Understanding Web Object Identification and Object Models

By default, TestComplete uses object names from Name Mapping (the object repository) to refer to objects on web pages. These names are called aliases. When you are recording a test, TestComplete automatically adds the recorded objects to Name Mapping and generates aliases for them.

You can view the recorded object aliases and define new aliases in the Name Mapping editor.

In the editor, the Aliases tree displays the hierarchy of mapped objects and their aliases. The fully-qualified alias that can be used to refer to the object is shown in the top right part of the Name Mapping editor. It begins with Aliases and includes the aliases of all of the object’s parent objects separated by dots (in VBScript, JScript, Python and DelphiScript projects) or square brackets (in C++Script and C#Script projects). For example, in the image above, you can see that you can refer to a form on a web page using the following name:

You can copy object aliases from the Name Mapping editor to the clipboard and use them when manually adding test operations over web page objects.

The following examples show a sample text input operation where the target web page object is specified by an alias:

Your tests can work not only with web pages and objects added to Name Mapping, but also with any other open web pages and their elements. In fact, you can create tests without using Name Mapping at all. In this case, you can address objects using the syntax that locates them on a web page directly. Depending on the web testing mode you use, it can be either by using the object’s identification properties provided by TestComplete or by using XPath or CSS selectors (cross-platform web tests).

To learn the exact syntax for referring to an object, you can use the Object Browser or Object Spy — the FullName property they show always uses this naming syntax.

The syntax includes the following:

• The notation starts with the Sys object that represents the operating system.

• The next object is Browser, which represents the web browser. If you need to address a specific browser, for example, Firefox, you can use Browser("firefox"). If the specific browser name is not important, you may omit the browser process name or use the asterisk wildcard Browser("*"). Even if several browsers are running simultaneously, TestComplete can select the appropriate Browser object by analyzing the URL of the requested web page.

• The Page("http://www.example.com") test object corresponds to the web page at the http://www.example.com address.

  If the web page URL contains dynamic parts, for example, a query string, you can mask them using the * wildcard. For example, instead of Page("http://www.example.com/search?q=test"), you can use Page("http://www.example.com/search*"). See Ignoring Query String Parameters.

• The rest of the syntax depends on the web testing mode:

  • When the default mode is active - The other objects - Form("aspnetForm"), Panel(2), and Textbox("username") - correspond to web page elements.

  • When the cross-platform mode is active - The web elements are located on a web page by using the FindElement method and the XPath or CSS selector as a search criterion.

For example:

You can combine the aliases specified in Name Mapping and the ObjectType(ObjectId) notation when referencing the object hierarchy in tests. For example, you can use aliases for parent objects and the ObjectType(ObjectId) notation for child objects:

However, keep in mind that aliases must always precede the ObjectType(ObjectId) notation in the object hierarchy. Aliases cannot be used after or between the ObjectType(ObjectId) notations within the same statement. That is, the following statements are invalid: