You can find information about the prerequisite conditions that you must satisfy before you can test Windows desktop applications.
      - Configuring a Windows application
        In Rational® Functional Tester, you can test the native Windows desktop applications. To test the Windows applications, you must first configure the Windows applications.
      - Recording a Windows test
        You can record a Windows test to capture the actions that you perform on Windows applications. The actions are captured as test steps to a Windows test recording.
      - Customization of a Windows test
        To customize a recorded Windows test, you can edit the test by using the test editor. You can customize a Windows test by modifying the test steps, adding verification points, and so on.
    - Recording SAP tests
      When you record a test, the test creation wizard records your interactions with the SAP server, generates a test from the recording, and opens the test for editing. You can record tests from the SAP GUI. You can also record SAP batch input tests that can be used to produce a heavy load on the server while minimizing the processing requirements for virtual testers.
    - Working with Selenium or Appium tests
      You can manage your Selenium or Appium Java™ tests from the Web 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.
- Test Execution Specialist Guide
  This guide describes how to automate the playback of the tests by using different methods such as Docker, IBM® Cloud Private, Jenkins and so on. The test results can be pushed to Rational® Test Control Panel.
- Test Manager Guide
  This guide describes how to keep track of the performance of the application by evaluating the test results. Following topics cover how you can work with the test results.
- Troubleshooting
  This guide describes how to analyze and resolve some of the common problems that you might encounter while you work with Rational® Functional Tester.
- Reference Guide
  This guide describes the additional topics to gain more knowledge about Rational® Functional Tester.
- All Guides (PDF)
  You can find the link to view or download the content of the release notes, system requirements, and persona guides of IBM® Rational® Functional Tester as a PDF file.
- Security Considerations
  You can take certain actions to ensure that your installation is secure, customize your security settings, and set up user access controls.
- Notices
  This document provides information about copyright, trademarks, terms and conditions for the product documentation.

Customization of a Windows test

To customize a recorded Windows test, you can edit the test by using the test editor. You can customize a Windows 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: The Windows test is similar to 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 Windows 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.
Mobile and Web UI Data view	The area at the bottom left is the Mobile and Web UI Data view, which includes two tabs: Screen Capture and Elements. The Screen Capture 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 Mobile and Web UI Data view to perform the following actions on the Windows test:

Actions on the Windows 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	Using guided healing and self-healing features to update test scripts
Identifying the UI elements by using image property	Validating images and user interface elements by using the image property
Modularizing test scripts	Splitting Mobile or Web UI actions