Keyword View User Interface

Relevant for: GUI actions and components

The Keyword View enables you to create and view the steps of your actions or components in a modular, table-like format.

Each step has a separate row in the table, and each column represents the different parts of your step.

Note: When working with a business component, the Keyword View that you see in UFT One is the same as the Automation tab in ALM.

To access	Make sure that an action tab or component tab is the active document. If the Editor is displayed, click the Toggle between the Keyword View and Editor button.
Important Information	Right-click the table header and select the columns to view in the Keyword View Options dialog box. Drag columns and steps to reorder them. Right-click a step to view its properties, modify your test or component such as inserting a new step, or to run the test from the selected step.

Add the following types of steps, comments, and programming:

Standard steps	A test step, with an object in your application with a specific operation performed on the object. For details, see Standard steps in the Keyword View.
Checkpoint steps	A step to test the state of an object in your application at a specific point in the application/test flow. For details, see Insert a checkpoint step.
Output value steps	A step to produce a value from an object which can be used later in the test. For details, see Output values in GUI testing.
Comments	Lines in the script designed to add descriptive details about the test/component or the specific step. For details, see Comments in the Keyword View.
Steps using programming logic	You can use programming logic to perform a number of tasks, such as sending information to the run results or synchronizing your test with your application. For details, see Programming Operations, Conditional and loop statements.

The Keyword View has the following columns:

Item column

The item on which you want to perform the step. In a component, you must select an option from the Item column before you can add additional content to a step.

An item can be any of the following:

Actions

a test object from the object repository
a utility object
a function call
a VBScript statement, for example, a Dim statement.
a step generated by the Step Generator.

Components

a test object from the object repository
Comment. Free text cell that spans the entire row.
a user-defined function (Operation).

For example, a function that opens an application at the start of a business component or checks the value of a specific property.

Available only if user-defined functions were added to a function library that is associated with the component's application area.

For details, see Associated function libraries and User-Defined Functions.

Operation column

The operation to be performed on the item. This column contains a list of all available operations (methods, functions, or properties (or sub-procedures for components)) that can be performed on the item selected in the Item column, for example, Click and Select.

Value column

The argument values for the selected operation, partitioned according to the number of arguments of the selected option in the Operation column.

In components, an argument value can be a constant or a parameter:

Local parameters

Specific to the business component and can only be accessed by that component.

It is intended for use in a single step or between component steps, for example, as an output parameter for one step and an input parameter for a later step.

Component parameters

Can be accessed by any component in your ALM project.

For details, see Parameters Tab (Properties Pane - GUI Testing).

Assignment column (actions only)

The assignment of a value to or from a variable.

Double-click the left part of the cell to select either Store in or Get from. Then click in the right part of the cell to specify the name of the variable.

Store in X	Value is equivalent to an X = <step> line in the Editor.
Get From X	Value is equivalent to a <step> = X line in the Editor.

For example, Store in cCols would store the return value of the current step in a variable called cCols, which you could then use later in the test.

For details on storing variables, see Storage Location Options Dialog Box.

Comment column (actions only)

A free text edit box for any information you want to add regarding the step. These are also displayed as inline comments in the Editor.

For details, see Comments in the Keyword View.

Output column (components only)

The parameter in which output values for the step are stored.