By using QTP we can test standard windows applications, Web objects, ActiveX controls, and Visual basic applications.

Test is a collection of steps organized into one or more actions, which are used to verify that your application performs as expected

After we have finished recording, we can instruct QTP to check the properties of specific objects in our application by means of enhancement features available in QTP. When we perform a run session, QTP performs each step in our test or component. After the run session ends, we can view a report detailing which steps were performed, and which one succeeded or failed.

A test is composed of actions. The steps we add to a test are included with in the test’s actions. By each test begin with a single action. We can divide our test into multiple actions to organize our test.

Creating tests or business components

Running tests or business components

Analyzing results

Parameterizing the test

To design a modular and efficient tests

The extension for code file is .vbs and the extension for object repository is .tsr

The name property is used to identify the browser and the title property is used to identify the page.

VB script

COM interface appears in the scenario of front end and back end.

Create object is used to create and return a reference to an automation object.

For example:

Dim ExcelSheetSet

ExcelSheet=createobject(”Excel.Sheet”)

Its not mandate that one should mastered in VB script to work with QTP. It is mostly user friendly and for good results we need to have basic VB or concepts which will suffice.

QTP has some additional functionality which is not present in Win Runner. For example, you can test (Functionality and Regression testing) an application developed in .Net technology with QTP, which is not possible to test in Win Runner.

The test object model is a large set of object types or classes that QTP uses to represent the objects in our application. Each test object has a list of properties that can uniquely identify objects of that class.

QTP test script is a combination of VB script statements and statements that use QuickTest test objects, methods and properties.

It’s an object that QTP uses to represent an object in our application. Each test object has one or more methods and properties that we can use to perform operations and retrieve values for that object. Each object also has a number of identification properties that can describe the object.

Case-sensitivity

VB script is not case sensitive and does not differentiate between upper case and lower case spelling of words.

Text strings

When we enter value as a string, that time we must add quotation marks before and after the string

Variables

We can use variables to store strings, integers, arrays and objects. Using variables helps to make our script more readable and flexible.

Parentheses

To achieve the desired result and to avoid the errors, it is important that we use parentheses() correctly in our statements.

Comments

We can add comments to our statements using apostrophe (’), either at a beginning of the separate line or at the end of a statement

Spaces

We can add extra blank spaces to our script to improve clarity. These spaces are ignored by the VB script

GetROProperty method is used to retrieve the properties of the object in an application.
It is very useful method and can be used to retrieve almost any of the property that can be seen while spying the object with object spy.
For Example

‘To get whether button is enabled or not.
Val = Browser("QA Friends").Page("QA Friends").WebButton("Login").GetROProperty("disabled")

‘To get whether a checkbox is on or off.
Val = Browser("QA Friends").Page("QA Friends").WebCheckBox("Test").GetROProperty("Value")

Q28. How can I modify the properties values of test objects in Object Repository during run time?

You can use SetTOProperty method of test object.
Object(description).SetTOProperty Property, Value
The values of test object properties are used to identify the objects. Sometimes the properties of the object in the application change dynamically. For example text of a link in a webpage is the username used to login to that page.
Text property is used by test object to identify the link. So in order to identify the actual object we can manipulate the value of “text” property of link using SetTOProperty.

For waiting until navigation of web page completes we can use Sync method.
For waiting until an object appears we can use Exist method.
For waiting until a property of object changes we can use WaitProperty method.
You can set browser navigation timeout in:
Click Test > Settings menu
Select web tab in Test Settings window.
Enter the timeout in Browser Navigation Timeout text box.
You can set global object sychrozization timeout in:
Click Test > Settings menu
Select Run tab in Test Settings window.
Enter the timeout in Object Synchronization Timeout text box.

We can write user defined function in .vbs file. This file can be loaded by adding the file as follows:
Click Test > Settings menu
Select Resources tab in Test Settings window and add the file.
Alternatively you can also load the file through script using
ExecuteFile “absolute or relative path of file”
For Example: ExecuteFile “C:\Test.vbs”

Regular expressions used for identifying objects and text strings with varying values. You can use regular expressions for defining the property values of an object, creating checkpoints with varying values etc.
Example:
For example if the caption on the button in an application changes dynamically and can be
anything which starts with “Hello” (It can be Hello XYZ, Hello AB13 and so on)
You can go object repository and change the value of name property of the button object to
“Hello.*”
Here “.” means any single character and “ * ” means 0 or more occurances of preceding
character. So .* means 0 or more occurances of any character.
There are many other regular expression characters:
For Example: Regular expression test[0-9] matches test0, test1, test2…… to test9.
Regular expression abc[789] matches abc7, abc8, abc9

Test, action or component parameters – for using values from other action in your
test.
Data Table parameters – for creating data driven test based on values in data table.
Environment variable parameters – For using values of environment variable.
Random number parameters – For using random numbers as values in our test or
component.

We can try using alternatives like regular expressions, Changing description of test
objects in object repository during run time, using descriptive programming and so on.

For standard windows environment you can try object mapping user defined
classes to standard classes.
2)You can find whether any addins are available for given environment.
3) check if any other reliable alternativies are available like using keyboard shortcuts,
using automation object model of application if available and so on.

Descriptive programming allows you to work with objects that are not stored in object
repository. two types of programmatic descriptions.
1) listing the set of properties and values that describe the object directly in a test
statement.
2) Add collection of properties and values to a Description object, and then enter the
Description object name in the statement.

You can use ActiveX Data Object for accessing the content of database. You can
create connection object, recordset object and then execute query. And access the values
of query in recordset.
Example
Set objConn= CreateObject("ADODB.connection")
Set objRecSet = CreateObject("ADODB.recordset")
objConn.open strConString 'strConString is database connection string.
objRecSet.open strQuery,objConn 'strQuery is SQL query to execute.

Or

Const adOpenStatic = 3
Const adLockOptimistic = 3
Const adUseClient = 3
Set objConnection = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
Set objRecordset = CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")
objConnection.Open "DRIVER={Microsoft ODBC for Oracle};UID=<UID>;PWD=<PWD>"
objRecordset.CursorLocation = adUseClient
objRecordset.CursorType = adopenstatic
objRecordset.LockType = adlockoptimistic
ObjRecordset.Source="select field1,field2 from testTable"
ObjRecordset.ActiveConnection=ObjConnection
ObjRecordset.Open 'This will execute your Query
If ObjRecordset.recordcount>0 then
                Field1 = ObjRecordset("Field1").Value
                Field2 = ObjRecordset("Field2").Value
End if

Notes:

Data Table

Two Types of data tables

Global data sheet: Accessible to all the actions

Local data sheet: Accessible to the associated action only

Usage:

DataTable("Column Name",dtGlobalSheet) for Global data sheet

DataTable("Column Name",dtLocalSheet) for Local data sheet

If we change any thing in the Data Table at Run-Time the data is changed only in the run-time data table. The run-time data table is accessible only through then test result. The run-time data table can also be exported using DataTable.Export or DataTable.ExportSheet

Well QTP does not allow anything for saving the run time changes to the actual data sheet. The only work around is to share the  spreadsheet and then access it using the Excel COM Api's.

The best way would be to use the below code:

code:

on error resume next
val=DataTable("ParamName",dtGlobalSheet)
if err.number<> 0 then
   'Parameter does not exist
else
   'Parameter exists
end if

Well you can't do it normally but you can use Excel COM API's do the same. Below code will explain some expects of Excel COM APIs

code:

Set xlApp=Createobject("Excel.Application")
set xlWorkBook=xlApp.workbooks.add
set xlWorkSheet=xlWorkbook.worksheet.add
xlWorkSheet.Range("A1:B10").interior.colorindex = 34 'Change the color of the cells
xlWorkSheet.Range("A1:A10").value="text" 'Will set values of all 10 rows to "text"
xlWorkSheet.Cells(1,1).value="Text" 'Will set the value of first row and first col

rowsCount=xlWorkSheet.Evaluate("COUNTA(A:A)") 'Will count the # of rows which have non blank value in the column A
colsCount=xlWorkSheet.Evaluate("COUNTA(1:1)") 'Will count the # of non blank columns in 1st row

xlWorkbook.SaveAs "C:\Test.xls"
xlWorkBook.Close
Set xlWorkSheet=Nothing
Set xlWorkBook=Nothing
set xlApp=Nothing

Smart Identification is nothing but an algorithm used by QTP when it is not able to recognize one of the object. A very generic example as per the

QTP manual would be, A photograph of a 8 year old girl and boy and QTP records identification properties of that girl when she was 8, now when

both are 10 years old then QTP would not be able to recognize the girl. But there is something that is still the same, that is there is only one girl in the photograph. So it kind of PI (Programmed intelligence) not AI.

Something that people don't think about too much. But the thing is that you should disable SI while creating your test cases. So that you are able to recognize the objects that are dynamic or inconsistent in their properties. When the script has been created, the SI should be enabled, so that the script does not fail in case of small changes. But the developer of the script should always check for the test results to verify if the SI feature was used to identify a object or not. Sometimes SI needs to be disabled for particular objects in the OR, this is advisable when you use

SetTOProperty to change any of the TO properties of an object and especially ordinal identifiers like index, location and creationtime.

Descriptive programming is nothing but a technique using which operations can be performed on the AUT object which are not present in the OR.

Recovery scenario gives you an option to take some action for recovering from a fatal error in the test. The error could range in from occasional to typical errors. Occasional error would be like "Out of paper" popup error while printing something and typical errors would be like "object is disabled" or "object not found". A test case have more then one scenario associated with it and also have the priority or order in which it should be checked.

Trigger: Trigger is nothing but the cause for initiating the recovery scenario. It could be any popup window, any test error, particular state of an object or any application error.

Action: Action defines what needs to be done if scenario has been triggered. It can consist of a mouse/keyboard event, close application, call a

recovery function defined in library file or restart windows. You can have a series of all the specified actions.

Post-recovery operation: Basically defined what need to be done after the recovery action has been taken. It could be to repeat the step, move

to next step etc....

Recovery scenarios are used when you cannot predict at what step the error can occur or when you know that error won't occur in your QTP script but could occur in the world outside QTP, again the example would be "out of paper", as this error is caused by printer device driver. "On error resume next" should be used when you know if an error is expected and don’t want to raise it, you may want to have different actions depending upon the error that occurred. Use err.number & err.description to get more details about the error.

When we associate a library file with the test, then all the functions within that library are available to all the actions present in the test. But when we use Executefile function to load a library file, then the functions are available in the action that called executefile. By associated a library to a test we share variables across action (global variables basically), using association also makes it possible to execute code as soon as the script runs because while loading the script on startup QTP executes all the code on the global scope. We can use executefile in a library file associated with the test to load dynamic files and they will be available to all the actions in the test.

Test objects are basic and generic objects that QTP recognize. Run time object means the actual object to which a test object maps.

Yes. You can use SetTOProperty to change the test object properties. It is recommended that you switch off the Smart Identification for the object on which you use SetTOProperty function.

No (but Yes also). You can use GetROProperty("outerText") to get the outerText of a object but there is no function like SetROProperty to change this property. But you can use WebElement().object.outerText="Something" to change the property.

Action is a thing specific to QTP while functions are a generic thing which is a feature of VB Scripting. Action can have object repository associated with it while a function can't. A function is just lines of code with some/none parameters and a single return value while an action can have more than one output parameters.

Well answer depends on the scenario. If you want to use the OR feature then you have to go for Action only. If the functionality is not about any automation script i.e. a function like getting a string between to specific characters, now this is something not specific to QTP and can be done on pure VB Script, so this should be done in a function and not an action. Code specific to QTP can also be put into an function using DP. Decision of using function/action depends on what any one would be comfortable using in a given situation.

Checkpoint is basically a point in the test which validates for truthfulness of a specific things in the AUT. There are different types of checkpoints depending on the type of data that needs to be tested in the AUT. It can be text, image/bitmap, attributes, XML etc....

Q54. What's the difference between a checkpoint and output value?

Checkpoint only checks for the specific attribute of an object in AUT while Output value can output those attributes value to a column in data table.

code:

Reporter.Filter = rfDisableAll 'Disables all the reporting stuff
chk_PassFail = Browser(...).Page(...).WebEdit(...).Check (Checkpoint("Check1"))
Reporter.Filter = rfEnableAll 'Enable all the reporting stuff
if chk_PassFail then
   MsgBox "Check Point passed"
else
   MsgBox "Check Point failed"
end if

ERP/ CRM
Java/ J2EE
VB, .NET
Multimedia, XML
Web Objects, ActiveX controls
SAP, Oracle, Siebel, PeopleSoft
Web Services, Terminal Emulator
IE, NN, AOL

You can measure how long it takes to run a section of your test by defining transactions.

Image Checkpoint are supported only Web environment.

Table Checkpoints are supported only ActiveX environment.