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Rational® Functional Tester
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.
Tutorials for testing in the UI Test perspective
You can use the tutorials to get started with testing in the UI Test perspective in Rational® Functional Tester.
Lesson 7: Associating a dataset with a test
You can learn about associating a dataset with a recorded test to add actual data to the test during the playback. The associated dataset is accessed during the playback of the test and the actual data in the test is substituted with the variable data in the dataset.

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.
  - Tutorials for testing in the UI Test perspective
    You can use the tutorials to get started with testing in the UI Test perspective in Rational® Functional Tester.
    - Lesson 1: Recording actions on an AUT
      You can learn about recording actions that you perform on a web application in the UI Test perspective.
    - Lesson 2: Creating a verification point
      You can learn about creating a verification point for an action that you recorded on an application under test (AUT). Verification points verify that a certain action has taken place, or they verify the state of a control or an object during the play back of tests.
    - Lesson 3: Running a test
      You can learn about running a test to verify whether a test scenario is played back successfully by Rational® Functional Tester.
    - Lesson 4: Test log and reports
      You can learn about the test log and reports that are generated by Rational® Functional Tester after a test run is complete. You can use the data in the log and reports to analyze the test results and confirm whether the test run was successful.
    - Lesson 5: Splitting actions in a test
      You can learn about splitting the actions of a test into test segments with different nodes. If a test contains many actions, you can split the test to create multiple nodes with meaningful test segments. You can then perform various actions such as inserting a loop, inserting a condition, and so on to the test segments of the selected nodes. You can also move a node from the existing test to a new test, and add the new test to a compound test that consists of various other tests that can be run sequentially.
    - Lesson 6: Creating a dataset
      You can learn about creating a dataset for a test so that you can fetch the variable dataset values at the run time. A dataset is a collection of related data records that you can use to substitute the data in the test.
    - Lesson 7: Associating a dataset with a test
      You can learn about associating a dataset with a recorded test to add actual data to the test during the playback. The associated dataset is accessed during the playback of the test and the actual data in the test is substituted with the variable data in the dataset.
    - Lesson 8: Creating a compound test
      You can learn about creating a compound test with multiple tests. Every individual test within the compound test performs a part of the main scenario. When you run the compound test, the individual tests are run in sequence.
    - Lesson 9: Adding a loop
      You can learn about adding a loop to a test so that the test runs repeatedly for a specified number of time, while fetching values from an associated dataset. You can either select a count-based, a time-based, or an infinite loop for the test. You can set the loop to infinite if you want the test to fetch the data from all the rows in a dataset.
  - Tutorials for testing in the Functional Test perspective
    You can use the tutorials to get started with testing in the Functional Test perspective in Rational® Functional Tester.
  - Tutorials for testing in the Visual Studio IDE
    Rational® Functional Tester tutorials contain educational materials to help you learn the technologies and concepts behind products.
- 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.
- 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.

Lesson 7: Associating a dataset with a test

You can learn about associating a dataset with a recorded test to add actual data to the test during the playback. The associated dataset is accessed during the playback of the test and the actual data in the test is substituted with the variable data in the dataset.

Before you begin

You must have completed the following tasks:

Created a dataset. See Lesson 6: Creating a dataset.
Ensured that the wiki-search-animals test is displayed in the Test Contents panel of the test editor window. See Lesson 5: Splitting actions in a test.

About this task

For the test scenario in this tutorial, you can associate the AnimalsDataset dataset with the wiki-search-animals test.

Procedure

Select the Enter value 'Elephant' in Search field action in the wiki-search-animals test.
The details of the selected action are displayed in the User Action Details panel.
Right-click Elephant in the Value field, and then click Substitute > Select Data Source.

The Test Editor - Select Data Source dialog is displayed.
Click Yes to display all the matching strings in the test that you can use as a data source to substitute the value of Elephant in the Value field.
The Select Data Source dialog is displayed.
Click the Add Dataset icon .
The Select dataset column dialog is displayed.
Select AnimalsDataset.csv in the Available Datasets panel, and then select Column1 in the Columns panel.
Click Finish.
The AnimalsDataset dataset is displayed in the Select Data Source dialog.
Ensure that AnimalsDataset dataset is selected, and then click Select.

The Test Editor - Find and Substitute dialog is displayed to confirm whether you want to view more substitutable locations in the test.
Click Cancel.

The color of Elephant in the Value field of the User Actions Details panel changes to green. The change indicates that the selected dataset is successfully associated with the field.
Press Ctrl+S to save the changes.

Results

You have learned to associate a dataset with your test.

What to do next

You can learn about creating a compound test to combine various test scripts. See Lesson 8: Creating a compound test.