Business components and application areas

Relevant for: GUI and API components

This topic describes business components and application areas, both of which are used to build business process tests and flows.

Business component types

Business components are reusable units that perform specific tasks in a business process test or flow. Business components also describe the application's state before the task and after the task.

Create business components to represent any of the following:

A logical process in your application using one or more elements. For details, see Logical components.
A single object or call to API in your application. For details, see Application object components.
An action performed outside your application. For details, see Generic components.

Create the following types of business components:

Keyword GUI components

When working with GUI tests, use keyword components to divide your steps into a modular, keyword-driven table format.

Keyword components use the Keyword View, where each row is a step with options for you to define. Create and modify steps by selecting items and operations and entering additional information as needed. Your steps are automatically described for you in full sentences.

Scripted GUI components

When working with GUI tests, use scripted components to leverage features in both the Keyword View and the Editor, as well as other OpenText Functional Testing tools for editing and debugging scripted components.

For example, use the Step Generator to guide you through adding methods and functions, or the Editor to enter your VBScript statements manually using test objects and methods.

Additionally, add user-defined functions, parameterize selected items, and add checkpoints and output values.

For details, see:

API components

API components enable you the same basic functionality as an API test, but cannot use Load Testing and OpenText Automated Testing Tools activities.

For more details, see API test design.

Application areas

Application areas define the resources used to run your component. These resources can include test objects, keywords, testing preferences, function libraries, or recovery scenarios.

Define these files and settings in a single application area to share them between multiple components. Each component can be associated with one application area at a time.

Create one or many application areas for your components, depending on how your application is designed. For example, a large and complex application might require a separate application area for each webpage, module, window, or dialog box. A small application might require only one application area for all its tests.

For more details, see Manage application areas.

Logical components

Logical components represent a single process performed in the application that you're testing, such as a login or search. Logical components use one or more controls in a specific area of your UI, or a set of API calls that perform a specific application logic together.

Sample logical components:

A login window
Fields for a username and password
A login button

Search components

Search components represent a search in your applications, and use the following UI elements:

A text box for a search string
Search options to select
A search button

Application object components

Application object components represent an object on the screen or a call to a single API, and can be used in many situations across your application.

OpenText Functional Testing supports a variety of granularity levels for application area components so that you can use the one that most encourages reuse in your situation.

Examples of application object components include:

Button components represent a button object.
Grid components represents grid objects in a pane or window.
Pane components represents panes in a window or screen.
Interrogate components represent the interrogation your application's back-end database.

Generic components

Generic components perform actions outside the context of your application, and can be reused in a large variety of tests for different applications.

For example, a Launch component is a generic component that represents launching a browser.

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