The type of a test determines how you interact with TestComplete and how TestComplete interacts with the application under test. There are two major test types (keyword tests and scripts) and several auxiliary test types (low-level procedures, unit tests, gestures and so on).
Using keyword tests and scripts, you can perform a wide range of testing tasks regardless of the application platform - desktop, web or mobile. Using tests of the auxiliary types, you can perform particular testing tasks. These test types are often specific to certain application types. For instance, low-level procedures are specific to desktop applications, while multi-touch gestures are specific to mobile applications.
This topic gives a brief overview of the above-mentioned test types.
Major Test TypesMajor Test Types
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A keyword test consists of a sequence of keywords. Each keyword corresponds to an individual action like a mouse click, selecting a menu item, a keystroke, opening or closing a window, and so on. In TestComplete, keywords are called operations. So, to create or modify a keyword test, simply add the needed operations to it. Keyword tests do not require expert knowledge of scripting languages - they can be easily created by inexperienced TestComplete users. For more information, see About Keyword Testing.
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To create more powerful and flexible tests with TestComplete, use scripts. A script is a series of instructions written in a scripting language. TestComplete supports the following scripting languages: JavaScript, JScript, Python, VBScript, DelphiScript, C#Script and C++Script. You can choose any of them to create your tests. You will be able to use all TestComplete features when creating tests, no matter which language you will choose. For more information, see About Script Tests.
Auxiliary Test Types
Test Types Suitable for All Types of Applications
TestComplete supports distributed testing for web sites and mobile applications. Distributed tests consist of two or more parts executed on individual computers that interact with each other. TestComplete allows you to start tests on several computers in series or simultaneously, to exchange data during the test run and to control client applications working concurrently by using synchronization points and critical sections. For more information, see Distributed Testing - Basic Concepts.
Test Types Suitable for Desktop Applications
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A low-level procedure is a series of events, such as mouse movements, mouse clicks, mouse wheel events and keyboard events. These tests are usually used when you need to record low-level mouse and keyboard events including delays between these events. They play back actions at the same speed as they were recorded. For detailed information, see Testing Applications in Low-Level Mode.
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TestComplete also allows you to create unit tests. Unit testing tests both what an application segment does and how it does it. Unit testing consists in testing functions, procedures or methods that a source module makes available to the rest of the application. TestComplete helps you configure and perform unit tests of different kinds. See Integration With Unit Testing Frameworks - Overview.
Test Types Suitable for Mobile Applications
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A gesture is a series of events retrieved from a device that supports a touch-sensitive interface. Gestures are used when testing mobile applications to simulate multi-touch actions like swipes, pinches, zooming and so on. A gesture may contain data of multiple simultaneous touch points. See Simulating Gestures (Multi-Touch Events) for more information about gestures.