Working With Grid Controls

Applies to TestComplete 14.93, last modified on October 12, 2021

In your tests, you may face a situation when you need to verify data displayed in a tabular form or to simulate user actions over a control that shows data in a tabular form. If TestComplete provides extended support for that control, you can use a special scripting object to work with it. If the control is not supported and TestComplete cannot access the control directly, for example, if the control is part of the graphics rendered on the screen, you can use optical character recognition (OCR) to get the control. TestComplete will use OCR to get the entire text content of the tabular control and to provide access to it.

Video Tutorial

 

Verify tabular data

To verify the text content of your grid control, use table checkpoints. These are special test operations that get the actual content of a tabular control from a tested application and compare it with the baseline content stored in your TestComplete project.

You can add table checkpoints both to keyword tests and to script tests during test recording and at design time.

The image below shows a table checkpoint operation in a keyword test:

Table checkpoint

Click the image to enlarge it.

To create a table checkpoint:

  1. You specify the screen area (for example, a UI element or part of it) that renders tabular data:

    Specifying screen area that renders tabular data

    Click the image to enlarge it.

  2. If TestComplete does not recognize the specified area as a supported grid control, it will suggest getting data visually:

    TestComplete suggesting to extract data visually

  3. You can allow TestComplete to detect the table automatically, select a preferred search area within the specified screen area, or you can specify the search area from which TestComplete should extract data manually:

    Selecting the search area

    Click the image to enlarge it.

TestComplete will retrieve the data and generate a verification command to check it.

For detailed instructions, see Creating Table Checkpoints.

Alternatives

To verify not the entire grid content, but a fragment (for example, cell content), you can use the OCR checkpoint. It verifies whether the text fragment on the screen matches the expected pattern. To learn more, see the OCR checkpoint description.

You can also create a custom script procedure that will get the needed text fragment from a grid control and then verify it:

  1. Use the OCR.Recognize(SearchArea).AsTable or OCR.Recognize(SearchArea).DetectTable property to detect a grid control rendered within the specified SearchArea. Use the latter property to detect a grid control if there are several of them within the same area.

    Both properties will return an OCRTable object that provides access to the recognized table.

  2. To get an individual cell of the recognized table, use the OCRTable.Cell property.

    To get a column header (if any), use the OCRTable.Column property.

    These properties return the OCRTextBlock object that corresponds to the text content of the obtained grid’s cell or header.

  3. Use the Text property of the returned OCRTextBlock object to get the text content of the cell (or header).

  4. Write instructions that will verify the text content of the cell (or header) and report the results.

The script sample below shows how to get the text content of a cell and compare it with the expected value:

JavaScript
JScript
Python
VBScript
DelphiScript
C++Script, C#Script

JavaScript

function Main()
{
  let url = "https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_tbody";
  Browsers.Item(btChrome).Run(url);

  let page = Sys.Browser("chrome").Page("*tryit*");
  let frame = page.FindChildEx("idStr", "iframeresult", 10);

  let ocrTable = OCR.Recognize(frame).AsTable(true);
  // Check if the top-left cell of the table contains the specified substring
  let str = "January";
  if (aqString.Find(ocrTable.Cell(0, 0).Text, str) > -1)
    Log.Message("The top-left cell of the table contains the " + str + " string.");

}

JScript

function Main()
{
  var url = "https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_tbody";
  Browsers.Item(btChrome).Run(url);

  var page = Sys.Browser("chrome").Page("*tryit*");
  var frame = page.FindChildEx("idStr", "iframeresult", 10);

  var ocrTable = OCR.Recognize(frame).AsTable(true);
  // Check if the top-left cell of the table contains the specified substring
  var str = "January";
  if (aqString.Find(ocrTable.Cell(0, 0).Text, str) > -1)
    Log.Message("The top-left cell of the table contains the " + str + " string.");

}

Python

def Main():
  url = "https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_tbody"
  
  Browsers.Item[btChrome].Run(url)
  
  page = Sys.Browser("chrome").Page("*tryit*")
  frame = page.FindChildEx("idStr", "iframeresult", 10)
  
  ocrTable = OCR.Recognize(frame).AsTable[True]
  # Check if the top-left cell of the table contains specified substring
  str = "January"
  if (aqString.Find(ocrTable.Cell[0, 0].Text, str) > -1):
    Log.Message("The top-left cell of the table contains the " + str + " string.")

VBScript

Sub Main()
  url = "https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_tbody"
  Browsers.Item(btChrome).Run(url)

  Set page = Sys.Browser("chrome").Page("*tryit*")
  Set frame = page.FindChildEx("idStr", "iframeresult", 10)

  Set ocrTable = OCR.Recognize(frame).AsTable(True)
  ' Check if the top-left cell of the table contains the specified substring
  str = "January"
  If aqString.Find(ocrTable.Cell(0, 0).Text, str) > -1 Then
    Log.Message("The top-left cell of the table contains the " & str & " string.")
  End If

End Sub

DelphiScript

procedure Main();
var url, page, frame, ocrTable, str;
begin
  url := 'https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_tbody';
  Browsers.Item[btChrome].Run(url);

  page := Sys.Browser('chrome').Page('*tryit*');
  frame := page.FindChildEx('idStr', 'iframeresult', 10);

  ocrTable := OCR.Recognize(frame).AsTable(true);
  // Check if the top-left cell of the table contains the specified substring
  str := 'January';
  if aqString.Find(ocrTable.Cell(0, 0).Text, str) > -1 then
    Log.Message('The top-left cell of the table contains the ' + str + ' string.');

end;

C++Script, C#Script

function Main()
{
  var url = "https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_tbody";
  Browsers["Item"](btChrome)["Run"](url);

  var page = Sys["Browser"]("chrome")["Page"]("*tryit*");
  var frame = page["FindChildEx"]("idStr", "iframeresult", 10);

  var ocrTable = OCR["Recognize"](frame)["AsTable"](true);
  // Check if the top-left cell of the table contains the specified substring
  var str = "January";
  if (aqString["Find"](ocrTable["Cell"](0, 0)["Text"], str) > -1)
    Log["Message"]("The top-left cell of the table contains the " + str + " string.");
}

Simulate user actions

The easiest way to simulate user actions over a table or its individual rows, columns, and cells is to use OCR-based actions. To learn more, see Simulate User Actions.

If, however, you are facing a situation when you need to simulate user actions over a specific column header or cell, you can do it in the following way:

In scripts

  1. Use the OCR.Recognize(SearchArea).AsTable or OCR.Recognize(SearchArea).DetectTable property to detect a grid control rendered within the specified SearchArea. Use the latter property to detect a grid control if there are several of them within the same area.

    Both properties will return an OCRTable object that provides access to the recognized table.

  2. To get an individual cell of the recognized table, use the OCRTable.Cell property.

    To get a column header (if any), use the OCRTable.Column property.

    These properties return the OCRTextBlock object that corresponds to the text content of the obtained grid’s cell or header.

  3. To simulate user actions over the screen area that contains the obtained cell (or header), call the appropriate method of the OCRTextBlock object (see the list of available methods below).

The script example below shows how to simulate a click on a cell:

JavaScript
JScript
Python
VBScript
DelphiScript
C++Script, C#Script

JavaScript

function Main()
{
  let url = "https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_tbody";

  Browsers.Item(btChrome).Run(url);
  let page = Sys.Browser("chrome").Page("*tryit*");

  let frame = page.FindChildEx("idStr", "iframeResult", 10);
  // Use OCR to get the grid
  let ocrTable = OCR.Recognize(frame).AsTable(true);

  // Post the contents of the top-left cell to the test log
  Log.Message("Cell contains: " + ocrTable.Cell(0, 0).Text);

  // Click the top-left cell of the grid
  ocrTable.Cell(0, 0).Click();
  }
}

JScript

function Main()
{
  var url = "https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_tbody";

  Browsers.Item(btChrome).Run(url);
  var page = Sys.Browser("chrome").Page("*tryit*");

  var frame = page.FindChildEx("idStr", "iframeResult", 10);
  // Use OCR to get the grid
  var ocrTable = OCR.Recognize(frame).AsTable(true);

  // Post the contents of the top-left cell to the test log
  Log.Message("Cell contains: " + ocrTable.Cell(0, 0).Text);

  // Click the top-left cell of the grid
  ocrTable.Cell(0, 0).Click();

}

Python

def Main():
  url = "https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_tbody"
  
  Browsers.Item[btChrome].Run(url)
  page = Sys.Browser("chrome").Page("*tryit*")
  
  frame = page.FindChild("idStr", "iframeResult", 10)
  # Use OCR to get the grid control
  ocrTable = OCR.Recognize(frame).AsTable[True]
    
  # Post the contents of the top-left cell to the test log
  Log.Message("Cell contains: " + ocrTable.Cell[0, 0].Text)
      
  # Click the top-left cell of the grid
  ocrTable.Cell[0, 0].Click();

VBScript

Sub Main()
  url = "https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_tbody"

  Browsers.Item(btChrome).Run(url)
  Set page = Sys.Browser("chrome").Page("*tryit*")

  Set frame = page.FindChildEx("idStr", "iframeResult", 10)
  ' Use OCR to get the grid
  Set ocrTable = OCR.Recognize(frame).AsTable(True)

  ' Post the contents of the top-left cell to the test log
  Log.Message("Cell contains: " & ocrTable.Cell(0, 0).Text)

  ' Click the top-left cell of the grid
  ocrTable.Cell(0, 0).Click

End Sub

DelphiScript

procedure Main();
var url, page, frame, ocrTable;
begin
  url := 'https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_tbody';

  Browsers.Item(btChrome).Run(url);
  page := Sys.Browser['chrome'].Page('*tryit*');

  frame := page.FindChildEx('idStr', 'iframeResult', 10);
  // Use OCR to get the grid
  ocrTable := OCR.Recognize(frame).AsTable(true);
  // Post the contents of the top-left cell to the test log
  Log.Message('Cell contains: ' + ocrTable.Cell[0, 0].Text);

  // Click the top-left cell of the grid
  ocrTable.Cell[0, 0].Click();
end;

C++Script, C#Script

function Main()
{
  var url = "https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_tbody";

  Browsers["Item"](btChrome)["Run"](url);
  var page = Sys["Browser"]("chrome")["Page"]("*tryit*");

  var frame = page["FindChildEx"]("idStr", "iframeResult", 10);
  // Use OCR to get the grid
  var ocrTable = OCR["Recognize"](frame)["AsTable"](true);

  // Post the contents of the top-left cell to the test log
  Log["Message"]("Cell contains: " + ocrTable["Cell"](0, 0)["Text"]);

  // Click the top-left cell of the grid
  ocrTable["Cell"](0, 0)["Click"]();
}

In keyword tests

To simulate user actions over a grid call, you can:

  • Recognize the table, get its cells (or headers), and simulate user actions over them by calling the methods and properties described above. To call them from keyword tests, use the Run Code Snippet or Run Script Routine operation.

  • As an alternative, you can use the OCR Action operation to simulate user actions over the screen area that contains a specific text fragment of your grid’s entire text content. To learn more, see Simulate User Actions.

Supported user actions

On on-screen areas that correspond to individual cells and column headers, you can simulate the following user actions:

In Desktop and Web Applications

  • Clicks and double-clicks:

    By default, these methods simulate clicks at the center of the specified screen area. To simulate clicks at a specific point of the area, call the methods with appropriate parameters.

    ClickNextTo

    This method simulates a click at the point located at the specified distance to the left, to the right, at the top, or at the bottom of the captured cell or column header.

  • Hover mouse:

    Hover

  • Drag:

In Mobile Applications

  • Touches and long touches:

    Touch

    LongTouch
    Note: On Android devices, the HoldDuration parameter of the method is not supported and will be ignored.

    By default, these methods simulate touches at the center of the specified area. To simulate clicks at a specific point of the area, call the methods with the appropriate parameters.

    TouchNextTo

    This method simulates a touch at the point located at the specified distance to the left, to the right, at the top, or at the bottom of the captured cell or column header.

  • Drag:

    Drag

In All Applications

  • Keyboard Input:

    SendKeys

    This method simulates keyboard input in the screen area located at the specified distance to the left, to the right, at the top, or at the bottom of the captured cell or column header.

See Also

Optical Character Recognition
About Optical Character Recognition
Working With Grids - Basic Concepts

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