Preparing In-Browser Silverlight Applications for Testing

Making the Application Internals Accessible to TestComplete

Making Cross-Domain Silverlight Applications Testable with TestComplete

TestComplete can test only those Silverlight applications that were compiled and packed to an application package (the .xap file). Silverlight applications loaded by wrapper web pages directly from XAML source code files (.xaml) without using .xap package files are not supported by TestComplete.

Automatic Patching (Default Approach)

Applications That Are Not Patched Automatically

Preparing Applications With the tcAgPatcher Utility

To manually prepare a Silverlight application for testing and make its internal objects accessible to TestComplete, use the tcAgPatcher command-line utility (<TestComplete>\Open Apps\Silverlight\tcAgPatcher.exe).

tcAgPatcher does not change the application’s source code. It adds TestComplete libraries directly to the application’s .xap file and registers them in the application’s manifest (AppManifest.xaml) inside the .xap file. These libraries are the same as those TestComplete injects into non-prepared Silverlight applications during the testing. They enable TestComplete to interact with Silverlight applications and see its UI and internal objects.

Do not copy tcAgPatcher to another folder. tcAgPatcher works only from its default installation folder.

tcAgPatcher has the following command-line syntax:

tcAgPatcher.exe [/silent] [/noBackup] xapfile

The command-line arguments are as follows:

• /silent - (Optional) Do not show any error or warning messages.

• /noBackup - (Optional) Do not create a backup copy of the application’s .xap file. If this argument is not specified, tcAgPatcher creates the application’s backup copy with the .bak extension in the same folder.

• xapfile - The fully-qualified name of the Silverlight application’s .xap file to process.

You need to replace the .xap file on the application server with the processed .xap file. Do not process a local copy of the .xap file stored in your web browser’s cache.

Note for signed Silverlight applications: To test a signed Silverlight application processed with tcAgPatcher, launch TestComplete with the /agpatcheroff command-line argument:

TestComplete.exe /agpatcheroff

Without this argument, your application’s digital signature will be invalid during the testing process.

Recommendation on Launching Web Browsers

Testing on Servers That Require Authentication

If you want to test a Silverlight application that uses cross-domain communication, you need to perform the following steps to make the application testable with TestComplete:

1. Create a crossdomain.xml configuration file with the following contents and place the file in the root directory of the web site where the tested Silverlight application’s package file (.xap) resides:

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   <?xml version="1.0"?>
   <!DOCTYPE cross-domain-policy SYSTEM "http://www.macromedia.com/xml/dtds/cross-domain-policy.dtd">
   <cross-domain-policy>
      <allow-http-request-headers-from domain="*" headers="*"/>
   </cross-domain-policy>

   For more information on this file, see the MSDN Library.

2. In the application manifest file (AppManifest.xml) of your Silverlight project, set the ExternalCallersFromCrossDomain attribute of the Deployment element to “ScriptableOnly”.

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   <Deployment xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/client/2007"
     xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
     ExternalCallersFromCrossDomain="ScriptableOnly"
       ...
   >
       ...
   </Deployment>

   By default, the application manifest file is generated when you are building your Silverlight project. If the file is not generated, make sure that the “Generate Silverlight manifest file” option is enabled in the project’s settings. For this purpose:

   • Right-click the project node in Visual Studio’s Solution Explorer and select Properties from the context menu.

   • In the Project Properties window, switch to the Silverlight tabbed page.

   • Select the Generate Silverlight manifest file check box and specify a manifest file template (by default, it is AppManifest.xml).

   For more information on setting the ExternalCallersFromCrossDomain attribute in the manifest file, see the MSDN Library.

3. In the source code of the application’s wrapper web page, set the enableHtmlAccess parameter of the Silverlight plugin hosting the tested Silverlight application to true.

   The way Silverlight application developers can change the enableHtmlAccess parameter depends on the way the application is embedded into the wrapper web page.

   If the application is embedded into the web page by using an HTML object element:

   • Open the application’s wrapper web page in an editor.

   • Locate the object element that is used to embed the Silverlight application.

   • Locate or add the child param element named enableHtmlAccess and set the parameter’s value to true as shown in the following example:

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     <div id="silverlightControlHost">
         <object width="640" height="480" data="data:application/x-silverlight-2," type="application/x-silverlight-2" >
             <param name="source" value="MySilverlightApp.xap"/>
             <param name="minRuntimeVersion" value="4.0.50826.0" />
             <param name="enableHtmlAccess" value="true" />
             <a href="http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=124807" style="text-decoration: none;">
                 <img src="http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=108181" alt="Get Microsoft Silverlight" style="border-style: none"/>
             </a>
         </object>
     </div>

   • Save the changes.

   If the application is added to the web page by using JavaScript functions:

   • Open the web page or JavaScript file containing the application’s functions in an editor.

   • Locate the Silverlight.createObject or Silverlight.createObjectEx function call that is used to embed the Silverlight application.

   • Locate or add the enableHtmlAccess property in the function’s parameter list and set its value to true as shown in the following example:

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     Silverlight.createObject(
         "MyApplication.xap",
         document.getElementById("silverlightControlHost"),
         "silverlightControl",
         {
             width: "640",
             height: "480",
             version: "4.0.50826.0",
             enableHtmlAccess: true
         },
         { },
         null,
         null
     );
     
     // -- or --
     
     Silverlight.createObjectEx({
         source: "MyApplication.xap",
         parentElement: document.getElementById("silverlightControlHost"),
         id: "silverlightControl",
         properties: {
             width: "640",
             height: "480",
             version: "4.0.50826.0",
             enableHtmlAccess: true
         },
         events: {}
     });

   • Save the changes.

   For more information on setting the enableHtmlAccess parameter of the Silverlight plugin, see the MSDN Library.

4. Include the <TestComplete>\Open Apps\Silverlight\tcAgAgent15.dll assembly in your Silverlight project in Visual Studio.

5. Append the following call to the Startup event handler code:

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   AutomatedQA.TestComplete.AgAgent.Core.AgAgentLoader.LoadAgent();

6. Rebuild the application. After that, you need to process the generated application package file (.xap) with the tcAgPatcher.exe command-line utility in the manner described above. This will enable extended support for Silverlight controls in your application.

TestComplete 32-bit executable is located in the <TestComplete>\Bin folder.

TestComplete 64-bit executable is located in the <TestComplete>\x64\Bin folder.

TestComplete 32-bit executable is located in the <TestComplete>\Bin folder.

TestComplete 64-bit executable is located in the <TestComplete>\x64\Bin folder.