Addressing Objects in Flash and Flex Applications

About Object Names in the Object Browser

Addressing Flash and Flex Objects Using Name Mapping and Aliases

Addressing Flash and Flex Objects Without Name Mapping

Combining Mapped and Unmapped Object Names

Further Reading

You can explore the object structure of the tested application in the Object Browser. Here is a sample view of the Flex application hierarchy displayed in the Object Browser:

Click the image to enlarge it.

Here, the Browser("iexplore") branch of the Sys object corresponds to the browser under which the tested Flex application is running; the orders("orders") object and further objects correspond to the application’s controls and objects.

To refer to an individual object in a tested Flash or Flex application, select the needed object in the Object Browser or Object Spy. These tools display the selected object’s name above the member list. From the right-click menu, you can copy this name to the clipboard and then insert it into your test.

Click the image to enlarge it.

You may notice that this name is different from what you see in the object tree on the left of the Object Browser. This is because the name displayed at the top of the panel uses object aliases if they are defined, whereas the object tree uses the naming syntax that includes identification properties. The differences between the two object naming syntaxes are explained in the Addressing Flash and Flex Objects Using Name Mapping and Aliases and Addressing Flash and Flex Objects Without Name Mapping sections below.

You can also learn object names in different syntaxes by looking at the following object properties:

• MappedName - the object’s fully-qualified alias (including aliases of all parent objects). This name is used for the object by default in your tests. Note that if the selected object is not in Name Mapping, this property is empty.

• Name - the object name that includes its identification properties. This is the same name you see in the Object Browser’s object tree. For an explanation of this syntax, see below.

• FullName - the object’s fully-qualified name in the syntax that includes identification properties. This name consists of the object’s Name property value and the Names of all of its parent objects. See below.

By default, TestComplete uses object names from Name Mapping (the object repository) to refer to individual objects in Flash and Flex applications under test. These names are called aliases. When you record a test, TestComplete automatically adds recorded objects to Name Mapping and generates aliases for them.

You can see available object aliases and add new aliases in the Name Mapping editor.

Here, Mapped Objects and Aliases display the hierarchy of mapped objects and their aliases, respectively. The fully-qualified alias that can be used to refer to an object is displayed in the top right of the Name Mapping editor (see the image above). It starts with Aliases and includes 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 the buttonNewOrder object 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 with the tested application’s objects.

The following example shows a sample click on the buttonNewOrder button specified by an alias:

Note that the fully-qualified mapped name for this object is as follows:

Since the orders and buttonbarBar objects are of no interest for our test, we exclude them from the path to the buttonNewOrder object in the Alias tree, so the object hierarchy becomes shorter. Using aliases lets you make your scripts shorter and more readable.

For more information about using Name Mapping and aliases, see About Name Mapping and Access Objects by Aliases.

Your tests can work not only with applications and objects added to Name Mapping, but also with any other running applications, their windows and controls. These objects can be addressed using syntax that directly includes identification property values.

The following sections describe how you can address objects in Flash and Flex applications running under a web browser or under Flash Player standalone:

Addressing Objects in Flash and Flex Applications Running Under a Web Browser

Addressing Objects in Flash and Flex Applications Running Under Flash Player Standalone

Addressing Objects in Flash and Flex Applications Running Under a Web Browser

Consider the following sample code and keyword test that illustrate how you can refer to an object in your Flash (Flex) application running under a web browser:

JavaScript, JScript

Python

VBScript

DelphiScript

C++Script, C#Script

JavaScript, JScript

Sys.Browser("iexplore").Page("http://support.smartbear.com/samples/testcomplete10/flex/").Object("orders").orders("orders").ButtonBar("Bar").ButtonBarButton("New Order").ClickButton();

Python

Sys.Browser("iexplore").Page("http://support.smartbear.com/samples/testcomplete10/flex/").Object("orders").orders("orders").ButtonBar("Bar").ButtonBarButton("New Order").ClickButton();

VBScript

Call Sys.Browser("iexplore").Page("http://support.smartbear.com/samples/testcomplete10/flex/").Object("orders").orders("orders").ButtonBar("Bar").ButtonBarButton("New Order").ClickButton

DelphiScript

Sys.Browser('iexplore').Page('http://support.smartbear.com/samples/testcomplete10/flex/').Object('orders').orders('orders').ButtonBar('Bar').ButtonBarButton('New Order').ClickButton();

C++Script, C#Script

Sys["Browser"]("iexplore")["Page"]("http://support.smartbear.com/samples/testcomplete10/flex/")["Object"]("orders")["orders"]("orders")["ButtonBar"]("Bar")["ButtonBarButton"]("New Order")["ClickButton"]();

To learn the exact syntax for referring to a particular object, use the Object Browser - the object tree and the FullName property of objects always use this naming syntax. See the About Object Names in the Object Browser section above.

Let’s have a closer look at this notation and its components.

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

• The next object, Browser("iexplore"), represents under what browser the application is running.

• The Page(URL)object is a container web page that hosts the tested application.

• The next two objects, Object("orders") and orders("orders"), correspond to the main window of the tested Flash or Flex application.

  • The first one, Object("orders"), corresponds to the OBJECT element of the web page that embeds the tested application.
  • The second object, orders("orders"), corresponds to the top-level visual container of the tested Flash or Flex application.

• Further objects represent visual objects in the Flash or Flex application.

  TestComplete uses the following syntax for these objects:

  ObjectType(ObjectIdentifier)

  Here, ObjectType is an object class name specified by the object’s FlexObject.className property. ObjectIdentifier is the object name (value of the ObjectIdentifier property). This name is specified by the object’s native properties in the following way:

  • TestComplete tries to address Flash and Flex objects by the value specified in the native FlexObject.id property.
  • If TestComplete does not find any value in the FlexObject.id property, the object is addressed in tests by the native FlexObject.name property.
  • If the name of an Flash or Flex object is not specified in the application (or if it is generated automatically), TestComplete tries to address such an object by its FlexObject.label.
  • If TestComplete does not find any value in the label, name and id object properties, the object is addressed in tests by the object type name and index among other objects of the same type that are located on the same hierarchy level (for instance, CheckBox(0)).

Addressing Objects in Flash and Flex Applications Running Under Flash Player Standalone and in Self-Executed Applications

Here is sample code and keyword test that illustrate how you can refer to an object in a Flash or Flex application running under Flash Player standalone (or a self-executed Flash or Flex application):

JavaScript, JScript

Python

VBScript

DelphiScript

C++Script, C#Script

JavaScript, JScript

Sys.Process("flashplayer").Window("ShockwaveFlash", "Adobe Flash Player 11", 1).TestSimple(0).Button("btn").ClickButton();

Python

Sys.Process("flashplayer").Window("ShockwaveFlash", "Adobe Flash Player 11", 1).TestSimple(0).Button("btn").ClickButton();

VBScript

Call Sys.Process("flashplayer").Window("ShockwaveFlash", "Adobe Flash Player 11", 1).TestSimple(0).Button("btn").ClickButton

DelphiScript

Sys.Process('flashplayer').Window('ShockwaveFlash', 'Adobe Flash Player 11', 1).TestSimple(0).Button("btn").ClickButton();

C++Script, C#Script

Sys["Process"]("flashplayer").Window("ShockwaveFlash", "Adobe Flash Player 11", 1)["TestSimple"](0)["Button"]("btn")["ClickButton"]();

To learn the exact syntax for referring to a particular object, use the Object Browser - the object tree and the FullName property of objects always use this naming syntax. See the About Object Names in the Object Browser section above.

Let’s have a closer look at this notation and its components.

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

• The next object, Process("flashplayer"), represents that an application is running under Flash Player standalone. If you are running a self-executed Flash or Flex application, the name of the process corresponds to the name of its executable file (for example, Process("MyFlexApp")).
• The next object, Window("ShockwaveFlash", "Adobe Flash Player 11", 1), is the main Flash Player window.

• Next objects represent top-level visual containers and visual objects in the tested Flash or Flex application.

  TestComplete uses the following syntax for these objects:

  ObjectType(ObjectIdentifier)

  Here, ObjectType is the type of the object specified by the object’s FlexObject.className property. ObjectIdentifier is the object name (value of the ObjectIdentifier property). This name is specified by the object’s native properties in the following way:

  • TestComplete tries to address Flash and Flex objects by the value specified in the native FlexObject.id property.
  • If TestComplete does not find any value in the FlexObject.id property, the object is addressed in tests by the native FlexObject.name property.
  • If the name of an Flash or Flex object is not specified in the application (or if it is generated automatically), TestComplete tries to address such an object by its FlexObject.label.
  • If TestComplete does not find any value in the label, name and id object properties, the object is addressed in tests by the object type name and index among other objects of the same type that are located on the same hierarchy level (for instance, CheckBox(0)).

For examples of this syntax applied to objects in your tested Flash or Flex application, examine your application in the Object Browser. You can also copy this syntax from the Object Browser and paste it to your test to avoid having to type it manually.

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

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

The following topics explain how to refer to objects in Flash and Flex applications while performing some common operations with them: