Tools Sidebar

This sidebar provides you with useful tools to manage your testing during a manual test run.

Opening the Tools Sidebar

The Tools sidebar enables you to find defects in the user interface of your application and report them to ALM or a defect tracking system. You can open the Annotation Workspace to annotate a screen capture of your application and include it in a defect, or you can save, print, or email the screen capture.

In Power Mode this sidebar also enables you to add a comment to your test, open the Storyboard viewer, or display a list of the user actions in your run.

To open the Tools sidebar:

  1. Enter Run mode.

  2. Open a test or component.

  3. If you want to work in Power mode, click Power Mode to activate the mode.

  4. Click Run or the Run Selected Test .



Click thumbnail to view full size image of the sidebar with Power Mode options.

Tip: To lock the sidebar in the open position, click the thumbtack icon. To reposition the sidebar, click and drag on the sidebar header.

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Tools Sidebar Icons

In the following table, a Power mode icon indicates that the button is only available when Power Mode is active.

UI Element

Description

Storyboard. Opens the Storyboard window enabling you to view a visual summary of all the user actions in your test. For details, see Storyboard Window.

User Actions. Displays a list of the recorded user actions. You can export the list to an .xsl or .csv file. You can also print or include the summary in an email. For details, see User Actions Pane/User Actions Summary Dialog Box.

Smart Defect. Enables you to submit a defect.

Drop-down options:

  • Smart Defect. (Default) Enables you to include automatically generated scenario information in the defect description. For details, see Smart Defect Settings Dialog Box.

  • New Defect. Enables you to manually submit a new defect. For details, see New Defect Dialog Box.

  • Add Defect Reminder. Lets you add a descriptive defect reminder. For details, see the Defect Reminder Dialog Box.

  • Link Existing Defect. For ALM users, enables you to link to an existing defect in Application Lifecycle Management.

Annotation Workspace. (Ctrl+F10) Opens the Annotation Workspace, enabling you to detect user interface defects in your application and add annotations in a screen capture of your application.

From the Annotation Workspace you can include the annotated screen capture in the defect, save it to the actual result of the current step, or you can save, print, or email the annotated screen capture.

For details, see Annotation Tools Sidebar.

Screen Capture. Takes a snapshot image of your application.

Drop-down options:

  • Email. (Default) Opens a message in your default email application with the attached screen capture of the application.

  • Save. Saves the screen capture of the application.

  • Print. Prints the screen capture of the application.

Add Comment. Enables you to add a comment to the current user action. For more details, see Comment Dialog Box.

You can view the comments you added to your test in the Storyboard Window, for each action. For details on the Timeline Viewer, see Storyboard Window.
<custom icon> An icon representing the first custom tool. For details see below.

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Adding Custom Tools to the Tools Sidebar

Sprinter allows you to add additional tools to the Tools Sidebar. These tools will be available during the test run, similar to all other buttons on the Tools Sidebar.
A tool can be any program that you can run from the command line. For example, an executable file, a VB script and so forth. To add a tool:

  1. Open the <Installation Folder>/bin folder and locate the CustomCommands.xml file. The file contains several examples in the commented section.
  2. Open the XML file for editing.
  3. Specify an executable file, or any program that can be run from the command line. For example <FileName>notepad.exe</FileName>
  4. Provide arguments using the syntax that can be used on the command line. For example, <Arguments>C:\temp.txt</Arguments>
  5. Specify the path of an icon representing the tool. For example, <ImageSource>C:\MyIcon.jpg</ImageSource>
  6. Specify the title of the tool as it will appear on the drop-down on the Tools Sidebar. For example, <Title>Notepad</Title>
  7. Indicate the action of the tool as it will appear in the tooltip's header. For example, <TooltipHeader>Opens Notepad</TooltipHeader>
  8. Provide a description of the tool as it will appear in the tooltip's header. For example, <TooltipDescription>Opens Notepad with the “C:\temp.txt” file</TooltipDescription>
  9. Save and close the file.

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See also: