Creating Connected Applications in C#

You can create C# Connected Applications in Visual Studio 2013 or earlier. Visual Studio 2015 and later are not supported for this.

To make your C# application a Connected Application, you need to add the following two assemblies to your C# project:

By default both assemblies are located in the <TestComplete>\Connected Apps\.NET folder.

To add these assemblies to your project, perform the following operations:

1. Create a new C# project or open an existing one in Visual Studio.

2. In Visual Studio 2005 and later, do the following:

   • Rightlick your project in the Solution Explorer and then select Add Reference from the context menu.

   • In the resulting Add Reference dialog, switch to the Browse tabbed page.

   • Open the AutomatedQA.TestComplete.CSConnectedApp.dll and AutomatedQA.script.dll libraries (to select several files, press Ctrl and keep it pressed when clicking the desired files).

   • After you have added these libraries to the component list, click OK to close the Add Reference dialog.

3. In Visual Studio .NET 7.x, rightlick your project in the Solution Explorer and select Add Reference from the context menu. In the resulting Add Reference dialog:

   • Switch to the .NET tabbed page.

   • Click the Browse button to call the standard Open File dialog and open the AutomatedQA.TestComplete.CSConnectedApp.dll library.

   • Click Browse again and add the AutomatedQA.script.dll library.

   • After you have added these libraries to the component list, click OK to close the Add Reference dialog.

4. Insert the following strings at the beginning of the source file that will contain the test code:

   C#

   Copy Code

   C#

   using AutomatedQA.script;
   using AutomatedQA.TestComplete;

When working with .NET applications, you can call routines that reside in .NET assemblies from your scripts. You should add the desired assembly to the list in the project's CLR Bridge options. Assemblies added to the CLR Bridge options become available in scripts as well as routines, types and type members defined in the assembly (see Calling Functions From .NET Assemblies). If a routine of an assembly uses or returns the var type, you should add local copies of the AutomatedQA.script.dll and AutomatedQA.TestComplete.CSConnectedApp.dll files to the folder holding the used .NET assembly. Otherwise, these routines will be inaccessible from your scripts and will not be displayed in the Code Completion window. You can add these files manually or recompile your .NET assembly in Microsoft Visual Studio with the Properties|Copy Local property of the AutomatedQA.script.dll and AutomatedQA.TestComplete.CSConnectedApp.dll items set to True.

Once you have added the assemblies and strings, you can write test code. For more information on this, see below.

1. Type the test code in your C# source, or copy the test procedure(s) from TestComplete scripts written in C#Script (though C#Script and C# are not fully compatible, copying will save the time needed for typing. If you copy the code, you will have to modify it in order to make it compatible with C#).

2. Modify the copied code so that it can be executed in your C# application.

   • Use the Connect class to address global programming objects of TestComplete. To use this class, add the using AutomatedQA.TestComplete.Connect; line to the source file that contains the testing code. Note that you can skip Connect if the class, whose methods contain the testing code, is inherited from the Connect class. This class contains fields whose names coincide with the names of programming objects. Therefore, the methods of this class may address these properties without using Connect.

     Note that the Connect class contains fields for TestComplete standard objects (Sys, Log, Regions and others). It does not contain fields for objects provided by third-party plugins. To obtain these objects, use the GetObjectByName method of the Integration object:

     C#

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     C#

     using AutomatedQA.TestComplete;
     ...
     var MyObject = Connect.Integration["GetObjectByName"]("MyObjectName");

   • Replace the function keyword with the function's result type, for instance, replace function with void.

   • Variables that receive results of TestComplete functions must have the var type.

   • Note for Visual Studio .NET 2003 users:

     The C#Script code imported into a C# application uses objects of the var type. These objects are analogues to Variant variables in Visual Basic or Delphi. If you assign a C# object to a variable or property of the var type, the variable or property will cause an error. For example, this may happen within an event handling routine:

     C#

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     C#

     private void axEventControl1_OnLogError(object sender, AxEventControl.ItcControlEvents_OnLogErrorEvent e)
     {
       var lp = (var)e.logParams; // Incorrect
       lp["AdditionalText"] = "Message"; // <-- An error occurs
       …
     }

     The error happens because Visual Studio does not allow automatic construction of the base class (named object) to any other object:

     Compiler Error CS0553 'conversion routine' : user defined conversion to/from base class
     User-defined conversions to values of a base class are not allowed; you do not need such an operator.

     To solve the problem, do the following:

     C#

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     C#

     private void axEventControl1_OnLogError(object sender, AxEventControl.ItcControlEvents_OnLogErrorEvent e)
     {
       var lp = new var(e.logParams); // Correct!
       lp["AdditionalText"] = "Message"; // Correct!
       …
     }

   For more information about these modifications, see Writing C# Scripts.

3. TestComplete must be in the script-running mode to run the test code located in your Connected Application. To run the test code, you should either launch the Connected Application from the TestComplete script, or call the Connect.RunTest routine (see Running Connected and Self-Testing Applications for more information).

   If you are going to use the Connect.RunTest routine, insert a call to it before the first statement of the test code in your Connected Application. To stop the test run initiated with Connect.RunTest, use the Connect.StopTest routine:

   C#

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   C#

   Connect.RunTest("My Test", "MyProject", "C:\\Work\\MyProjectSuite.pjs");
   ...
   // Test code
   ...
   Connect.StopTest();

   If you are going to launch your Connected Application from TestComplete, call the test procedure from your own code. For instance, you can call the test procedure within a button’s OnClick event handler.

4. Compile your application.

In order for the Connected Application to be able to use TestComplete scripting objects and post messages to the test log, TestComplete must be in the script-running mode. The testing engine switches to this mode when you run a test from TestComplete, or when you call the Connect.RunTest routine (see Running Connected and Self-Testing Applications).

If you do not use the Connect.RunTest routine, you should launch your Connected Application from TestComplete. To do this:

1. Open your project in TestComplete.

2. Add your Connected Application to the project’s list of tested applications. For more information on how to do this, see 4. Define an Application to Test.

3. Write script code that will launch your Connected Application and wait until it performs testing actions. For instance:

   JavaScript, JScript

   Python

   VBScript

   DelphiScript

   C++Script, C#Script

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   JavaScript, JScript

   function Test()
   {
     var p;
     // Launches the Connected Application and obtains the process
     // that corresponds to your Connected Application
     p = TestedApps.Items[0].Run();
     // Delays script execution while 
     // the Connected Application performs the testing actions
     while(p.Exists)
       aqUtils.Delay(500);
   }

   Python

   def Test():
     # Launches the Connected Application and obtains the process
     # that corresponds to your Connected Application
     p = TestedApps.Items[0].Run()
     # Delays script execution while 
     # the Connected Application performs the testing actions
     while(p.Exists):
       aqUtils.Delay(500)

   VBScript

   Sub Test
     ' Launches the Connected Application and obtains the process
     ' that corresponds to your Connected Application
     Set p = TestedApps.Items(0).Run
     ' Delays script execution while
     ' the Connected Application performs the testing actions
     While p.Exists
       aqUtils.Delay 500
     WEnd
   End Sub

   DelphiScript

   procedure Test;
   var
     p : OleVariant;
   begin
     // Launches the Connected Application and obtains the process
     // that corresponds to your Connected Application
     p := TestedApps.Items[0].Run;
     // Delays script execution while
     // the Connected Application performs the testing actions
     while p.Exists do
       aqUtils.Delay(500);
   end;
   

   C++Script, C#Script

   function Test()
   {
     var p;
     // Launches the Connected Application and obtains the process
     // that corresponds to your Connected Application
     p = TestedApps["Items"](0)["Run"]();
     // Delays script execution while 
     // the Connected Application performs the testing actions
     while (p["Exists"])
       aqUtils["Delay"](500);
   }

4. Make sure this code is called when running the current TestComplete project.

5. As you can see, the script is running until the Connected Application is closed. In order to stop the script run from the Connected Application, use the Runner.Stop method. This method notifies TestComplete that the run is over and refreshes the Test Log so that it displays the latest test results.

Now you can run the test by clicking the button whose OnClick event handler contains the test code.