Deciding When to Use Web Add-in Extensibility

The UFT One Web Add-in provides a certain level of support for most Web controls, but ignores controls defined as DIV or SPAN elements. Before you extend support for a custom Web control, analyze it from a UFT One perspective to view the extent of this support and to decide which elements of support you need to modify.

When you analyze the custom Web control, use the Object Spy, Keyword View, Editor, and the Record option. Make sure you examine each of the elements described in Identifying the Building Blocks of Web Add-in Extensibility.

If you are not satisfied with the existing object identification or behavior, your Web control is a candidate for Web Add-in Extensibility, as illustrated in the following situations:

  • UFT One might recognize the control using a test object class that does not fit your needs. You can use Web Add-in Extensibility to instruct UFT One to identify the custom control as belonging to a new test object class that you create.

  • The test object class that UFT One uses for the control might be satisfactory, but you would like to customize the behavior of certain test object methods or identification properties. You can use Web Add-in Extensibility to create a new test object class that extends the one UFT One uses, override the implementation of these properties and methods with your own custom implementation, and instruct UFT One to use the new test object class.

  • You might find that the test object names UFT One generates for all objects of a certain control type are identical (except for a unique counter) or that the name used for the test object does not clearly indicate the control it represents. You can use Web Add-in Extensibility to create a new test object class that extends the one UFT One uses, modify how UFT One names test objects of your new class, and instruct UFT One to use the new test object class.

  • UFT One might identify individual sub-controls within your custom control, but not properly identify your main control. For example, if your main custom control is a digital clock with edit boxes containing the hour and minute digits, you might want changes in the time to be recognized as SetTime operations on the clock control and not as Set operations on the edit boxes. You can use Web Add-in Extensibility to modify how events that occur on child controls are treated.

  • During a record session, when you perform operations or trigger events on your control, UFT One might not record a step at all, or it might record steps that are not specific to the control's behavior. Alternatively, UFT One might record many steps for an event that should be considered a single operation, or it might record a step when no step should be recorded.

    You can configure the events you want to record for each type of existing Web object by modifying the Web event configuration. For more information, see the section on configuring Web event recording in the UFT One Help Center.

    If Web event configuration does not sufficiently enable you to customize recording, for example, if you want to modify the steps that UFT One records when certain events occur, you can use Web Add-in Extensibility.

For an example illustrating how to use Web Add-in Extensibility to improve UFT One support of a custom control, see Analyzing the Default UFT One Support and Extensibility Options for a Sample Custom Control.