Simulating Basic User Actions in Image-Based Tests

Applies to TestComplete 15.47, last modified on January 20, 2023

For all objects and screen areas added to the Image Repository, TestComplete provides a number of basic user actions you can simulate in your tests:

Available User Actions

For Desktop and Web Applications

  • Click and double-click actions - To simulate a single or double click with the left, middle or right mouse button, call the appropriate method:

    To simulate a click at a certain point of the control or area or a click with a key modifier, call the needed method with the appropriate parameters.

  • Hover mouse action - To simulate moving a mouse pointer to the specified position within the control or screen area, call the Hover method.

  • Drag action - To simulate a drag action performed with the left, right or middle mouse button, call the appropriate method:

For Mobile Applications

  • Touch action - To simulate a touch action over a control, call the Touch method. If you want to simulate a touch action at a certain point of the control, call the Touch method with the parameters specifying the target point’s coordinates.

  • Long press actions - To simulate a long press action, call the LongTouch method. To simulate the actions at the specified point, call the method with the parameters specifying the point’s coordinates.

  • Drag action - To simulate a drag action, that is, to drag one object from one point to another, call the LongTouch actions with the parameters that specify the starting point’s coordinates and the ending point’s coordinates.

The coordinates of these methods are specified relative to the top-left corner of the control’s recognition area.

Note: The Click and Touch methods are interchangeable. They can simulate both click and touch actions on a mobile device's desktop and on a PC's desktop. For more information, see the methods’ descriptions.

Below, you can find examples that show how to simulate these user actions.

Search Area

All methods have an optional SearchArea parameter that specifies where TestComplete will search for the image to simulate the user action.

The parameter can take the following values:

  • The desktop of your current PC (Sys.Desktop).

  • The screen of a connected mobile device (Mobile.Device).

  • A window or onscreen object in your desktop, web or mobile application.

If the parameter is omitted:

  • For desktop-specific methods, TestComplete will search for the image on the computer desktop.

  • For mobile-specific methods, TestComplete will search for the image on the screen of the current mobile device.

Simulating User Actions in Keyword Tests

In Desktop and Web Applications

To simulate basic actions over a control or screen area in an image-based test, use the Image Based Action operation:

Image-Based Testing: Simulating user actions in an image-based keyword test
  1. Add the operation to your test:

    Click the image to enlarge it.

  2. Select the image that TestComplete will use to search for a control over which you want to simulate the needed action:

  3. Select the method you want to use to simulate the user action:

  4. Specify the method parameters if needed:

In Mobile Applications

To simulate basic touch actions over a control or screen area in a mobile application:

  • Use the Image Touch operation:

    Image-Based Testing: Adding the Image Based Action operation to a keyword test

    Click the image to enlarge it.

– or –

  • Use the Image Based Action operation. To simulate a touch action, select the Touch method from the list of available methods.

    Image-Based Testing: Adding the Image Touch operation to a keyword test

    Click the image to enlarge it.

You can add the operations to your test from the operations palette or from the Test Visualizer panel (see Creating Test Commands From Visualizer Frames). To add operations to your tests from the Test Visualizer panel, the images from which you add the operations must be captured with the Capture tested objects properties option enabled.

To simulate a long touch and drag actions, call the LongTouch method with the desired parameters by using the Image Based Action, Call Object Method, Run Code Snippet and Run Script Routine operations.

Image-Based Testing: Simulating a drag action over an object in an image-based test

Simulating User Actions in Scripts

To simulate a needed user action over an item added to your project’s Image Repository, call the appropriate method of the ImageRepository.ImageSet_Name.ImageSet_Item object.

For example:

Note: For the example below to work, your TestComplete project must include the Image Repository collection with the image set called settings containing the item called Switch_ON.

JavaScript, JScript

ImageRepository.settings.Switch_ON.Touch(10, 15);

Python

ImageRepository.settings.Switch_ON.Touch(10, 15);

VBScript

Call ImageRepository.settings.Switch_ON.Touch(10, 15)

DelphiScript

ImageRepository.settings.Switch_ON.Touch(10, 15);

C++Script, C#Script

ImageRepository["settings"]["Switch_ON"]["Touch"](10, 15);

See Also

Image-Based Testing
Working With Application Objects and Controls
ImageSetItem Object Methods

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