Create steps by inspecting your application

This topic describes how to use AI Inspection to identify objects in your application and create steps in your script.

Note: This task is a part of a higher-level task. For details, see Create a script.

Inspect your application for objects

Identify the objects in your application using AI Object Inspection. Then add steps to your script that perform operations on these objects.

For the types of objects that can be identified, see Supported objects.

To inspect your application for objects:

(Optional) Launch your application and open the page with the objects you want to test.
Above the Editor, click the Inspect application button.
Click Live applications in the AI Inspect pane. For details about inspecting mockup images, see Create steps by inspecting mockups.
You can select from various applications:
- To select an application that is already open or to open another application, click Web application on the Live applications tab. A list of open browser tabs is displayed.
  
  Choose from the following options:
  - To inspect an open application, select the application you want to inspect and click Inspect.
  - To open another application, select the browser type from the Open a new browser tab list and specify the URL to open. Click Launch and Inspect.
    
    To add a selected application to the Script applications pane, click + Add to 'Script applications' in the dialog. The application is added as soon as you click the button.
- To go to the Script applications pane, click Manage applications.
- To launch an application defined in your script, in the Script applications section, click the ellipsis button on the application card and select Launch and Inspect.
The current page of the application is inspected and the identified objects are highlighted.
Decide whether you want to view the identified visual elements, text objects, or both, and select the appropriate checkboxes.

Note: To identify text in languages other than English, customize your script settings. See Customize settings.
Follow steps in Add AI steps to your script to create steps for the current web page.

Tip: To inspect the current page again, click the Re-inspect button , or click the Delayed re-inspect button to set the delay for an automatic reinspection.
To create steps for the next page in your application, go to that page and click the Re-inspect button .
To inspect a new application, click Select a different application .

Add AI steps to your script

After you have the objects in your application highlighted, you can add AI steps to your script.

To add AI steps to your script:

Make sure you are in the Live applications tab and that you have inspected your application.
Click a highlighted object.

A pop-up dialog box with the suggested step and object description opens.
Accept or modify the object description.

To make the description more accurate, click Edit to open the Edit step pane.

You can modify the Identification text, or add a Position or Relation.

For details on using a Position or Relation to uniquely describe an object, see Add a position or relation.

Sometimes, multiple text strings are identified near the object. You can select the one to use for object identification from a drop-down list within the Identification text box.

To edit the Identification text, click the More options button and select Edit. Press Enter or click out of the text box to save your edits. To restore the original text suggested by the inspection, click the Restore button .

Turn off the Identification text toggle if you don't want the object's text to be used for its identification. For example, if you are describing an object whose text varies.

Alternatively, if you want the text to be matched exactly, click the identification text's Settings button , and select Exact match. To remove the Exact match setting, click its x. For details on exact text matching, see Exact text matching versus AI matching.

Use rules to describe text whose value in the application is not always the same. For details, see Use rules and regular expressions.

The object description you create is tested against the object in the application. If the description does not uniquely describe an object in the application, you cannot run the step or add it to your script.

Accept or modify the step action and edit the value field or other step options.

For more details on the Verify step actions, see Add verification steps.
You can use a parameter for the object's Identification text or for the step's input Value. For details, see Pass a value to the script
Add the new step to your script and, optionally, run the step on your application.

In the step's pop-up dialog box or in the Edit step pane, do one of the following:
- To add the step to your script and run it, click Add and run. This verifies that your step is correct and advances the application to the next state.
- To add the step to your script without running it, click the down arrow on the Add and run button, and click Add step. You can then click the Re-inspect button and add additional steps, or click Run on application to run the last step you added.
After the step runs, the application is automatically re-inspected for the next step. By default, the re-inspection is delayed by a few seconds to provide time for the application to load after running the step. To configure the length of this delay, click the reinspection delay button.

Note: Avoid adding steps with objects that were incorrectly identified. For example, if a button is identified as a text box, or a check mark is identified as a button, such objects may be identified inconsistently and fail in subsequent runs.

Steps created with AI Inspection are marked with an AI indicator in the Editor, as shown below:

To edit or fine-tune these steps in the Editor, see Manually edit steps.
Save the script.
Associate your script with a codeless test or a unit. See Associate or unassociate your script.

Add a position or relation

If multiple similar objects are displayed in the application, you can add a position or relation to an object's description to make it unique.

Use a position to describe an object by its ordinal location. Use a relation to describe an object by its proximity to another object in the application. For more details, see Uniquely identify objects by location.

During inspection, if there are multiple identical objects on the application, a Position is added to an object's description by default. This section explains how to add a position or relation while inspecting a live application. For information on adding a position or relation while editing a script, see Manually edit steps.

To add a position to an object's description:

Inspect your application and click one of the highlighted objects. A pop-up dialog box with the suggested step and object description opens.
Click Edit to open the step editing pane.
Click Add position or relation, and select Add position.
Enter an index describing the object's ordinal location, and select the direction in which to count.
The object description you create is tested against the object in the application. If the description does not uniquely describe an object in the application, you cannot run the step or add it to your script.
Complete the step definition, as described in Add AI steps to your script and add the step to the script.
A P (Position) indicator is added to the step.

To add a relation to an object's description:

Inspect your application and click one of the highlighted objects. A pop-up dialog box with the suggested step and object description opens.
Click Edit to open the step editing pane.
If a position was created by default, click the Delete button to remove it.
Click Add position or relation, and select Add relation.
The application is displayed showing the following highlights:
- The step's object is highlighted with a blinking dot. This is the object you are describing.
- AI objects suggested as candidates for a related object are highlighted with squares.
Select the Visual Elements and Texts options as needed, to display all relevant objects.
Select one of the highlighted objects to be the Related object.
Accept or modify the selected direction, specifying the location of the related object in relation to the step's object: The related object Is above / Is on the right / Is below / Is on the left of the step's object.
Accept or modify the description of the related object:

To change the related object's identifying text, click the text. Next, click the more options button, and select whether to edit the text or use a parameter. For details on using parameters, see Pass a value to the script.

You can toggle off the Identification text, select to match it exactly, and use rules and regular expressions, as you would for the step object's description. For details, see Add AI steps to your script.

If the related object is a Text object, you can also specify that its identification text is Partial text. To do this, you must first add the step to the script and then edit it in the step editing pane. For details, see Manually edit steps.
The description of the related object includes a Position by default if additional identical objects are found. You can remove, modify, or add a position as needed.
The object description you create is tested against the object in the application. If the description does not uniquely describe an object in the application, you cannot run the step or add it to your script.
Complete the step definition, as described in Add AI steps to your script and add the step to the script.
A Relation indicator is added to the step.

Add property-based steps to your script

Add property-based steps to your script using the built-in Spy. Use this option if the AI engine was unable to identify an object. Note that if you add property-based steps, you cannot run the script on a different environment.

To add property-based steps to your script:

(Optional) Open the application you want to test.

Note: Property-based identification cannot be used on applications opened before the Design Agent was started.
Click the down arrow next to Inspect application and select Property based Identification.

The mouse pointer is converted into a pointing hand.
Go to your application.

Hold the CTRL key if you need to suspend the Spy while going to your application.
Click an object that the AI Object Inspection was unable to identify. A dialog box opens with the step name and the identified object name.
Accept the default value or edit it, as required.
Click Apply. A step is added to the Editor.

The step is marked with a PB (Property Based) icon.
If necessary, modify the step. Click the double arrow icon on the sidebar to display the step editing pane:
1. Check the Object hierarchy. To modify the captured value, select an entry from the drop down.
  
  Note: The Highlight object button works only on applications launched from FT Design. Make sure your application is visible before you click the button.
2. Make the necessary edits, such as Object logical name and Action.
3. Expand the Properties to view the captured description properties of the object.
4. If your step contains syntax errors, a warning symbol is displayed in the step, the incorrect syntax is underlined, and an error message is displayed in the step editing pane.
5. For additional step-editing options, see Manually edit steps.
Repeat the above steps to spy on additional objects.
Press ESC to exit property-based identification.

Next steps: