Desktop, Web and Mobile Testing Tutorials

* Windows and the Windows logo are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.

About the Tutorial

With TestComplete, you can test applications of three major types: desktop, web and mobile:

Desktop applications - these applications are executed on desktop computers running the Windows
operating system.

Web applications - these applications are executed in web browsers (including those web browsers
that are embedded into desktop applications).

Mobile applications - these applications are executed on Android or iOS devices.

This document is for novice users. It provides a brief overview of automated testing and of the product, and
includes tutorials that explain how to create tests for major application types. After you read these tutorials, you
will be able to create, modify and execute tests for desktop, web and mobile applications.

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Table of Contents

Table of Contents
INTRODUCING AUTOMATED TESTING AND TESTCOMPLETE .....................................................5
Automated Testing .........................................................................................................................................5
Test Types.......................................................................................................................................................5
TestComplete Projects and Project Items .......................................................................................................6
TestComplete User Interface ..........................................................................................................................7
TestComplete Test Object Model ...................................................................................................................9
Checkpoints and Stores ................................................................................................................................11
TESTING DESKTOP APPLICATIONS .....................................................................................................12
1. Creating a Test Project .........................................................................................................................13
2. Defining Applications to Test...............................................................................................................14
3. Completing the Project Creation ..........................................................................................................19
4. Creating a Test ......................................................................................................................................21
5. Analyzing the Recorded Test ...............................................................................................................34
6. Running the Recorded Test ..................................................................................................................39
7. Analyzing Test Results .........................................................................................................................41
TESTING WEB APPLICATIONS ...............................................................................................................44
1. Creating a Test Project .........................................................................................................................44
2. Selecting a Test Type ...........................................................................................................................46
3. Completing the Project Creation ..........................................................................................................47
4. Preparing Web Browser........................................................................................................................49
5. Creating a Test ......................................................................................................................................49
6. Analyzing the Recorded Test ...............................................................................................................59
7. Running the Recorded Test ..................................................................................................................62
8. Analyzing Test Results .........................................................................................................................64
9. Running the Test in Multiple Browsers ................................................................................................67
TESTING ANDROID APPLICATIONS .....................................................................................................70
1. Preliminary Steps..................................................................................................................................71
2. Creating a Test Project .........................................................................................................................75
3. Creating a Test ......................................................................................................................................76
4. Analyzing the Recorded Test ...............................................................................................................88
5. Running the Test...................................................................................................................................91
6. Analyzing Test Results .........................................................................................................................93
7. Running Test on Multiple Devices .......................................................................................................96
TESTING IOS APPLICATIONS .................................................................................................................99
1. Preparing iOS Device .........................................................................................................................100
2. Preparing iOS Application for Testing ...............................................................................................101
3. Creating a Test Project .......................................................................................................................103
4. Creating a Test ....................................................................................................................................104
5. Analyzing the Recorded Test .............................................................................................................115

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6.
7.
8.
9.

Running the Test.................................................................................................................................119

Analyzing Test Results .......................................................................................................................121
Adjusting the Test for Running on Multiple Devices .........................................................................122
Running Test on Multiple Devices .....................................................................................................124

WHERE TO GO NEXT ...............................................................................................................................127

TECHNICAL SUPPORT AND RESOURCES .........................................................................................129
INDEX ...........................................................................................................................................................130

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Introducing Automated Testing and TestComplete

Introducing Automated Testing and TestComplete

Automated Testing
Software testing is the process of investigating an application and finding errors in it. The difference between
testing and simply exploring is that testing involves comparing the applications output to an expected standard
and determining whether the application functions as expected. In other words, the tester may need not only to
ensure that the application displays a list of values, but also to verify that the list contains the appropriate
values.
So, the basic test sequence includes

Defining the expected output.

Performing test actions (feeding the appropriate input).

Gathering the application output and comparing it to expected result (baseline data).

Notifying developers or managers if the comparison fails.

Automated testing is the automatic execution of software testing by a special program with little or no human
interaction. Automated execution guarantees that no test action will be skipped; it relieves testers of having to
repeat the same boring steps over and over.
TestComplete provides special features for automating test actions, creating tests, defining baseline data,
running tests and logging test results. For example, it includes a special recording tests feature that lets you
create tests visually. You just need to start recording, perform all the needed actions against the tested
application and TestComplete will automatically convert all the recorded actions to a test. TestComplete also
includes special dialogs and wizards that help you automate comparison commands (or checkpoints) in your
tests.

Test Types
TestComplete supports various testing types and methodologies: unit testing, functional and GUI testing,
regression testing, distributed testing and others (see Different Ways of Testing in TestComplete Help). In this
tutorial, we will create functional tests - the kind that is used most often. Functional tests check the interface
between the application on one side, and the rest of the system and users on the other side. They verify that the
application functions as expected.
A typical functional test consists of test commands that perform various actions such as simulating clicks and
keystrokes, running test commands in a loop and verifying objects contents.
In TestComplete, functional tests can be created in the form of keyword tests and scripts. Tests of both kinds
can be recorded or created from scratch with built-in editors. Creating keyword tests is visual, easy and does
not require a programming background. Scripting requires understanding script commands, but gives you the

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Introducing Automated Testing and TestComplete

ability to create more powerful and flexible tests. TestComplete supports scripting in VBScript, JScript,
DelphiScript, C++Script and C#Script, so you can create scripts in the language you know best.
In this tutorial, we will use the keyword testing feature.

TestComplete Projects and Project Items

TestComplete operates with test projects and project suites. A project is a starting point for creating tests. It
contains your tests, baseline data for checkpoints, information about tested applications and other items needed
to perform testing. The project also defines the execution sequence of multiple tests and contains a cumulative
log of all test runs since the start of the project.
One project could contain all the tests for your application. For complex applications, you may choose to
devote a project to just one part of the application, and other projects to other parts (normally, modules).
Related projects can be united into a project suite that contains one or more projects. TestComplete
automatically generates a project suite when you create a new project. You can also create empty project suites
and then use TestCompletes dialogs to fill the suite with the desired project files.
Project items are project elements that perform or assist in performing various testing operations.
You can view and manage projects, project suites and project items in TestCompletes Project Explorer panel:

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Introducing Automated Testing and TestComplete

For complete information on project items available in TestComplete, see About Project Items in
TestComplete Help.

TestComplete User Interface

Here is a sample image of TestCompletes main window:

As you can see, TestCompletes user interface is organized into a number of panels. The Project Explorer
panel (on the left of the window) displays the contents of projects and the project suite. It also provides links to
the test log nodes.
The Workspace panel is your working desktop: it displays the projects and project items editors, where you
create and modify tests and view test results. For instance, on the image above you can see the Keyword Test
editor opened in the Workspace. Below the editor there is a Test Visualizer panel that displays images which
the test engine captured during recording for test commands. These images help you understand the actions
which test commands perform.

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Introducing Automated Testing and TestComplete

Besides the Project Explorer, Workspace and Test Visualizer, TestComplete contains other panels. For
example, the Watch List, Locals, Breakpoints and Call Stack panels are used for test debugging. The To Do
panel manages a list of tasks to be done and the Code Explorer panel provides a convenient way to explore
script contents and navigate through script units.
The Object Browser panel holds one major TestComplete function that does not belong to a specific project: it
shows the list of all processes and windows that exist on the machine. It also lists the processes of mobile
applications, if the mobile device is connected and the application is prepared in a special way. For each
process and window it shows methods and properties accessible externally through TestComplete facilities.
In other words, the Object Browser tells you which objects, methods and properties are available for testing,
and how to get to them. See Exploring Application Properties in TestComplete Help.
To learn about a panel, click within this panel and then press F1. This will open the panels description.
You use menus and toolbars to command TestComplete to perform certain actions. Its menu subsystem is
similar to the menus and toolbars of Microsoft Visual Studio and other popular Windows applications. You can
change the toolbars location, move items from one menu or toolbar to another, hide items, add hidden items
back and perform other tasks. For more information, see Working With TestComplete Toolbars and Menus in
TestComplete Help.

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Introducing Automated Testing and TestComplete

TestComplete Test Object Model

The object structure is shown in the Object Browser panel:

Note: The images in this topic demonstrate the object model of desktop applications. The object model
of web and mobile applications is similar.
TestComplete uses a tree-like model for test objects. The root node of the tree is Sys, while for mobile
applications, the root node is Mobile.
Process objects correspond to applications running in the operating system. We use the term process rather
than application because it corresponds to the concept of processes in Windows documentation.

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A process objects name includes the name of the process executable and its index (the index is used only if
several application instances are running):

The processes have child objects windows that correspond to top-level windows. These objects in their turn
have other child window objects that correspond to controls. The window and control names depend on
whether or not the test engine has access to internal methods and properties of the application under test.
TestComplete works with applications of both types, but names their windows and controls in different ways.

Black-box applications
Applications that do not provide access to their internal methods and properties are called black-box
applications. The name of each window of such applications includes the windows class name, the
windows text or title (caption) and its index. Controls are named in the same manner as windows,
because in terms of the operating system, a control is just another type of a window:

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White-Box Applications
Applications that expose their internal objects, methods and properties to TestComplete are called
icon in the Object
white-box applications or Open Applications. They are marked with the
Browser (see the image below).
To address windows and controls of Open Applications, TestComplete uses the names that reflect the
window or control type and the name defined in the applications sources. For instance, if you have a
form named MainForm in a C# application created with the Microsoft WinForms library, then
TestComplete will address this form as WinFormsObject("MainForm"):

For detailed information on naming processes, windows and controls, see Naming Objects in TestComplete
Help.
Note: It is recommended that, whenever possible, your tests work with Open Applications rather than
black-box applications. This enables the test engine to access the applications internal methods and
properties, allowing you to create more powerful and flexible tests.
Some applications like .NET, WPF, Visual Basic, Java or Web are always open to TestComplete.
Others may need to be compiled in a special way. For more information on this, see Open
Applications in TestComplete Help.

Checkpoints and Stores

A typical test performs many comparisons. For instance, if a test simulates user actions for exporting an
applications data to a file, you will need to check whether the file contains valid data. To perform this check,
you will compare the resulting file with a baseline copy. This is only one example of a comparison that you
may need to perform. Real-life tests include hundreds if not thousands of comparisons. Every form of testing
(regression, unit, functional and so on) needs a validated reference during automation.
With TestComplete you can easily add comparison commands (or checkpoints) to your tests. You can create
checkpoints both during test recording and at design time. TestComplete offers checkpoints for comparing
different types of data: images, files, object text and properties, XML documents, database tables, etc.
TestComplete includes the Stores project item that is used to store baseline data for these checkpoints. This
project item is a container for images, files and other elements that are stored along with the project for
comparison purposes. The only exception is checkpoints that verify object properties: the baseline data for
them is specified in tests.
For more information on creating checkpoints and verification code, see About Checkpoints in TestComplete
Help.
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Testing Desktop Applications

This tutorial explains the basics of testing desktop applications (that is, applications that run on desktop
computers). The sections of this tutorial contain a description of how to create a test project in TestComplete,
record and play back a simple test, and analyze the results. The test emulates user actions over the tested
application and verifies some data. The verification commands are created during test recording.

About Tested Application

In our explanations we will use the Orders application that is shipped along with TestComplete. The
application displays a list of orders and contains special functions for adding, deleting, modifying and
exporting orders.

The application is located in the following folder:

On Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 or later operating systems:

C:\Users\Public\Public Documents\TestComplete 10 Samples\Open Applications

On Windows XP or Windows Server 2003:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Shared Documents\TestComplete 10 Samples\Open
Applications

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Note: Some file managers can display the Shared Documents and Public Documents folders as
the Documents folder.
The folder stores several Orders projects created with different compilers: C#, Visual C++, Visual Basic,
Delphi, C++Builder, Swing and so on. We will use the Orders application created with Visual C#.

1. Creating a Test Project

Lets create a new test project:
1. If you have a project or project suite opened in TestComplete, close it. To do this, choose File |
Close from TestCompletes main menu.
2. Select File | New | New Project from TestCompletes main menu. This will call up the Create
New Project wizard:

3. On the first page of the wizard, you can specify the project name and location. Enter Orders to the
Project name edit box. TestComplete will automatically generate the project path and display it in
the Location field. The project folder is used to store all information generated for or by the

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project: keyword tests, scripts, test logs, stores, and so on. You can change the projects folder in
the Location box. In our example we will keep the folder name unchanged.
You can also specify the project suite name and its actual location by clicking the More button and
filling in the corresponding edit fields. In our example, we will keep the project suite name and
location unchanged.
4. After you specify the project name and location, click Next to continue.
We will continue working with the wizard and use its pages to add tested applications to the project and specify
some other project settings.

2. Defining Applications to Test

Each TestComplete project may have a list of tested applications. This is a way for you to keep track of which
applications the project deals with and how they are configured for testing. It also allows TestComplete to
launch all applications specified in the list or only those applications that are enabled to be launched manually
via the context menu, or from a test. Of course, since projects are independent from each other, any application
may be in the list of more than one project.
There are several ways to add applications to the list of tested applications:

You can do this with the Create New Project wizard during project creation.

You can do this at any time later by using the context menu of the Project Explorer panel.

TestComplete can also add an application to a project automatically during test recording. The
recorder is smart enough to detect the start of an application through the command line, Windows
Explorer or any other way. After the recording is over, TestComplete will add the tested application to
the list and insert the Run Tested Application command into the recorded test.

In this tutorial, we will add the tested application to the project by using the Create New Project wizard.

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1. After you specify the project name and location on the first page of the wizard, the wizard shows
the second page where you can choose the type of your tested application:

This will help TestComplete choose the appropriate run mode for your application.
As you may remember, we are going to test the Orders application written in C# and shipped with
TestComplete. This is an ordinary .NET application that runs as a stand-alone executable. In the
wizard, it falls under the Generic Windows Application category. So, click Generic Windows
Application and, if you use Windows XP, click Next to continue. On Windows Vista and later
versions of the operating system, the wizard will switch to the next page automatically after you
click the category name.

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2. On the next page of the wizard, you can add the tested application to your test project:

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To do this:

Click Add. This will invoke the Parameters dialog in which you specify the launch
parameters of the application under test:

In the Application text box of the dialog, click the

for opening files

In this dialog, locate Orders.exe and then click Open.

button to invoke the standard dialog

The path to the C# version of the Orders.exe file looks like this:
o

If you are working under Windows Vista, Windows 7 or later operating systems:
C:\Users\Public\Public
Documents\TestComplete
Desktop\Orders\C#\bin\Release\Orders.exe

10

Samples\

If you are working under Windows XP or Windows Server 2003:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Shared Documents\TestComplete 10
Samples\Desktop\Orders\C#\bin\Release\Orders.exe

Note: Some file managers can display the Shared Documents and Public Documents folders
as the Documents folder.

After you choose Orders.exe, the Parameters dialog will display the full path to the
application. In the dialog, click OK.

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The wizard will display the Orders applications name and path in the list of tested applications.
3. Make sure that the Autorun check box in the list is selected. If it is selected, TestComplete will
automatically launch the Orders tested application when you start recording tests. If the check box
is clear, then to record user actions over your application you will have to launch the application
manually.

4. After you add the application to the list and verify that the Autorun check box is selected, click
Next to continue.
In the next section, we will go through the rest pages of the wizard and complete the project creation.

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3. Completing the Project Creation

On the previous step, we added our sample application, Orders, to the projects list of tested applications. Lets
quickly go through the rest pages of the wizard and complete the project creation:
1. After you added tested applications to your project in the Create New Project wizard, the wizard
displays the page where you can enable or disable TestCompletes Test Visualizer functionality:

Test Visualizer captures information for test actions during test recording and playback.
Depending on the selected options, Test Visualizer frames can contain screenshots only or
screenshots along with information about the objects they contain.
The Visualizer frames that were captured during recording help you better understand what the
recorded test commands do, what is important when you have just started learning the product.
The Visualizer frames captured during test execution let you easily determine what happens to the
tested application or system at that time. This information is helpful when you are debugging
errors.
However, the images and test object data occupy hard disk space and in large projects they may be
the reason of significant increase of the size of test result files. So, you can limit the amount of

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collected data by capturing images only, or, if Visualizer is not needed, you may disable it and
enable it at any time later using your projects settings.
In our tutorial, we select Capture images only both for test recording and playback. Then, click
Next to continue.
2. On the next page of the wizard, you can choose the scripting language to be used in your project.

Every TestComplete project uses one of the supported scripting languages: VBScript, JScript,
DelphiScript, C++Script or C#Script. The scripting language is important even if you are not
going to use script units in your project. Even if you are going to use only keyword tests, you may
need to call code snippets or use script statements to specify operation parameters.
The scripting language is also important because it defines the format of object names with which
your tests will work, regardless of whether you are using scripts or keyword tests. The name
format depends on the language syntax. For instance, in VBScript and JScript the name of the
Notepad process looks like Process("Notepad"). In DelphiScript you should replace double
quotes with single quotes, that is, Process('Notepad'); and in C++Script and C#Script, the
word Process should be enclosed in brackets: ["Process"]("Notepad").

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For more information on choosing the scripting language, see Selecting the Scripting Language
topic in TestComplete Help.
In this tutorial, we will use VBScript. So, select VBScript on the page. On Windows Vista and
later versions of the operating system, this will close the wizard. If you are using Windows XP,
click Finish.
TestComplete will create a new project, Orders.mds, and a project suite for it. It will then display the project
suites and the projects contents in the Project Explorer panel.
Now we can create tests.

4. Creating a Test
Planning a Test for the Orders Application
The sample Orders application maintains a list of orders. Suppose we need to test whether the applications
Edit Order form functions correctly and modifies data in the order list. In this case

Test purpose: The test should check whether the Edit Order form saves the modified data and the
changes are visible in the order list.

Testing steps: Our test should simulate modifying the orders details and then verify the data in the
order list. We will record a test simulating user actions over the application. For simplicity, our test
will change only one property of one order.

Checking and logging the test result: If the change made to the order has been saved correctly, it
should be visible in the order list. To check this, our test will compare the data in the list with an
expected value. We will add a special comparison command to the test for this. This command will
post the comparison results to the test log, so we will see whether the verification failed or passed
successfully.

For more information on planning tests with TestComplete, see Planning Tests in TestComplete Help.

Creating Tests in TestComplete

TestComplete allows you to create tests in two ways. You can:

Create tests manually

Record tests

When you create a test manually, you enter all the needed commands and actions that your test must perform
via appropriate script objects or keyword test commands. This approach is very helpful when you need to
create very powerful and flexible tests or if you have good experience in creating tests.
However, creating tests manually requires a lot of time and does not prevent you from different problems. For
example, while creating a test manually you must know the classes and names of your application's objects you
want to work with. To solve such problems, TestComplete includes a special feature that lets you easily create
tests. You can perform some actions against the tested application once and TestComplete will automatically
recognize these actions and then convert them to script lines or keyword test operations. We call this feature

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recording a test, because you create a test visually and in one sense you record the performed actions to a
script or keyword test. It is a very useful approach and it does not require much experience in creating tests. So,
in this tutorial we will demonstrate how to record tests with TestComplete. For more information, see the
section below.

Recording Tests in TestComplete

The recording includes three steps:
1. You start recording by selecting Test | Record | Record Keyword Test or Test | Record |
Record Script from TestCompletes main menu or from the Test Engine toolbar. You can also
start recording by clicking Record a New Test on the Start Page.
With TestComplete you can record tests of various kinds: keyword tests, scripts, low-level
procedures and HTTP load testing tasks. The menu item that you use to start the recording defines
the main recorded test: keyword test or script code. Other tests will be recorded after the recording
is started. The main recorded test will contain special commands that will run these tests.
After you command TestComplete to start the recording, it will switch to the recording mode and
display the Recording toolbar on screen:

The toolbar contains items that let you perform additional actions during the recording, pause or
stop recording and change the type of the recorded test (keyword test, script code or low-level
procedure).
2. After starting the recording, perform the desired test actions: launch the tested application (if
needed), work with it by clicking command buttons, selecting menu items, typing text and so on.
3. After all the test actions are over, stop the recording by selecting
toolbar.

Stop from the Recording

For complete information on test recording, see the Recording in TestComplete section in TestComplete Help.

Recording Test for the Orders Application

Lets now record a keyword test for the sample Orders application. The test will launch the application, load
data in it, simulate clicks and keystrokes within the applications window and verify the applications data.

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Note: Do not switch to the TestComplete help during the recording. The recording engine traces
and records all user actions, so the recorded test will contain commands that simulate
switching.
To see the instructions, you can print them before starting the record. Or, if you have two
monitors, you can move the TestComplete help system window to the other monitor.
We would like to mention that after you start the recording, TestComplete's main window is
automatically minimized, and it cannot be activated until you stop the recording. If you try to
switch to the TestComplete window when the recording is in process, TestComplete
displays a TestComplete is in recording mode and cannot be activated. message. To
continue creating a test, click Continue in this message, and TestComplete will resume the
recording. Note that when the message is shown, TestComplete automatically pauses the
recording, and all your actions against the tested application are not recorded.
Lets start recording:
1. When creating a new project, TestComplete automatically creates an empty keyword test in this
project. Lets record test commands into this test. To start recording, select the
Append to
Test item on the test editors toolbar:

TestComplete will display the Recording toolbar on screen. If the Interactive Help panel is visible,
TestComplete will also show information about the recording in it.
By default, the Recording toolbar is collapsed:

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Click the

arrow button to expand the Recording toolbar and view all its buttons:

2. After you start the recording, TestComplete automatically launches the Orders tested application that
we added to the projects list of tested applications. This happens, because we enabled the
applications Autorun setting when we were adding the application to the project (see Defining
Applications to Test in TestComplete Help).
If we had disabled this property, we would have had to launch the application manually. You can do
this by selecting the Run command from the Recording toolbar:

You can also launch the application from Windows Explorer or any other file manager. If the
application is not on the list of tested applications, TestComplete will add it there.
TestComplete records the application start using a special application launch test command. You will
see this command later, when we will analyze the recorded test.

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3. Wait until the application starts and the applications main window is shown:

If the Interactive Help panel is visible, resize or move it so that it does not overlap the applications
window. Your actions on this panel are not recorded.
4. Switch to the Orders application and select File | Open from its main menu. This will bring up the
standard Open File dialog.
5. In the dialog, open the MyTable.tbl file. The location of this file depends on the operating system you
use.
On Windows Vista, Windows 7 and later operating systems it resides in the
C:\Users\Public\Public Documents\TestComplete 10 Samples\Open Applications folder. On other
operating systems, the file is located in the C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Shared
Documents\TestComplete 10 Samples\Open Applications folder.
Note: Some file managers can display the Shared Documents and Public Documents
folders as the Documents folder.
It is recommended to type the fully-qualified file name into the File name box of the
Open File dialog. Typing instead of using the mouse will help you avoid problems if
the test is played back on a different operating system or if the Open File dialog
displays a different initial folder when the test is played back later.

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6. After specifying the file in the File name box, press Open. The Orders application will load data from
the file and display this data in the applications main window.

7. Click the Samuel Clemens row in the list of orders.

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8. Move the mouse cursor to the Orders toolbar and press

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Edit order. This will call the Order dialog:

9. In the dialog, click within the Customer Name text box to move the insertion point there. Right-click
within the Customer Name box and choose Select All from the context menu and then enter Mark
Twain as the customer name.
10. Click OK to close the dialog. TestComplete will update the customer list in the applications main
window.
11. Now lets insert a comparison command into our test. It will verify that the applications customer list
displays the modified name - Mark Twain.
We call the comparison commands checkpoints. TestComplete offers various types of checkpoints
that are suitable for verifying different types of data (see Checkpoints section in TestComplete Help).
One of the most frequently used checkpoints is a Property checkpoint. It is used to check data of
applications controls. We will use this checkpoint in our tutorial.

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Select
Create Property Checkpoint from the Checkpoint drop-down list of the
Recording toolbar:

This will invoke the Property Checkpoint wizard. It will guide you through the process of
checkpoint creation:

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On the first page of the wizard, click the target glyph (

keep the button depressed.

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) with the left mouse button and

Wait until the wizard minimizes and then drag the icon to the customer list of the Orders
application. While you are dragging, TestComplete will highlight the controls and windows
under the mouse cursor with the red frame.
Release the mouse button when the target glyph is over the customer list and it is highlighted
with the red frame:

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After you release the mouse button, TestComplete will restore the wizard and display the
name of the selected object in the Object box and the image of the object below it:

Click Next to continue.

The next page of the wizard displays a list of the selected objects properties. This list includes
properties provided by TestComplete as well as properties defined by the tested application.
For instance, our tested application was created in C#, so the list includes properties of the
appropriate .NET class. You can see them under the .NET node. In our example the list
contains only a basic set of properties. To view all available properties, click the View more
members (Advanced view) link.
TestComplete appends two groups of properties to the selected object: one group includes
properties common for all tested windows and controls. You can see them under the
Standard node. Another group includes properties that are specific to list-view controls (since
the object we selected is a tree view control). The names of these properties start with the letter
w. You can see them under the Extended node. To verify the data, we will use the
wItem property. It provides access to individual items of tree view controls.

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Find the wItem property in the list (it is under the node Extended). Click its Params button. The
following window will pop up:

In this window, specify the cell holding the Mark Twain string:

Select Integer in the Type section

Enter 5 into the Item box (5 is the index of the Mark Twain item in the tree view. Indexes
are zero-based).

Click OK.

The test engine will retrieve the items data and display it in the property list:

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Click Next to continue.

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On the next page of the wizard you can see the name of the property, whose value will be
verified, the comparison condition and baseline data in the Value box:

Click Finish to complete the checkpoint creation. TestComplete will append the checkpoint command
to the recorded test.
12. Close the Orders window by clicking the X button on the windows caption bar. This will display the
dialog asking if you want to save changes. Press No. Orders will close.
13. Press
Stop on the Recording toolbar to stop the recording. TestComplete will process the
recorded test commands and save them to a test.

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5. Analyzing the Recorded Test

After you have finished recording, TestComplete opens the recorded keyword test for editing and displays the
tests contents in the Keyword Test editor:

The recorded test is similar to the test shown in the image above. Your actual test may differ from this one. For
example, it may have other object names or window indexes if you have recorded the test on a Visual C++ or
Delphi application.
The test contains the commands that correspond to the actions you performed on the Orders application during
the recording. We call the test commands operations.

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Below the commands there is the Test Visualizer panel that displays images which TestComplete captured for
operations during test recording:

These images illustrate the recoded operations and help you better understand which action the operation
performs. TestComplete captures images only for those operations that correspond to user actions (mouse
clicks, typing text and so on).
When you choose an operation in the editor, Test Visualizer automatically selects the appropriate image so you
can easily explore the application state before the operation is executed. For more information on working with
images, see the topics in the Test Visualizer section in TestComplete Help.

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To view the needed image closely, double-click it in the Test Visualizer panel. The Visualizer Frame window
will appear. This window lets you perform additional actions against the captured images. For example, you
can zoom them in and out, save them to a file, navigate through the images, and so on. For more information,
see the window description in TestComplete Help.

The first operation in the test is Run TestedApp. It is used to launch the tested application (in our case, it is the
Orders application) from a keyword test. TestComplete automatically records this operation when it launches
the application automatically or detects an application launch from the Recording toolbar or somewhere from
the operating systems UI.

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The next operation corresponds to the selection of the File | Open menu item.

The next operation simulates opening the file via the Open File dialog:

If your computer is running Windows Vista, Windows 7 or later operating system, TestComplete records a
sequence of operations that simulate actions you perform when working with the Open File dialogs controls.
Note: It is recommended to type the full name of the file you want to open in the File name box of the Open
file dialog instead of navigating to the file using the dialogs controls. This approach lets you record a
test that will be executed successfully regardless of the operating system, navigation bars and panels
available in the dialog and of the path displayed in the dialog.
If your test contains a sequence of operations simulating actions over the Open File dialog, you can
modify the test and manually replace those operations with the OpenFile method call.
After that, there follow operations that simulate your actions with the applications main window and the Order
form:

For more information on simulating mouse events, keyboard input and other actions from your scripts, see
Simulating User Actions in TestComplete Help.

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Then there is the comparison operation that we added during test recording:

Finally, there is the operation that closes the Orders application and the operation that simulates the No
button press in the message box.

As you can see, TestComplete automatically organizes the operations into groups that correspond to the
processes and windows that you worked with. Grouping makes the test structure easier to understand and also
provides some information on the object hierarchy that exists in the application under test.
We recorded user actions on one process (Orders). So, we have only one process group node. It contains all
of the actions that you simulated on the process windows and controls. The actions that we performed on
windows and controls of the Orders process are organized into a number of window grouping nodes:

You may notice that the names of the tested process and its windows and controls differ from the names that we
saw in the Object Browser panel in one of the previous steps. For instance, in the Object Browser the tested
process was named Process("Orders") while in the test it is called Orders; the main window was called
WinFormsObject("MainForm") while in the test it is called MainForm, and so on.
There is a logical reason for this: By default TestComplete automatically generates and uses custom names for
the objects that you worked with during test recording. Generating and assigning custom names is called name
mapping. TestComplete maps the names because the default names may be difficult to understand. It may be
hard to determine which window or control corresponds to a name. Using mapped names makes the test
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easier-to-understand and more stable. For more information on mapping names, see Name Mapping in
TestComplete Help.

6. Running the Recorded Test

Now we can run our simple test to see how TestComplete simulates user actions.
Before running a recorded test, make sure it starts with the same initial conditions as the recording did.
For instance, the test almost always requires the tested application to be running. So, before simulating the user
actions, you should launch the application. In our case, to launch our tested application, we use the
Run TestedApp operation at the beginning of the test, so the test will launch it for us. Alternatively, you can run
the tested application manually from TestCompletes IDE.
To run the recorded test, simply click

Run Test on the test editors toolbar:

The test engine will minimize TestCompletes window and start executing the tests commands. In our case,
the test will simply repeat your recorded actions.
Note: Dont move the mouse or press keys during the test execution. Your actions may interfere
with actions simulated by TestComplete and the test execution may go wrong.
After the test execution is over, TestComplete will restore its window and display the test results. In the next
step we will analyze them.
Some notes about the test run:

The created tests are not compiled into an executable for test runs. You run the tests directly from
TestComplete. To run tests on computers that do not have TestComplete installed, you can use a
resource-friendly utility called TestExecute. You can also export script code (if you use it) to an
external application and run it there. For more information on this, see Connected and Self-Testing
Applications in TestComplete Help.

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During test execution, TestComplete displays an indicator in the top right corner of the screen:

The indicator displays messages informing you about the simulated test actions.

TestComplete executes the test commands until the test ends. You can stop the execution at any time
by pressing
menu.

Stop on the Test Engine toolbar or select Test | Stop from TestCompletes main

Pause. During the pause, you can perform any

You can pause the test execution by clicking
actions needed. For instance, you can explore the test log or check the tests variables and objects using
TestCompletes Watch List or Locals panel or the Evaluate dialog (see Debugging Tests in
TestComplete Help).

To launch the test we used the Run Test button on the test editors toolbar. This is only one of several
possible ways to run the test. You can also run tests from the Project Explorer, or from another test.
You can also use the Test Items page of the project editor to create a batch run.

For complete information on running tests in TestComplete, on project settings that affect the runs and on the
test execution, see Running Tests in TestComplete Help.

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7. Analyzing Test Results

TestComplete keeps a complete log of all operations performed during testing. The links to test results are
shown in the Project Explorer panel under the Project Suite Logs | Orders Log node. This is the primary
workspace for looking up the test history of the project and project suite. Each node corresponds to a test run.
An image to the left of the node specifies whether the corresponding test run passed successfully:

Note that TestComplete automatically adds nodes for the last results after the test execution is over. That is, the
results are not displayed when the test is running (you can view intermediate results if you pause the test
execution).
Since we have run only one test so far, we have only one log node in the Project Explorer. By default,
TestComplete automatically opens the contents of this node in the Workspace panel. You can also view the
log at any time. To do this, right-click the desired result in the Project Explorer panel and choose Open from
the context menu.

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In our example, the log is as follows

The log window shows the results of one test run at a time. On the left side of the window, there is a tree-like
structure of the tests that were executed during the run; the node of each of these tests can be selected to view
their results. For our example, we have run only one test, so in our case this tree only contains one node. The
nodes icon indicates whether the test passed successfully or failed.
The test log contains error, warning, informative and other types of messages. The icon on the left indicates the
message type. Using the check boxes at the top of the message list you can hide or view messages by type.
For each message, the log also shows the time that each action was performed. You can see it in the Time
column.
TestComplete may post additional text and images along with the message. To view them, simply select the
desired message in the log and look in the Additional Information and Picture panes that are below the
message list. For instance, on the image above the Picture pane displays the screenshots associated with The
menu item 'Orders|Edit order...' was clicked message.
The Picture panel displays the images that show the expected and actual application state before executing the
selected test command (Expected is the image that was captured for the command during test recording,
actual means the image that was captured during test run.) The test log includes a special button that lets you
compare the images and easily see the difference. This simplifies the search for errors that may occur in your
test. For more information, see topics of the Test Visualizer section in TestComplete Help.
The logs Call Stack pane displays the hierarchy of test calls that led to posting the selected message to the log.

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The logs Performance Counters pane displays values of the performance counters monitored during the test
run. The values are shown in the form of graphs.
To view a test operation that posted a message to the log, double-click the desired message in the log.
TestComplete will open the keyword test in the editor and highlight the appropriate operation. For instance, if
you double-click the The menu item Orders|Edit order was clicked message in the log, TestComplete
will highlight the keyword test operation that performed this action:

For detailed information on the test log panels, on posting messages to the log and on working with the results,
see Test Results section in TestComplete Help.
Note: The log that we described is typical for TestComplete keyword tests and scripts. Tests of other types
may form a log of a different structure. For detailed information about these logs, see the
description of the appropriate project item, or simply click within the log page and press F1.

Resolving Errors
Your test may fail. There can be several possible reasons for this. For instance, developers could change the
applications behavior, the recognition attributes of windows and control change and make the test engine fail
to find the needed objects, a third-party application may overlap windows of your application and make the test
engine fail to simulate actions on them, and so on.
One of the most typical reasons which novice users face is the difference in the applications state during the
test creation and playback. To avoid this problem, make sure that the initial conditions of the test run
correspond to those you had when creating the test. For instance, if the tested application had been running
before you recorded the test, it also must be running before you run the test; if the tested web page was opened
on the second tab of your web browser when you recorded your test, it should also be opened on the second tab
when you run the test, and so on.
For information on searching for the cause of errors and resolving typical problems, see Handling Playback
Errors in TestComplete Help.
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Testing Web Applications

This section provides a step-by-step tutorial that describes how to create a test project in TestComplete, record
and play back a simple web test, and analyze the results. The test will emulate user actions over a web page and
verify some data. Verification commands will be created during test recording.

About the Tested Web Page

In our explanations we will use the sample Web Orders application that can be found on our web site:
http://support.smartbear.com/samples/testcomplete10/weborders/. This application displays a list of orders
and contains special functions for adding, deleting, modifying and exporting orders.

1. Creating a Test Project

Lets create a new test project:
1. If you have a project or project suite opened in TestComplete, close it. To do this, choose File | Close
from TestCompletes main menu.

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2. Select File | New | New Project from TestCompletes main menu. This will call up the Create New
Project wizard:

3. On the first page of the wizard, you can specify the project name and location. Enter WebOrders into
the Project name edit box. TestComplete will automatically generate the project path and display it in
the Location field. The project folder is used to store all information generated for or by the project:
keyword tests, scripts, test logs, stores, and so on. You can change the projects folder in the Location
box. In our example we will keep the folder name unchanged.
You can also specify the project suite name and its actual location by clicking the More button and
filling in the corresponding edit fields. In our example, we will keep the project suite name and
location unchanged.
4. After you specify the project name and location, click Next to continue.
We will continue working with the wizard and use its pages to select the needed project type and specify some
project settings.

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2. Selecting a Test Type

Each TestComplete project may have different sets of project items added to it. However, creating a certain
type of a test (a web test, a test for Adobe AIR applications and so on) requires a certain number of added items.
There are several ways to add all required project items to the project:

You can do that with the Create New Project wizard while creating the project. In this case,
TestComplete will generate the project structure that corresponds to the selected test type right after
you finish creating the project.

You can do that at any time later manually by adding needed items via the context menu of the Project
Explorer panel.

In this tutorial, we will generate the required project structure by using the Create New Project wizard.
1. After you specify the project name and location on the first page of the wizard, the wizard shows the
second page where you can choose the type of your tested application:

As you may remember, we are going to test the Web Orders application that is located on the web
page. In the wizard, it falls under the Web category. So, click Functional testing of web pages and, if
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you use Windows XP, click Next to continue. On Windows Vista and later versions of the operating
system, the wizard will switch to the next page automatically after you click the category name.
In the next topic, we will go through the rest pages of the wizard and complete the project creation.

3. Completing the Project Creation

In the previous step, we decided on the needed test type. Now, lets quickly go through the rest of the wizards
pages and complete the project creation:
1. After you have specified the type of your tested application, the wizard displays the page where you
can enable or disable TestCompletes Test Visualizer functionality:

Test Visualizer captures information for test actions during test recording and playback. Depending on
the selected options, Test Visualizer frames can contain screenshots only or screenshots along with
information on the objects they contain.
The Visualizer frames that were captured during recording help you better understand what the
recorded test commands do, what is important when you have just started learning the product.

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The Visualizer frames captured during test execution let you easily determine what happens to the
tested application or system at that time. This information is helpful when you are debugging errors.
However, the images and object data occupy hard disk space and in large projects they may be the
reason of significant increase of the size of test result files. So, you can limit the amount of collected
data by capturing images only, or, if Visualizer is not needed, you may disable it and enable it at any
time later using your projects settings.
In our tutorial, we select Capture images only both for test recording and for playback. Then, click
Next to continue.
2. On the next page of the wizard, you can choose the scripting language to be used in your project.

Every TestComplete project uses one of the supported scripting languages: VBScript, JScript,
DelphiScript, C++Script or C#Script. The scripting language is important even if you are not going to
use script units in your project. Even if you are going to use only keyword tests, you may need to call
code snippets or use script statements to specify operation parameters.
The scripting language is also important because it defines the format of object names with which your
tests will work, regardless of whether you are using scripts or keyword tests. The name format depends
on the language syntax. For instance, in VBScript and JScript the name of the Internet Explorer
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process looks like Browser("iexplore"). In DelphiScript you should replace double quotes
with single quotes, that is, Browser('iexplore'); and in C++Script and C#Script, the word
Process should be enclosed in brackets: ["Browser "]("iexplore").
For more information on choosing the scripting language, see Selecting the Scripting Language in
TestComplete Help.
In this tutorial, we will use VBScript. So, select VBScript on the page. On Windows Vista and later
versions of the operating system, this will close the wizard. If you are using Windows XP, click
Finish.
TestComplete will create a new project, WebOrders.mds, and a project suite for it. It will then display the
project suites and the projects contents in the Project Explorer panel.
Now, we need to prepare the web browser for further test steps.

4. Preparing Web Browser

Creating web tests with TestComplete requires that the web browser used for recording and playing back the
test be configured in a special way. Also, it is recommended that you eliminate browser-specific behavior to
make the cross-browser testing easier. For more information on configuring your browser, refer to the
Preparing Web Browsers section in TestComplete Help.
After you have configured the browser settings as it is described in the section, you can create tests.

5. Creating a Test
Planning a Test for the Web Orders Application
The sample Web Orders application works with a list of orders. Suppose you need to test whether the
applications Edit Order page functions properly and modifies data in the order list. In this case

Test purpose: The test should check whether the Edit Order page saves the modified data and the
changes are visible in the order list.

Testing steps: Our test should simulate modifying the orders details and then verify the data in the
order list. We will record a test simulating user actions over the application. For simplicity, our test
will change only one property of one order.

Checking and logging the test result: If the change made to the order has been saved correctly, it
should be visible in the order list. To check this, our test will compare the data in the list with an
expected value. We will add a special comparison command to the test for this. This command will
post the comparison results to the test log, so we will see whether the verification failed or passed
successfully.

For more information on planning tests with TestComplete, see Planning Tests in TestComplete Help.

Creating Tests in TestComplete

TestComplete provides two approaches to creating tests. You can:
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Create tests manually

Record tests

When you are creating a test manually, you enter all the needed commands and actions that your test must
perform via appropriate script objects or keyword test commands. This approach is very helpful when you need
to create very powerful and flexible tests or if you are experienced in creating tests.
However, creating tests manually requires much time and does not prevent you from different kinds of
problems. For example, when creating tests manually, you must know the classes and names of your
application's objects you want to work with. To solve such problems, TestComplete includes a special feature
that lets you create tests easily: you just perform some actions against the tested application, TestComplete
recognizes these actions and then converts them to appropriate script lines or keyword test operations. We call
this feature "recording a test", because you create a test visually and in one sense you record your actions as
script or a keyword test. It is a very useful approach and it does not require much experience in creating tests.
So, in this tutorial, we demonstrate how to record tests with TestComplete. For more information on recording
tests, see the section below.

Recording Tests in TestComplete

The recording includes three steps:
1. You start recording by selecting Test | Record | Record Keyword Test or Test | Record | Record
Script from TestCompletes main menu or from the Test Engine toolbar. You can also start recording
by clicking Record a New Test on the Start Page.
With TestComplete you can record tests of various kinds: keyword tests, scripts and low-level
procedures. The menu item that you use to start the recording defines the main recorded test: keyword
test or script code. Other tests will be recorded after the recording is started. The main recorded test
will contain special commands that will run these tests.
After you command TestComplete to start the recording, it will switch to the recording mode and
display the Recording toolbar on screen:

The toolbar contains items that let you perform additional actions during the recording, pause or stop
recording and change the type of the recorded test (from the keyword test to script code, or vice versa).
2. After you start recording, perform the desired test actions: launch the desired browser and load a page
to it (if needed), then click some command buttons on the page, select menu items, type some text and
so on.
3. After all the test actions are over, stop the recording by selecting
toolbar.

Stop from the Recording

For complete information on test recording, see Recording in TestComplete in the Help.

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Recording a Test for the Web Orders Application

Now lets record a keyword test for the sample Web Orders application. The test will launch the browser, load
the specified page to it, simulate clicks and keystrokes within the applications window and verify the
applications data.
Note: Do not switch to the TestComplete help during the recording. The recording engine traces and
records all user actions, so the recorded test will contain commands that simulate switching.
To see the instructions, you can print them before starting the record. Or, if you have two
monitors, you can move the TestComplete help system window to the other monitor.
Lets start recording:
1. When creating a new project, TestComplete automatically creates an empty keyword test in this
Append to Test
project. Lets record test commands into this test. To start recording, select the
item on the test editors toolbar:

TestComplete will display the Recording toolbar on screen. If the Interactive Help panel is visible,
TestComplete will also show information about the recording in it.
By default, the Recording toolbar is collapsed:

Click the

arrow button to expand the Recording toolbar and view all its buttons:

2. Launch
the
desired
browser
and
navigate
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TestComplete records the browser launch by using a special test command. You will see the command
later when we analyze the recorded test.
3. Wait until the Internet browser starts and the applications login window is shown:

If the Interactive Help panel is visible, resize or move it so that it does not overlap the applications
window. Your actions on this panel are not recorded.
4. Log in to the application using the information shown at the bottom of the page:

Username: Tester

Password: test

Click Login to switch to the main page of the application.

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5. Now, the browser shows the default page of the application - the page that contains all the existing
orders. Now, let's modify one of the . For this purpose, click the
by Samuel Clemens. This will open the Edit Order page.

Edit icon next to the order made

6. In the window, click within the Customer name text box and enter Mark Twain as the customer name.
7. Click Update to close the editing page. The application will update the customer list shown in the
main window.
8. Now lets insert a comparison command into our test. It will verify that the applications customer list
displays the modified name - Mark Twain.
We call the comparison commands checkpoints. TestComplete offers various types of checkpoints
that are suitable for verifying different types of data (see Checkpoints). One of the most frequently
used checkpoints is a Property checkpoint. It is used to check data of applications controls. We will
use this checkpoint in our tutorial.

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Select
Create Property Checkpoint from the Checkpoint drop-down list of the
Recording toolbar:

This will invoke the Property Checkpoint wizard. It will guide you through the process of
checkpoint creation:

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On the first page of the wizard, click the target glyph (

keep the button pressed.

55
) with the left mouse button and

Wait until the wizard minimizes and then drag the icon to the cell that contains the Mark
Twain string. While you are dragging, TestComplete will highlight the controls and windows
under the mouse cursor with the red frame.
Release the mouse button when the target glyph is over the first cell of the Name column and
when it is highlighted with a red frame:

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After you release the mouse button, TestComplete will restore the wizard and display the
name of the selected object in the Object box and the image of the object below it:

Click Next to continue.

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The next page of the wizard displays a list of the selected objects properties. This list includes
properties provided by TestComplete as well as properties defined by the tested application.
To view all available properties, click the View more members (Advanced View) link.
TestComplete appends three groups of properties to the selected object: one group includes
properties common for all tested windows and controls. You can see them under the Standard
node. Another group includes properties that are specific to grid controls (since the object we
selected is a grid control). You can see these properties under the Extended node. The third
group includes the properties provided by the Internet browser. You can see these properties
under the node with the name of the used browser. To verify the data, we will use the
contentText browser-independent property. It provides access to the text shown in the
selected cell and helps you avoid problems with playing back the test in different browsers.

Find the contentText property in the list. Select this property and then click Next to
continue.

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On the next page of the wizard you can see the name of the property, whose value will be
verified, the comparison condition and baseline data in the Value box:

Click Finish to complete the checkpoint creation. TestComplete will append the checkpoint
command to the recorded test.
9. Click the Logout link in the upper-right corner of the page.
10. Close the Internet browser by clicking the X button on its caption bar.
11. Press
Stop on the Recording toolbar to stop the recording. TestComplete will process the
recorded test commands and save them to a test.

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6. Analyzing the Recorded Test

After you have finished recording, TestComplete opens the recorded keyword test for editing and displays the
tests contents in the Keyword Test editor:

The recorded test is similar to the test shown in the image above. Your actual test may differ from this one. For
example, it may contain some unnecessary clicks.
The test contains the commands that correspond to the actions you performed on the Web Orders application
during the recording. We call the test commands operations.

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Below the commands there is the Test Visualizer panel that displays images which TestComplete captured for
operations during test recording:

These images illustrate the recorded operations and help you better understand which action the operation
performs. TestComplete captures images only for those operations that correspond to user actions (mouse
clicks, typing text and so on).
When you choose an operation in the editor, Test Visualizer automatically selects the appropriate image so you
can easily explore the application state before the operation is executed. For more information on working with
images, see the topics in the Test Visualizer section.
The first operation in the test is Run Browser. It launches the Internet browser and navigates to the specified
page from a keyword test. TestComplete automatically records this operation when it detects a browser launch.

The second operation waits for the web page to load completely in the web browser. The highlighted operation
waits for the Login page of the Web Orders application. The other operations of this type wait for other web
pages.

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The following operations work with the Login window.

Then there are operations that simulate opening the Edit Order page and modifying the Customer Name field:

For more information on simulating mouse events, keyboard input and other actions from your scripts, see
Simulating User Actions in TestComplete Help.
Then there is the comparison operation that we added during test recording:

Finally, there are operations that log out from the Web Orders application and close the browser:

As you can see, TestComplete automatically organizes the operations into groups that correspond to the
processes and windows that you worked with. Grouping makes the test structure easier to understand and also
provides some information on the object hierarchy that exists in the application under test.

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We've recorded user actions for one browser. So, we have a single group node for the browser. It contains all
the actions that you simulated on the browser windows and controls. The actions that you performed on
different web pages are organized into a number of page group nodes:

You may notice that the name of the Internet browser and the names of its pages and page elements differ from
the names that you can see in the Object Browser panel. For instance, in the Object Browser, the name of the
Internet browser is Browser("iexplore"), Browser("firefox"), Browser("chrome") or Browser("opera")
(depending on which browser you use), while in the test, the Internet browser is simply called a browser.
Another
example
the
Login
page
in
the
Object
Browser
is
called
Page("http://support.smartbear.com/Samples/TestComplete10/WebOrders/Login.aspx"), while in the test, its
name is much shorter: pageWebOrdersLogin.
There is a logical reason for this: by default TestComplete automatically generates and uses custom names for
the objects that you worked with during test recording. Generating and assigning custom names is called name
mapping. TestComplete maps the names because the default names may be difficult to understand. It may be
hard to determine which window or control corresponds to a name. Using mapped names makes the test
easier-to-understand and more stable. For more information on mapping names, see Name Mapping in
TestComplete Help.

7. Running the Recorded Test

Now we can run our simple test to see how TestComplete simulates user actions.
Before running a recorded test, make sure the initial conditions are the same as those when you started
recording. For instance, a web test almost always requires that an Internet browser be running and the needed
page is open. In our case, to launch the browser and open the tested web page, we use the Run Browser
operation at the beginning of the test. Also do not forget to log out from the WebOrders application.

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To run the recorded test, simply click

63
Run Test on the test editors toolbar:

The test engine will minimize TestCompletes window and start executing the tests commands. In our case,
the test will simply repeat your recorded actions.
Note: Dont move the mouse or press keys during the test execution. Your actions may interfere with
actions simulated by TestComplete and the test execution may go wrong.
After the test execution is over, TestComplete will restore its window and display the test results. In the next
step we will analyze them.
Some notes about the test run:

The created tests are not compiled into an executable for test runs. You run the tests directly from
TestComplete. To run tests on computers that do not have TestComplete installed, you can use a
resource-friendly utility called TestExecute. You can also export script code (if you use it) to an
external application and run it there. For more information on this, see Connected and Self-Testing
Applications in TestComplete Help.

During test execution, TestComplete displays an indicator in the top right corner of the screen:

The indicator displays messages informing you about the simulated test actions.

TestComplete executes the test commands until the test ends. You can stop the execution at any time
by pressing
Stop on the Test Engine toolbar or in the indicator, or by selecting Test | Stop from
TestCompletes main menu.
Pause. During the pause, you can perform any
You can pause the test execution by clicking
actions needed. For instance, you can explore the test log or check the tests variables and objects using
TestCompletes Watch List or Locals panel or the Evaluate dialog (see Debugging Tests in
TestComplete Help).

For complete information on running tests in TestComplete, on project settings that affect the runs and on the
test execution, see Running Tests in TestComplete Help.

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8. Analyzing Test Results

TestComplete keeps a complete log of all operations performed during testing. The links to test results are
shown in the Project Explorer panel under the Project Suite Logs | WebOrders Log node. This is the primary
workspace for looking up the test history of the project and project suite. Each node corresponds to a test run.
An image to the left of the node specifies whether the corresponding test run passed successfully:

Note that TestComplete automatically adds nodes for the last results after the test execution is over. That is, the
results are not displayed when the test is running (you can view intermediate results if you pause the test
execution).
Since we have run only one test so far, we have only one log node in the Project Explorer. By default,
TestComplete automatically opens the contents of this node in the Workspace panel. You can also view the log
at any time. To do this, right-click the desired result in the Project Explorer panel and choose Open from the
context menu.

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In our example, the log is as follows

The log window shows the results of one test run at a time. On the left side of the window, there is a tree-like
structure of the tests that were executed during the run; the node of each of these tests can be selected to view
their results. For our example, we have run only one test, so in our case this tree only contains one node. The
nodes icon indicates whether the test passed successfully or failed.
The test log contains error, warning, informative and other types of messages. The icon on the left indicates the
message type. Using the check boxes at the top of the message list you can hide or view messages by type.
For each message, the log also shows the time that each action was performed. You can see it in the Time
column.
TestComplete may post additional text and images along with the message. To view them, simply select the
desired message in the log and look in the Additional Info and Picture panes that are below the message list.
The Picture panel displays the images that show the expected and actual application state before executing the
selected test command (Expected is the image that was captured for the command during test recording,
actual means the image that was captured during test run.) The test log includes a special button that lets you
compare the images and easily see the difference. This simplifies the search for errors that may occur in your
test. For more information, see topics of the Test Visualizer section in TestConlete Help.
The logs Call Stack pane displays the hierarchy of test calls that led to posting the selected message to the log.

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The logs Performance Counters pane displays values of the performance counters monitored during the test
run. The values are shown in the form of graphs.
To view a test operation that posted a message to the log, double-click the desired message in the log.
TestComplete will open the keyword test in the editor and highlight the appropriate operation. For instance, if
you double-click the The button was clicked with the left mouse button message in the log, TestComplete
will highlight the keyword test operation that performed this action:

For detailed information on the test log panels, on posting messages to the log and on working with the results,
see the About Test Log section in TestComplete Help.
Note: The log that we described is typical for TestComplete keyword tests and scripts. Tests of other
types may form a log of a different structure. For detailed information about these logs, see the
description of the appropriate project item, or simply click within the log page and press F1.

Resolving Errors
Your test may fail. There can be several possible reasons for this. For instance, developers could change the
applications behavior, the recognition attributes of windows and control change and make the test engine fail
to find the needed objects, a third-party application may overlap windows of your application and make the test
engine fail to simulate actions on them, and so on.
One of the most typical reasons which novice users face is the difference in the applications state during the
test creation and playback. To avoid this problem, make sure that the initial conditions of the test run
correspond to those you had when creating the test. For instance, if the tested application had been running
before you recorded the test, it also must be running before you run the test; if the tested web page was opened
on the second tab of your web browser when you recorded your test, it should also be opened on the second tab
when you run the test, and so on.
For information on searching for the cause of errors and resolving typical problems, see Handling Playback
Errors in TestComplete Help.

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9. Running the Test in Multiple Browsers

After you make sure that the test is executed successfully in the browser you used for recording, you can easily
modify the test so that it can be executed in different browsers (the so called cross-browser testing). This
helps you ensure that the web application works correctly in various browsers.
Now lets modify the test so that it runs in different browsers during the test run.

Open the test in the Keyword Test editor.

Right-click the Run Browser operation and select Make Browser Loop from the context menu.

In the ensuing operation parameters dialog, select Iterate Through All Browsers and press Finish.

This will convert the Run Browser operation into the Browser Loop operation.

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Select all the test operations that go after the Browser Loop operation and click
the loop. Now these operations will be executed on each loop iteration.

to move them inside

Here is how the resulting test should look like:

Save the test by selecting File | Save from TestCompletes main menu.

Prepare and configure another browser as described in the Preparing Web Browsers section in TestComplete
help.
Now run the resulting test.
TestComplete will repeat the test operations several times. Each time, the test actions will be performed in a
different browser.
The test log contains information about which browser was used and the results of the test operations
performed in each browser.

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For more information on cross-browser testing with TestComplete, see Cross-Browser Testing Overview in
TestComplete help.

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Testing Android Applications

This tutorial explains how to test Android applications with TestComplete. We are going to prepare the testing
environment for mobile testing, connect to a mobile device and deploy the tested application to it, create and
run a simple test and analyze the results. The test will emulate user actions over the mobile application and
verify some data.

About Tested Application

In our explanations we will use the Orders application that is shipped along with TestComplete. The
application displays a list of orders and contains special functions for adding, deleting, modifying and
exporting orders.

The application should be deployed to the mobile device as described in the further steps of the tutorial.

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1. Preliminary Steps
This section describes the preliminary actions you need to perform to prepare the environment for testing
Android applications with TestComplete.
Note: With TestComplete you can test mobile applications that are running on physical devices,
emulators and Android-x86 virtual machines. You cannot run tests on Android Wear devices.
In this section we will provide instructions on preparing for testing on a physical device.
Preparatory actions for Android emulators and Android-x86 virtual machines are somewhat
different (see Preparing Devices, Emulators and Virtual Machines section in TestComplete
Help). With this exception, the rest of the testing actions are performed in the same manner.

Installing Required Software

Installing JDK and Android SDK
To test Android applications, you need to download and install Java Development Kit or Java Runtime
Environment (JDK or JRE) and Android SDK on your test computer.
Note: If you already have the Android SDK and JDK (or JRE), go to step 5
1. Download the JDK from:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html
2. Run the downloaded installation and follow the instructions in the wizard.
3. Download the Android SDK from:
https://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
You do not need the entire ADT Bundle (the default download), you need the SDK only. To get the
SDK, expand the Download for Other Platforms section, go to the SDK Tools Only subsection and
download the file named installer_rXX.X.X-windows.exe.
4. Run the downloaded installation and follow the instructions in the wizard.
5. When Android SDK is installed, launch Android SDK Manager: Click the Start menu and select All
Programs | Android SDK Tools | SDK Manager.

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6. In the SDK Manager, select the following items:

Android SDK Platform-tools

Android SDK Build-tools

Google USB Driver

7. Click Install packages, accept the license agreements and proceed with the installation.
8. Close the SDK Manager.

Installing Device USB Drivers

As stated above, in this tutorial we will automate tests on the physical device. In order to interact with the
device, you need to install the device USB driver on the TestComplete computer. For instructions and driver
download links, see OEM USB Drivers in Android documentation:
http://developer.android.com/tools/extras/oem-usb.html

Installing and Configuring TestComplete Plug-ins

To be able to test Android applications, you need to have TestCompletes Mobile module installed. This
module installs and enables the required plug-ins automatically.
If the Mobile module is not available, you need to run the TestComplete installation in the Modify mode and
select Mobile module for installation in the installation wizard. This would install and activate the required
plug-ins.

Configuring TestComplete
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Once the plug-ins are active, you may need to specify paths to JDK and Android SDK in TestComplete
settings. The TestComplete installation wizard tries to find these paths automatically on your computer. If it is
unable to do so, you may need to manually specify these paths in TestComplete.
To check whether the paths are specified correctly:
1. Launch TestComplete
2. Select Tools | Options from TestCompletes main menu. This will open the Options dialog.
3. On the left of the dialog, select the Engines | Mobile | Android category.
4. In the Path to Android SDK edit box, specify the folder where you installed the Android SDK on
your computer.
5. In the Path to Java Runtime edit box, specify the folder where Java is installed on your computer.

6. Switch to the Engines | Mobile | General category.

7. Enable the Automatically display Mobile Screen on OnScreen operation option.
8. Enable the Automatically display Mobile Screen on recording option.
9. Click OK to close the dialog and save the settings.

Preparing Mobile Device

After all of the required software was installed on the desktop computer, you need to prepare the mobile device
as well.

Enabling Developer Options on the Device

To perform testing on a physical Android device, you need to enable certain developer options on the device:
1. Make the developer options visible. Go to Settings | About phone/tablet and touch Build number 7
times.
Note: The way in which you make the developer options visible may vary between devices and
Android versions. Please refer to the documentation on your device for more information.
2. Go to Settings | Developer options and enable the following options:

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USB debugging - Enables communication between the device and Android Debug Bridge
(ADB). In other words, it makes your device visible to ADB and TestComplete.

Stay awake - Prevents the device from going into sleep mode during debugging.

3. Save the changes.

Connecting the Device

Turn on your device and connect it to your computer with the USB cable. Android Debug Bridge will detect
the connection and automatically connect to the device.

Checking Whether Device Is Connected

To verify whether the mobile device has connected successfully:

Click the Show Mobile Screen button on the TestComplete toolbar.

The Mobile Screen window will open if at least one mobile device or virtual machine is connected to Android
Debug Bridge.
If you have several devices or virtual machines connected, a click on the Show Mobile Screen item will open
the Select Current Device dialog that lists the connected devices. Check whether your device or virtual
machine is on the list, select it there and click OK to view its screen.

Installing TestComplete Android Agent

TestComplete Android Agent is a helper application used to exchange data with Android applications prepared
for testing with TestComplete. The Agent should be installed on the mobile device.
To install the Agent:

Open the Mobile Screen window (if you have not opened it yet)

Press the

Install Android Agent button on the window toolbar.

Preparing Application for Testing

In order for TestComplete to recognize objects of an Android application, that is, to make it "open" to
TestComplete, you need to prepare the application in a special way.
To learn how to prepare applications manually or automatically, see Instrumenting Android Applications in
TestComplete Help.
The Orders application which will be used in this tutorial is already prepared for white-box testing. Therefore
the preparation actions will not be needed this time.
Now TestComplete, the mobile device and the application are prepared for testing. In the following sections,
we will describe how to create a test project, create a simple test and play it back.

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2. Creating a Test Project

Lets create a new test project:
1. If you have a project or project suite opened in TestComplete, close it. To do this, choose File | Close
from TestCompletes main menu.
2. Select File | New | New Project from TestCompletes main menu. This will call up the Create New
Project wizard.
3. In the wizard, enter the project name and the location where you want to store the project. In this
tutorial, we will name the project AndroidOrders and use the default location.

4. On the next page, select Android applications.

5. On the next page, we can add our tested Android application to the project. To do this:

Click the Add. The Add Android Tested Application wizard will appear.

In the wizard, click the

button near the Android application package file edit box and
browse for the Android Orders package file. Its path is as follows:

On Windows Vista, Windows 7 or later Windows versions:

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C:\Users\Public\Public
Documents\TestComplete
Samples\Mobile\Android\Orders\Orders Application\bin\Orders.apk

10

On Windows XP or Windows Server 2003:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Shared Documents\TestComplete
Samples\Mobile\Android\Orders\Orders Application\bin\Orders.apk

10

Note: Some file managers can display the Shared Documents and Public Documents
folders as the Documents folder.

Select the Deploy to the device on start check box to install the application on the device every
time you launch the application from TestComplete.

Clear the Keep the data and cache directories on removal check box. This will guarantee the
same initial state of the tested application.

Click Next and then Finish to close the wizard.

Make sure that the Autorun check box on the list is selected. If it is selected, TestComplete will
automatically launch the Orders tested application on the mobile device when you start
recording tests. If the check box is clear, then, to record user actions over your application, you
will have to launch the application manually.

Click Next to continue.

6. On the next page, you can enable or disable Test Visualizer for test recording and playback. To do this,
check or uncheck the corresponding check box. Click Next.
7. On the last page, choose the preferable scripting language and click Finish.
TestComplete will create a new project and show its files in the Project Explorer panel.

3. Creating a Test
Creating Tests in TestComplete
TestComplete allows you to create tests in two ways. You can:

Create tests manually

Record tests

When you create a test manually, you enter all the needed commands and actions that your test must perform
via appropriate script objects or keyword test commands. This approach is very helpful when you need to
create very powerful and flexible tests or if you have good experience in creating tests.
However, creating tests manually requires a lot of time and does not prevent you from different problems. For
example, while creating a test manually you must know the classes and names of your application's objects you
want to work with. To solve such problems, TestComplete includes a special feature that lets you easily create
tests. You can perform some actions against the tested application once and TestComplete will automatically
recognize these actions and then convert them to script lines or keyword test operations. We call this feature
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"recording a test", because you create a test visually and in one sense you record the performed actions to a
script or keyword test. It is a very useful approach and it does not require much experience in creating tests. So,
in this tutorial we will demonstrate how to record tests with TestComplete.

Recording Tests in TestComplete

The recording includes three steps:
1. You start recording by selecting Test | Record | Record Keyword Test or Test | Record | Record
Script from TestCompletes main menu or from the Test Engine toolbar. You can also start recording
by clicking Record a New Test on the Start Page.
After you command TestComplete to start the recording, it will switch to the recording mode. In this
mode, TestComplete minimizes its main window, displays the Recording toolbar and, optionally,
displays the Mobile Screen window.
The Recording toolbar contains items that let you perform additional actions during the recording,
pause or stop recording and change the type of the recorded test (from the keyword test to script code,
or vice versa).

The Mobile Screen window displays the screen of the connected mobile device. This window is used
to record tests against mobile applications. The window is displayed if the Automatically display
Mobile Screen on recording option is enabled.
4. After starting the recording, perform the desired test actions: launch the tested application (if needed),
work with the application as you normally do: select menus, touch buttons and other controls and so
on.
5. After all the test actions are over, stop the recording by selecting
toolbar.

Stop from the Recording

For complete information on test recording, see Recording in TestComplete in the Help.

Planning a Test for the Android Orders Application

The sample Android Orders application works with a list of orders. Suppose you need to test whether the
applications Edit Order page functions properly and modifies data in the order list. In this case -

Test purpose: The test should check whether the Edit Order page saves the modified data and the
changes are visible in the order list.

Testing steps: Our test should simulate modifying order details and then verify data in the order list.
For simplicity, our test will change only one property of one order.

Checking and logging the test result: If the change made to the order has been saved correctly, it
should be visible in the order list. To check this, our test will compare the data in the list with the

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expected value. We will add a special comparison command to the test for this. This command will
post comparison results to the test log, so we will see whether verification failed or passed
successfully.
For more information on planning tests with TestComplete, see Planning Tests in TestComplete Help.

Recording a Test for the Android Orders Application

Now lets record a keyword test for the sample Android Orders application.
1. Open the Mobile Screen window. TestComplete records only those actions over mobile applications
that you perform in this window and ignores the actions that you perform on the device, emulator or
virtual machine.

Click the Show Mobile Screen button on the Tools toolbar.

2. Open the keyword test in the editor.

When creating a new project, TestComplete automatically creates an empty keyword test in this
project. We will add test commands into this test.
To open the keyword test:

Switch to the Project Explorer panel.

Expand the KeywordTests node.

Double-click the Test1 node.

3. To start the recording, select the

Append to Test item on the test editors toolbar.

TestComplete will display the Recording toolbar on screen. If the Interactive Help panel is visible,
TestComplete will also show information about the recording in it.

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By default, the Recording toolbar is collapsed:

Click the

arrow button to expand the Recording toolbar and view all its buttons:

4. After you start the recording, TestComplete will automatically deploy the Orders application to the
mobile device and start this application. This happens, because we have enabled the applications
Deploy to the device on start and Autorun settings while creating the test project on the previous step.
If we had disabled the Autorun property, we would have had to launch the application manually. You
can do this by selecting the Run Tested Application command from the Recording toolbar:

You can also launch the application from the Run Apps drop-down menu on the Mobile Screen
windows toolbar.
TestComplete records the application start using a special application launch test command. You will
see this command later, when we will analyze the recorded test.

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5. Wait until the Android Orders application installs and starts on the mobile device. The Mobile Screen
window will display the initial window of the application:

If the Interactive Help panel is visible, resize or move it so that it does not overlap the Mobile Screen
window. Your actions on this panel are not recorded.
6. In the Mobile Screen window, click Samuel Clemenss order.

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7. Click the Edit button of the Orders application. This will invoke the Edit Order screen:

8. Lets change the customer name in the order details.

Clear the Samuel Clemens text and type Mark Twain instead. Use your desktop keyboard to enter text
in the Mobile Screen window.
9. Scroll down the Edit Order Screen till the Ok button becomes visible and click this button. This will
save the order changes and return back to the orders list.

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10. Now lets insert a comparison command into our test. It will verify that the applications customer list
displays the modified name - Mark Twain.
We call the comparison commands checkpoints. TestComplete offers various types of checkpoints
that are suitable for verifying different types of data (see Checkpoints section in TestComplete Help).
One of the most frequently used checkpoints is the Property checkpoint. It is used to check data of
application controls. We will use this checkpoint in our tutorial.

Select
Create Property Checkpoint from the Checkpoint drop-down list of the
Recording toolbar:

This will invoke the Property Checkpoint wizard. It will guide you through the process of
checkpoint creation:

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On the first page of the wizard, click the target glyph (

keep the button pressed.

) with the left mouse button and

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Wait until the wizard minimizes and then drag the icon to the orders list of the Orders
application. While you are dragging, TestComplete will highlight the controls and windows
under the mouse cursor with the red frame.
Release the mouse button when the target glyph is over the order made by Mark Twain and
when the entire item is highlighted with the red frame:

After you release the mouse button, TestComplete will restore the wizard and display the
name of the selected object in the Object box and the image of the object below it:

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Click Next to continue.

The next page of the wizard displays a list of the selected objects properties and fields. This
list includes properties provided by TestComplete, as well as properties and fields defined by
the tested application.
To verify the data, we will use several native fields defined by the application. To view the
objects fields, click the View more members (Advanced View) link and then switch to the
Fields tab.

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Type mText1 in the Search box. TestComplete will filter out the members according to the
text you type.

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Select the mText1 field. This field refers to an object. To view the members of this object,
press the ellipsis button.

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Switch to the Fields tab and type mText in the Search box.

Find the mText property in the list. Select this property and then click Next to continue.

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On the next page of the wizard you can see the name of the property whose value will be
verified, the comparison condition and baseline data in the Value box:

Click Finish to complete the checkpoint creation.

11. Press

Stop on the Recording toolbar to stop the recording. TestComplete will process
the recorded test commands and save them to a test.

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4. Analyzing the Recorded Test

After you have finished recording, TestComplete opens the recorded keyword test for editing and displays the
tests contents in the Keyword Test editor:

The recorded test is similar to the test shown in the image above. Your actual test may differ from this one. For
example, it may contain some unnecessary touch actions.
The test contains the commands that correspond to the actions you performed on the Orders application during
the recording. We call the test commands operations.
Below the commands there is the Test Visualizer panel that displays images which TestComplete captured for
operations during test recording:

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These images illustrate the recorded operations and help you better understand which action the operation
performs. TestComplete captures images only for those operations that correspond to user actions (touching,
dragging, typing text and so on).
When you choose an operation in the editor, Test Visualizer automatically highlights the appropriate image so
you can easily explore the application state before the operation is executed. For more information on working
with images, see the topics in the Test Visualizer section in TestComplete Help.
The first operation in the test is Select Device. It specifies a mobile device the test should work with. All
further test operations will refer to this device.

The second operation is Run TestedApp. It is used to launch the tested application (in our case, it is the Orders
application) from a keyword test. TestComplete automatically records this operation when it launches the
application automatically or detects an application launch from the Recording toolbar.

After that, there are operations that simulate your actions with the application. These operations select an item
in the orders list, press the Edit button, change the value of the text field and press the Ok button.

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For more information on simulating touch events, text input and other user actions from your tests, see
Simulating User Actions Over Android Devices in TestComplete Help.
Finally there is the comparison operation that we added during the test recording:

As you can see, TestComplete automatically organizes the operations into groups that correspond to mobile
devices and processes you worked with. Grouping makes the test structure easier to understand and also
provides some information on the object hierarchy that exists in the application under test.
We recorded user actions on one mobile device and one process. So, we have two group nodes. The device
node groups processes that were launched on the same device. The process node contains all of the actions
that you simulated on the process windows and controls.

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You may notice that the names of the tested process and its windows and controls differ from the names that
you can see in the Object Browser panel. For instance, in the Object Browser, the tested process was named
Process("smartbear.example.orders") while in the test it is called Process_example_orders; the Edit button
was called Button("editButton") while in the test it is called Button_Edit, and so on.
There is a logical reason for this: by default, TestComplete automatically generates and uses custom names for
the objects you worked with during the test recording. Generating and assigning custom names is called name
mapping. TestComplete maps the names because the default names may be difficult to understand. It may be
difficult to determine which window or control corresponds to a name. Using mapped names makes the test
easier to understand and more stable. For more information on mapping names, see Name Mapping in
TestComplete Help.

5. Running the Test

Now we can run our simple test to see how TestComplete simulates user actions.
Before running a test, make sure it starts with the same initial conditions that existed when the test was
created. For instance, the test designed for mobile applications must select which of the mobile devices it will
currently work with. For this purpose we placed the Select Device keyword operation in the beginning of the
test. Besides that, the test almost always requires that the tested mobile application be deployed onto the device
and launched on it. In our case, to launch and deploy our tested application, we used the Run TestedApp
keyword operation and enabled the Deploy to the device on start parameter of the tested application.

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To run the recorded test, simply click

Run Test on the test editors toolbar:

TestComplete will start executing test commands. In our case, the test will open the order and change the
customer name from Samuel Clemens to Mark Twain and then verify whether the name has changed.
Note: Dont move the mouse or press any keys during the test execution. Your actions may interfere
with the actions simulated by TestComplete and the test execution may go wrong.
After the test execution is over, TestComplete will restore its windows and display test results. In the next step
we will analyze them.
Some notes about the test run:

During the test execution, TestComplete displays an indicator in the top right corner of the screen:

The indicator displays messages informing you about simulated test actions.

TestComplete executes test commands until the test ends. You can stop the execution at any time by
pressing
Stop on the Test Engine toolbar or in the indicator, or by selecting Test | Stop from
TestCompletes main menu.
Pause. During the pause, you can perform any
You can pause the test execution by clicking
actions needed. For instance, you can explore the test log or check test variables and objects using
TestCompletes Watch List or Locals panel or the Evaluate dialog (see Debugging Tests in
TestComplete Help).

For complete information on running tests in TestComplete, on project settings that affect the runs and on the
test execution, see Running Tests section in TestComplete Help.

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6. Analyzing Test Results

TestComplete keeps a complete log of all operations performed during testing. The links to test results are
shown in the Project Explorer panel under the Project Suite Logs | AndroidOrders Log node. This is the
primary workspace for looking up the test history of the project and project suite. Each node corresponds to a
test run. An image to the left of the node specifies whether the corresponding test run passed successfully:

Note that TestComplete automatically adds nodes for the last results after the test execution is over. That is, the
results are not displayed when the test is running (you can view intermediate results if you pause the test
execution).
Since we have run only one test so far, we have only one log node in the Project Explorer. By default,
TestComplete automatically opens the contents of this node in the Workspace panel. You can also view the
log at any time. To do this, right-click the desired result in the Project Explorer panel and choose Open from
the context menu.

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In our example, the log is as follows

The log window shows the results of one test run at a time. On the left side of the window, there is a tree-like
structure of the tests that were executed during the run; the node of each of these tests can be selected to view
their results. For our example, we have run only one test, so in our case this tree only contains one node. The
nodes icon indicates whether the test passed successfully or failed.
The test log contains error, warning, informative and other types of messages. The icon on the left indicates the
message type. Using the check boxes at the top of the message list you can hide or view messages by type.
For each message, the log also shows the time that each action was performed. You can see it in the Time
column.
TestComplete may post additional text and images along with the message. To view them, simply select the
desired message in the log and look in the Additional Info and Picture panes that are below the message list.
The Picture panel displays the images that show the expected and actual application state before executing the
selected test command. Expected is the image that was captured for the command during test recording,
actual means the image that was captured during test run.) The test log includes a special button that lets you

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compare the images and easily see the difference. This simplifies the search for errors that may occur in your
test. For more information, see topics of the Test Visualizer section.
The logs Call Stack pane displays the hierarchy of test calls that led to posting the selected message to the log.
The logs Performance Counters pane displays values of the performance counters monitored during the test
run. The values are shown in the form of graphs.
To view a test operation that posted a message to the log, double-click the desired message in the log.
TestComplete will open the keyword test in the editor and highlight the appropriate operation. For instance, if
you double-click the The button was touched message in the log, TestComplete will highlight the keyword
test operation that performed this action:

For detailed information on the test log panels, on posting messages to the log and on working with the results,
see the About Test Log section in TestComplete Help.
Note: The log that we described is typical for TestComplete keyword tests and scripts. Tests of other
types may form a log of a different structure. For detailed information about these logs, see the
description of the appropriate project item, or simply click within the log page and press F1.

Resolving Errors
Your test may fail. There can be several possible reasons for this. For instance, developers could change the
applications behavior, the recognition attributes of windows and control change and make the test engine fail

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to find the needed objects, a third-party application may overlap windows of your application and make the test
engine fail to simulate actions on them, and so on.
One of the most typical reasons faced by novice users is the difference in the applications state during the test
creation and playback. To avoid this problem, make sure that the initial conditions of the test run correspond to
those you had when creating the test. For instance, if the tested application had been running before you
recorded the test, it must also be running before you run the test; if the test actions were performed on a
particular screen of the application, you should also open that screen when you run the test, and so on.
If your test ran with errors, examine and fix them to make the test pass.
For information on searching for the cause of errors and resolving typical problems, see Handling Playback
Errors section in TestComplete Help.

7. Running Test on Multiple Devices

After you have checked that the test is executed successfully on one of the mobile devices, you can modify it to
be executed on multiple mobile devices. In this way you can ensure that the mobile application works correctly
on different types of mobile devices (smartphones, tablets and so on).
Lets modify the test so it can run on different mobile devices, one after another.

Open the test in the Keyword Test Editor.

Drag the Device Loop operation from the Mobile category of the Operations panel to the Test Area.
Drop the operation at the very beginning of the test (above all other operations). This will add the
operation to the test.

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In the ensuing operation parameters dialog, select Iterate Through All Connected Devices and press
Finish.

Delete or disable the Select Device operation from the test. It is no longer needed because the Device
Loop operation iterates through the mobile devices.

Select all test operations that go after the Device Loop operation and click
loop. Now these operations will be executed on each loop iteration.

to move them inside the

Here is what the resulting test should look like:

Save the test by selecting File | Save from TestCompletes main menu.

Prepare and connect another mobile device as described in the Preparing Mobile Device section of
Preliminary Steps.
Now run the resulting test.

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TestComplete will repeat the test operations several times. Each time the test actions will be performed on a
different mobile device.
The test log contains information about which mobile device was used and results of the test operations
performed on each device.

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Testing iOS Applications

This tutorial explains how to test iOS applications with TestComplete. We are going to prepare a testing
environment for mobile testing, connect to a mobile device and deploy the tested application to it, create and
run a simple test and analyze the results. The test will emulate user actions over the mobile application and
verify some data.

Requirements
To complete this tutorial, you need the following:

A Windows computer with TestComplete Mobile module and Apple iTunes. iTunes is needed,
because it contains the USB driver that TestComplete uses to connect to iOS devices.

An iPhone, iPad or iPod touch running iOS 6.x or 7.0 - 7.1.1.

A Mac computer with Xcode, iOS SDK and an iOS development license - to compile the sample
Orders application.

About Tested Application

In our explanations we will use the iOS version of the Orders application that is shipped along with
TestComplete. The application lets you manage a table of purchase orders: you can view the list of existing
orders, modify or remove them, as well as add new orders to the list.

The application should be deployed to the mobile device as described in the further steps of the tutorial.

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1. Preparing iOS Device

Before you can test iOS applications with TestComplete, you need to:

Add your iOS device to the application provisioning profile (for the iOS Developer Program only).

Connect the device to the TestComplete computer via a USB cable.

Add Test Devices to the Application Provisioning Profile

This step is required only for Xcode 5. If you use Xcode 6, it will automatically find the connected
device.
If you have the iOS Developer Program (not the iOS Developer Enterprise Program), you need to add the test
device to the provisioning profile of the tested iOS application. You need to do this to be able to install the
application on this device. The easiest way to do this is to use Xcode on your development Mac:

Connect your iOS device to your Mac.

From Xcodes menu, select Windows | Organizer and select Devices to open the device organizer.

Select your device, click the Use for Development or Add to Member Center button.

Select the check box next to your developer program account and click Choose.

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Connecting Device to TestComplete

Connect your iOS device to the TestComplete computer via a USB cable.
If the device shows a dialog asking whether you trust this computer, tap Trust.
Also, we recommend that you change the following settings of the device:

Go to Settings | General.

Tap Auto-Lock.

Select Never.

Go to Settings | Wallpapers&Brightness.

Move the brightness slider to the minimum value.

This will prevent the device from locking the screen during the test run and reduce battery consumption of the
connected device.
To make sure TestComplete sees the connected device, switch to the Object Browser. You should see the
Device("your_device_name") object under the Mobile object.

On the next step, we will prepare the sample Orders application for testing.

2. Preparing iOS Application for Testing

To test your iOS application with TestComplete, you need to compile it with the TestComplete library and
specific build settings.
This tutorial explains how to instrument an iOS application in Xcode. If you have already
compiled the application, you can instrument it in TestComplete. See Instrumenting iOS
Applications in TestComplete UI topic in TestComplete help.
To keep the tutorial simple, we will modify the default build target. In real-life projects, you
will create a separate target for test builds to keep your App Store release builds intact. This is
done because the TestComplete library uses private APIs, so applications with it cannot be
submitted to the App Store.
This tutorial explains how to prepare an iOS application in Xcode 5.

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Now we need to compile and archive our application into an .ipa file. We need the .ipa file so that
TestComplete can automatically install and launch the application on devices during testing.

1. Copy Files to a Mac Computer

Copy the following files and folders from a Windows computer, where TestComplete is installed to your Mac
computer:

<TestComplete Samples>\Mobile\iOS\Orders\ - The source files of the Orders application.

<TestComplete>\Bin\Extensions\iOS\libTestComplete-agent-static.a - The TestComplete Agent

library.

If you use Xcode version 6, you also need to copy the re-sign.sh file from the
<TestComplete>\Bin\Extensions\iOS folder. See Instrumenting iOS Applications in Xcode 6 topic in
TestComplete help.

2. Configure the Sample Project in Xcode

1. Open the Orders project (Orders.xcodeproj) in Xcode.
2. Drag the libTestComplete-agent-static.a library from the Finder to the project node in Xcodes
Navigator area.
3. Select the target and switch to the Build Settings page.
4. Set the Linking | Other Linker Flags setting to -all_load -ObjC.

3. Create the IPA File

To create the IPA file:

From Xcode's menu, select Product | Archive. Xcode will show the created archive in the Archives
organizer.

Select the archive and click Distribute.

In the wizard, select Save for Ad Hoc or Enterprise Distribution and click Next.

Select the provisioning profile of the application and click Export.

We recommend that you select a profile of the iOS App Development type for Xcode 5 applications. In
this case, you will be able to automate the deployment and launching of your tested applications. See

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Choosing a Provisioning Profile for Your Application section of Preparing iOS Applications topic of
online help.
If you have the iOS Developer Program (not the iOS Developer Enterprise Program), make sure to
select the provisioning profile that includes the test devices - the profile you configured on the
previous step.

Save the .ipa file to disk.

After you create the .ipa file, copy it to the TestComplete computer.
Our application and devices are now ready for automated testing. On the next steps, we will create and run a
sample automated test using TestComplete.

3. Creating a Test Project

Lets create a new test project in TestComplete:
1. If you have an open project or project suite, close it by selecting File | Close from TestCompletes
main menu.
2. Select File | New | New Project from TestCompletes main menu. The Create New Project wizard will
appear.
3. In the wizard, enter the project name and the location where you want to store the project. In this
tutorial, we will name the project iOSOrders and use the default location.

4. On the next page, select iOS applications.

5. Click Add and browse for the local copy of the Orders.ipa file (copy this file from the Mac computer to
the computer where TestComplete is installed, if you have not done this yet).

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6. Select the Deploy to the device on start check box and click OK.

7. Make sure that the Autorun check box is selected. If it is selected, TestComplete automatically
launches the Orders tested application on the mobile device when you start test recording. If the check
box is clear, then, to record user actions over the application, you will have to launch the application
manually.
8. On the next page, you can enable or disable Test Visualizer. To do this, check or uncheck the
corresponding check box. Click Next.
9. On the last page, choose the preferable scripting language and click Finish.
TestComplete will create the project and show its files in the Project Explorer.
Now you can install and launch the Orders application on the connected iOS device directly from
TestComplete. To do this, right-click the application in the Process Explorer and select Run from the context
menu.

4. Creating a Test
Creating Tests in TestComplete
TestComplete allows you to create tests in two ways. You can:

Create tests manually

Record tests

When you create a test manually, you enter all the needed commands and actions that your test must perform
via appropriate script objects or keyword test commands. This approach is very helpful when you need to
create very powerful and flexible tests or if you have good experience in creating tests.
However, creating tests manually requires a lot of time and does not prevent you from different problems. For
example, while creating a test manually you must know the classes and names of your application's objects you
want to work with. To solve such problems, TestComplete includes a special feature that lets you easily create
tests. You can perform some actions against the tested application once and TestComplete will automatically
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recognize these actions and then convert them to script lines or keyword test operations. We call this feature
"recording a test", because you create a test visually and in one sense you record the performed actions to a
script or keyword test. It is a very useful approach and it does not require much experience in creating tests. So,
in this tutorial we will demonstrate how to record tests with TestComplete.

Recording Tests in TestComplete

The recording includes three steps:
1. You start recording by selecting Test | Record | Record Keyword Test or Test | Record | Record
Script from TestCompletes main menu or from the Test Engine toolbar. You can also start recording
by clicking Record a New Test on the Start Page.
After you command TestComplete to start the recording, it will switch to the recording mode. In this
mode, TestComplete minimizes its main window, displays the Recording toolbar and, optionally,
displays the Mobile Screen window.
The Recording toolbar contains items that let you perform additional actions during the recording,
pause or stop recording and change the type of the recorded test (from the keyword test to script code,
or vice versa).

The Mobile Screen window displays the screen of the connected mobile device. This window is used
to record tests against mobile applications. The window is displayed if the Automatically display
Mobile Screen on recording option is enabled.
2. After starting the recording, perform the desired test actions: launch the tested application (if needed),
work with the application as you normally do: select menus, touch buttons and other controls and so
on.
3. After all the test actions are over, stop the recording by selecting

Stop from the Recording toolbar.

For complete information on test recording, see Recording in TestComplete in TestComplete Help.

Planning a Test for the iOS Orders Application

The sample iOS Orders application works with a list of orders. Suppose you need to test whether the
applications Edit Order page functions properly and modifies data in the order list. In this case -

Test purpose: The test should check whether the Edit Order page saves the modified data and the
changes are visible in the order list.

Testing steps: Our test should simulate modifying order details and then verify data in the order list.
For simplicity, our test will change only one property of one order.

Checking and logging the test result: If the change made to the order has been saved correctly, it
should be visible in the order list. To check this, our test will compare the data in the list with the
expected value. We will add a special comparison command to the test for this. This command will

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post comparison results to the test log, so we will see whether verification failed or passed
successfully.
For more information on planning tests with TestComplete, see Planning Tests in TestComplete Help.

Recording a Test for the iOS Orders Application

Two notes before we begin:

Do not switch to the TestComplete help during test recording. The recording engine traces and records
all user actions, so the recorded test will contain the commands that simulate switching.
To see the instructions, you can print them before starting recording. Or, if you have two monitors, you
can move the window of the TestComplete help system to the other monitor.

TestComplete can record user actions on one application only. If you switch to another application, the
recorded test commands will be lost.
So, during recording, work with your tested application only. Do not press the Home button on the iOS
device, do not launch other tested applications, do not minimize your tested application and do not
switch to other applications on your device in some other way.

Now lets record a keyword test for the sample iOS Orders application.
1. Before recording a test, open the Mobile Screen window. TestComplete records only those actions
over mobile applications that you perform in this window.

Click the Show Mobile Screen button on the Tools toolbar.

2. Open the keyword test in the editor.

When creating a new project, TestComplete automatically creates an empty keyword test in this
project. You will add test commands to this test.

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To open the keyword test:

Switch to the Project Explorer panel.

Expand the KeywordTests node.

Double-click the Test1 node.

3. To start recording, select the

Append to Test item on the test editors toolbar.

TestComplete will display the Recording toolbar on screen. If the Interactive Help panel is visible,
TestComplete will also show information about the recording process in it.
By default, the Recording toolbar is collapsed:

Click the

arrow button to expand the Recording toolbar and view all its buttons:

4. After you start recording, TestComplete will automatically deploy the Orders application to the mobile
device and start this application. This will happen because you enabled the applications Deploy to the
device on start and Autorun options while creating the test project on the previous step.
If the Autorun option is disabled, you will have to launch the application manually. To do this, select
the Run Tested Application command from the Recording toolbar:

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You can also launch the application from the Run Apps drop-down menu on the Mobile Screen
windows toolbar.
TestComplete records the application start using a special application launch test command. You will
see this command later when analyzing the recorded test.
5. Wait until the iOS Orders application installs and starts on the mobile device. The Mobile Screen
window will display the initial window of the application:

If the Interactive Help panel is visible, resize or move it so that it does not overlap the Mobile Screen
window. Your actions on this panel are not recorded.
6. In the Mobile Screen window, press the Edit button. This will switch the Orders application to the edit
mode.

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7. Click the second order in the list made by Samuel Clemens. This will display the Edit Order panel:

8. Lets change the customer name in the order details.

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In the CUSTOMER INFO section, clear the Samuel Clemens text, type Mark Twain and press Enter.
Use your desktop keyboard to input text in the Mobile Screen window.
9. OK, now press the Save button in the Edit Order panel. This will invoke the confirmation dialog:

10. To confirm the changes, press the Yes button.

11. Now, if you are recording the test on an iPhone or iPod touch device (whose display shows only one
panel at a time), you need to touch the Orders button in the navigation bar. This will take you back to
the Orders List panel.
iPad devices display both panels simultaneously, so, there is no need to perform such an action.
12. Press the Done button to switch off the edit mode.
The orders list will return to normal mode:

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13. Now lets insert a comparison command into our test. It will verify that the applications customer list
displays the modified name - Mark Twain.
We call comparison commands checkpoints. TestComplete offers various types of checkpoints that
can be used to verify different types of data (see Checkpoints in TestComplete Help). One of the most
frequently used checkpoints is the Property checkpoint. It is used to check data of application
controls. We will use this checkpoint in our tutorial.

Select
Create Property Checkpoint from the Checkpoint drop-down list of the Recording
toolbar:

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This will invoke the Property Checkpoint wizard. It will guide you through the process of
checkpoint creation.

On the first page of the wizard, click the target glyph (

button pressed.

) with the left mouse button and keep the

Wait until the wizard minimizes and then drag the icon to the orders list of the Orders application.
While you are dragging, TestComplete will highlight the controls and windows under the mouse
cursor with a red frame.
Release the mouse button when the target glyph is over the orders list and when the entire list is
highlighted with the red frame:

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After you release the mouse button, TestComplete will restore the wizard and display the name of
the selected object in the Object box and the image of the object below it:

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Click Next to continue.

The next page of the wizard displays a list of the selected objects properties. This list includes the
properties provided by TestComplete and the properties defined by the tested application. To view
all the available properties, click the View more members (Advanced View) link.
TestComplete appends three groups of properties to the selected object: one group includes
properties common for all tested windows and controls. You can see them under the Standard
node. Another group includes properties that are specific to mobile controls. You can see these
properties under the Extended node. Finally, all native properties of the corresponding control are
displayed under the iOS node.
To verify the data, we will use the wItem property. It provides access to the text shown in the
specified item of the selected table view.

Find the wItem property in the list. Click the Params button and enter 1 in the Index field. Click
OK and then Next to continue.

On the next page of the wizard, you can see the name of the property whose value will be verified,
the comparison condition and the baseline data, which is in the Value box:

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Click Finish to complete the checkpoint creation. TestComplete will append the checkpoint
command to the recorded test.

14. Press Stop on the Recording toolbar to stop recording. TestComplete will process the recorded test
commands and save them to the keyword test.

5. Analyzing the Recorded Test

After you finish recording, TestComplete opens the recorded keyword test for editing and displays the tests
contents in the Keyword Test editor:

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The recorded test is similar to the test shown in the image above. Your actual test may differ from this one. For
example, it may contain some unnecessary touch actions.
The test contains the commands that correspond to the actions you performed on the Orders application during
test recording. We call these test commands operations.

Below the commands there is the Test Visualizer panel that displays images which TestComplete
captured for operations during test recording:

These images illustrate the recorded operations and help you better understand which action the
operation performs. TestComplete captures images only for those operations that correspond to user
actions (touching, dragging, typing text and so on).
When you choose an operation in the editor, Test Visualizer automatically highlights the appropriate
image so you can easily explore the application state before the operation is executed. For more
information on working with images, see the topics in the Test Visualizer section in TestComplete
documentation.

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The first operation in the test is Select Device. It specifies the mobile device the test should work with. The
other test operations refer to this device.

The second operation is Run TestedApp. It is used to launch the tested application (in our case, it is the Orders
application) from a keyword test. TestComplete automatically records this operation when it launches the
application automatically or when it detects that the application has been launched from the Recording
toolbar.

Then there are the operations that simulate your actions with the application. These operations press the Edit
button, select an item in the orders list, change the value of the text field, save the changes and press the Done
button.

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For more information on simulating touch events, text input and other user actions from your tests, see
Simulating User Actions on iOS Applications and Working With iOS Controls in TestComplete Help.
Finally, there is the comparison operation that you added during test recording:

As you can see, TestComplete automatically organizes the operations into groups that correspond to the mobile
devices and processes you worked with. Grouping makes the test structure easier to understand and also
provides some information on the object hierarchy that exists in the application under test.
We've recorded user actions on one mobile device and one process. So, we have two group nodes. The
device node groups processes that were launched on the same device. The process node contains all of the
actions that you simulated on the process windows and controls.

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You may notice that the names of the tested process and its windows and controls differ from the names that
you can see in the Object Browser panel. For instance, in the Object Browser, the tested process was named
Process("Orders") while in the test it is called ProcessOrders; the navigation bar was called NavigationBar(1)
while in the test it is called navigationbar1, and so on.
There is a logical reason for this: by default, TestComplete automatically generates and uses custom names for
the objects you worked with during test recording. Generating and assigning custom names is called name
mapping. TestComplete maps the names because the default names may be difficult to understand. It may be
difficult to determine which window or control corresponds to a name. Using mapped names makes the test
easier to understand and more stable. For more information on mapping names, see Name Mapping section in
TestComplete Help.

6. Running the Test

Now lets run our test to see how it works.

Run the Test

To run the test, click

Run Test on the test editors toolbar:

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TestComplete will launch the Orders application on the device and perform the test actions on it: open Samuel
Clemenss order and change the customer name to Mark Twain.

Test Results
After the test finishes, TestComplete shows the test log. You can look at it to see if the test has passed. We will
tell you more about the test results in the next step of this tutorial.

Notes on Running Tests

Important: Do not touch the device's screen during the test run to avoid interference with the
test actions.

During the test execution, TestComplete displays an indicator in the top right corner of the screen:

The indicator displays messages informing you about simulated test actions.

You can stop the execution at any time by pressing

Stop on the Test Engine toolbar or in the
indicator, or by selecting Test | Stop from TestCompletes main menu.
Pause. During the pause, you can perform any
You can pause the test execution by clicking
actions needed. For instance, you can explore the test log or check test variables and objects using
TestCompletes Watch List or Locals panel or the Evaluate dialog (see Debugging Tests in
TestComplete Help).

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For complete information on running tests in TestComplete, on project settings that affect the runs and on the
test execution, see Running Tests section in TestComplete Help.

7. Analyzing Test Results

After the test finishes, TestComplete shows the test log with the results of all test operations.
The results of our test looks as follows:

The log contains messages of different types: actions, events, checkpoints and so on. You can filter the
messages using the toolbar above the message list. If you double-click a log message, TestComplete will
navigate to the test operation that posted this message. This is useful when you need to know which operation
caused an error.
The Picture panel contains images that show the expected and the actual application states before the selected
test command is executed (Expected is the image that was captured for the command during test recording,
and Actual is the image that was captured during the test run.) The Actual Image toolbar has a special button
that lets you highlight the difference between the images (if any). The images help you understand what
happened in the application during the run, view the differences and find errors faster. For more information on
capturing images, see the topics of the Test Visualizer section in TestComplete help.
There are two more panes at the bottom of the log:

Call Stack is useful when debugging tests that call each other. It shows the sequence of test calls that
led to the current operation or error.

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Performance Counters shows local or remote computer metrics (CPU load, memory usage and so
on) measured during the test run. We do not use performance counters in our tutorial, but if you have a
client-server iOS application, you can set up performance counters to track your server metrics.

All logs are kept under Project Suite Logs | ProjectName Logs in the Project Explorer, so that you can review
the previous logs.

Sometimes, tests fail. This can happen if the object properties in the application were changed and no longer
match the identification properties specified in Name Mapping. You need to troubleshoot the failed tests to
find and fix the cause of the errors. For more information about finding and fixing errors, see Handling
Playback Errors and Debugging Tests sections in TestComplete Help.

8. Adjusting the Test for Running on Multiple Devices

After you check that the test is executed successfully on a mobile device, you can modify it so that it can run on
multiple mobile devices.
A test that will be executed on multiple iOS devices should be able to handle the following:

Different application layouts on tablets and smartphones. An applications user interface may vary
depending on whether it runs on devices with a small screen (iPhones or iPods) or on devices that have
a larger screen (iPads). On small screens, the application may divide its UI elements into several
layouts (panels, pages, views, tabs and so on). So, you may need to perform different actions to access
the same control on a tablet and on a smartphone. As a result, a test created on an iPad will work on
other iPads, but may fail on iPhones or iPod touch devices, and vice versa - a test created on an iPhone
will work on other iPhones and iPod touch devices, but may fail on iPad devices.
There are several ways to handle this situation. The easiest way is to create two variants of your test one for tablets, and one for smartphones. A more complex solution is to adapt the test for both types of

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devices. This may require creation of conditional test structures and probably adjusting the criteria of
object recognition.

Different object hierarchy on different versions of iOS. Different versions of iOS may have a
different object hierarchy. So, a test may not find the needed object on another version of iOS. To
resolve this issue, you may need to correct the identification properties of such mismatching objects in
the Name Mapping project item (the object repository).

The Orders application, which we use in this tutorial, also changes its layout depending on whether it is
running on a tablet or on a smartphone. To make the tutorial simple, we will not adapt the test for both types of
devices, so please use devices of the same type (either iPhones or iPads) when running your test.
Also, the Orders application has a bit different object hierarchy when running on iOS 6 and on later iOS
versions (iOS 7-8). The test you have created addresses the textfield0 object whose full name is different on
iOS 6 and on later versions. This object corresponds to the Customer name editor of the Edit Order panel. The
full mapped name of this object is different on iOS 6 and on iOS 7-8:

NameMapping.Mobile.Device.processOrders.window0.tableview0.tablevie
wcell6.textfield0 (on iOS 6)

NameMapping.Mobile.Device.processOrders.window0.tableview0.tablevie
wcell6.scrollview0.textfield0 (on iOS 7-8).

As you can see, the difference is in the "extra" scrollview0 object.

To make the test consistent, you can apply the extended search criteria to the textfield0 object.

First, you need to ensure that this object can be found by TestComplete. Switch to the Mobile Screen
window and do the following:

Press the Edit button in the Orders application.

Select any order in the list. This will display the Edit Order panel that contains the Customer
name editor.

Double-click the NameMapping item in the Project Explorer to open the Name Mapping editor. Here
you can view and edit the identification properties of mapped objects.

Open the Mapped Objects pane.

Expand the object tree and locate the textfield0 object.

(On iOS 7-8) Drag the textfield0 object to make it an immediate child of the tableviewcell6
object.

Enable the Extended Find check box for the textfield0 object.

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If a confirmation dialog appears, click Yes.

(On iOS 7-8) In the Aliases tree, drag the textfield0 objects alias to the tableviewcell6
alias (like you did in the Mapped Objects tree).

(On iOS 7-8) Delete the unneeded scrollview0 object from the Mapped Objects and Aliases trees.
To delete an object, right-click it and select Delete from the context menu.

(On iOS 7-8) Now, you need to update the object name in the keyword test.

Open Test1 in the Keyword editor.

Double-click the operation used to modify the customer name.

Change the object name from

Aliases.Device.processOrders.window0.tableview0.tableviewcell6
.scrollview0.textfield0
to
Aliases.Device.processOrders.window0.tableview0.tableviewcell6
.textfield0

Press Finish.

In the Mobile Screen window, revert the Orders application to its initial state. Discard the changes
made to the order (if any), close the Edit Order panel and press Done.

Now you can run the test on multiple devices.

9. Running Test on Multiple Devices

Lets modify the test so it can run on different mobile devices, one after another.

Add the Device Loop operation from the Mobile category. Place it in the very beginning of the test.

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In the ensuing operation parameters dialog, select Iterate Through All Connected Devices and press
Finish.

Delete or disable the Select Device operation from the test. It is no longer needed because the Device
Loop operation iterates through the mobile devices.

Select all test operations that go after the Device Loop operation and click
loop. Now these operations will be executed on each loop iteration.

to move them inside the

Here is what the resulting test should look like:

Save the test by selecting File | Save from TestCompletes main menu.

Prepare and connect another mobile device as described in the Preparing iOS Device step. The type of the
devices you use must be the same as the type of the devices you used when creating the test: either iPhones or
iPads.
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Testing iOS Applications

Now run the resulting test.

TestComplete will repeat the test operations several times. Each time the test actions will be performed on a
different mobile device.
The test log contains information about which mobile device was used and results of the test operations
performed on each device.

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Where to Go Next
This concludes the Getting Started tutorial. We hope it helped you to get acquainted with TestComplete. Now
you can learn how to create tests for other types of applications, or you can learn about more advanced features
and even start creating your own tests. To get more information about TestComplete and its features, please
refer to TestComplete Help. Below are some help topics that may interest you:

Common
Recording in TestComplete
This section contains information on recording tests in TestComplete.
Checkpoints
This section describes various checkpoint types offered by the test engine and explains how to create
checkpoints during test recording or test design.
Running Tests
This section contains information on how to run tests, how to organize batch runs (run a group of
tests), how to schedule test runs and so on.
Test Log
Explains how TestComplete logs test results and describes the test log panels. This section also
describes how to post messages, images and files to the log.
Handling Playback Errors
Explains how to handle errors that occur during the test run.
Teamwork and Integration Into QA Process
Explains how to share TestComplete projects with teammates and how to integrate your TestComplete
tests into the build, development and quality assurance processes adopted in your organization.

Specific for Testing Desktop Applications

Naming Objects
This section provides information on how TestComplete names processes, windows and controls.
Simulating User Actions
This section describes how to simulate mouse clicks, keystrokes and selecting menu items with
TestComplete.
Working With Applications Object and Controls

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This section contains topics that explain how to perform specific actions over test objects and retrieve
data from them.
Enhancing Tests
Provides information about various TestComplete features that help you enhance your tests (how to
handle events, how to work with ActiveX objects, files and databases, and so on).

Specific for Testing Web Applications

Testing Web Applications
Contains basic information on testing mobile applications with TestComplete.
Creating and Recording Web Tests
Explains the basics of recording and creating automated tests for web applications.
Finding Objects on Web Pages
Describes various methods for locating web page elements.
Cross-Browser Testing
Explains how to create browser-independent tests in TestComplete.

Specific for Testing Mobile Applications

Android Applications
Testing Android Applications
Contains basic information on testing Android applications with TestComplete.
Creating Tests for Android Open Applications
Provides complete information on testing Android applications that were prepared for TestComplete.
Simulating User Actions Over Android Devices
Explains how to simulate various user actions like touches, swipes and so on over your Android
devices.
iOS Applications
Testing iOS Applications
Contains basic information on testing iOS applications.
Preparing Applications, Devices and Test Computers for iOS Testing
Explains how to prepare iOS applications, devices, test computers and TestComplete for testing.
Simulating User Actions on iOS Applications
Explains how to simulate user actions like touches and keystrokes on iOS applications.

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Technical Support and Resources

If you have questions, problems or need help with TestComplete, contact our support team at:
http://support.smartbear.com/message/?prod=TestComplete
The support team will answer you via e-mail and all further communication will be made via e-mail. However,
to start the conversation, please use the Contact Support Form.
You can also ask questions, search for answers, exchange comments and suggestions on our forums, find
answers to your question in the list of the frequently asked questions, watch video tutorials and screencasts,
read blogs and technical papers and take part in TestComplete training seminars offered by SmartBear.
For information on our support offerings, please visit our web site at http://support.smartbear.com/.

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Index
A

Analyzing recorded test

Android ........................................................... 88
Desktop ........................................................... 34
Web ................................................................. 59
Analyzing recorded tests
Mobile ........................................................... 114
Analyzing test results
Desktop ........................................................... 41
Mobile ..................................................... 93, 119
Web ................................................................. 64
Android applications testing ............................... 70
Automated testing ................................................. 5

Desktop applications testing ...............................12

B
Black-box applications ....................................... 10
C
Checkpoints ............................................ 11, 27, 82
Creating ..................................................... 27, 82
Creating
Desktop Projects.............................................. 19
Web Projects ................................................... 47
Creating tests
Desktop ........................................................... 21
Mobile (Android) .................................... 76, 104
Web ................................................................. 49

F
Functional testing .................................................5
I
iOS applications testing ......................................99
K
Keyword tests .......................................................5
L
Log
Desktop............................................................41
Jump to source ..................................... 43, 66, 95
Web .................................................................64
M
Mapping object names .................................. 38, 62
Mobile applications testing ........................... 70, 99
Mobile Screen .....................................................80
N
Name mapping .............................................. 38, 62
NameMapping ..................................................120
Correcting identification properties...............120
Naming objects .....................................................9
O
Object Browser panel ...........................................8
Object model.........................................................9
Object naming.......................................................9
Open Applications ..............................................11
P
Panels ....................................................................7
Preparing
Android application .........................................74

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Android device ................................................ 73

iOS application .............................................. 101
iOS device ..................................................... 100
Preparing for mobile testing ....................... 71, 100
Project Explorer panel .......................................... 7
Project items ......................................................... 6
Project suites ......................................................... 6
Projects ................................................................. 6
Desktop ........................................................... 13
Mobile (Android) ............................................ 70
Mobile (iOS) ................................................... 99
Web ................................................................. 44
R
Recording tests
Desktop ........................................................... 21
Web ................................................................. 49
Running tests
Batch runs........................................................ 40
Desktop ........................................................... 39
Different browser ............................................ 67
Initial conditions.................................. 39, 62, 91
Mobile ..................................................... 91, 118
Multiple devices ...................................... 96, 122
Pausing ........................................ 40, 63, 92, 119
Stopping ...................................... 40, 63, 92, 119
Web ................................................................. 62
S

Jump to source ..................................... 43, 66, 95

Web .................................................................64
Test object model..................................................9
Test projects..........................................................6
Creating desktop project ..................................13
Creating mobile project (Android) ..................75
Creating mobile project (iOS) ................. 99, 102
Creating web project .......................................44
Test results
Desktop............................................................41
Jump to source ..................................... 43, 66, 95
Mobile (Android) ............................................93
Mobile (iOS)..................................................119
Resolving errors .................................. 43, 66, 95
Web .................................................................64
Tested applications
Desktop............................................................14
Mobile ..................................................... 75, 102
Web .................................................................46
Testing
About automated testing ....................................5
Test types...........................................................5
Tests
Analyzing recorded test ............... 34, 59, 88, 114
Analyzing results ......................... 41, 64, 93, 119
Creating ....................................... 21, 49, 76, 104
Recording .................................................. 21, 49
Running ....................................... 39, 62, 91, 118
Test types...........................................................5

Scripts ................................................................... 5
Simulating user actions................................. 37, 61
Stores .................................................................. 11
Support and resources....................................... 127

UI testing ..............................................................5
User interface overview ........................................7

Technical support and resources....................... 127

Test log
Desktop ........................................................... 41

Web applications testing .....................................44

White-box applications .......................................11

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