Home
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.
Working with functional test scripts (Windows-only)
This section describes the process of creating functional test scripts to test your applications.
Script support functions
When you record or edit a functional test script, you can insert codes to add features into the test script by using the tabs in the Script Support Functions dialog. The following table lists the tab names and the features associated with each of the tabs:

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.
  - 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.
    - 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.
    - Functional test assets
      This section describes the different types of functional test assets that are available in Rational® Functional Tester.
    - Working with functional test scripts (Windows-only)
      This section describes the process of creating functional test scripts to test your applications.
      - Simplified scripting
        Simplified test scripts are functional test scripts in the form of simple English statements that are easy to understand and edit. This feature is enabled by default in the Rational® Functional Tester Preferences window.
      - Enabling simplified scripting
        Simplified scripts are functional test scripts in the form of simple English statements that are easy to understand and edit. When you record actions on the test application using the recorder, the functional test script is generated and displayed as a simplified test script in the Script editor.
      - Creating a simplified test script
        Use the recording feature of Rational® Functional Tester, to record actions on the test applications. The actions on the test applications are generated in the form of a simplified test script when you stop recording. The generated simplified test script is displayed in the simplified Script editor in Rational Functional Tester. You can also view the corresponding Java™ code of the recorded test script in the Java script editor.
      - Editing a simplified script
        You can edit a test line in the script editor and also modify the test line properties, such as the control actions in the Properties View.
      - Inserting conditional statements
        You can insert conditional statements to verify the values of the variables in the script and perform actions in the application.
      - Specifying the playback options for a simplified script
        You can set the wait time for a control to be displayed or pause an execution of a test line for a simplified script.
      - Handling exceptions during script playback
        If an exception occurs during script playback, you can specify how Rational® Functional Tester handles these exceptions.
      - Specifying the log details for a test script
        You can specify the message to be displayed in the log for a test line that has run. You can also specify the type of screen capture that must be taken during playback and displayed in the log so that you can view the state of the control or the screen in the test application.
      - Deleting a test line
        You can delete a test line from a script in the script editor. The application visual that is captured and displayed while recording the test script is not deleted from the Application view.
      - Working with application visuals
        Application visuals are snapshots of the controls or screens of the test application that are captured while recording scripts. The visuals of the test application are captured only if both the simplified scripting and the application visuals feature preferences are enabled.
      - Switching to Java scripting
        You can switch to Java scripting to insert Java code to perform additional operations such as extending an API or functions that cannot be performed directly in the simplified script editor. To use both the simplified script and Java scripting, you must use the Insert Java Code Snippet or Insert Java Method feature that is available in the simplified script editor and switch to Java scripting. If you modify the Java script directly without using these features, the Java script changes are lost and the simplified script runs during playback.
      - Exporting a simplified script
        You can export the simplified scripts in a .txt, .xml or .html format so that the script can be viewed outside Rational® Functional Tester.
      - Java scripting
        When you record a functional test script to test an application, simplified scripts are generated and displayed in the Script editor. The corresponding Java test script is displayed in the Java editor.
      - Recording a Java™ test script
        Java™ scripts are generated when you work with the simplified scripts. You can switch to Java scripting using the Insert Java snippet and Insert Java module features in the simplified script editor.
      - Creating a new test script without recording
        As an alternative to recording, you can create a script to enter Java™ code manually.
      - Creating a test script without recording in the Visual Studio IDE
        As an alternative to recording, you can create a script to enter VB.NET code manually.
      - Recording scripts in an existing script
        You can record new scripts in an existing script to start an application under test (AUT), insert verification points, and add script support functions.
      - Recording scripts for an AUT with different user credentials
        When an application under test (AUT) is configured with a different user credential by using a batch file on the Windows operating system, you can record scripts for the AUT.
      - Recording scripts to test HTML applications
        Record scripts to test HTML applications on a single browser as you record any functional test script.
      - Recording cross-browser and cross-platform scripts
        This topic provides an overview of the procedures to set up your environment to record cross-browser scripts.
      - Displaying test object information
        You use the Test Object Inspector to examine graphical components visible in the running application and display information about those objects, such as parent hierarchy, inheritance hierarchy, test object properties, non value properties, and method information.
      - Getting a property value
        You can get a single property value for the selected object while you are recording. It puts a getProperty into your script and returns the value during playback.
      - Setting a wait state for an object
        This feature is used to set a wait state for an object during playback to check for its existence. This is useful when waiting for an object right after starting your application, or after other actions that may take a long time.
      - Recording and playing back double byte characters on Chinese systems
        The following information pertains to record and playback of DBCS on Chinese systems.
      - Changing the default script helper superclass
        By default, all Functional Test scripts extend the RationalTestScript class, and thereby inherit a number of methods (such as callScript). Advanced users may want to create their own helper superclass which extends RationalTestScript and can add additional methods or override the methods from RationalTestScript.
      - Script support functions
        When you record or edit a functional test script, you can insert codes to add features into the test script by using the tabs in the Script Support Functions dialog. The following table lists the tab names and the features associated with each of the tabs:
        Calling a script from a functional test script
        While recording or editing a functional test script, you can insert a call to a previously recorded script. This lets you avoid repeatedly recording similar actions on the application-under-test by taking advantage of scripts that already exist.
        Inserting a log message into a functional test script
        You can insert a log message into a functional test script and indicate whether it is a message, a warning, or an error. During playback, Rational® Functional Tester inserts this information into the log.
        Using timers with functional test scripts
        You can insert any number of timers with different names into the same script to measure the time it takes to perform a variety of separate tasks. You can nest timers within other timers (starting and stopping the second timer before stopping the first timer), and you can overlap timers (stopping the second timer after stopping the first timer).
        Setting delays and sleep states for functional test script playback
        You can insert a sleep command into your functional test script to delay the script for the amount of time you specify.
        Inserting comments into a functional test script
        During recording or editing, you can insert lines of comment text into a Functional Test script. Comments are helpful for documenting and editing scripts.
        Inserting clipboard commands into a functional test script
        During recording or editing, you can insert system clipboard commands into a functional test script. You can also insert into a functional test script a verification point test command against the active content in the system clipboard.
      - Starting your test applications
        When recording tests on your application, it is best to have Rational® Functional Tester start the application during recording. This makes playing back the tests more reliable because the application configuration information is used. Rational Functional Tester can open specified Java applications, HTML pages in your browser, or run executable applications.
      - Renaming a test asset
        You can rename simplified test scripts, Java test scripts, test object maps, or other files in a project.
      - Saving test scripts and files
        You can save a functional test script or file in several ways: save the current test script or file, save all test scripts and files, save a functional test script or file with another name in a different location.
      - Deleting a functional test script
        You can delete a functional test script from the Projects view or the Solution Explorer. Deleting a script cannot be undone.
      - Tips for recording functional tests
        Following are some tips on ways around some potential recording issues.
      - Recording a script
        To start recording scripts against your applications, you must first configure your test environments, configure your applications, and create a project. Under certain conditions, you can start recording scripts without preparing your functional test environment.
      - Working with functional test object maps in the Visual Studio IDE
        This section describes how you can use test object maps to facilitate your functional testing effort. The test object map is a static view that describes the known test objects in the application-under-test.
    - Verification points
      Verification points verify whether an expected behavior occurred during a test playback, or they verify whether there is a change in the state of a control or an object. When you create a verification point, you capture information about a control or an object in the application to establish this information as a baseline for comparison during the playback.
    - Driving functional tests with external data
      This section describes techniques you can use to data-drive functional tests with external data.
    - 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 you work in the Functional Test perspective of Rational® Functional Tester. You can also find the details about the causes and resolutions that you can apply to fix the issues.
  - 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.
  - Extending the functionality in the Visual Studio IDE
    These topics describe various ways that you can customize Rational® Functional Tester or use the application programming interface (API) to extend Rational Functional Tester functionality.
  - 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.

Script support functions

When you record or edit a functional test script, you can insert codes to add features into the test script by using the tabs in the Script Support Functions dialog. The following table lists the tab names and the features associated with each of the tabs:


Tab name	You can...
Call Script	Insert a statement to call another test script.
Log Entry	Insert a log message into the test script. During playback, this message is displayed in the log.
Timer	Insert or stop a timer in the current script. Timers remain in the running state until you stop them explicitly or close Rational® Functional Tester.
Sleep	Insert a sleep command into the test script to delay the script for the time that you specify.
Comment	Insert a comment into the test script.
Clipboard	Insert system clipboard commands into the test script.

Note: You can open the Script Support Functions dialog in one of the following ways:

You can click the Insert Script Support Commands button on the Recording Monitor toolbar when you record the test script.
You can click the Insert Recording into Active Functional Test Script button on the Functional Test toolbar, and then click the Insert Script Support Commands button on the Recording Monitor toolbar when you edit the test script.

The following links provide more information: