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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.
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.
Rational® Functional Tester proxy SDK
Extend automated functional testing support for your application's user interface controls.
TestObjects
TestObjects are the script-side interfaces for proxies and application under test (AUT) controls. A TestObject is a connection point between the test script and a ProxyObject that connects to the real object in the AUT. During recording, statements are recorded and objects are added to the Object Map. The script uses the information from the Object Map to construct and find TestObjects.
Adding a new TestObject
You can add a new TestObject when there are no TestObjects with the method that you want to expose for a control, available within the set of predefined TestObjects provided by Rational® Functional Tester. For example, you can expose any button control as GuiTestObject() and operations such as click() and doubleClick() are defined as methods in it. You can create a new TestObject if you want to introduce a new method call such as myClick(), which is not defined in any of the existing TestObjects.

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.
  - 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.
    - Rational® Functional Tester proxy SDK
      Extend automated functional testing support for your application's user interface controls.
      - Introduction to proxy SDK
        With Rational® Functional Tester proxy software development kit (SDK) you can extend automated functional testing support for your application's user interface controls (GUI test objects), beyond what is provided by Rational Functional Tester by default. The proxy SDK provides detailed documentation, API references and ready-to-use samples and tutorials on how to extend Rational Functional Tester to add support for testing new controls. It also helps you to extend already supported controls from the existing domains. You can develop proxies manually or by using the proxy wizards driven approach.
      - Rational® Functional Tester architecture
        Rational® Functional Tester can be extended to perform additional functions for which it needs to communicate with the application under test (AUT). To do that Rational Functional Tester first establishes a communication channel to the AUT which is called enablement.
      - Proxy development
        A challenge in functional testing is the variety of user interface (UI) frameworks that are available (for example, Java™ and HTML) and controls (for example, button and table) that testing must support. UI frameworks differ in architecture and programming models and the controls differ in their inheritance hierarchy, methods, properties data, and user actions.
      - TestObjects
        TestObjects are the script-side interfaces for proxies and application under test (AUT) controls. A TestObject is a connection point between the test script and a ProxyObject that connects to the real object in the AUT. During recording, statements are recorded and objects are added to the Object Map. The script uses the information from the Object Map to construct and find TestObjects.
        Role of a TestObject
        TestObjects are wrapper classes to proxies for TestScripts. A control is exposed as a Java™ or C# object to TestScripts through TestObjects. TestObjects are implemented in both Java and C#, because Rational® Functional Tester supports using both Java and Visual Basic .Net as the test-script language. If you use Visual Basic .Net scripts, TestObjects that are implemented in C# are used. For Java scripts, TestObjects that are implemented using Java are used.
        Adding a new TestObject
        You can add a new TestObject when there are no TestObjects with the method that you want to expose for a control, available within the set of predefined TestObjects provided by Rational® Functional Tester. For example, you can expose any button control as GuiTestObject() and operations such as click() and doubleClick() are defined as methods in it. You can create a new TestObject if you want to introduce a new method call such as myClick(), which is not defined in any of the existing TestObjects.
        Examples: Adding a new TestObject
        This example explains how to add a new TestObject.
        Mapping proxies to TestObjects
        You can extend a proxy so that Rational® Functional Tester uses a different a TestObject to provide a suitable interface on the scripting side.
      - ProxyObject hierarchy
        While developing new proxies by extending existing proxies for any domain, it is important to understand the existing proxies and the hierarchies, so that you extend the right proxy.
      - TestObject class diagram and canonical names
        Rational® Functional Tester has a predefined set of TestObjects that are hierarchically grouped and each TestObject has a set of predefined methods.
      - SubItems
        SubItems are part of TestObjects. The ObjectMap does not contain the SubItems, because they are not mapped.
      - Value classes and value managers
        The following code examples show several value classes and value managers.
      - TestData types
        The Rational® Functional Tester framework calls the getTestDataTypes() and getTestData(String) proxy methods for extracting data from controls for verification and reference. These methods are used during the creation and play back of data verification points. You can override the getTestDataTypes() method to add more specific data types for a control.
      - Proxy exceptions
        Rational® Functional Tester has a set of predefined exceptions that covers wide ranges of errors that are usually expected while functional testing. These exceptions are available for both the Java™ and .NET proxy development frameworks.
      - Proxy development best practices
        Following best practices while you develop proxies can help make your work more efficient and effective. Consider these methods to enhance your development efforts.
    - Customizing a script template
      Rational® Functional Tester uses its default script templates to format and provide basic information when you create a script. You can customize the information and format by customizing the script templates.
    - Using the API to edit functional test scripts
      These topics describe how you can take advantage of the Rational® Functional Tester application programming interface (API) or the scripting framework to make changes to functional test scripts. As a general rule, the modifications that you make with the scripting SDK, should emulate as closely as possible, the user interactions to test with the application-under-test.
  - 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.

Adding a new TestObject

You can add a new TestObject when there are no TestObjects with the method that you want to expose for a control, available within the set of predefined TestObjects provided by Rational® Functional Tester. For example, you can expose any button control as GuiTestObject() and operations such as click() and doubleClick() are defined as methods in it. You can create a new TestObject if you want to introduce a new method call such as myClick(), which is not defined in any of the existing TestObjects.

Before you begin

Note: Proxies are developed either in Java™ or in C#. However, you must implement TestObjects for proxies in both Java and C#, because they are just wrappers to proxies in both Java and Visual Basic .Net scripts. When you add a new custom TestObject, ensure that you define the Java implementation of the TestObject. This is required even if you use VS.NET IDE for creating functional test scripts.

About this task

To add a new TestObject:

Procedure

Create the constructors for the TestObject.
Note: Every TestObject must have five standard constructors. New methods that are defined follow these constructors.
Define new canonical names for the TestObject in the customization file.
You must specify two entries for every canonical name for both Java and .NET TestObjects in the customization file, because they are developed in both Java and .NET.
Map the proxies to the newly created TestObject.
Build the TestObject binary files.
You can group all the Java TestObject binary files in a single JAR file and the .NET TestObjects in a single .NET assembly.
Deploy the TestObject binary files by copying the files to the Rational® Functional Tester customization directory, C:\ProgramData\IBM\RFT\customization .
Restart Rational® Functional Tester.

What to do next

After successfully developing and deploying the TestObject binary files, the Administrative properties of the newly recorded controls, for which you created new TestObjects show the new TestObject names under Test Object Class Name.