Frequently asked questions about integrations with Rational® Functional Tester

This topic provides answers to some frequently asked questions about IBM® Rational® Functional Tester integrations with other Rational products.

Does Rational® Functional Tester integrate with test management systems?

Rational® Functional Tester can be integrated with Rational® Quality Manager.

What are the benefits of connecting a functional test project to a test management solution?

Rational® Functional Tester is a test implementation application. On its own, it does not provide capabilities for test planning, test design, sophisticated test execution options, or in-depth results analysis. These capabilities come from a test management system that can use Rational® Functional Tester as one of several possible implementation and automation tools.

How does keyword testing work ?

Rational® Quality Manager users define the manual tests in the Rational® Quality Manager editor. They can identify test steps or sets of steps as keywords. These keywords are logical groupings of steps that can be reused across multiple manual tests.

The keywords are also visible within Rational® Functional Tester. An automation specialist can select a keyword and can record or associate it with a Rational® Functional Tester automated test. When the test is run, the keyword can be executed as an automated test. This provides limited automation specialists with the ability to automate the most high leverage test steps.

When working with keywords, when are licenses for Rational® Quality Manager and Rational® Functional Tester required?

To create manual tests, define keywords, and run tests containing keywords implemented with manual steps, a Rational® Quality Manager license is needed. To record automated tests as implementations of keywords, Rational® Functional Tester bits and license are needed. To run a manual test with automated keywords, both Rational® Quality Manager and Rational® Functional Tester must be installed, as well as a Rational® Functional Tester license.

Can Rational® Functional Tester be installed with Rational® Application Developer or Rational® Software Architect?

Rational® Functional Tester installs as a perspective into Rational® Application Developer or Rational® Software Architect.

Which source control management tools does Rational® Functional Tester integrate with?

Rational® Functional Tester can be integrated with IBM® Rational® Team Concert™ as well as with Rational® ClearCase®.

Why should I use source control management systems with Rational® Functional Tester?

Rational® Functional Tester can integrate with source control management systems such as Rational® Team Concert™ and Rational® ClearCase® to manage concurrent changes to test assets and to version test scripts changes. The Eclipse Shell (WSW), which is the Rational® Functional Tester integrated development environment (IDE), assumes the use of a version control system. So, in a team environment where you want to share scripts, script templates, or object maps with others in your testing team, and prevent others from overwriting test assets, a source control management system is useful. Source control management systems also provide the benefit of storing versions of test scripts, merging scripts, and allowing branching.

Can Rational® Functional Tester be used without a source control system?

Yes, provided the environment is either a single tester working in a datastore, or testers who are not sharing any object maps or scripts. Rational® Functional Tester can also be used without a source control system if the environment is a team of testers sharing assets in a datastore, but you might still need some specific procedures to prevent users from overwriting each other’s work.

What files are versioned when a functional test script is placed under source control with Rational® ClearCase®?

Every functional test script creates one of these files, where * represents the script name:
  • Script file - *.java
  • Helper file - *ScriptHelper.java
  • Map file (local) - *.rftxmap or Map file (shared)
  • *.rftmap VP files - *.rftvp (if necessary)
  • Script definition file - *.rtfdef

How are functional test script assets used with Rational® ClearCase®?

The top level Rational® Functional Tester asset managed by Rational® ClearCase® is a script. All helper files are automatically included during check-in, check-out, and merge operations. From the Rational® Functional Tester interface, you can check-in, check-out, get the latest copy of either a script or the entire datastore, undo a check-out (which cancels changes to a script in your local view), show currently checked out scripts, compare script versions, and see the script history. Rational® ClearCase® functions are accessed through the Team menu available by right-clicking on a test script or project. Other functions, such as creating a branch, labeling, or checking out old versions of a script, are available directly through Rational® ClearCase®.