Accessing Native Properties and Methods of Flash and Flex Objects

About Accessing Native Properties and Methods

Getting Access to Flash and Flex Applications’ Native Properties and Methods

Getting and Setting Native Object Properties

Calling Native Object Methods

Important Notes

TestComplete identifies individual GUI objects in Flash and Flex applications and provides specialized methods and properties for automating various operations with these objects, getting object data, checking the state and so on. However, if these predefined properties and methods are insufficient for your testing needs, you can use native properties and methods of Flash and Flex objects to complete desired tasks. These are the same properties and methods that are available for use in the tested application’s source code as well as custom properties and methods implemented by the application developers. This way, you can perform almost any operations in the tested Flash or Flex application, even those that are not accessible via the application’s GUI.

The Object Browser marks objects of Flash and Flex applications with the glyph. To view native properties and methods available for a Flash or Flex object, use the Object Spy or Object Browser in the Advanced view mode. TestComplete gives you access to public properties and methods via the FlexObject property (see Important Notes for details).

Click the image to enlarge it.

For more information on how to refer to objects in Flash and Flex applications, see Addressing Objects in Flash and Flex Applications.

In order to get access to native properties and methods of a Flash or Flex application, you have to use the debug version of a Flash Player, the Runtime Loader utility or precompiled FlexClient library. Once you prepare your application and environment for testing, you can access the application’s public native methods and properties. For more information on testing approaches, see Approaches to Testing Flash and Flex Applications.

To access an object’s property in script code, you specify the property name after the object name using the dot operator "." (in VBScript, JScript, Python and DelphiScript projects) or the square bracket notation [" "] (in C++Script and C#Script projects).

For example, you can get and set a Flex form’s title using its native name property in the following way:

In keyword tests, you can retrieve an object’s property value and save it to a test variable using the Set Variable Value operation. To change a property value, you can use the On-Screen Action operation to call the property’s [Set] method. For more information, see Getting and Setting Object Property Values.

Click the image to enlarge it.

Click the image to enlarge it.

You can also create checkpoints to verify values of native object properties.

To call an object’s method from script code, you use the dot operator "." (in VBScript, JScript, Python and DelphiScript projects) or the square bracket notation [" "] (in C++Script and C#Script projects) to specify the method name after the object name.

For example, in script code you can call the native getFocus method of a Flex button as follows:

In keyword tests, you can use the On-Screen Action operation to call an object’s native method. For more information, see Calling Methods and Properties of "Internal" Objects.

Click the image to enlarge it.

• Native properties and methods of Flash and Flex objects can be accessed via the FlexObject property. For example, you can access the native Name property of a Flash or Flex application’s form as follows:

  JavaScript, JScript

  Python

  VBScript

  DelphiScript

  C++Script, C#Script

  Copy Code

  JavaScript, JScript

  Aliases.Orders.MainForm.FlexObject.Name

  Python

  Aliases.Orders.MainForm.FlexObject.Name

  VBScript

  Aliases.Orders.MainForm.FlexObject.Name

  DelphiScript

  Aliases.Orders.MainForm.FlexObject.Name

  C++Script, C#Script

  Aliases["Orders"]["MainForm"]["FlexObject"]["Name"]

  Note that TestComplete gives you access to public properties and methods of the tested Flash or Flex application if you are testing your application by using the debug version of Flash Player, the Runtime Loader utility or the FlexClient library. The MSAA engine does not expose public members to your tests.

• In the Object Spy and Object Browser, native properties and methods of Flash and Flex objects are displayed only in the Advanced view mode.

• The leading underscore ( _ ) in property and method names is replaced with the character z. For example, a property named _flag is accessible as zflag, a method named __reset() is accessible as z_reset(), and so on.