Features Added to TestComplete 7.50

White-Box Flex Applications

Keyword Testing Improvements

New Support for Applications and Platforms

New Support for Third-Party Controls

Overall Improvements

Name Mapping Improvements

Web Testing Improvements

Load Testing Improvements

Other Improvements

White-box Flex applications. Now you can make your Flex applications “Open” by compiling them with one extra file. Doing this allows the test engine to get access to all internal objects, methods and properties of Flex applications, so you can make calls to their internal methods and properties in your tests.

TestComplete also recognizes typical controls of Flex applications and adds methods and properties that let you easily simulate user actions over them. This feature along with access to the application’s internal member helps you create more powerful tests of your Flex applications easier and faster.

For more information, see Testing Flash and Flex Applications.

• Converting keyword tests to scripts. Now you can convert keyword tests to script routines. This feature will save you time and energy if you need to convert your keyword tests to script code. It will also help novice users learn scripting and see how keyword test operations can be performed in scripts.

  For detailed information, see Converting Keyword Tests to Scripts.

• Operation descriptions. In earlier versions of TestComplete, the recorded test does not contain command descriptions by default. The descriptions were added after the first test run. Now the situation has been improved and users can see the descriptions right after the test is recorded.

• Support for JavaFX applications. TestComplete now provides support for JavaFX applications created with JavaFX SDK v.1.1, 1.2, 1.2.1, as well as advanced recording and playback support for various JavaFX controls. In addition to that, JavaFX applications are now “open” to TestComplete - that is, their internal objects and elements are also available to be used in tests. See Testing JavaFX Applications for more information.

• Support for .NET Framework 4.0 Beta 2. TestComplete now allows testing of .NET 4.0 applications as well as using custom assemblies that target .NET Framework 4.0 in your tests. It also extends application domain support and lets you access domains of different CLR versions existing in a single .NET application. For more information, see the Choosing Between Different Application Domains section of the Creating Instances of .NET Classes Defined in Applications topic.

• Support for Embarcadero RAD Studio 2010 applications. TestComplete now supports Delphi and C++Builder applications developed in Embarcadero RAD Studio 2010, so now you can test software created with the latest Delphi and C++Builder technologies.

TestComplete 7.50 adds extended support for the following third-party controls:

• Microsoft WPF Toolkit controls: DataGrid, Calendar and DatePicker
• Microsoft WPF Ribbon
• Developer Express ASP.NET controls: ASPxCalendar, ASPxComboBox, ASPxDateEdit, ASPxListBox, ASPxMenu, ASPxSpinEdit, ASPxTabControl, ASPxTreeList
• Developer Express WPF GridControl and BarManager
• Developer Express VCL ExpressVerticalGrid (TcxVerticalGrid), ExpressQuantumTreeList (TcxTreeList) and ExpressNavBar (TdxNavBar)
• Infragistics ASP.NET controls: UltraWebGrid, UltraWebMenu, UltraWebToolbar, UltraWebTab, UltraWebListbar and others
• Infragistics WPF xamDataGrid
• Infragistics .NET UltraExplorerBar, UltraWinDockManager, UltraCalendarCombo and UltraMonthViewMulti
• TMS TAdvStringGrid and TAdvGlowButton

So, you can now easily record and replay high-level user actions over these controls, retrieve and modify their data, create checkpoints to verify their state and contents, and perform other testing operations.

• Keyword tests as event handlers. With TestComplete you can create event handlers to perform specific actions when events occur (see Handling Events - Overview). In earlier versions of TestComplete an event handler was a script routine that the test engine calls in response to an event. With version 7.50, you can use keyword tests as event handlers. This feature gives even inexperienced users the possibility to use event handlers and create more powerful and flexible tests.

• Better support for Open and Save File dialogs. Earlier versions of TestComplete recorded user actions over the Open and Save File dialogs (that is, they recorded navigation through the folders tree, mouse clicks on buttons and so on). This approach may cause problems during the playback, because the Open and Save File dialogs “remember” their state and the test engine may fail to simulate user actions over them properly. Now TestComplete recognizes the standard Open and Save File dialogs and records all user actions over them in the form of one method call that opens (or saves) the file. See Working With Open File and Save File Dialogs.

• Automatic saving of an image on error. TestComplete can now automatically post a desktop image to the test log when an error occurs. This is controlled by a new Post image on error project setting. This setting also affects the Log.Error method: if you don’t pass an image to the Error method and if the setting is enabled, the method automatically takes a screenshot of the entire desktop. If the setting is disabled, this image will not be posted.

• Freezing diagnostics. TestComplete includes a new Freeze Diagnostics subsystem that works during test run and checks whether a tested application (or any other application) has stopped responding to users’ and the operating system’s messages. If it has, the subsystem terminates the frozen process and TestComplete continues the test run, if possible. This feature helps you make your tests more stable and less dependent on external factors. You control the subsystem through the new Freeze Diagnostics group of project properties. For more information, see Diagnosing Application Freezes.

• Simplified object hierarchy in WPF applications. A new Simplified WPF object tree setting has been added to project properties. Enabling this setting omits container objects that are used for content layout purposes only (such as Panels, Decorators and others) from the application object hierarchy used by TestComplete. This reduces the nesting level of application objects your tests need to work with and makes your tests more readable. For more information, see the About Containers in the WPF Object Hierarchy section in the Addressing Objects in WPF Applications topic.

• Browsing object information offline. The Object Browser now has the ability to export properties, fields and methods of an object and, optionally, all of its child objects to an external file as well as to load the exported object information back at any time. This allows you to analyze the application’s object hierarchy and state remotely or when the application is not running.

  To export and import the object information, you can use the new  Save Object Snapshot and  Load Object Snapshot buttons on the Save/Load Snapshots toolbar. You can also export the object information from your tests using the aqObject.SaveObjectSnapshotToFile method.

• Automatic name mapping using templates. In earlier versions, when TestComplete mapped your application objects automatically (for instance, during test recording), it selected the identification properties for the objects’ mapping criteria using its internal algorithms. Now it forms the property set according to the name mapping template that matches the object being mapped, if any. This way, you can customize the property set used in the objects’ mapping criteria by defining name mapping templates for these objects. For more information, see Mapping Objects Automatically.

• Finding and replacing values. You can now quickly find and replace mapped object names, aliases, property names and property values in the Name Mapping editor using the common Find and Replace dialogs. For more information, see Rename Objects in the Name Mapping Repository.

• Undoing and redoing changes. The Name Mapping editor now supports undoing and redoing any kind of operations performed in the editor. So, you can now easily cancel accidentally performed operations over mapped object names, aliases or mapping criteria. For more information, see Undoing and Redoing Changes in Name Mapping Editor.

• Improved Update Name Mapping wizard. The Update Name Mapping wizard has been re-designed to provide better step-by-step assistance in updating the mapping criteria of application objects that could not be identified during the test run.

• Don’t worry about the initial tested page. All process objects that correspond to Internet Explorer and Firefox now contain a new ToURL method. TestComplete uses this method to record your navigation to the first page under test. So, you don’t have to worry about setting this page from your test.

• Ignoring the page’s dynamic parameters. The URL of a tested web page may contain parameters. They are shown in the URL string after the question mark symbol. Some of these parameters may change from one session to another. Since the parameters are used for name mapping, they may cause object recognition failure during the test run. By using the new Web Testing - Dynamic parameters settings of your test project, you can now easily specify the parameters, which TestComplete should ignore during name mapping. This makes you web tests more stable. For more information, see Ignoring Query String Parameters.

• Smart recording of keystrokes in the Address bar. TestComplete version 7.50 does not record keystrokes in the browser’s Address bar anymore. Instead, it records the ToURL method that opens the URL that you typed in the Address bar. This feature makes your tests independent of the web browser you use, since Internet Explorer and Firefox (and even different versions of these browsers) use different class names and hierarchy of parent objects for the bar, and this caused problems when you tried to run a test recorded with one version of the browser in another version of the browser.

• Smart recording of keystrokes in web edit boxes. Earlier versions of TestComplete recorded your input in a web edit box as calls to the Keys method. In version 7.50, your input is recorded as an assignment of a new value to the Text property. This feature makes your tests more reliable on those versions of web browsers that require slower typing (for example - Internet Explorer 7).

• Running Internet Explorer with user permissions. In earlier versions of TestComplete, web testing using Internet Explorer under Windows Vista and later operating systems required that both TestComplete and Internet Explorer be launched with administrator permissions. TestComplete 7.50 does not have this limitation. Now, Internet Explorer can also be launched with user permissions, provided that TestComplete has the same or higher permission level. For more information, see Using TestComplete With Administrator Privileges.

• Easy simulation of the load increase. In earlier versions of TestComplete, a load test starts running all its virtual users at the same time. To simulate the load increase you have to set the start delay for virtual users. This was inconvenient if your load tests includes a lot of users. In version 7.50 to simulate the load increase you can use the new “ramp up” feature. It means a load test starts working with a certain number of virtual users and then automatically appends more users in specified time intervals. For instance, it may start with 3 virtual users and add 2 virtual users every 30 seconds. This feature lets you easily simulate the load increase in large tests.

• Easy synchronization of virtual users. Now you can mark some requests in a recorded task as rendezvous points. Virtual users will pause on these requests until all other virtual users that run the same task reach this request. Then the virtual users will continue working together. This feature lets you better emulate massive workload on the tested server.

• Auto-updating page parameters. TestComplete includes special means that let you easily trace and modify parameters that are passed between tested pages. Now there is no need to write script code that parses a server response and passes its data to the next request. You can do this visually in the editor of the Load Testing project item.

• Improved HTTPS support. The subsystems that emulated HTTPS connections has been re-written. This makes your load tests more stable and provide better information when errors occur.

• Ignoring traffic to third-party sites. The load testing subsystem includes a new Exclude hosts setting. It lists the URL of web servers, the traffic to which TestComplete will ignore during recording of load testing tasks. This feature lets you easily ignore the traffic to third-party sites from which the tested web server retrieves banners, counters, images or other data.

• Automatic browser start and clean up of the cache. Now TestComplete can automatically launch the Internet Explorer or Firefox browsers when you start recording a load test. Also, it can automatically clear the browser’s temporary files and cookies. This feature helps novice users avoid typical errors and make their tests more stable.

• The scripting objects that correspond to Open and Save File dialogs now have new OpenFile and SaveFile methods correspondingly.

• The Save log every … minutes option is now project-specific. The option has been moved from the Log Options dialog to the Playback page of project properties.

• The aqObject object contains a new EmptyVariant property that returns an empty Variant value. You can use this property when you need to pass an empty Variant as a parameter to some method or check the method’s result.