Creating Connected Applications in Visual Basic .NET

• Create a new Visual Basic .NET project or open an existing project in Visual Studio .NET (Visual Studio 2005).

• In Visual Studio .NET 7.x. select Project | Add Reference from the main menu to display the Add Reference dialog. Go to the .NET tabbed page and click the Browse button to display the standard Open File dialog and open the AutomatedQA.TestComplete.VBConnectedApp.dll library (by default, it is located in the <TestComplete>\Connected Apps\.NET folder). After you have added this library to the component list, click OK to close the Add Reference dialog.

• In Visual Studio 2005, 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.VBConnectedApp.dll library (by default, it is located in the <TestComplete>\Connected Apps\.NET folder).

  • Click OK to close the Add Reference dialog.

• Add the following string to the beginning of the source file, which will hold the test code:

  Visual Basic .NET

  Visual Basic .NET

  Imports AutomatedQA.TestComplete.Connect

• To create test code in a Connected Application, you can either write the test code into your Visual Basic .NET source, or copy the test procedure(s) from TestComplete scripts written in VBScript.

  To address TestComplete global programming objects, use their names. However, this functionality is only supported for TestComplete standard objects (Sys, Log, Regions and others). To address objects provided by third-party plugins, use the TC.Integration.GetObjectByName method of the Connect class:

  Visual Basic .NET

  Visual Basic .NET

  Imports AutomatedQA.TestComplete.Connect
  ...
  MyObj = TC.Integration.GetObjectByName("MyObjectName")

• Important: make sure your VB.NET units do not contain the Option Strict On statement. This statement forbids late binding which is needed to execute the imported script code.

• In order for the Connected Application to be able to address TestComplete objects and post messages to the test log, TestComplete must be in the script-running mode. So, 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).

  So, 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:

  Visual Basic .NET

  Visual Basic .NET

  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.

• 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:

• Open your project in TestComplete.

• Add your Connected Application to the project’s tested applications list. For more information on how to perform this, see Defining Applications to Test.

• Write script code that will launch your Connected Application and wait while it performs the testing actions. For instance:

  JavaScript, JScript

  Python

  VBScript

  DelphiScript

  C++Script, C#Script

  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);
  }

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

• 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.

You can now run the test by clicking the button whose OnClick event handler contains the test code.