Automatically enabled environment for functional testing

HCL DevOps Test UI (Test UI) automatically enables the environments for functional testing.

With automatic enablement of the test environment, you can directly record and play back functional test scripts without enabling components such as browsers, associated Java™ Runtime Environments (JREs), Java™ plug-ins, and Eclipse platforms manually.
Note:
  • Automatic enablement option is available only on Windows machine.
  • When you turn on automatic enablement, ensure that in addition to the application under test only the processes required by Test UI are running on the computer.

To turn off automatic enablement in Test UI Visual Studio IDE, click Tools > Options > Functional Test and then clear the Automatic Enablement check box.

Test UI enables the components automatically only in Microsoft™ Windows™ environments, including Federal Desktop Core Configuration (FDCC) setups. The automatic enablement takes place under certain conditions and has limitations. Table 1 lists the components that are enabled automatically and the components that need to be enabled manually. Table 2 lists the applications for which the test environment is enabled automatically, and the applications for which the environment must be enabled manually.

Table 1. Scenarios for automatic enablement - components
Component types Automatically enabled Enable manually
Browsers
  • Any associated Java™ plug-ins for the supported browsers are also enabled automatically.
  • Testing HTML applications that contain applets that are loaded in automatically enabled 64-bit browsers is not supported.
  • Google Chrome browsers
  • Microsoft™ Edge
  • Mozilla Firefox
Table 2. Scenarios for automatic enablement - application domains
Automatically enabled environment Enable environment manually
  • Java™ applications that contain Swing controls
  • Java™ Abstract Window Toolkit (AWT) applications
  • Java™ applications that are built by using Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT).
Learn more about automatic enablement for SWT and 64-bit AWT applications: Automatic enablement for SWT applications and 64-bit AWT applications has certain limitations and requires specific conditions. The test environment is enabled automatically if both Test UI and the test applications use a JRE from the same vendor. If the JREs are from different vendors, complete one of the following steps so that the environment is enabled automatically:
  • By default, Test UI uses the IBM® JRE. Verify whether you can set the test application to use the IBM® JRE. If setting the test application to use the IBM® JRE is not possible, set Test UI to use the Sun JRE that the test application uses.
  • If the test application uses Sun JRE, complete one of the following steps:
    • Copy the tools.jar file and the attach.dll file from the Sun jdk<version_number> directory to the jre<version_number>/lib/ext directory.
    • Start the test application with this command: java -javaagent:"<Test UI installation directory>\javaagent\FtAgent.jar"
  • SAP GUI client and server, for testing SAP applications

Limitations and workarounds in automatically enabled environments

Automatically enabled test environments have the following limitations:
  • You cannot open the Verification Point Comparator by clicking the View Results link in the functional test HTML log. Instead, open the corresponding project log file from the functional test project log, in the Functional Test Projects view.
  • In an automatically enabled test environment, if you uninstall a JRE that is associated with a browser, restart the computer, and then disable the uninstalled JRE in any browser add-ons that point to the uninstalled JRE, if any.
  • In some combinations of JREs and operating systems, when the environment is automatically enabled, the browser shuts down unexpectedly when text is entered in a text box in an applet that is embedded in an HTML page. To resolve this, do one of the following procedures:
    • For Mozilla Firefox browsers, manually enable the browsers, and ensure that the Next-Gen plug-in is disabled.
    • Use the Scripting option to access elements relative to the enabled domain toplevelwindow (either HTMLTopLevelWindow or JavaTopLevelWindow)