Release Notes for Rational Functional Tester 9.1

This document contains information about system requirements, installation, and new features in IBM® Rational® Functional Tester version 9.1. It also provides information about contacting IBM Software Support.

Description

IBM Rational Functional Tester is an object-oriented automated testing tool that tests HTML, Java™, Dojo, Ajax, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft .NET, Microsoft Silverlight, Microsoft Visual Basic, Siebel, Flex, GEF, and PowerBuilder applications that run on Microsoft Windows or Linux operating systems. You can also test Adobe PDF documents. You can test IBM zSeries, IBM iSeries, and IBM pSeries applications by using the terminal emulator that is packaged with Rational Functional Tester. With Rational Functional Tester, you can record reliable and robust scripts that you can play back to validate new builds of a test application.

Rational Functional Tester is available in two integrated development environments: 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.

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

To view the list of domains, software, and platforms that are supported for Rational Functional Tester, see the compatibility report.

What's new in version 9.1.0.1

Support for SSL and Smart Card authentication in the Rational Quality Manager adapter for Rational Functional Tester and the Rational Functional Tester Keyword view. See Configuring and running the IBM Rational Functional Tester adapter for IBM Rational Quality Manager and Viewing keywords created in Rational Quality Manager.
Improved find() performance using xPath with the Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome browsers.
Ability to run functional tests and compound tests via the new Ant plugin for Rational Functional Tester. See Testing with Ant.
Ability to run functional tests and compound tests using Jenkins via the new Rational Functional Tester Jenkins plugin. See Testing with Jenkins.

What's new in version 9.1

Support for playing back Rational Functional Tester test scripts of browser-based web applications using Rational Test Workbench Web UI Tester. This support eliminates some of the manual steps that are required when enabling and configuring Rational Functional Tester tests scripts for playback. Playback is supported for the Firefox and Chrome browsers. This feature was introduced at the experimental level in version 8.6.0 fix pack 9, and is now fully supported.
To use this feature, install Rational Functional Tester and Rational Test Workbench Web UI Tester in the same package group. In the Functional Test perspective, click Window > Preferences > Functional Test > Playback, and click Play back with Rational Test Workbench Web UI Tester.
Linux support for installing and running Rational Functional Tester as a 64-bit application and testing Java applications that run with 64-bit IBM and Oracle JREs.
Support for testing applications built using SAP GUI 7.4.
Support for testing 64-bit applications built using PowerBuilder 12.6.
Sample starter projects: You can now import a sample Rational Functional Tester project into your workspace using the import wizard. The project can be referenced by new users to learn about Rational Functional Tester scripts.

Experimental feature in version 9.1

You are encouraged to try out this experimental feature in a non-production environment and to provide feedback at betafeedback4ft@in.ibm.com about your experience.

Enhancement to support for playing back Rational Functional Tester test scripts of browser-based web applications using Rational Test Workbench Web UI Tester.
With this enhanced capability, you can initiate the test run and then lock the computer screen or continue to use other business applications during the playback. Earlier, when the test run was initiated, if the computer screen gets locked or the browser is minimized, the test would fail. To enable this feature, install Rational Functional Tester and Rational Test Workbench Web UI Tester in the same package group. In the Functional Test perspective, click Window > Preferences > Functional Test > Playback, and click Play back with Rational Test Workbench Web UI Tester. Also, add rft.use.rtww.action=true to the ivory.properties, which is located in the product installation directory.

Actions in the test script that require mouse be moved to a particular location on the screen might not be supported as that would require access to the mouse. Playback is supported for the Firefox and Chrome browsers.

Features added in version 8.6 and the 8.6 fix packs

Improved playback performance on Mozilla Firefox with Firefox 50 and above (8.6.0.10)
Support for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and RHEL 7.2. (8.6.0.10)
Ability to display Rational Functional Tester screen snapshots in the Results Details section of Execution Results in Rational Quality Manager 6.0.3. (8.6.0.10)
Compatibility with PowerBuilder 12.6 - Support for testing applications created with previous versions of PowerBuilder. (8.6.0.9)
Support for .Net 4.6.1 Common Language Runtime (CLR) (8.6.0.8)
Support for installation of Rational Functional Tester as a 64-bit application on Microsoft Windows computers (8.6.0.7)
Support for Microsoft Windows Windows 10 (8.6.0.7)
Better handling of long path names for screen-shot images. https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rfe/execute?use_case=viewRfe&CR_ID=78196. (8.6.0.7)
Added ability to the Rational Quality Manager (RQM) adapter to support connection to an RQM server through Kerberos-based authentication (8.6.0.6)
Support for testing applications based on Eclipse 4.4 (8.6.0.5)
Ability to use the Rational Functional Tester plug-in for IBM UrbanCode™ Deploy to continuously initiate the launch of functional tests. For more information see: Rational Functional Tester plug-in for UrbanCode Deploy. (8.6.0.3)
Availability of Rational Functional Tester as an installable product package within Rational Test Workbench. This extension provides functional test capability through the test workbench. (8.6.0.3)
Support for testing applications that are built with Microsoft .NET 4.5.1 (8.6.0.1)
Support for Oracle Java 7 and its updates up to version 67 (8.6.0.1)
Support for testing applications that are built with Microsoft .NET 4.5.1 (8.6)
Support for testing HTML applications that are built with the Dojo 1.9 toolkit (8.6)
Support for testing Flex applications that use Internet Explorer 11 (8.6)

Installing the product

To install the product, see Installation roadmap.

Note: You can use the Update procedure in IBM Installation Manager to update from 8.6.0.7 and newer to the current release. If you have 8.6.0.6 or earlier, you must first uninstall the previous version and perform a fresh installation of 8.6.0.7, 8.6.0.8, 8.6.0.9, or 8.6.0.10. After the installation is complete you can perform an update to 9.1.

Rational Functional Tester is also included in the Rational Test Workbench package. You can use the Rational Functional Tester license when you install Rational Functional Tester through the Rational Test Workbench package.

Installing .NET 2010 help

If you installed Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 .NET Integration, you must install Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 .NET help manually.

After you install Rational Functional Tester Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 .NET Integration, open Rational Functional Tester, click Help and then click Manage Help Settings. This opens the Visual Studio Help Library Manager.
Select the Install content from disk option.
Click Browse and select the helpcontentsetup.msha file that is available by default in the Rational Functional Tester installation directory\IBM\SDP\FunctionalTester\vsnet\MSDNHelp\VS2010 directory. The help manifest files for other translations are found within the locale folders available in the VS2010 directory. Click Next.
Select FT and click Add. The Update button is enabled.
Click Update. You are prompted to confirm the installation. Click Yes. The Rational Functional Tester .NET help is installed as local help for Visual Studio 2010.

Note: To view the Rational Functional Tester .NET Scripting help in the Visual Studio 2010 IDE, you must enable the local help option in the Help Library Manager.

Tip: To view the complete table of contents of the installed local help in the Visual Studio 2010 IDE, install the Visual Studio Help Keyword Index plug-in that is available from the Microsoft website. Alternatively, you can upgrade to Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1 to view help in the Microsoft Help Viewer.

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.

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 at http://www.ibm.com/software/awdtools/tester/functional/support/.

For product news, events, and other information, visit the product home page for Rational Functional Tester Software at http://www.ibm.com/software/awdtools/tester/functional/index.html.

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.

Trademarks acknowledgments

IBM, the IBM logo, and ibm.com® are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corp., registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. Other product and service names might be trademarks of IBM or other companies. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the web at Copyright and trademark information.

Adobe is either a registered trademark or trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States, and/or other countries.

Java and all Java-based trademarks are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States, other countries, or both.

Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries, or both.

Microsoft and Windows are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.

Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.

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