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Contents Chapter 1: Working with QuickTest Professional . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Introduction to the testing process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Deploying Flex files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 About the Flex installed testing files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 About the testing environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Test creation overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 About the QTP object model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Storing objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 About the application hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 Recording tests. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 About the testing script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Identifying objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 About operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Using checkpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Standard checkpoints. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Bitmap checkpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Table checkpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Using common methods and properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Playing back Flex tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Chapter 2: Advanced Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Working with containers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Working with Repeater objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Working with data-driven and List-based controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 General troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Logging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Resolving playback synchronization issues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Delaying startup test time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Making a test fail but continue to the end . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Limitations of automated testing with Flex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 3 4 Contents CHAPTER 1 Working with QuickTest Professional This topic describes how to work with Mercury QuickTest ProfessionalTM and Adobe Flex applications. 1 Contents Introduction to the testing process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Test creation overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Recording tests. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 About the testing script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 About operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Using checkpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 Using common methods and properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Playing back Flex tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Introduction to the testing process Large, complex applications must be tested to make sure that user interactions do not create run-time exceptions and that connections to data services are functioning properly. This document assumes that there are two roles in the testing process: the QA testing professional and the Flex developer. It assumes that the QA testing professional does not know how to develop Flex applications and does not have access to the Flex source code, the Flex compiler, or the Flex documentation. The Flex developer, on the other hand, does not necessarily know how to use a testing tool, such as Mercury QuickTest Professional (QTP). Flex documentation for developers includes a set of guidelines for creating testable applications. These guidelines include instructions on how to compile testable applications, how to instrument custom components so that they can be tested, and how to write applications so that the testing process works more smoothly. For information about the guidelines, see the Flex 2 Developer's Guide. 5 Before you can test a Flex application, a Flex developer compiles a SWF file for you. The developer also provides you with an HTML file that embeds the SWF file in it. This is known as the HTML wrapper. You deploy these two files to any web server. Some Flex applications require the use of external resources, such as web services or remote objects, so you should ensure that your web server can access these resources. You might be required to add a permissions file to the target server to allow your Flex application to access the server. For more information, ask the Flex developer. To run a test, you launch QTP and request the HTML wrapper. QTP records the interaction with the Flex application as it would with any other target type. You should then be able to rerun your tests against the Flex application as long as the web server remains accessible. Deploying Flex files Before you can test the Flex application, you must deploy the application and its supporting files to a location that is accessible by QTP. These files include: Application SWF file HTML wrapper and wrapper files (the wrapper files can include SWF files, JavaScript files, and other files) RSL SWC files Module SWF files Helper files such as theme SWC files, style SWF files, and image, video, and sound files You deploy the Flex application and HTML wrapper file to any location on your HTTP server. You must be able to access this location from QTP. In some cases, files used by the Flex application might be located on a remote server. In this case, you must be sure that the files are accessible through any firewalls. Furthermore, the remote servers might need to include cross-domain permission files to allow remote access. For more information, you should discuss this with the Flex developer. If necessary, you can password-protect the HTML wrapper and use the QTP authentication mechanism to access it. For more information, see the QTP documentation. 6 Working with QuickTest Professional About the Flex installed testing files The Flex support for QTP requires that you install two ActiveX plug-ins on the testing machine. These plug-ins provide the necessary communication layer between Flex and QTP. One plug-in runs inside of QTP, and the other runs inside the browser. The browser plug-in is signed, and is designed to run in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 on Windows only. Together, these plug-ins ensure that Flash Player and the Flex framework can send the appropriate script interactions to QTP during record mode. Similarly, the plug-ins provide the mechanism for QTP to send script commands to the Flash Player and Flex during playback. The browser plug-in uses the Flash Player flash.external.ExternalInterface class and, therefore, requires the correct security context for flash.external.ExternalInterface to run. If the SWF file runs from a web ...