Release notes for Rational Functional Tester 10.0.0

This document contains information about new features, system requirements, and known limitations in IBM® Rational® Functional Tester.

Description

IBM Rational Functional Tester is an automated testing tool that tests a broad range of applications, such as:

HTML5-based web applications built on modern frameworks, such as Angular, React and Vue.js in the latest versions of the world’s popular browsers, both on the desktop and mobile devices
Legacy HTML applications
Java™ and .Net-based thick client applications
ERP systems such as SAP
IBM zSeries, IBM iSeries, IBM pSeries, and mainframe applications
Ajax, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft .NET, Microsoft Silverlight, Microsoft Visual Basic, Siebel, Flex, GEF, and PowerBuilder applications
Adobe PDF documents

You can also import and work with Selenium tests, and combine tests of various types into compound tests.

To view the full list of domains, software, and platforms that are supported for functional testing and the compatible versions of Rational products that can be integrated with Rational Functional Tester, see Software Product Compatibility Reports.

Some of the older versions of software supported by Rational Functional Tester are deprecated. To view the list of deprecated software, see http://www.testworkbench-community.com/blogs/technology-currency-updates-for-rational-functional-tester-92.

Integrated Development Environments

Rational Functional Tester is available in two integrated development environments (IDE): Eclipse and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET. The Eclipse integration supports both Java and simplified (non-programming) method of scripting while the Microsoft Visual Studio .NET integration supports Microsoft Visual Basic .NET scripting language.

Note: The ability to test HTML 5-based applications is available in the Eclipse environment, but not in the Microsoft Visual Studio .NET environment.

What's new in 10.0.0

Starting from 10.0.0, you must have a standard license to work with the product. Other enhancements of this release are as follows:

Starting from 10.0.0, you must have a standard license to work with the product.
Rational Test Automation Server is a server-based application that integrates with the desktop clients to manage test projects, playback tests, and view results. See Rational Test Automation Server Overview.
Ability to run the Web UI tests on Perfecto mobile cloud. See Running Web UI tests on Perfecto mobile cloud .
Ability to ignore the report files in the new and existing Functional and Web UI projects to ensure that the report files are not stored in EGit. See EGit integration.
Supports integration with Visual Studio 2015/17/19.
Support for OpenJDK 8 with Open J9 instead of IBM Java.
Ability to automatically update tests with Guided Healing. See Updating a test with automatic Guided Healing.
Ability to play back the Functional tests using Firefox and Chrome browsers on Linux. See Using the Functional Test perspective of Rational Functional Tester on Linux
Ability to create verification points in the alert, confirm, or prompt dialog box of a recorded Web UI test script to validate the text messages during playback. See Creating verification points for alert, confirm, or prompt dialog box.
Ability to print the verdict and URL of the report in the console log for tests that ran from the command line. See Running a test or schedule from a command line.
Ability to record and play back Web UI tests on Android 9 Emulator.

Installing the product

To install Rational Functional Tester 10.0.0, first uninstall any previous installations of Rational Functional Tester. Then, use the Install procedure in IBM Installation Manager to install 10.0.0.

Rational Functional Tester is available as a standalone product and is also included with Rational Test Workbench. You can use the same license key for each installation.

Known limitations and workarounds

Known problems are documented in the fix list and download document. Select a fix list from http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27036170. From the fix list, you can view the download document for additional information.

Known problems are also documented in the form of individual technotes in the Support Knowledge Base at Troubleshooting documentation for Rational Functional Tester. As problems are discovered and resolved, the knowledge base is updated. By searching the knowledge base, you can quickly find workarounds or solutions to problems. Technotes created for 9.2 family releases are available from this page.

After playing back a script in Rational Functional Tester, a message such as the following is displayed in the console: The IBM Class Sharing Adaptor will not work in this configuration. You are not running on a J9 Java VM.. This message is displayed because the version of Eclipse that is used in the IDE is from IBM and has the IBM Java optimizations enabled. To resolve the issue:

Navigate to the Rational Functional Tester Plugins Shared Folder.
Back up the com.ibm.cds plugin and delete it.
Restart Rational Functional Tester.

Contacting IBM Software Support

IBM Software Support provides you with technical assistance.

For FAQs, lists of known problems and fixes, and other support information, visit the product support page for Rational Functional Tester software.

For product news, events, and other information, visit the product home page for Rational Functional Tester Software at https://www.ibm.com/us-en/marketplace/rational-functional-tester.

Before you contact IBM Software Support, gather the background information that you need to describe your problem. When you are describing a problem to an IBM Software Support specialist, be as specific as possible and include all relevant background information so that the specialist can help you solve the problem efficiently. To save time, know the answers to these questions:

What software versions were you running when the problem occurred?
Do you have logs, traces, or messages that are related to the problem?
Can you reproduce the problem? If so, what steps do you take to reproduce it?
Is there a workaround for the problem? If so, be prepared to describe the workaround.

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