Skip to main content

Software  >  Rational  >  

Supported environments for Rational automated functional testing tools
 White paper
 
Abstract
IBM Rational offers you two leading testing tools for automated functional testing:

- IBM Rational Functional Tester,
- IBM Rational Robot GUI scripting.

You can read here about the environments in which the tools operate. This document offers the novice to intermediate user general guidelines about the possibilities of both software products.
 
 
Content
IBM Rational Robot has been longer on the market than Rational Functional Tester. Their environments to develop automated testing scripts differ. IBM Rational Robot offers the SQABasic developing environment This environment is based on Visual Basic 4 and has extensions that enhances the functions in IBM Rational Robot. The IBM Rational Functional Tester client is an Eclipse Java client or Microsoft Visual Studio .NET client. The choice between Java and .NET depends on your company's preference.

A detailed support matrix for testing tools is difficult to make, because of the wide variety of applications under test. You can roughly say that the tools support the standard Windows GUI elements. For IBM Rational Functional Tester under Linux, the standard Linux GUI elements.

System requirements
The following pages describe the system requirements in detail for the newest releases.

Notes:
  • The tools supports only 32-bits operating systems on 32-bits processors.
  • Windows Home Editions and Tablet Editions are unsupported.
  • Only IBM Rational Functional Tester supports playback of GUI scripts under Linux.

Playback support32- bits Windows32-bits Linux
IBM Rational Functional TesterYY
IBM Rational Robot SQA BasicYN




Applications under test

Rational Functional Tester
IBM Rational Functional Tester distiguishes three types of applications both in Java scripting mode and .NET scripting mode.
    1. Java
    2. HTML
    3. executables or batches

Notes:
  • For detailed information refer to the Information Centers. The article title is: Test application domain support. See below for the links.
  • The Information Centers describe the support for nested domains.
  • The release notes also mention which Java Runtime Environment IBM Rational Functional Tester supports.
  • The release notes of IBM Rational Functional Tester version 8 describe many enhancements.
  • For IBM Rational Functional Tester .NET you need either the Visual Studio .NET Professional or the Enterprise edition.
  • You need to enable every web browser that you want to test. The IBM Rational Functional Tester Information Information Center tell you how to do that.


IBM Rational Robot
IBM Rational Robot divides the applications into the following subsystems:
    1. Delphi
    2. HTML Microsoft Internet Explorer
    3. HTML Netscape 4.7.x
    4. HTML Netscape 4.x
    5. Java
    6. Microsoft .NET
    7. Oracle Forms
    8. People Tools
    9. PowerBuilder
    10. Visual Basic


IBM Rational Robot does not claim support for all versions of the mentioned environments. IBM Rational Robot supports only applications that are developed in certain versions of the above development environments. For example, an application in PowerBuilder 9 might be supported, whereas the same application compiled in PowerBuilder 11 is not. The IBM Rational Robot system requierements page contains an overview.

Notes:
  • IBM Rational Robot does not support new interface controls in PowerBuilder version 10.5 that were introduced in this PowerBuilder version.
  • To test your Delphi applications, you run the Delphi Enabler and install the Rational Object Testing Library for Delphi. For more information, you read the IBM Rational Robot help screens.
  • In most case you can get a better support for Java applicatiopn when you run the Java Enabler.
    Click Start > All Programs > IBM Rational > IBM Rational Test > Java Enabler.
  • In IBM Rational Robot you need to enable the environment.
    Click Tools > Extension Manager ....
    Select the environment that you want to test.




For more details you read the release notes of your IBM Rational Robot or IBM Rational Functional Tester version to determine if you can use your version in which development environment.


Custom controls

Both IBM Rational Robot and IBM Rational Functional Tester support standard GUI objects or controls. If you cannot record or playback an interface object properly, a possible cause is that your application has a custom control. Possibly the people who developed your application know which controls your application has.

For special or custom controls you need an add-on. Third party companies develop these add-ons or proxies. An example of such company is AppPoint. This company has proxies available for various controls. If a proxy is unavailable for your control, you can request AppPoint to develop a proxy for you.


The controls that need a proxy are, among others, from the following vendors
  • 9rays.NET
  • Infragistics
  • ComponentOne
  • DevComponent
  • DevExpress
  • FarPoint
  • Janus Systems
  • SyncFusion
  • Northwoods
  • Stingray
  • Xceed
  • Microsoft, for example Outlook, Visio.
  • SysListView

For IBM Rational Functional Tester version 7 and 8 the documentation to develop proxies is available in the Information Centers. See the links below.

This documentation helps you to develop proxies yourself. The article Rational Functional Tester proxy SDK, gives you an overview and contains link to other relevant articles. If you think that you need support for this task, you hire a consultant. Contact your IBM account manager or call IBM. The telephone numbers are in the Directory of Worldwide Contacts.

For IBM Rational Robot you can create a custom object mapping before you start recording, if your application-under-test contains a custom object, You can also do this, when your application have other objects that IBM Rational Robot does not recognize. You add the object's class to the list of classes that IBM Rational Robot recognizes. Then you associate the class to a standard object type. IBM Rational Robot uses this mapping in the project to identify the custom object during playback. The IBM Rational Robot help provides more information. The article About Mapping Object Types and Classes gives an overview and links to descriptions about how to do it. If IBM Rational Robot still does not recognize the object properly, you can consider to acquire a proxy.

Special applications
For terminal-based applications IBM Rational Functional Tester has an extensions that you can install on top of IBM Rational Functional Tester. IBM Rational Functional Tester scripts against Siebel and SAP GUI requieres separate licences. For an overview you read the IBM Rational Functional Tester Features and Benefits web page.

For IBM Rational Robot the following documentation is available on IBM DeveloperWorks.
For terminal-based application IBM Rational Functional Tester is the better choice over IBM Rational Robot in most cases. Without modification IBM Rational Functional Tester with extension provides support for terminal-based applications. The same is true for SAP and Siebel.

When in doubt
If you doubt whether you can test your application automatically in either IBM Rational Robot or IBM Rational Functional Tester, you contact IBM Rational Client Support. See the link in this document's footer.

You need to provide the IBM Rational Software engineers the following material.
  1. Details about your environment, operating system, versions of the Rational products.
  2. Details about your application.
  3. In which environment did you develop the application? If necessary, you contact the ones who developed the application.
  4. The IBM Rational Robot script or an export file, .rftjdtr, of the IBM Rational Functional Tester prject.
  5. What do you observe during recording and playback?
  6. The relevant messages from the logs.
  7. Any error messages from the console.
  8. A sample application.

Note:
It is important that you provide a sample application. Without sample application it is almost impossible to investigate towards conclusions about the possibilities for IBM Rational Functional Tester or IBM Rational Robot.



Do you need more help?

For additional assistance, contact IBM Rational Customer Support:
Submit a Service Request (SR)
 
Related information
Information Center Rational Functional Tester 8.1
Information Center version Rational Functional Tester 8
Information Center Rational Functional Tester 7
 
 
Original publication date
2008/10/28
 
Cross Reference information
Segment Product Component Platform Version Edition
Software DevelopmentRational RobotDocumentationWindows7.0, 7.0.0.1, 7.0.0.2, 7.0.0.3, 7.0.0.4, 7.0.0.5, 7.0.0.6, 7.0.0.7, 7.0.1, 7.0.1.1, 7.0.1.2, 7.0.1.3, 7.0.1.4, 7.0.1.5, 7.0.1.6, 7.0.2, 7.0.2.1, 7.0.2.2
 
 

Copyright and trademark information
IBM, the IBM logo and ibm.com are 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" at www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml.
Rate this page
Please take a moment to complete this form to help us better serve you.
This material provides me with the information I need.




This material is clear and easy to understand.




Did the information help you to achieve your goal?
What updates, improvements, or related information would you like to see in this document?
Your response will be used to improve our document content. Requests for assistance, if applicable, should be submitted through your normal support channel as we cannot respond from this site.
Input the verification number to submit feedback:
Document information
 Product categories:
 Software
 Software Development
 Software Quality Management
 Rational Functional Tester
 Documentation
 Operating system(s):
  Linux, Windows
 Software version:
  7.0, 7.0.0.1, 7.0.0.2, 7.0.1, 7.0.1.1, 7.0.1.2, 7.0.1.3, 8.0, 8.0.0.1, 8.0.0.2, 8.0.0.3, 8.1, 8.1.0.1, 8.1.0.2, 8.1.0.3
 Reference #:
  7014227
 IBM Group:
 Software Group
 Modified date:
 2009-12-01

Translate My Page
 
 

Rate this page

Help us improve this page. Your response will be used to improve our document content. Requests for assistance, if applicable, should be submitted through your normal support channel as we cannot respond from this site.