Rational® Functional Tester overview
Rational® Functional Tester is an object-oriented automated testing tool that tests a wide range of desktop, Web, and mobile applications. Rational® Functional Tester provides automated testing capabilities for functional, regression, GUI, and data-driven testing.
- Simplifies test visualization and editing using natural language and rendered smartshots.
- Enables testers to automate tests resilient to frequent application user interface changes with ScriptAssure technology.
- Lets you perform the same series of test actions with a varying set of test data.
- Combines a recorder of user actions with multiple customization options and intelligent script maintenance capabilities.
- Integrates with other solutions to provide access to work items and logical or compound SCM test asset support.
- Supports sharing of functional tests across team members and running on hybrid environments with integrations with Rational® Test Automation Server.
Rational® Functional Tester runs on Windows® and Linux® platforms, while the web-based testing features run on Mac OS, in addition to Windows® and Linux®. For more information, refer to Operating systems.
Two perspectives: Functional Test and UI Test
Rational® Functional Tester includes two perspectives that you can use to do your testing: the Functional Test perspective and the UI Test perspective.
The UI Test Perspective
For more information on the software that IBM® Rational® Functional Tester supports to record and play back tests, see Recording and playback support.
Web UI Testing
IBM® Rational® Functional Tester supports web applications built with HTML 4 and HTML 5 technologies on desktops and mobile devices. You can test web applications by using the industry-standard browsers such as Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge.
You can also test the web applications on dual monitors when you extend the display of your computer to a secondary monitor.
Mobile Testing
You can record and play back mobile tests on Android devices or emulators, iOS mobile devices or simulators. The UI Test perspective supports testing of native, hybrid, and web applications on both Android and iOS platforms. Specifically for web applications, you can record the tests in the device mode on a desktop browser and play back on the actual mobile devices.
You can also perform mobile application testing using the Appium test automation framework or in a device cloud environment. You can run JUnit Appium tests in an Appium framework.
Windows Testing
You can record and play back tests on the native 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.
- Windows desktop applications: The Windows desktop applications include two types of applications such as Universal Windows Platform (UWP) and Classic Windows applications.
- Add-ins in MS Office: The Microsoft Office applications such as Word, Outlook, Access, and PowerPoint are supported. Add-in applications which are integrated and available on the toolbar of the Office applications are also supported.
Distributed Testing
The Rational® Functional Tester UI Test perspective helps you accelerate the test effort by providing ways to distribute test execution across multiple browsers and multiple computers simultaneously. Here are some of the capabilities provided by the UI Test perspective:
- The ability to run a single Web UI test on multiple browsers and mobile devices simultaneously
- The ability to run multiple Web UI tests on multiple browsers and mobile devices simultaneously
- The ability to run multiple Web UI tests across multiple remote computers simultaneously (Requires integration with Rational® Performance Tester)
- The ability to run multiple Web UI and compound tests simultaneously, both from the IDE and the command line
- The ability to run Web UI tests in the cloud
- The ability to record a Web UI test in one browser and play it back in another browser or on a mobile device
- The ability to test mobile Web applications on multiple mobile devices (Android and iOS) as a single test or as part of a compound test
The Functional Test Perspective
- The Java™ language in Eclipse integration.
- The VB.NET language and the Microsoft® Visual Studio .NET development environment in Microsoft Visual Studio .NET integration.
Technology and Features
The object-oriented recording technology in the Rational® Functional Tester Functional Test perspective lets you generate functional testing scripts for automated testing quickly by recording against the application under test. Rational® Functional Tester uses object-oriented technology to identify controls or objects by their internal properties and not by screen coordinates. If the location or text of a control or the object changes, Rational® Functional Tester can still find it during playback.
The object testing technology in Rational® Functional Tester enables you to test any controls or object in the application under test, including the control properties and data.
Rational® Functional Tester provides two distinct scripting styles - Java and Simplified scripting. The Java scripting style is based on Java programming, and the simplified scripting style is visual and natural language oriented. You can interact with the application visuals while viewing and editing the script.
While working with the Rational® Functional Tester Eclipse Integration or Rational® Functional Tester, Microsoft Visual Studio .NET Integration, the test object maps are used and the application visuals are not available. When you record a functional test script, Rational® Functional Tester automatically creates a test object map for the application under test. The test object map lists the test objects available in the application, whether they are currently displayed or not. The object map provides a quick way to add objects to a functional test script. Since the test object map contains recognition properties for each object, you can easily update the recognition information in one central location. Any functional test scripts that use this test object map also share the updated information.
During recording you can insert verification points into the script to confirm the state of a control or an object across builds of the application under test. The verification point captures object information (based on the type of verification point) and stores it in a baseline data file. The information in this file becomes the baseline of the expected state of the object during subsequent builds. Rational® Functional Tester has an object properties verification point and five data verification points (menu hierarchy, table, text, tree hierarchy, and list). You can use the Verification Point Comparator to analyze differences across builds and update the baseline file.
Rational® Functional Tester features platform-independent and browser-independent test playback. For example, you can record a functional test script on Windows® and play it back on Linux®. You can record a functional test script using any of the browsers supported by the product and play back using any other supported browser. The functional testing script contains no references to the browser used during recording.
Proxy SDK
With Rational® Functional Tester proxy software development kit (SDK) you can extend automated functional testing support for application user interface controls (GUI test objects), beyond what is provided by default.
Extension for Terminal-based Applications
Rational® Functional Tester Extension for Terminal-based Applications tool helps you create test scripts to automate the functional testing of host application test cases. It provides a rich set of capabilities to test host attributes, host field attributes and screen flow. It uses terminal verification points and properties, as well as synchronization code to identify the readiness of terminal for user input.
Rational® Functional Tester Extension for Terminal-based Applications supports functional testing of the applications listed in Terminal emulation.