Test and component maintenance

Relevant for: GUI tests and components

How do I maintain my test or component when my application changes?

The way to maintain a test or component when your application changes depends on how much your application changes. This is one of the main reasons you should create a small group of tests or components, rather than one large test or component for your entire application.

You can also use OpenText Functional Testing actions to design more modular and efficient tests. Divide your test into several actions, based on functionality. When your application changes, you can modify a specific action, without changing the rest of the test. Whenever possible, insert calls to reusable actions rather than creating identical pieces of script in several tests. This way, changes to your original reusable action are automatically applied to all tests calling that action.

If you have many tests, components, and actions that contain the same test objects, we recommend working with shared object repositories so that you can update object information in a centralized location.

You can use the Update Run Mode option to update changed information for checkpoints or the Active Screen, or to change the set of description properties used to identify the objects in your application.

If there is a discrepancy between the values saved in the object repository and the object property values in the application, you can use the Maintenance Run Mode to help correct this. When you run a test or component in Maintenance Run Mode, OpenText Functional Testing runs your test or component, and then guides you through the process of updating your steps and object repository each time it encounters a step it cannot perform due to an object repository discrepancy. For more details, see Maintenance Run mode.

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Can I increase or decrease Active Screen information after I finish recording a test?

If you find that the information saved in the Active Screen after recording is not sufficient, or if you no longer need Active Screen information, and you want to decrease the size of your test or component, there are several methods of changing the amount of Active Screen information saved.

  • To decrease the disk space used by your test or component, you can delete Active Screen information by selecting Save As, and clearing the Save Active Screen files checkbox.

  • If you chose not to save all information in the Active Screen when testing a Windows application, you can use one of several methods to increase the information stored in the Active Screen.

    Confirm that the Active Screen capture preference in the Active Screen pane of the Options dialog box (Tools > Options > GUI Testing tab > Active Screen node) is set to capture the amount of information you need and then:

    • Perform an Update Run Mode operation to save the required amount of information in the Active Screen for all existing steps.

    • Re-record the steps containing the objects you want to add to the Active Screen.

      To re-record the step, select the step after which you want to record your step, position your application to match the selected location in your test or component, and then begin recording. Alternatively, place a breakpoint in your test at the step before which you want to add a step and run your test or component to the breakpoint. This brings your application to the point from which to record the step.

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