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Introduction
The purpose of this tutorial is to provide test automation developers with some practical test automation script strategies to use when creating Visual Basic.NET scripts with IBM® Rational® Functional Tester.
In this tutorial, you will learn how to do the following:
- Work programmatically with application object properties
- Validate the contents of database tables
- Work programmatically with regular expressions
- Pass information between scripts
Each of these exercises builds one upon the other. However, if you want to perform only a given section of the tutorial, the solution set that comes with this guide contains all prerequisites for each section. You'll find instructions in the Overview section of each exercise explaining how to get started from that point.
Who should take this tutorial?
For most users, their first experience with IBM Rational Functional Tester involves creating and executing a script using the Functional Tester recording mechanism. For some users this will be enough for them to implement a stable suite of regression tests.
Other users might want more. Perhaps you want to make your scripts more robust than a simple record and playback script. Perhaps you want to add conditional logic to only perform a given action should a particular condition be met. Perhaps you want to repeat actions in your scripts several times. These are just some of the examples of fundamental scripting strategies you learn here to take your scripts beyond record and playback.
This tutorial is designed for testers using IBM Rational Functional Tester with VB.NET scripting. This tutorial assumes you are familiar with the basic operation of IBM Rational Functional Tester. If you're a tester who has successfully created record and playback type scripts and now want to go to the next level, then this tutorial is for you.
If you are not yet comfortable with IBM Rational Functional Tester, you can walk through the tutorial, Automate regression tests: IBM Rational Functional Tester makes regression testing a snap. It will guide you through the basics of IBM Rational Functional Tester. Once you have mastered the skills in that introductory tutorial, you should then be able to move on to the more advanced topics covered in this tutorial.
If you are using the JavaTM scripting features of IBM Rational Tester, then this tutorial will only be of partial assistance to you. While all the concepts will apply, the code samples will be different. In each strategy section, I've devoted some time to discussing how to implement the strategy in the Java environment. You won't be able to follow the examples verbatim, but there will be enough information to get you to where you want to go.
If you don't already have a copy of IBM Rational Functional Tester, you can download a fully functional trial version. Accept all default options when installing. No special configuration or installation options are necessary for this tutorial.
Functional Tester supports two scripting languages: Java and Visual Basic.NET. For users who want to craft tests using the Java language, Functional Tester includes the Eclipse open source development environment. No further installation steps are required. For those users who want to use the Visual Basic.NET scripting language, Visual Studio.NET must be installed on their systems before they install IBM Rational Functional Tester. Visual Studio.NET is available for purchase from Microsoft.
Optionally you can also download the file, RFT_Tutorial_Project.zip, which contains a Functional Tester VB.net solution project. This project contains the scripts necessary to pick up this tutorial from any given point. If you intend to go through this tutorial from top to bottom, you will not need any of the scripts in the solution project.
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