Testing Lotus Notes Applications Using Robot

Resolving The Problem

When attempting to test Lotus Notes applications using Robot. Some objects/controls may not appear to be recognized properly and/or not all expected properties may be captured.

Recorded scripts may not recognize objects by ObjectName (only by basic Windows properties, such as Caption/Text/Label, Index, or ID), regardless of the Object Recognition order setup in Robot's Options.


Robot has built-in support for a variety of development environments (e.g., Visual Basic, C/C++, PowerBuilder, Oracle Developer/2000, Delphi, People Tools, & SQLWindows); however, Lotus Notes is not yet one of these environments.

In general, customers that desire to use a development environment, which is not specified in the Robot documentation, should consider performing trial/evaluation runs with a sample application using the desired environment (e.g., Lotus Notes).

When scripts contain coordinate references within windows and such windows do not necessarily open with the same screen position and size, and then enable the Robot Recording Options for Save Window Positions and Auto-Record Window Size. These features are designed to make sure that windows are positioned and sized, as they were when the scripts were originally recorded.

In general, if scripts recorded against a Notes application use coordinate references, then the test playback will likewise be coordinate dependent. In such cases, customers may need to establish a baseline display setup; i.e., same display & color resolution, color schemes, Notes preferences, and (potentially) display drivers on all related test stations. If different test stations have different display setups, that can cause problems playing back scripts which were created/recorded on another PC. These script playback problems can include clicks occurring out of bounds or on incorrect locations, which in turn can cause errors, script command failures, and undesired navigation in the application under test.

In cases where objects/controls do not appear to be recognized properly or where not all expected properties are captured, automated testing may have to resort to clipboard and/or image-based test cases. If image-based (i.e., Region- or Window Image) test cases are employed, a baseline display setup (as mentioned above) should be established.

The degree to which you can use Robot to test Notes applications can vary on a case-by-case basis; individual-testing results will depend upon the exact actions taken on the particular application. As such, automated testing should be tried out against each desired application (and feature set) on a trial basis, in order to evaluate what level of usability Robot can offer for the application/task in question. If any issues arise, then contact SQA Technical Support and we will attempt to troubleshoot any such issues in the same manner that we handle all of our other calls.