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Rational® Functional Tester
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.
Configuration of test runs from the UI Test perspective
When you create Web UI, mobile, or Windows tests, you must configure the play back of the recorded tests as test runs from the UI Test perspective before you can view their test results.
Configuration of test runs from the command line
When you need to run Web UI, mobile, and windows tests using the command line without opening the desktop client to run these tests, you can use the command line of Rational® Functional Tester.
Running a Web UI test or compound test in the headless mode from the command line
When you do not want to view the GUI as the recorded test is played back on a web browser, you can choose to run the test in the headless mode from the command line. Running of tests in the headless mode is useful when you use an automated testing environment.

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
  You can learn to start using Rational® Functional Tester by reviewing the information in the Tutorials for the UI Test perspective and Functional Test perspective.
- Samples
  You can find the sample project that you can use 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.
- 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.
  - Configuration of test runs from the UI Test perspective
    When you create Web UI, mobile, or Windows tests, you must configure the play back of the recorded tests as test runs from the UI Test perspective before you can view their test results.
    - Configuration of Web UI test runs
      See the different ways to play back Web UI tests.
    - Configuration of mobile test runs
      After you record the tests for mobile applications by using Rational® Functional Tester, you can play back the recorded tests by using Rational Functional Tester. The test reports help you to analyze the functional and performance issues in the mobile applications developed.
    - Configuration of Windows test runs
      You can run Windows tests that you created for Windows desktop applications in Rational® Functional Tester.
    - Configuration of AFT Suite runs
      When you create Web UI, mobile, or Windows tests, you must configure the play back of the recorded tests as AFT Suite runs before you can view their test results.
    - Running a test on multiple browsers and devices simultaneously
      Rather than run a Web UI test on one browser at a time, you can run a single Web UI test on multiple browsers simultaneously. Doing so can significantly speed up your test effort. You can also extend your test coverage by adding mobile devices to the test run. You can run the test from Rational® Functional Tester, from the command line, or from Rational Quality Manager. This topic describes how to run a test from the UI Test perspective.
    - Configuration of test runs from the command line
      When you need to run Web UI, mobile, and windows tests using the command line without opening the desktop client to run these tests, you can use the command line of Rational® Functional Tester.
      - Running a test from the command line
        You can run Web UI, mobile, and windows tests using the command-line interface of Rational® Functional Tester.
      - Creating a command-line config file
        Starting from 10.0.2, you can create command line config file from the product, which you can use while running tests from the command-line interface and Maven.
      - Running Web UI tests from the command-line
        You can run a Web UI test without using the desktop client by using the command-line interface. You must use the -varfile parameter that specifies the complete path to the XML file in the command. The XML file contains the name-value pairs of the variables. The variables file specifies the web browser on a computer, device, emulator, or device on a cloud on which to run the test.
      - Running a Web UI test or compound test in the headless mode from the command line
        When you do not want to view the GUI as the recorded test is played back on a web browser, you can choose to run the test in the headless mode from the command line. Running of tests in the headless mode is useful when you use an automated testing environment.
      - Running Web UI tests in the private mode from the command line
        When you play back Web UI tests, if the user profile that is stored in the browser prevents the test from running without intervention, then you can use the private or incognito mode from the command line. Also, when you do not want cookies and caches to affect your test play back, you can choose the private mode.
      - Running a test from the command line on multiple browsers
        In addition to running a Web UI test from the product interface, you can automate the test effort by running the test from the command line. To accelerate test execution, you can run a single Web UI test and/or a compound test containing Web UI tests on multiple browsers and devices simultaneously.
      - Running multiple tests simultaneously from the command line
        You can use an XML file and the command line to run multiple Web UI tests and compound tests simultaneously on instances of Chrome and Firefox. You can also distribute these tests across multiple remote agent computers. Starting from 9.1.1.1, this feature is also available from the command line.
      - Running mobile tests for Android applications from the command-line
        You can run a mobile test without using the desktop client by using the command-line interface. You must use the -varfile parameter that specifies the complete path to the XML file in the command. The XML file contains the name-value pairs of the variables. The variables specify the path to the computer to which the Android device or emulator is connected, and the other configurations required to run the mobile test on the connected device.
      - Running mobile tests for iOS applications from the command-line
        You can run a mobile test without using the desktop client by using the command-line interface. You must use the -varfile parameter that specifies the complete path to the XML file in the command. The XML file contains the name-value pairs of the variables. The variables specify the path to the computer to which the iOS device or simulator is connected, and the other configurations required to run the mobile test on the connected device.
      - Running Windows tests from the command-line interface
        You can run a Windows test without using the desktop client by using the command-line interface. You can either run the Windows test on the local computer or on a remote computer.
  - Configuration of test runs from the Functional Test perspective
    When you created functional tests, you must configure the run of the recorded functional tests from the Functional Test perspective before you can view the test results.
- 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.

Running a Web UI test or compound test in the headless mode from the command line

When you do not want to view the GUI as the recorded test is played back on a web browser, you can choose to run the test in the headless mode from the command line. Running of tests in the headless mode is useful when you use an automated testing environment.

Before you begin

You must have completed the following tasks:

You must have recorded a single Web UI test, compound test with multiple Web UI tests, or an AFT Suite that you want to run in the headless mode.
Read and been familiar with the command line arguments to use with the cmdline command. See Configuration of test runs from the command line.

Restriction: Web UI tests contained in multiple groups in an AFT Suite that are configured to run in the headless mode and in the private mode and grouped based on the browsers are not supported.

Procedure

Navigate to the directory that contains the cmdline.bat and cmdline.sh files.

On Windows™ operating systems, this directory can be as productInstallationDirectory\cmdline. For example, C:\Program Files\IBM\RFT\cmdline.

Issue the following argument for the specific browser along with the other arguments in the cmdline command to run the test in the headless mode:


Browser	Argument
Chrome	-protocolinput "webui.chrome.headlessmode.selected=TRUE"
Edge	-protocolinput "webui.edge.headlessmode.selected=TRUE"
Firefox	-protocolinput "webui.firefox.headlessmode.selected=TRUE"

For example, consider the following values for the different arguments:


Argument	Value
-workspace	`D:\My Workspace`
-project	`myProject`
-eclipsehome	`C:\Program Files\IBM\SDP`
-plugins	`C:\Program Files\IBM\IBMIMShared\plugins`
-suite	`myWebUITest.testsuite`

If you want to run the Web UI test or compound test in the headless mode by using the Chrome browser, then the arguments that you can enter in the command line are as follows:

cmdline -workspace D:\My Workspace -project myProject -eclipsehome C:\Program Files\IBM\SDP -plugins C:\Program Files\IBM\IBMIMShared\plugins -suite Tests\myWebUITest.testsuite -protocolinput "webui.chrome.headlessmode.selected=TRUE"