Adding manual and dynamic verification points

Manual verification points

Manual verification points are useful when you create the data for the verification point yourself, and you want to compare the data. For example, the data could be the result of a calculation or could come from an external source, such as a database.

Manual verification point objects are constructed using the VpManual method. When you call this method, you provide the data before PerformTest is executed. (The PerformTest method saves the supplied data, compares it when there is a baseline, and writes the result to the log.) The VpManual method has two signatures:

IFtVerificationPoint 
VpManual (ByVal VpName As String, ByVal _
     Actual As Object)

IFtVerificationPoint 
VpManual (ByVal VpName As String, ByVal _
     Expected As Object, ByVal Actual As Object)

The first form of VpManual takes the name of the verification point and the actual data that is either compared to an existing baseline, or used to create a baseline if one does not already exist. Note that this value can be null. The VpName must be unique relative to the script. For example:

VpManual ("manual1", "The rain in Spain").PerformTest()

The second form of this method adds a parameter for the expected data to be compared with the actual. Either expected or actual can be null valued. For example:

VpManual ("manual1", "The rain in Spain", _
     "The Rain in Spain").PerformTest()

In this example, the data does not match. The PerformTest method would record a verification point failure message in the log.

Dynamic verification points

Dynamic verification points are most useful when the TestObject is not mapped and not something that Rational® Functional Tester would normally test, for example, an object that is not part of the application-under-test.

The VpDynamic method constructs dynamic verification points. Dynamic verification points raise the appropriate user interface the next time the script is played back. The user is able to insert verification point data tested against an object specified by the script. In this way, the user can avoid having to run the test manually to the appropriate state before recording the verification point. The vpDynamic method has two signatures:

IFtVerificationPoint VpDynamic (ByVal VpName As String)

IFtVerificationPoint VpDynamic (ByVal VpName As String, By Val _
     ObjectTestObject As TestObject)

The first form of the VpDynamic method requires a unique (relative to the script) verification point name. The Recording Verification Point and Action wizard is raised the next time the script is played back. The user specifies the TestObject and the baseline data for subsequent runs to test against. The script must be run in interactive mode. For example:

VpDynamic ("dynamic1").performTest()

The other form of the vpDynamic method requires specification of the TestObject. For example:

VpDynamic ("dynamic1", Pagetablelist()).PerformTest()

A modified UI, which does not display the TestObject hierarchy, appears on the first playback to specify data values for the baseline. While the specified TestObject does not have to be from the test object map, it must be consistently the same object for the results to be meaningful.

A common error when using these methods is to omit the PerformTest method. This is legal and compiles without warning, but no interesting action occurs when the script runs. For example:

VpDynamic("test1", Pagetablelist()) ' ERROR. Nothing happens.