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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.
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.
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.
Recording a host connection script
You can automate the testing of a host application by recording a script that connects to, and interacts with a host system. The session is recorded as a set of commands and can be played back at a later time. This allows you to automate the navigation to specific screens.
Playing back host connection script
You can play back all your recorded actions, such as starting an application, the actions you perform, and stopping the application. There are several prerequisites to meet before you can reliably play back a script
Using host aid keys
The most common host aid keys are Enter, and all the function keys. If the key is captured within curly braces {} in a script, the key acts as a host aid key.

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.
    - 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.
      - Importing certificates from the server for secured connections
        Starting from Rational® Functional Tester 9.1.1, you can import certificates from the server to connect to the host machines securely. You can create a CustomizedCAs.p12 / CustomizedCAs.jks keystore through the Extension for Terminal-based Applications that produces the *.p12/JKS file. This file passes the host server's self-signed certificate credentials to the terminal to allow a secure connection.
      - Creating a host connection script
        You can create a host connection script so that you can interact with the host session, navigate to other screens, and create data verification points.
      - Recording a host connection script
        You can automate the testing of a host application by recording a script that connects to, and interacts with a host system. The session is recorded as a set of commands and can be played back at a later time. This allows you to automate the navigation to specific screens.
        Verification points
        Verification points are used to test properties of application windows or fields.
        Creating verification points
        You can create verification points to test application objects. Verification points are used to verify that the property values is as expected. When you create a verification point, you are capturing information about an object in the application to establish this as baseline information for comparison during playback.
        Logging window content
        You can log the contents of a window in a correctly formatted log file. The log contains the record of events that occur when recording the script.
        Extension for Terminal-based Applications states
        Rational® Functional Tester tracks the state of Extension for Terminal-based Applications sessions as you record a script and interact with the host session. To determine the state of the session, Rational Functional Tester checks whether the host session has focus. If the host session does not have focus, it waits for 0.5 second to see whether it gains focus. If the host session does not gain focus during that time, it returns the focus state to the frame. If the host session does have focus after the wait, Rational Functional Tester queries the synchronization code for the state of the terminal.
        Synchronization algorithms
        Extension for Terminal-based Applications has three synchronization algorithms to determine the state of the terminal. The state of the terminal depends on the loading of presentation space.
        Playing back host connection script
        You can play back all your recorded actions, such as starting an application, the actions you perform, and stopping the application. There are several prerequisites to meet before you can reliably play back a script
        Adding manual sleep timers
        When the host application moves from window to window, the transition is not instantaneous. Therefore, any input that needs to be sent to the host, such as typing text, pressing host aid keys, or testing verification points, needs to wait for the host window to become ready to receive input. Extension for Terminal-based Applications can be used to figure out the readiness of host screen for input.
        Correcting object states
        It is not always required to use the object state information that is captured when an object is manipulated in a script. If the state of the object does not match the state information in the script, the code might not work properly. If the exact state of the object is not necessary for the test that is performed, it might be beneficial to remove this state information.
        Using host aid keys
        The most common host aid keys are Enter, and all the function keys. If the key is captured within curly braces {} in a script, the key acts as a host aid key.
        Using manual synchronization
        Use manual synchronization when performance is considered as higher priority than running the script automatically. The synchronization algorithms are reliable, but take more time to run than is necessary.
        LOADED, not READY
        There are special cases during application testing when the window has finished loading, but the application inhibits keyboard input. For example, sometimes when you type invalid input, the host application locks the keyboard. You cannot continue until you reset the window.
        Printing a host session window
        You can print your host session window.
        Programmatic screen scraping for Terminal-based applications
        With programmatic screen scraping, data verification is performed on arbitrary locations. Programmatic screen scraping is used to scrape a portion of the terminal screen to determine whether the text is displayed at the specified position of the screen. Also, programmatic scraping makes the playback process wait to allow the text to appear on the screen. APIs are developed to support this feature.
      - Extension for Terminal-based Applications window
        Use the Extension for Terminal-based Applications window to connect to the host and record or play back host interactions in the scripts.
    - 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.

Using host aid keys

The most common host aid keys are Enter, and all the function keys. If the key is captured within curly braces {} in a script, the key acts as a host aid key.

About this task

Procedure

Ensure that Rational® Functional Tester pauses after sending the keystrokes whenever you press keys that cause the host window to change. Most function keys cause the host window to change. Rational® Functional Tester records these keystrokes as separate commands to ensure that it pauses after sending a function key to the host.

TFrame().inputKeys("{F12}");
        TFrame().inputKeys("{F3}");
        TFrame().inputKeys("logoff{ENTER}");

If your host application uses other keys to cause the host window to change, manually separate pressing those keys into separate commands before playing back your scripts. Rational® Functional Tester does not recognize these keys as host aid keys.

Example

For example, If Tab causes the host window to change, the following command will cause problems when the script is played back:

TFrame().inputKeys("{TAB}SomeHostCommand{ENTER}");

Separate the command after the first host aid key:

TFrame().inputKeys("{TAB}");
TFrame().inputKeys("SomeHostCommand{ENTER}");