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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 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.
Setting preferences
You use the Preferences dialog box to customize Rational® Functional Tester in a number of different areas, such as settings for time options; colors for the Verification Point Editor, the Verification Point Comparator, and the Object Map Editor; highlight color for test objects; operating system; playback; delays; log; playback monitor; ScriptAssure(TM); recorder; recording monitor; and the workbench.
General page
You use the Rational® Functional Tester General page to set all product time options. These options are useful to accommodate different computer speeds.

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 IBM® 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 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.
      - Automatically enabled environment for functional testing
        From Rational® Functional Tester version 8.2.2 onwards, Rational Functional Tester automatically enables the environments for functional testing.
      - Before you record
        Before you can start recording functional test scripts, perform the following setup and configuration tasks:
      - Enabling Java environments
        You need to enable Java™ environments before you can use Rational® Functional Tester to test Java applications. Rational Functional Tester is shipped with a JRE that is automatically enabled during your installation. The JRE is called "Default JRE." To enable other JREs, or if you install a new JRE, you must run the enabler again.
      - Enabling web browsers
        To test the HTML applications in Rational® Functional Tester, you must enable web browsers. You can then record and play back tests by using the browsers that you enabled.
      - Enabling multi-window support to test Functional HTML tests
        You can enable multi-window support for Functional HTML tests to record the actions that you perform in multiple windows of the same browser instance. The playing back of the test finds controls from all the active windows of the browser instance. You can use this capability when an HTML application opens a new browser window after you perform an action from the parent window of the application.
      - Preparing for functional testing in the Google Chrome browser
        You can use Rational® Functional Tester to test HTML applications in the Google Chrome browser. To do this, you must enable the Google Chrome browser and add the Rational Functional Tester extension for Google Chrome™ to the browser.
      - Enabling the Eclipse non-p2 based applications for functional testing
        If the application under test is a non-p2 Eclipse based application, you can enable the Eclipse platform for functional testing using the Eclipse enabler.
      - Enabling the Eclipse p2- based applications for functional testing
        If the application-under-test is based on p2-based Eclipse, you must enable the Eclipse platform for testing using the Eclipse Software Updates feature.
      - Enabling stand-alone Standard Widget Toolkit applications
        You must enable stand-alone Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT) support before using Rational® Functional Tester to test SWT applications in the application under test.
      - Configuring applications for testing
        You must configure your Java™, HTML, VB.NET, SAP GUI, Flex or Windows® applications for functional testing by providing the name, path, and other information that Rational® Functional Tester uses to start and run the application. You use the Application Configuration Tool to configure applications.
      - Configuring Java environments for testing
        You need to configure your JREs for Java™ testing with Rational® Functional Tester. This provides path, run options, and other information that Rational Functional Tester needs to access and use your JREs. You use the Java Environments tab of the Enable Environments dialog box to do this.
      - Configuring browsers for testing
        You need to configure your browsers for HTML testing with Rational® Functional Tester. This provides name, path, and other information that Rational Functional Tester needs to access and use your browsers. You use the Web Browsers tab of the Enable Environments dialog box to do this.
      - Browser enablement diagnostic tool
        The Browser Enablement Diagnostic Tool is used to diagnose problems you might have with enabling your browser for HTML testing. The tool will diagnose the enablement problem and report how to solve the problem.
      - Enabling the Java plug-in of a browser
        The Oracle Java™ plug-in of your browser(s) must be enabled in order for some applets to be tested, and for the View Results link that launches the Verification Point Comparator from the HTML log to work properly. If you get an error regarding the plug-in during HTML testing, or when trying to launch the Comparator, use the following steps to fix the problem.
      - Adding references to external resources
        Functional test scripts or projects may refer to or use external resources like the DLLs in .Net IDE or JAR files in Eclipse IDE. To enable the scripts or projects to use these files, you must add references to these files in Rational® Functional Tester.
      - Setting up the environment for testing AJAX-based web applications
        You can test AJAX-based applications in two different ways; by setting the Auto Trace option to true or by setting the Auto Trace option to false. If you set the Auto Trace option to false, you must use the Rational® Functional Tester APIs for AJAX in the script by manually inserting them.
      - Enabling SAP client and server
        To use Rational® Functional Tester to test SAP applications, you must enable the SAP client and SAP server.
      - Enabling SAP GUI for HTML applications for functional testing
        Objects in SAP GUI for HTML applications contain many dynamically-changing properties, for example .url, .href, and .id. While playing back functional test scripts against these applications, the value of one or more object recognition properties may change causing a high ScriptAssure score that results in script failure. Rational® Functional Tester provides a mechanism to convert the recognition property value to a regular expression for those values that change dynamically. Finding each object's dynamic recognition property and converting it into a regular expression becomes cumbersome while testing SAP GUI for HTML applications.
      - Enabling applications with WebDynPro controls for functional testing
        When you playback functional test scripts to test HTML applications with WebDynPro controls, you may get object not found exception or a weak recognition warning even if the control exists.
      - Enabling the GEF application
        You must enable the GEF support before using Rational® Functional Tester to test GEF objects on the application under test.
      - Enabling response time breakdown
        You can enable response time breakdown to see how much time is spent in each part of the application as the test runs. To collect response time breakdown, the data collection infrastructure must be installed and running on all computers that are used in the distributed application under test.
      - Flex applications testing process
        The testing process is based on the tasks that Flex developers and testers perform. The process for automating functional tests of Flex applications differs, depending on the way developers create the application under test.
      - Importing and exporting configuration and customization files
        You can configure and customize files in the configuration and the customization directories. The configuration files contains information such as the application that must be configured for testing. However, the customization files contain information about the external jar files used in your project, customization of any recognition properties, and third-party proxy extensions. You can export these files and later deploy them using the export and import utility. The default location for the configuration and customization file is C:\ProgramData\IBM\RFT . For example: If you want to use the same configuration and customization files on different computers, you can archive these files and later deploy them using this utility.
      - Setting preferences
        You use the Preferences dialog box to customize Rational® Functional Tester in a number of different areas, such as settings for time options; colors for the Verification Point Editor, the Verification Point Comparator, and the Object Map Editor; highlight color for test objects; operating system; playback; delays; log; playback monitor; ScriptAssure(TM); recorder; recording monitor; and the workbench.
        Rational® Functional Tester Preferences
        You use the Preferences dialog box to customize various aspects of Rational® Functional Tester, such as settings for time options; colors for the Verification Point Editor, the Verification Point Comparator, and the Object Map Editor; highlight color for test objects; operating system; playback; delays; log; playback monitor; ScriptAssure(TM); recorder; recording monitor; and the workbench.
        Restricting actions during the recording and playing back of tests with start application
        You can restrict the recording of tests to capture only the actions that you perform on the start application. The playing back of such a test performs the recorded actions only on the instance of the start application associated with the test and reduces the overall playback time.
        Changing the verification point and object map colors
        You can change the color of information displayed in the Verification Point Editor, Verification Point Comparator, and Object Map. This feature is useful for enhancing the accessibility for people with disabilities.
        Changing the syntax of Verification Point commands
        During recording, a verification point captures information about a specified GUI component, for example, its size or its position. Rational® Functional Tester records a statement in the test script for each verification point.
        Changing user interface fonts
        You can change the font and point size of information displayed in dialog boxes for Rational® Functional Tester and those that are part of the Eclipse IDE. For IDE dialog boxes and the Java™ Editor, you do this through the Workbench Preferences.
        ClearCase preferences
        If you use ClearCase® for source control management, you can use the ClearCase Preferences page to define settings for Rational® Functional Tester integration, show ClearCase icons, show script details, save file with _keep extension, check out a file reserved, or to keep a script checked out after check in.
        General page
        You use the Rational® Functional Tester General page to set all product time options. These options are useful to accommodate different computer speeds.
        Colors page
        You use the tabs on the Colors page to specify color settings for the Verification Point Editor, Verification Point Comparator, and the Object Map Editor. This feature is also useful for enhancing the accessibility for people who have physical challenges, such as limited vision.
        Highlight page
        You use the Highlight page to specify how you want Rational® Functional Tester to emphasize test objects in applications-under-test when you select them in a test object map or in the Script Explorer. These settings also control how Rational Functional Tester highlights objects you select with the Verification Point and Action Wizard and the Insert a GUI Object into the Object Map dialog box.
        Logging and Tracing page
        IBM® Rational® Functional Tester allows you to collect the errors and warning messages into a log file (rft_log.txt). The logging and tracing functionality is controlled through certain configurable parameters such as level, file size, directory. With IBM Rational Functional Tester you can configure the ‘level' parameter for individual components. If a log and trace level is not defined explicitly for a component, then it defaults to the overall setting defined in the general page. With IBM Rational Functional Tester, you can set the preferences for logging and tracing through an user interface.
        Logging page
        You use the Logging page to set log and comparator options, such as preventing the script launch wizard from displaying on playback, displaying the log viewer after playback, and displaying a message before overwriting an existing log. You also use this page to indicate the type of log generated.
        Operating System page
        You use the Operating System page to indicate the Foreground Lock Timeout setting for Windows® 98/Me and Windows 2000 systems.
        General Playback page
        You use the General Playback page to set script playback options, such as the amount of time Rational® Functional Tester looks for an object and waits before trying to find an object again. You can also elect to skip all verification points in the script.
        Setting general playback preferences in test scripts
        You can set the general playback preferences in test scripts. The preference set in the script, if any, takes precedence over the one that is set through the Preferences dialog and it applies globally to all the scripts. Hence, ensure that the script includes a reset command that reverts the preference to its earlier setting.
        Playback preferences example
        This topic provides an example of the interaction between settings in the Playback Preferences page.
        Dynamic Find Enablement page
        You can use the Dynamic Find Enablement page to enable the dynamic find feature for all functional test scripts run within the integrated development framework (IDE). With the dynamic find feature, Rational® Functional Tester can search for and locate objects in the script whose hierarchical position has changed, to prevent playback failure.
        Delays page
        You use the Delays page to set delays during Functional Test script playback. These settings are useful to control the rate at which script commands are sent to the operating system.
        Playback Monitor page
        You use the Playback Monitor page to specify whether to display the playback monitor during playback.
        ScriptAssure page--Advanced
        You use the ScriptAssure(TM) Advanced page to set thresholds for recognition scores, which Rational® Functional Tester uses when searching for objects during script playback.
        ScriptAssure page-standard
        During playback, Rational® Functional Tester compares objects in the application-under-test with recognition properties in the test object map. You use the ScriptAssure(TM) Standard page to control object-matching sensitivity during playback. This feature enables you to successfully play back scripts when the application-under-test has been updated.
        Enabling the unexpected window handling feature
        You can enable the unexpected window handling feature to ensure that scripts playback smoothly. When you enable this feature, unexpected windows that open during script playback are handled according to the configuration in the Configure Handling of Unexpected Windows dialog box.
        General Recorder page
        You use the General Recorder page to indicate options for recording Functional Test scripts, such as excluding an executable from being recorded and setting the delay before recording a mouse action or a keystroke. You can also select or clear the option to open the test object map if there is a new test object in the application.
        Recorder Monitor page
        You use the Recorder Monitor page to change settings in the Recording monitor, such as displaying the recorder toolbar or the Recorder Monitor, including a timestamp for messages, and selecting the types of messages you want to display and their colors.
        Mapping keyboard shortcut keys
        You can map keyboard shortcut keys in Rational® Functional Tester by changing the assignment of a shortcut key to a command. You can change the shortcut key for menu items and toolbar buttons.
        Simplified Scripting preference page
        Use this page to indicate whether the simplified scripts feature must be enabled while creating the test scripts.
        Application Visuals preference page
        Use this page to specify whether to capture the application visuals of the test application while recording the test scripts. You can also specify whether to enable the verification points or data-driven commands that are featured in the application visuals so that you can insert them in the script using the application visuals without opening the test application.
        Simplified Script Editor preference page
        Use this page to specify the preferences for simplified script editor operations such as undo, redo and undo history operations.
        Webserver Configuration page
        You can use the Webserver Configuration page to change the default web server port for communication between Google Chrome and Rational® Functional Tester, and to enable logging of messages.
        Workbench Preferences page
        The Workbench Preferences page enables you to indicate how you want the Workbench to behave while playing back, recording, and debugging Functional Test scripts.
        Workbench Advanced Preferences
        This Advanced page enables you to set advanced Workbench preferences for IBM® Rational® Functional Tester, such as switching to the Test Debug perspective rather than the Functional Test perspective when debugging or turning on or off.
    - 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.
    - 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 IBM® Rational ClearCase® or 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 working with the Functional Test perspective in Rational® Functional Tester. Details about issues, their causes and the resolutions that you can apply to fix the issues are described.
  - 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.

Rational® Functional Tester General page

You use the Rational® Functional Tester General page to set all product time options. These options are useful to accommodate different computer speeds.

The General page has the following controls:

Limit Record/Playback to StartApp applications only: Select this option to limit the recording and playing back to StartApp application only.

Automatic enablement: Automatic enablement is activated by default. Deselect the checkbox if you want to statically enable each test environment. This is useful for improving the performance of tests.

Multiply all time options by: Enter any real number by which you want to multiply all Rational® Functional Tester preferences or options that take an amount of time as an argument. For example, enter .5 to make all Rational® Functional Tester time options twice as fast. This option affects all the following controls:

General Playback: Maximum time to attempt to find Test Object; Pause between attempts to find Test Object; Timeout used in waitForExistence( ) method; Retry timeout used in waitForExistence( ) loop
Delays: Delay before mouse up; Delay before mouse move; Delay before mouse down; Delay before key up; Delay when hover; Delay after top level window activates; Delay before key down; Delay before performing Test Object action
General Recorder: Delay before recording a mouse action; Delay before recording a keystroke
Use Default: Clear this checkbox to edit the value in the Multiply all time options by field. Select this checkbox to restore the default value.
Restore Defaults: Restore the default values on this page.
Apply: Save your changes without closing the dialog box.

To open: Click Window > Preferences. In the left pane, click Functional Test.