IBM Rational Testing Products Release Notes


Version 2003.06.13
Release Date: September 2004
Last Updated: 08/09/2004
Material ID: GI11-5906-03

© Copyright IBM Corporation. 2000, 2004. All Rights Reserved.

This documentation (the "Work") is protected under the copyright laws of the United States and/or other jurisdictions, as well as various international treaties. Any reproduction or distribution of the Work is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of IBM Corporation.

Legal Notices Information

The complete listing of IBM Rational Legal Notices is automatically installed with IBM Rational Suite in <Install Path>\Rational\doc\legal_information.html. Optionally, the Legal Notices can be found on the "IBM Rational Solutions for Windows CD-ROM" at \doc\legal_information.html.


Scope

Product changes described in this document and contained within this service release apply if you are upgrading from:

If you are upgrading from any of these releases, see the IBM Rational Testing Products Service Release Notes for the defects fixed in this service release and the previous service release.

These release notes are accurate at the time this product was prepared for release. The most recent version of this file is available in the IBM Publications Center at http://www.ibm.com/shop/publications/order. Search for "GI11-5906-03" to find the latest version of these release notes in the IBM Publications Center. (To search for the IBM Publications Center, go to http://www.ibm.com and enter "IBM Publications Center" in the Search field.)

The testing products user guides that are translated into Japanese describe the IBM Rational product release 2001A.04.10. You can find these documents on the IBM Rational Solutions for Windows Online Documentation CD-ROM in the "Extras" folder.

These release notes provide information that is not available in the printed documentation or in the Help for IBM(R) Rational(R) Robot, IBM Rational SiteCheck, IBM Rational TeamTest, and IBM Rational TestFactory.

Contents

Scope

Getting Started

Installation Information and System Requirements

Installing IBM Rational TestManager

Installing IBM Rational Software in a Windows Terminal Server Environment

LEAD Technologies Files Included in Rational Testing Products

Installation Issues

Common Installer Issues

Rational Installer Incompatible with Windows "Change Journal" Feature

Installing Robot or TestManager on Win 9x Platforms - Required Reboot

Installation Directories

Installing Proxy Server Service

Installing Test Agent Service

Evaluation Artifacts

Robot Installation Issues with .NET

Robot Installation Issue for Testing SAP Applications

Robot Uninstall Issue on Windows 98

SiteCheck Installation Notes

Installing Testing Products on Non-English Operating Systems

Installation of Sybase SQL Anywhere 8.0.2 Server

Creating a Rational Test Datastore

Launching Agents on Windows XP or Windows NT with Auto-Login

Solaris Test Agent Installation

All Testing Products

New and Changed Features in v2003.06.13

Supported Platforms

IBM Rational TestManager

Upgrade to Sybase SQL Anywhere 8.0.2

New and Changed Features in v2003.06.12

IBM Rational XDE Tester

Creating Test Datastores

Validation and Repair of Test Datastores

Guidelines and Restrictions

Modifying Test Assets

Creating Rational Test Datastores

Using the Datastore Doctor

Initializing Projects with External Test Script Sources

Creating a Unified Change Management (UCM)-Enabled Datastore

Sybase SQL Anywhere 8.0.2 Database Server

Opening the Rational TSS for Visual Basic.htm File

Local and Agent Computer Configurations

Supported Agent Platforms

IBM Rational Administrator

Guidelines and Restrictions

Creating a UNC-Enabled Datastore on Windows XP

Unified Change Management (UCM)

IBM Rational Robot: General and Functional Testing

New and Changed Features in v2003.06.12

Testing Oracle 9i and 11i Applications

Internet Explorer 6.0 Support

Terminal Server Support

Logging Control

.NET Support

Cross-Browser Support

Netscape 4.7x Support

JDK 1.4 Support

Delphi 7 Support

PowerBuilder Support

Guidelines and Restrictions

Test Enablers

Internationalization

Using Robot For Testing PeopleTools Applications

Platform Support

COM and ActiveX Controls in Internet Applications

Issue with Windows Me

Playing Back Keyboard Events on a HotKeyControl

Distributed Functional Testing

PowerBuilder and Japanese Operating Systems

Java Support

HTML Support

Delphi Support

Oracle Forms Support

PowerBuilder Support

Object Data Verification Points

Incorrect Script Playback on Windows XP Default Display Scheme

Using WaitPositive or WaitNegative in the Region VP Command

Firewall Issues with Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2)

Running GUI Scripts with Custom DLL Files

Miscellaneous

IBM Rational Robot: Performance Testing

New and Changed Features in v2003.06.12

Session Recording and Script Generation Extensibility

NTLM Feature Enhancement

Guidelines and Restrictions

Documentation Update for _reference_URI Variable

Documentation Update for _mcommand

Issues with ODBC Sessions Recorded with DB2 Servers

IBM Rational SiteCheck

Guidelines and Restrictions

Browser

Charset

Customizing Files Added by Rational SiteCheck

External Links

Previously-Saved Site Maps

Scanning Large Sites

Scanning Subdirectories

Preferences

Simultaneous Connections

Microsoft Office XP

ActiveX Controls

Uninstall Error Message

Comparisons

File Counts and Sizes

Frames

External Links

SiteCheck and Robot

Site Monitor Issues

UCM on Windows NT with ClearCase 5.0

Double-byte Character Limitations on Datastore Names

Changing Test Datastore Type

SQABasic

Guidelines and Restrictions

IBM Rational TestFactory

Guidelines and Restrictions

Standalone Source Instrumentor

Unsupported Platforms

Changing the System Font Size Between Mapping Sessions

Moving a TestFactory Project for a Visual Basic Application

Recommended Java Virtual Machine

Mapping Java Applications Developed Using JDK 1.1.8 or Earlier

Installing the Java Enabler Before Mapping a Java Application

Inprise Delphi Not Supported

Working with Third-Party Controls

Running Test Scripts without Running TestFactory

Testing a Java Application that Runs on the Sun JVM

Running a Pilot Against a C++AUT

IBM Rational TestManager

IBM Rational XDE Tester

Contacting IBM Rational Customer Support

 

Getting Started

Installation Information and System Requirements

The IBM Rational Software Desktop Products Installation Guide, IBM Rational Software Server Products Installation Guide, and IBM Rational Suite Upgrade Guide contain complete installation and upgrade instructions and system requirements for Rational products for Windows. These manuals are available as printed books and electronically as PDF files on the IBM Rational Solutions for Windows Online Documentation CD-ROM, which also includes a version of the Acrobat Reader.

Installing IBM Rational TestManager

For information about installing TestManager, see the IBM Rational TestManager Release Notes.

Installing IBM Rational Software in a Windows Terminal Server Environment

You can install and run Rational software on a Windows Terminal Server console system according to the supported platforms.

First, you need to install both MDAC 2.7 and Jet 4.0 Service Pack 6. If you do not install both of these components, you will encounter the following error: "To install this product, you must first install version 2.7 of the Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) and Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) drivers following the sequence described in Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 216149."

After you install both MDAC 2.7 and Jet 4.0 Service Pack 6 and continue with installation in the Windows Terminal Server environment, you may encounter the following error: "You are attempting to install on an unsupported operating system. We recommend that you install on a supported operating system. See your Rational products release notes for a complete list of supported operating systems and service packs." You can safely disregard this warning and continue with your installation.

To use Rational Robot on a Terminal Server client, you must install one of the following on the server and configure your console system to use floating licenses: IBM Rational Robot, IBM Rational TeamTest, IBM Rational TestStudio, or IBM Rational Suite Enterprise.

LEAD Technologies Files Included in Rational Testing Products

The following files from LEAD Technologies, Inc., are included in this release in Rational Robot and Rational TestFactory:

Installation Issues

Common Installer Issues

The Rational Site Preparation Tool is not supported on systems running Windows 9x.

Release area pathnames must not contain multi-byte characters.

The installer does not check whether the destination installation directory is a valid Windows pathname. The installation may complete, but the installed product will probably not run.

Rational Installer Incompatible with Windows "Change Journal" Feature

Rational has determined that under certain circumstances file system corruption can result from installing Rational v2003 products on Windows 2000 to an NTFS partition that has the Windows "Change Journal" (log) enabled on it. This corruption is caused by a defect in Windows 2000.

Before you install any Rational v2003 product on a computer that is running Windows 2000:

  1. Disable all virus detection software.
  2. Read IBM Support Technote 1135295. Go to http://www.ibm.com/support/us/search/index.html and search for "Rational Installer Change Journal."
  3. Read Microsoft Knowledge Base article 820888 at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];820888. This article includes information about an update from Microsoft that fixes the defect.

Installing Robot or TestManager on Win 9x Platforms - Required Reboot

After you install Robot or TestManager or both on Win 9x platforms, you must reboot your system before you can run these products.

Installation Directories

Do not install Rational testing products to the root directory of a drive. Do not install to a directory path that contains non-ASCII or double-byte characters.

Installing Proxy Server Service

If you want to use the VU Proxy Network Recording function in Robot, you must install the Proxy Server Service manually anytime Robot is installed on systems running Windows NT, Windows 2000, or Windows XP. The Proxy Server Service is no longer automatically installed with TestManager. The system may have to be restarted before the service will work properly.

Installing Test Agent Service

The Test Agent Service should be installed any time that the Rational Test Agent is explicitly installed. This service is set up as a manual (not started) service. If you want to use it as a way of running the Agent, you should remove the Agent from the startup group, kill the rtprvd.exe process, and start the Agent. The system may have to be restarted after product installation before the service will start properly.

Evaluation Artifacts

Evaluation artifacts are not included as a part of this installation procedure. As a result, when you select the Evaluator option on the Software Use page of the Rational Software Setup program, sample data is not installed.

You can obtain the sample data by downloading the Rational Suite Tutorial from http://www.ibm.com/software/rational/support/documentation/tutorial.html.  Note that the tutorial is not available if you are installing Robot, TeamTest, or TestManager as point products.

Robot Installation Issues with .NET

To take advantage of .NET support in Rational Robot, we recommend that you install Microsoft .NET Framework before you install any Rational products. If, however, you have already installed Robot and want to add .NET support, go to the Control Panel and open Add/Remove Programs. Select Rational Testing Products and click Modify/Change. On the feature tree, expand Rational Robot and click Modify. Click Next. Then proceed with modifying the installation to include .NET support.

Modifying an installation of Robot will cause .NET to appear within the feature tree. Do not try to enable .NET support from the feature tree unless you are sure the .NET Framework is installed on your system. If you do so and .NET is not on your system, the modification fails.

Robot Installation Issue for Testing SAP Applications

The fm20.dll is no longer installed with Robot. This DLL supports Microsoft Forms controls and is required for Robot support for SAP. You can download it without cost from http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnaxctrl/html/cpad.asp.

Robot Uninstall Issue on Windows 98

When you uninstall Robot on Windows 98, errors might occur that say that several files could not be unregistered or uninstalled. This is a known issue. Dismiss the error messages, and the uninstall will proceed.

SiteCheck Installation Notes

For systems using Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.x, the installation program updates the COMCTL32.DLL file if it is out of date. If it is updated, you must restart your computer before you can run SiteCheck; otherwise, you will get a runtime error.

For systems using Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.x or later, you can run SiteCheck as soon as the installation program terminates.

Installing Testing Products on Non-English Operating Systems

When installing Rational testing products on non-English versions of operating systems, do not install to a directory path that contains non-ASCII characters. The directory path should contain ASCII characters only.

Installation of Sybase SQL Anywhere 8.0.2 Server

If you have installed the SQL Anywhere database from Sybase and also from a Rational testing product, you may receive a DLL conflict error. Contact IBM Rational Customer Support to help you resolve this issue.

For detailed information about Sybase SQL Anywhere, click here.

Creating a Rational Test Datastore

When creating a Rational test datastore from the Rational Administrator, do not specify a path containing non-ASCII characters. Also, do not use non-ASCII characters when naming any projects or log folders. If your test datastore path contains non-ASCII characters, you will experience problems of varying severity, including abnormal test script termination, datapool access anomalies, and problems with verification points.

Launching Agents on Windows XP or Windows NT with Auto-Login

When auto-logging on to a Windows XP or Windows NT system, you may see a NuTCRACKER service error message. If this occurs, do not use auto-login when launching the system, and try waiting at the login screen for several extra seconds, which allows the NuTCRACKER service to finish starting.

Solaris Test Agent Installation

Before running RTsagt to start the Solaris Agent, check the content of the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable (echo $LD_LIBRARY_PATH) and make sure that /usr/openwin/lib is included. If it is not, add it using the following sequence:

 LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/usr/openwin/lib  export LD_LIBRARY_PATH

All Testing Products

New and Changed Features in v2003.06.13

Supported Platforms

For a complete list of supported platforms, see the IBM Rational Suite Release Notes v2003.06.13.

IBM Rational TestManager

Rational TestManager now has the following new features:

For details, see the IBM Rational TestManager Release Notes.

Upgrade to Sybase SQL Anywhere 8.0.2

Rational products that were using Sybase SQL Anywhere 5.5 have been upgraded to use Sybase SQL Anywhere 8.0.2.

New and Changed Features in v2003.06.12

IBM Rational XDE Tester

Rational XDE Tester is an object-oriented automated testing tool that enables you to test Java and HTML applications running on the Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Linux platforms.

Note: Information about XDE Tester is in a separate release notes file. The XDE Tester release notes contain important information for use of this new product, including information about the installation, the XDE Tester documentation, and known technical issues. To access the XDE Tester release notes, click Start > Programs > Rational Software > Readme for Rational XDE Tester.

For information about using Rational XDE Tester with Rational TestManager, see the IBM Rational TestManager release notes.

Creating Test Datastores

There is a new wizard that streamlines the process of creating test datastores. You can also use it to add test assets, test users, and groups from an existing project to the datastore that you are creating. For more information, see the test datastore Help in the Rational Administrator.

Validation and Repair of Test Datastores

The Datastore Doctor application verifies the current status of your test datastores, and if necessary, repairs them. To gain access to the Datastore Doctor, in the Rational Administrator, click Tools > Rational Test > Rational Datastore Doctor.

Guidelines and Restrictions

Modifying Test Assets

Use only Rational testing products, such as the Administrator, to modify and manipulate test assets. Do not use, for example, Cleartool, a ClearCase command line utility, to modify test assets, particularly when test asset file names include a space.

Creating Rational Test Datastores

Using A Uniform Naming Convention (UNC) Path

You must create test datastores using a Uniform Naming Convention (UNC) path if you are sharing the datastores. A UNC path is a PC format for specifying the location of resources on a local-area network (LAN). This enables the use of datastores in a multiuser environment. If you are using a standalone system, you can create a local datastore using a UNC path name to your own machine (for example, \\mysystem\datastores\mydatastore). You would use the IP address 127.0.0.1 to access your own system, for example, \\127.0.0.1\c$\datastores\mydatastore. The c$ is a reserved default share for the C drive. You can create datastores on Windows NT, Windows XP, and Windows 2000. You cannot create datastores on Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Me.

Initializing New Test Datastores from Existing Ones

To initialize a new datastore from an existing one that was created in a previous version of IBM Rational software, you must first upgrade the source datastore to the current version of the product.

Using the Datastore Doctor

Do not use a test datastore while the Datastore Doctor, an application used to validate and repair test datastores, is running. We recommend that you use the Datastore Doctor early in the morning or late in the day, or when there are no users using Rational testing products.

Note: When you use the Datastore Doctor to repair datastores that reside in IBM Rational ClearCase, be sure that the datastores are checked out. If the datastores are not checked out, they are in read-only mode and cannot be repaired.

Initializing Projects with External Test Script Sources

When you create a new project from the Administrator, you can initialize the new project's test datastore from the test datastore of an existing project. If you do this, the new project is identical to the project from which it was initialized.

However, if you initialize a new project from an existing project that contains external test script sources, the datapaths to the test script sources will be incorrect. You must update them so that they point to the correct location of the test script sources.

For example, if the existing project includes a test script type named Perl, and you specified c:\perl as the datapath of a test script source of that type, the test script type Perl exists in the new project as well as the test script source but the test script source's datapath, c:\perl, is incorrect.

Creating a Unified Change Management (UCM)-Enabled Datastore

When you create a UCM-enabled datastore, you must use a Snapshot view in Rational ClearCase. Dynamic views are not supported.

Sybase SQL Anywhere 8.0.2 Database Server

If you have installed the SQL Anywhere database from Sybase and also from a Rational testing product, you may receive a DLL conflict error. Contact IBM Rational Customer Support to help you resolve this issue.

Hardware and Software Requirements for SQL Anywhere 8.0.2 Server
Other Information about the Sybase SQL Anywhere 8.0.2 Server
-ti represents client idle time before disconnect, in minutes. The default value is 240.
-tl represents the client liveness timeout, in seconds. The default is 120.
-gd sets the initial permission level

For further information on these switches, click Help in the Server Startup dialog box.

Opening the Rational TSS for Visual Basic.htm File

When you attempt to open the Rational Test Script Services (TSS) for Visual Basic.htm or the Rational TSS for Java.htm documentation file either by browsing for them or by using the Start menu, you might see the following error message:

"A runtime error has occurred. Do you wish to debug? Line: 1446 Error: Array length must be a finite positive number ."

This error is harmless. You can either ignore it, or fix it by restoring the default IE6 browser settings.

Local and Agent Computer Configurations

Testing on Local and Agent computers that are configured for different languages is not supported. For example, you cannot test on a Local computer operating system that is configured for the English language and an Agent computer operating system that is configured for a different language.

Supported Agent Platforms

The following table lists supported Agent platforms and indicates which built-in test script types can be played back on each. Unless otherwise noted, support for an execution adapter on a platform implies support for the corresponding Test Script Services (TSS) on that platform. TSS for C is supported on all Agent platforms.

 
Execution Adapter VU SQA
Basic
Java Visual
Basic
Command Line Supported as Local Computer for multi-virtual tester execution and as host for Robot session recording
Platform            
All Windows Suite Desktop Platforms y y y y y y
Windows 2000 Server: SPs 2,3,4 y y y y y y
Windows 2000 Advanced Server: SPs 2, 3, 4 y y y y y y
Windows 2003 Server (Standard and Enterprise)
y y y y y y
Windows 98 Second Edition n y y y y n
Windows Me
n y y y y n
Solaris 2.6 SPARC
y n y n y n
Solaris 7 SPARC
y n y n y n
Solaris 8 SPARC
y
n
y
n
y
n
Solaris 9 SPARC
y n y n y n
HP-UX 11 PA-RISC 2 (32-bit PA-RISC 1.1 and 64-bit HP-UX not supported)
y n n n y n
AIX 4.3 y
n
n
n
y
n
AIX 5.1 y n n n y n
AIX 5.2 y n n n y n
Red Hat Linux 7.1, 7.2, 7.3 Professional y n y n y n
Red Hat Linux 7.1, 7.2, 7.3 Personal y n y n y n
Red Hat Linux 8 Professional y n y n y n
Red Hat Linux 8 Personal y n y n y n
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 Intel 1A-32 y n y n y n

Playback Environments for GUI Testing
 

Win NT
Win XP Professional
Win 2000
Win 2003
Win Me

Win 98, 2nd. edition

Solaris

HP-UX AIX

Linux

SQABasic y y n n n

IBM Rational Administrator

Guidelines and Restrictions

Creating a UNC-Enabled Datastore on Windows XP

When creating a UNC-enabled test datastore, if the shared file directory specified by the datastore resides on a system using Windows XP, you must manually adjust file directory attributes to allow write access.

Unified Change Management (UCM)

If you use Unified Change Management (UCM) with Rational Suite under both of these conditions:

  • You use IBM Rational ClearQuest to manage UCM activities, and
  • You place an IBM Rational RequisitePro project or a Rational Test datastore under configuration control

Make sure that you do not set the UCM policy, Check Assignment Before Work. The default is for the policy not to be set.

When you set the policy, you cannot work on an activity unless you are the owner of that activity. But in the current implementation of UCM for RequisitePro and Rational Test, an entire team of workers share the same activity. Therefore, if the policy is set, only one person, not the entire team, can work in a RequisitePro project or in a Rational Test datastore.

If the policy is set mistakenly, you see the error message "Source control could not set activity." To work around this issue:

  1. Start the Administrator and connect to a Rational project.
  2. Right-click the UCM project and click Properties.
  3. On the ClearQuest tab, clear the policy.

For further details, see the Rational Suite Administrator's Guide.

IBM Rational Robot: General and Functional Testing

New and Changed Features in v2003.06.12

Testing Oracle 9i and 11i Applications

This version of Robot supports testing Oracle 9i and 11i applications that were developed with Forms Developer, with the following restrictions:

  • Testing Oracle ERP and CRM applications released with Oracle 11i is not supported.
  • This version of Robot does not have object level support for tab control. Support will be coordinate-based for this control.

To test Oracle Forms 9i and 11i applications:

  1. Install the Oracle Enabler.
    • Install the Oracle Enabler from IBM Rational Software packaged with Rational Robot.
    • Enable the Oracle form you want to test and recompile it using the Oracle Forms Designer.
    • See Chapter 12 of the Rational Robot User's Guide for information on the Oracle Enabler.
  2. Start the Oracle Container for Java Service.
    • If the Oracle Container for Java service is not already running, start it by clicking Start > Programs > Oracle 9i Developer Suite > Forms Builder > Start OC4J.
  3. Make sure the Java Enabler is installed.
    • In order for Robot to detect Oracle 9i or 11i objects, you must install the Java Enabler. Before starting Robot for testing, make sure the Java Enabler is installed and enabled.
    • You can install the Java Enabler from Start > Programs > Rational Software > Rational Test.
    • See Chapter 15 of the Rational Robot User's Guide for information on the Java Enabler.

To enable the client test machine:

  1. Verify the HTML and Java extensions are loaded in Robot. See Chapters 14 and 15 of the Rational Robot User's Guide for information.
  2. Install the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) on the client machine.

Note: Oracle documentation does not specify any JRE requirements; however, we recommend Sun JRE 1.3.

  1. Before starting Robot for testing, make sure the Java Enabler is installed and enabled. You can install the Java Enabler from Start > Programs > Rational Software > Rational Test.

Internet Explorer 6.0 Support

Robot supports recording and playing back scripts on Internet Explorer 6.0.

Terminal Server Support

For functional testing, Rational Robot supports the following Terminal Server environments:

  • Citrix MetaFrame (WIN2K)/Citrix MetaFrame client
  • Microsoft Terminal (WIN2K)/Microsoft Terminal Server Client
  • Windows 2000 Server
  • Windows Terminal Server (Windows NT 4)

Both the application-under-test and Rational Robot are installed on the server. From within the client session you can launch both the application-under-test and Rational Robot to run on the server. TestManager Log Viewer edition can be run from the server or from within the client session.

Notes:

  • TestManager does not support Citrix or Microsoft Windows Terminal Server.
  • Robot requires floating licenses for terminal servers.
  • Make sure that the screen resolution for the client matches the screen resolution on the server.

Logging Control

The main toolbar now has a Log button to turn logging results on and off. It appears automatically. If you are upgrading from an earlier release, you can add the button to the main toolbar as follows:

  1. Click View > Toolbars > Customize, or right-click the toolbar and click Customize.
  2. Click the Commands tab.
  3. In the File category, drag the Log button to the main toolbar. Make sure you release the mouse button within the toolbar.
  4. Click OK to close the Customize dialog box.

.NET Support

Rational Robot provides complete support for VS.NET Windows Forms controls. Robot has been enhanced for this release to recognize these User Interface controls at the object level. Robot supports the following features:

  • VS.NET -7.1
  • Recording and playing back actions on all standard Windows Forms controls included with Visual Studio.NET
  • .NET 1.0 SP2
  • .NET applications with multiple domains
  • Performing verification based on object data, object properties, the application-under-test menu, and alpha-numeric data
  • Integrating with IBM Rational PurifyPlus for Windows
  • Managed code in unmanaged space (for example, a C# user control embedded in a VisualBasic form or an HTML page)
  • Unmanaged code in a managed application (for example, a VisualBasic control in a C# application)
Note: The .NET Enabler that is available for Rational Testing Products version 2002.05.00 is not required for version 2003.06.00 and later.

For more information, see the Robot Help and the Rational Robot User's Guide.

Cross-Browser Support

Cross-browser support is improved in this release. In prior releases, by default, you could test every property of the browser-under-test. This caused problems because the default set of properties was different not only between Internet Explorer and Netscape, but also between one version of Internet Explorer and another. To resolve this issue, the default is testing a smaller subset of properties that are common to all browsers. This improves cross-browser support. You can add back any properties that are no longer part of the default, but this will result in a script that may no longer be cross-browser compatible. This has no effect on older scripts. Previously recorded scripts will play back with whatever properties they contained when they were recorded.

Object Data tests by contents can fail cross-browser testing because IE and Netscape add extra linefeeds inconsistently, and the contents may not compare properly. To resolve this issue, use the Filtered Contents option. This strips out any line feeds and extra white spaces.

The default width and height properties for any object that contains them may not compare across browsers. Netscape returns a value for height and width whether or not this value is specified in the source. Internet Explorer does not return a value for height and width unless these values are specified in the source.

The default size property for combo boxes (select tag) may not compare across browsers. In Netscape, if the size property is not defined, it returns a value of one, which results in a drop-down combo box. If the size property is defined, it returns the value that is specified in the source. In Internet Explorer, if the size property is not defined, IE returns a value of zero, which results in a drop-down combo box. If the size property is defined, IE returns the value that is specified in the source. (If the size is zero or one, the result is a drop-down combo box. If the size is greater than one, the result is a list box.)

Netscape 4.7x Support

Rational Robot has a new extension for the Netscape 4.7x environment. This extension is selected by default in the Robot Extension Manager. A key feature of this new extension is that it supports the testing of SSL pages over HTTPS.

The Netscape 4.7x extension has the following restrictions:

  • There are some browser properties that cannot be tested using Netscape 4.7x. For example, you cannot test whether a form element is disabled.
  • Robot does not support recording a script with the Netscape 4.x extension and then playing it back in Netscape 4.7x.
  • For cross-browser testing, we recommend that you record scripts using Netscape and then play them back using Internet Explorer. One reason for this is that Netscape does not support the ID attribute. Internet Explorer, however, records using the ID attribute, if it exists. Recording under the Netscape 4.7x extension ensures that the recorded script defaults to using a recognition string that can play back under both browsers.
  • To record HTML image clicks, the Alt attribute must be used in the underlying HTML for successful cross-browser testing between Netscape 4.7x and Internet Explorer.
  • In Internet Explorer and earlier versions of Netscape, it was possible to create an Object Data verification point on HTMLText (in addition to Contents) for almost all supported objects. For example, for an HTMLlink, a test on the Contents captured the URL, and a test on the HTMLText captured the entire tag. Netscape 4.7x cannot test HTMLText, so the HTMLText option was removed for all ObjectData verification points under Netscape. The impact this has is that scripts recorded in Internet Explorer or in earlier Netscape versions that used HTMLText will fail on playback under Netscape 4.7x. The verification point would need to be re-recorded to test Contents.
    Note: You can use Internet Explorer to test HTMLText.
  • The name attribute is only valid for forms and links.
  • Netscape ignores the tags thead, tbody and tfoot within the table tag.

JDK 1.4 Support

Rational Robot now supports JDK 1.4. For more information, see the Rational Robot User's Guide and the Robot online Help.

Delphi 7 Support

Rational Robot supports Delphi 7, which includes enhancements to object recognition. (Users of any currently supported version of Delphi should carefully review the Guidelines and Restrictions section of this document.)

PowerBuilder Support

Rational Robot supports PowerBuilder versions 8 and 9.

Guidelines and Restrictions

Test Enablers

The most recent versions of the Test Enablers are included with this release.

Internationalization

The Web Site verification points in Robot do not support Kanji or any other Asian character sets at higher than Rational Internationalization Level 1, that is, software that can be installed and used on U.S. English and all specified international operating systems. All displays, menus, controls, wizards, reports and user documentation are in U.S. English. You must enter all data using U.S. English.

OCR in the Image verification points in Robot does not support Kanji as a character set or Japanese as a language. It also does not support the other Asian character sets, including Katakana, Hiragana, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese.

Using Robot For Testing PeopleTools Applications

You can use Robot with Web-based versions of PeopleTools applications (versions 8.0 and later) to test HTML applications that run on the World Wide Web. For more information, see the Rational Robot User's Guide and the Robot online Help for testing HTML applications.

Platform Support

Because the Administrator no longer supports Windows 98 and Windows Me, when you record a script in Robot on either of these two platforms, you must connect to a remote test datastore.

COM and ActiveX Controls in Internet Applications

If COM and ActiveX controls are not created properly, during recording and playback a browser displays a security message. To create COM and ActiveX objects for Internet applications, the following two guids are required from the Microsoft include file objsafe.h:

  • CATID_SafeForScripting, which has a guid of {7DD95801-9882-11CF-9FA9-00AA006C42C4} and
  • CATID_SafeForInitializing, which has a guid of {7DD95802-9882-11CF-9FA9-00AA006C42C4}.

The two security guids appear under the CLSID of the COM object in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\<COM Object CLSID> where <COM Object CLSID> is the COM object's class ID.

For information about creating safe and scriptable ActiveX controls, search MSDN CD for Safe and ActiveX.

Issue with Windows Me

When you create an Object Data verification point on a grid or a data window using Robot with Windows Me, the Object Data verification point window does not display row numbers or column names for the grid.

Playing Back Keyboard Events on a HotKeyControl

To play back keyboard events on a HotKeyControl, you must turn off NumLock before playing back the script.

Distributed Functional Testing

When you perform distributed functional testing, you cannot use the Netscape 4.x extension, but you can use the Netscape 4.7x extension.

PowerBuilder and Japanese Operating Systems

Certain configurations of PowerBuilder DropDownDataWindows do not record and play back correctly on Japanese operating systems. When you record an item selection on a DropDownDataWindow in PowerBuilder, Robot does not record or play back properly. It does not click on the drop-down portion of the DropDownDataWindow correctly.

To fix this problem, create the following registry setting:

  1. Click Start > Run.
  2. Type Regedit.
  3. Double-click HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Rational Software > Rational Test > Robot > PowerBuilder.
  4. Right-click, and then click New > String Value.
  5. Type DropDownDWRecordOptions with a value of 7.
  6. Exit the Registry editor.
  7. Restart Robot.

Robot records and plays back correctly using the row number of the item selected in the DropDownDataWindow.

Java Support

When you use Robot to test a Java applet running in Internet Explorer, the Java extension does not unload. The problem is that the Microsoft JVM is not releasing the Robot Java extension DLL due to native references in Java support classes. All objects of this class have been released, but the DLL is still not released. The total overhead is minimal because just the rtxmj.dll and the rtsys.dll are held in memory, and both have small footprints. Note, however, that when running with Active Desktop, you must reboot (or restart the desktop) to free up the loaded DLLs. The DLLs must be freed only when you are updating the Java support (that is, running the Rational Test Enabler for Java).

The Rational Test Enabler for Java does not work if you do a network install of Rational Suite. Installation of the Java Enabler customizes your computer and updates files that were installed on your computer. When you do a minimal install, the files that must be updated are on your CD as read-only files and cannot be updated.

The version of the Rational Test Enabler for Java included in this release is compatible with Robot v2002.05.02 or later. Running this version of the Enabler with older versions of Robot does not work as expected.

When you run the Rational Test Enablers and select Rational Test Enabler for Java, the Enabler does not run under certain conditions. (It silently exits the installation.) This occurs under the following conditions:

  • The installation is run from a network drive.
  • Rational TestStudio, Rational Robot, or Rational TeamTest has not been installed.

As long as the installation is run from a CD, or a Robot installation has been done (required for proper operation of the Rational Test Enabler for Java), the Enabler does run properly.

Under certain circumstances, the Next button appears to be grayed out when you click Rational Test > Java Enabler. Despite the appearance, you can still click Next.

When you use Robot on a system with Active Desktop, you may need to reboot the system before running the Rational Test Enabler for Java. The Test Enabler updates several files that Explorer may not have released yet. Explorer is connected to these files when Robot is used with Java applets running in Internet Explorer. Rebooting clears the connection between Explorer and Robot.

The Java Extensibility API documentation is not expanded by the Java Enabler. A javaapi.exe file is placed in the <rational_dir>\Rational Test\JavaEnabler directory. The workaround is to run javaapi.exe to extract all of the files from this zip file into the same directory.

When you double-click a Java AWT ComboListBox, the HWND disappears before the selected item can be properly recorded. Coordinates are improperly recorded and are not played back correctly. The workaround to this problem is to single-click instead of double-click the ComboListBox. The effect of single-clicking and double-clicking is the same for AWT ComboListBoxes.

Playback of Java commands does not always wait until the object is idle before performing the requested action. In particular, Java table actions may be performed before the table has been fully updated, which may affect the outcome of the operation. The suggested workaround is to insert appropriate delays into the test script at state transition points in the application-under-test.

Object highlighting from the object browser may appear erratic. This occurs because objects are repainted by the Java process independent of the highlighting that Robot performs.

When you view the object properties of a Java ComboBox, the highlighted rectangle for the ComboBox includes the rectangle for the ComboListBox, even though it is not displayed. This is a cosmetic idiosyncrasy; Robot is not popping up an empty list.

When running under the Netscape or Sun JVMs, when you record against Java objects of the java.awt.choice class, mouse actions are recorded instead of scroll actions when you are manipulating the scrollbar on the object's popup window. The mouse action is recorded in the ComboListBox command along with appropriate coordinate information necessary to correctly play back the command. Due to the popup relative coordinates, this recording is less resilient than if a scroll action were recorded. Playback of scroll actions against objects of this class is not supported.

Robot currently records scroll actions on the Java AWT list box control as coordinate-based clicks rather than as scroll actions. (This problem does not arise for non-AWT list box controls.) This behavior is due to what Java/AWT provides.

Playback of commands against Java applications occasionally fails due to the Java command not waiting for the JVM to be completely ready before attempting to replay. This typically occurs on the first command against a particular Java window. The result is normally a command failure, but may cause the JVM (and the browser if in an applet) to hang or fail. The workaround for this problem is to insert a Browser NewPage command if in an applet, or an appropriate DelayFor command if in an application. Note that querying for the showing or other property does not help, because the applet state has already been updated, even if the applet has not been completely rendered.

Recognition methods for Java applications can be very long. When you attempt to use wildcards with JavaCaption prefixes, the wildcard needs to be applied to each command instead of to a higher level abstraction. When recording inside a browser, this problem is resolved by generating a Browser SetApplet command to contain the applet context. Until the Java application context issue can be resolved, it is possible to trigger generation of the Browser SetApplet for Java applications. This can be done by setting the following registry value:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Rational Software\
Rational Test\8\Robot\JavaAlwaysUseBrowserSetApplet

If this StringValue is set to 1, Browser SetApplet commands are generated whenever needed and not just when rendered inside a browser.

When you run a Java application in debug mode, Robot is not able to communicate with the JVM. Therefore, Robot cannot record or play back against a Java application that is running in debug mode.

When recording against Java applets in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options > Advanced and select JIT compiler for virtual machines enabled. This option should be checked in order to ensure correct Java object recognition.

HTML Support

When recording a test script with Internet Explorer, Robot does not record the action of pressing the Alt+key. (For example, Alt+F opens the File menu in many Windows applications.) Instead, it records the result of this action. The reason it records it as a popup menu is that the menu bar in Internet Explorer is actually a toolbar. So during playback, Robot cannot determine which popup menu to use. To fix this problem do either of the following:

  • Use the mouse to click the toolbar menu and select the menu item.
  • Edit the test script to add the keystrokes using the InputKey command.

When you use the Robot HTML-Netscape 4.x extension (for playback under Netscape of Robot test scripts recorded under Internet Explorer), be sure that URLMON.DLL is installed. This component, which includes the Microsoft HTML parser, is installed as part of Microsoft Internet Explorer version 3.0 and later.

Note: You do not need to install the URLMON.DLL if you are using the Robot HTML-Netscape 4.7x extension.

Delphi Support

Robot now supports Delphi 7. The search algorithm used for Delphi objects has been enhanced to fix many problems with Delphi object recognition. As a result of this change, the Delphi object tree now lists the correct parent-child relationships for all objects, and consequently the record strings may have changed. Scripts recorded in previous versions may not play back in Robot under version 2002.05 or later. If you upgrade to this version, you may have to rerecord your scripts. You will have to re-compile your application and run the new Delphi Enabler.

To test a Delphi application using Robot, you must manually add ComCtrls to the library references for the project before compiling it. If this is not done, the following error messages appear:

[Error] SQASrvr.pas(1443): Undeclared identifier: 'TTreeNodes'
[Error] SQASrvr.pas(1444): Undeclared identifier: 'TTreeNode'
[Error] SQASrvr.pas(1450): Undeclared identifier: 'TTreeView'

If Delphi 6.0 is installed on your computer and you do a silent installation of a Rational product and select Default Values for Test Enablers, the file rtdecvt.exe gets installed in C:\Program files\Borland\Delphi6\Bin. However, the Target and Start in for the shortcut for the Delphi Converter under Start > Programs > Rational Software > Rational Test > Delphi Converter are incorrect. To correct these, change:

        Target: C:\DELPHI7BINDIR\RTDECVT.EXE
        Start in: C:\DELPHI7BINDIR 

    To:

        Target: C:\Program files\Borland\Delphi6\Bin\Rtdecvt.exe
        Start in: C:\Program Files\Borland\Delphi6\Bin

Oracle Forms Support

If you have an invalid TMP setting in your Autoexec.bat file (for example, Set Tmp=C:\Temp), and the Temp directory does not exist, the Oracle Forms Enabler cannot add the Rational Test Object Testing Library to your Oracle Form file. You might receive the error, "Internal error occurred. Oracle Form file unchanged." If you encounter this issue, correct the Set statement in your Autoexec.bat file and reboot your system.

Robot cannot record Oracle object names while a modal dialog box (such as a message box or LOV) is displayed over your Oracle Forms application. Instead, Robot records standard object recognition information. Once you close the modal dialog box, full Oracle support for object names is reactivated.

During an Object Data capture of an Oracle LOV, Oracle might display the message, "Error getting group cell." This can occur when there is an incorrect column definition for the LOV in the corresponding .SQA file. For example, the column definition in the .SQA file is specified as type CHAR, but in the Oracle RecordGroup object for the LOV, the column type is NUMBER. This error might also occur if you are trying to capture data from an LOV that does not contain any data.

When using the Object Data verification point against an Oracle application, set focus to the block that you are going to test before you insert the verification point into your test script. If you do not do this, Robot displays the error message, "Unable to capture data from this object."

You cannot use an Object Data verification point if there are any pending database changes. You receive Oracle Forms error messages if you attempt this. You must commit your changes before you use the Object Data verification point.

Robot detects only the first record for multiple record items (such as Text items, Display items, and Check Boxes). Therefore, when you insert a verification point against an object containing more than one record, place the Object Finder tool over the first row or record within the object.

A Menu verification point or a MenuSelect statement can fail on playback if the application has not initialized its menu. The generated actual file may only capture the leftmost portion of the menu. If this occurs, you can fix your test script by inserting a recording of a mouse click the caption of the window that contains the menu. Insert the mouse click immediately before the Menu verification point or MenuSelect statement. In rare cases, you might also need to insert a DelayFor statement between the mouse click and the Menu verification point or MenuSelect statement.

On occasion, Robot does not fully capture the menus from an Oracle window. If this occurs while you are inserting a Menu verification point into your test script, click Recapture in the Menu Verification Point dialog box and reselect the Oracle menu to be tested.

Oracle applications that require a working directory other than the directory where the Oracle runtime executable file is located do not start through the SQABasic command StartApplication. Instead, use the SQABasic command SQAShellExecute.

When you use an Object Properties verification point on the console window of an Oracle application, one of the properties returned by Robot is LastDisplayedText. Oracle applications that offer ToolTips Help when the pointer is placed over certain controls can cause the console text to change frequently. Object Property verification points may fail for LastDisplayedText because during playback, Robot uses object-oriented methods that may not reproduce the exact mouse movements that were recorded. If this occurs, remove the LastDisplayedText property from the Object Properties baseline file using the Edit > Edit Property List or the Edit > Remove Property menu commands.

PowerBuilder Support

In PowerBuilder versions 5.0 and later, ActiveX controls embedded within DataWindows are treated as Generic.

The Robot Alphanumeric verification point cannot capture the text of a PowerBuilder RichEdit control. To test the text in a PowerBuilder RichEdit control, use the Object Properties verification point and test the Text property.

To capture information in a PowerBuilder grid, you must select the grid before you create a verification point.

Object Data Verification Points

If you record the selection of a range by dragging the mouse, you might find that the action does not play back reliably, especially if the grid auto-scrolls while you drag. We recommend that you record the actions as a sequence of mouse clicks. For example, click the top-left cell you want to select. Hold down the SHIFT key and click the bottom-right cell.

If you want to use the Object Data verification point to capture all of the data associated with an Apex Data Bound Grid OCX (that is, DBGrid), do the following:

  • During the selection process, drag the pointer hand over the window that contains the grid, release the mouse button, and then click Browse to open the Object List dialog box.
  • From the object list, select any hidden data control object associated with the grid, and then select a test definition of All Data.

Incorrect Script Playback on Windows XP Default Display Scheme

When using Robot on Windows XP using the default Windows XP display appearance theme, scripts recorded on systems using a Windows Classic theme may not play back correctly. This is because edit boxes, and therefore data placement, display differently on the default Windows XP theme and on the Windows Classic theme. To work around this, change the display appearance theme to a Windows Classic setting.

To modify the display appearance scheme:

  1. Click Start > Settings > Control Panel.
  2. Double-click Display.
  3. Click the Appearance tab.
  4. Choose Windows Classic from the Windows and Buttons list.
  5. Click OK.

Using WaitPositive or WaitNegative in the RegionVP Command.

In the SQABasic Language Reference online Help, in the RegionVP Verification Point Command Help topic, the description for "action%" should read as follows:

WaitNegative captures a bitmap image of the specified region on the screen and waits until it does not match the recorded baseline. parameters$ Name, Wait, and Coords are required.

 

Note: Unlike CompareImage, this action does not use a verification point ID and does not create a failed image file (called an actual file) if the comparison reaches timeout.

Firewall Issues with Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2)

When Robot or Test Agents are running, certain programs attempt to communicate through the firewall and may cause a firewall pop-up window. For information about how to unblock these programs, see the IBM Rational Suite Release Notes v2003.06.13.

Running GUI Scripts with Custom DLL Files

If you create and run GUI scripts with custom DLL files, place the custom DLL files in the Program Files\Rational\Common directory. This enables those scripts to run correctly in both Robot and TestManager.

Miscellaneous

The Start menu on Windows systems is a graphical object. Depending on the operating system version and whether or not Active Desktop is installed, the Start menu can be implemented in the underlying software either as an owner-drawn menu whose text is not available by using standard Windows mechanisms or as a Toolbar. We strongly recommend that you do not record against the Start menu. Instead, add a SQAShellExecute or StartApplication command to the test script. For information about creating and using these commands, see the SQABasic Language Reference Guide and the SQABasic online Help.

For certain controls, the Object Properties verification point always shows an empty value for the Text property. These controls can possibly appear to have visible text on the screen, but do not make the property available. The HotKey common control is an example of this behavior.

Some development environments, such as PowerBuilder, support the creation of dynamic TreeViews. The Object Data verification point might not initially capture all tree levels for dynamically created TreeViews until each level has been selected. Once selected, these levels appear in the Object Data verification point dialog box by selecting it and using the Edit > Copy to Baseline menu command.

The Alphanumeric verification point does not recognize soft controls, such as Visual Basic labels. To test or capture the text of such controls, use the Object Properties verification point or a custom Object Data verification point, or the OCR feature of the Image verification points.

The UserDefinedVP test function is no longer supported in Robot. For example, if you attempt to perform an Insert > Alphanumeric verification point and you choose Apply a User-Defined DLL test function, you are not prompted for the name of the DLL and the function name. Instead, you see the error message, "Unable to write library and function name."

You can declare your DLL in a Header file (*.SBH) as you would any other DLL. When you call the function later in your test script, log the result using SQALogMessage. For example:

 '$Include "YourHeader.sbh"Sub Main  Dim Result As integer Result = MyFunction(Parm1, Parm2)  SQALogMessage Result, "MyFunction" , "Additional information 							about MyFunction" End Sub

In some cases, passing a user-defined data type variable to a subprocedure causes Robot to crash. To avoid this problem:

  • Declare a local variable as the same user-defined data type as the global variable.
  • Pass the local variable to the subprocedure, where it is modified.
  • Assign the local variable to the global variable. For example:
     Dim MyGlobalVariable as UDTDim MyLocalVariable as UDTCall MyProc(MyLocalVariable)MyGlobalVariable=MyLocalVariable

Some applications might change the state of certain menu items (such as Cut, Copy, Paste) based on items in the Clipboard, or on the current position of the cursor when moving from one window of the application to another. This can cause some Menu verification points and some Menus' data tests that rely on the state of these menu choices to fail. If testing the state of a menu is not necessary, clear the Test Menu States option in the Menu verification point dialog box when capturing your data. You can also deselect those menu choices from any Menu verification points that consistently fail.

Robot drops ampersands (&) from the recognition strings in a test script. This may cause problems on playback of actions on certain types of controls. The commands ListView [Dbl]Click ... and TreeView [Dbl]Click ... with the ampersand dropped from the ItemText=... line are the cases where playback problems usually occur. For example, if you record a click on a file called a&b in the ListView in Windows Explorer, you may get the following recognition string:

 ListView Click, "ObjectIndex=1;ItemText=ab", "Coords=25,14"   
Instead of the correct recognition string:
 ListView Click, "ObjectIndex=1;ItemText=a&b", "Coords=25,14" 
Since the missing ampersand does not always cause playback problems, we recommend that you manually add the ampersand to a command in the test script only if Robot cannot play back the command properly.

The MenuIDSelect command does not validate the menu ID or check that the menu item is enabled. This can cause the application-under-test to crash during playback.

The installation of the ATIPLAY software that comes with many ATI video boards may cause Robot to fail in certain circumstances. This occurs because of incompatibility with a third-party component (LEADTools) installed by both Robot and the ATIPLAY software. The incompatibility manifests itself as a failure when recording and playing back the Robot StartBrowser command for Internet Explorer. To resolve this problem, copy the LEADTools DLLs from the Rational\common directory into the Rational\Rational Test directory to ensure that Robot loads only those DLLs that are redistributed. The files you must copy are:

  • ltkrn62n.dll
  • lfcmp62n.dll
  • lfwmf62n.dll
  • ltfil62n.dll
  • ltimg62n.dll
  • lfbmp62n.dll

During printing, lines that are too long for the margin settings are truncated. To fix this, adjust the margin setting or switch to a smaller font size.

To enable Robot to capture data correctly from a data control in Visual Basic, set the data control's RecordSetType property value to Dynaset. Using Table as the RecordSetType property can produce unexpected results.

The toolbar Count property value includes toolbar buttons that are used as spaces or separators between other buttons. As a result, the count value may reflect a higher number than the number of visible toolbar buttons.

Robot uses a fixed-size table to store information about object classes. If you exceed the size of the table, you will see the message, "Object information (GUIOBJ.DAT) too large." In the unlikely event that this should occur, edit the GUIOBJ.DAT file found in your project and remove classname entries that are not necessary in your test environment.

Robot does not reliably record or play back mouse actions on a FarPoint Button Maker OCX.

If you close applications with the ALT+F4 key sequence, you might notice a delay on the InputKeys statement during test script playback. Workarounds include using the mouse to close the window or modifying the test script by replacing the InputKeys statement with Window CloseWin, "", "".

During recording, if you click the What's This? question mark in a dialog box and click a control (so that a popup appears), your system freezes for a few seconds if you click anywhere else without closing the popup. Either click the popup to close it before clicking anywhere else, or wait a few seconds until your system is no longer frozen.

Robot has a known limitation when recording the action of holding down the primary mouse button on any of the arrow buttons in a scroll bar. Only one scroll line command is recorded in this instance. To create a reliable test script for playback against a scroll bar, click the scroll bar arrow button the appropriate number of times for the desired scroll bar position. Robot records a scroll line command for each click that is performed.

Robot now recognizes borderless MDI child windows as context windows, as shown in these examples:

  • Previous releases:
     Window SetContext, "Name=MDIForm1", "" EditBox Click, "Name=Form1.Text1", "Coords=27,18"
  • This release:
     Window SetContext, "Name=MDIForm1", "" Window SetContext, "Name=Form1", "" EditBox Click, "Name=Text1", "Coords=27,18"

Robot does not support record and playback actions against AVI/VRML objects embedded in HTML using the <IMG DYNSRC=> tag.

To correct a playback problem with Object Properties, a code change was made that affected ThunderUserControls. ThunderUserControls recognition strings that were Name=... now are Type=OCX;Name=. Previously recorded scripts may need to be modified to reflect this change.

IBM Rational Robot: Performance Testing

New and Changed Features in v2003.06.12

Session Recording and Script Generation Extensibility

Robot now supports customer-written recording and script generation adapters. This new framework is explained in the Session Recording and Script Generation Extensibility Reference Guide.

NTLM Feature Enhancement

Rational Robot HTTP session recording and TestManager VU script execution now support Microsoft Windows NT Challenge/Response Authentication (NTLM). For more information, see the VU Language Reference Guide.

Guidelines and Restrictions

Documentation Update for _reference_URI Variable

In the VU Language Reference Guide, documentation for string-valued read-only variables refers to _reference_URL. This is incorrect. The correct variable name is _reference_URI.

Documentation Update for _mcommand

The VU read-only variable, _mcommand, contains the actual text sent by the most recent http_request. By contrast, _command is the text from the script for the most recent http_request. In the case of fields that are dynamically generated (such as Cookie and Content-Length), _mcommand will be different than _command. _mcommand is also what gets logged for http_requests.

Issues with ODBC Sessions Recorded with DB2 Servers

If you record an ODBC session with a DB2 server, make the following changes to the generated script:

  • Replace the "datetime8" datatype with "varchar(27)" for datetime8 parameters in the format: "2003-12-11 16:25:46.408371".

  • Replace the "date" datatype with a "varchar(11)" for datetime8 parameters in the format "2003-12-11".

  • Replace integers in the format "1.00440000000000+e04"  with "10044".

IBM Rational SiteCheck

Guidelines and Restrictions

Browser

The integrated Browser and ActiveScan View require Microsoft Internet Explorer Version 4.0 or later. ActiveScan View does not work with Netscape Navigator or other browsers that cannot be embedded into an application.

Charset

SiteCheck does not support the charset attribute of the Content-Type META tag, for example, <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-2022-jp">.

Customizing Files Added by Rational SiteCheck

In Rational SiteCheck, you can add an HTML file to your site by clicking Edit > Create a New HTML File. To customize the file that is added by this command, modify or replace the template file rtnew.htm located in the Rational SiteCheck Template subdirectory.

Similarly, to customize the message page that LinkWizard generates for moved or deleted pages, modify the template files rtmoved.htm and rtdel.htm. However, in the rtmoved.htm template, do not change any reference to %new_URL%. LinkWizard replaces this text with the URL for the moved file.

External Links

All external links that do not refer to a specific HTML file are displayed in Page View and List View using the default page name for the file name. For example, an external link to http://www.ibm.com is displayed as http://www.ibm.com/index.html. This does not affect any functionality. The actual HTTP requests for this link do not include the default page name.

Previously-Saved Site Maps

Site maps are closely associated with the original site. When a site map for a local site is reopened and edited, the changes are made to the actual local site.

Scanning Large Sites

The table below displays recommended system configurations for different sized sites:

# Files on Site

Recommended Memory

Recommended OS

Up to 1,000

64 MB

Windows 98, Me, 2000, or NT

1,001 to 5,000

96 MB

Windows 98, Me, 2000, or NT

5,001 to 20,000

128 MB

Windows 98, Me, 2000, or NT

20,001 to 50,000

256 MB

NT, 2000

50,000 and over

512 MB

NT, 2000


Scanning large sites might require more memory than the minimums documented. A guideline for the memory requirement is 1.5 MB of available free memory for every 1,000 links. Therefore, a site with 10,000 links requires approximately 15 MB of available virtual memory.

We recommend using Rational SiteMonitor for scanning large or busy sites. In SiteMonitor, create an Analyze Site event and then schedule it to be run when the server is not busy (such as at 1:00 a.m.). For more information, see the Rational SiteMonitor Help.

Scanning Subdirectories

We recommend that you use a multiserver entry on HTTP sites where the server redirects the browser to a subdirectory of the site. Click the Servers tab on the Set Scan Parameters dialog box to define the servers in your multiserver Web site.

Preferences

The settings in the Preferences dialog box establish the baseline values used when scanning new sites. Changes made in the Preferences dialog box do not affect the settings for sites which already have been scanned. Site specific settings are made in the Set Scan Parameters dialog box.

Simultaneous Connections

If you are running SiteCheck on a workstation that is, relatively speaking, much faster than the Web server, reduce the simultaneous connections to 1 as follows:

  1. On the Set Scan Parameters dialog box, click the Settings tab.
  2. Change the default setting for Number of Connections.

The default setting is 4. By reducing the value to 1, you reduce the effects of the scan on other users of the Web site.

Microsoft Office XP

Rational SiteCheck does not support Microsoft Office XP.

ActiveX Controls

Files with the .ocx file extension are not currently recognized in List View as ActiveX controls and do not appear in the report when your click List View > Files and Links > ActiveX Controls.

Uninstall Error Message

While you are uninstalling SiteCheck on systems running Windows 98 or Windows NT, you may see an error message saying that rtps.dll could not be unregistered. Ignore this message; it will not affect the uninstall process.

Comparisons

When SiteCheck performs a Web Site Comparison, it only examines the internal structure of two Web sites. Links to external pages are not checked. This may cause conflicting results if the baseline or comparison site is a previously saved site map file that checked external links.

When comparing sites, we recommend you do not use the Scan Interrupt Recover feature if you are also using the Smart Rescan feature.

File Counts and Sizes

Currently, the count of inbound and outbound anchors in List View is not always correct. Site Properties View is supposed to refresh at the end of a scan but occasionally does not. Press F5 or click View > Refresh Site Properties to refresh the view.

The file size given for an HTML page in List View is less than the actual size if the page contains images, such as banner ads, supplied by an external source. The same low-size calculation can occur if you use the Exclude feature to ignore image files (as in exclude *.gif).

Frames

In cases where links are included between the <NOFRAMES> and </NOFRAMES> tags, the links do not appear in Page View. They are visible in other views, such as Source View and List View.

External Links

If you stop a scan before it completes, some link anchors may appear as broken (they should appear as unchecked). Either recheck the links manually or run the scan again to completion.

Typically, when an HTML page includes the <BASE HREF > tag, the page uses relative URLs in its <A HREF > tags. These relative links will be incorrectly shown as broken links.

Some links that are associated with FrontPage extensions (for example, /_vti_bin/shtml.exe/-) may incorrectly be shown as broken links.

If you use Microsoft products, such as Word, to save files in HTML format, some links in the file may appear as broken, for example:

<link rel=File-List href="./filelist.xml">
<link rel=Edit-Time-Data href="./editdata.mso">
<link rel =File-List href="./oledata.mso">

These are references to files that do not exist. (This problem is known to Microsoft and may disappear in later versions.) Use Source View to remove them, or use the Exclude feature to ignore them.

SiteCheck and Robot

Opening from the Verification Point Frame

The baseline site for a Web Site Scan verification point is not correctly loaded when it is opened from the verification point frame of a Robot test script. To correctly open the baseline site:

  • Right-click the verification point and click View Baseline.
  • Click Reload in the SiteCheck toolbar.

We recommended that you do not define a Wait State when recording a Web Site Scan or a Web Site Compare verification point. SiteCheck does not consider these settings during a site scan.

Proxy Server Configuration

If your network has a Proxy Server and you have not configured the Proxy Server settings in SiteCheck, Robot test scripts that include Web Site Scan or Web Site Compare verification points do not play back properly.

Site Monitor Issues

A Check Server Response event may fail on certain types of Web servers if the server does not identify itself as an HTTP server. To fix this, change the type of event to an Analyze Site event and only scan one level of the site.

Because of the heavy memory requirements of scans, we recommend you do not scan two or more large sites (greater than 50,000 links) simultaneously. Even with small sites, limit simultaneous scans to a maximum of three. These limits especially apply when the event is comparing two sites. Instead of simultaneous events, schedule the scans as sequential cascading events; for example, the second scan starts when the first scan ends.

UCM on Windows NT with ClearCase 5.0

A possible problem has been identified on Windows NT 4.0 when ClearCase 5.0 is installed. After performing a UCM datastore operation from the Administrator (such as create a datastore, check-in all, add to or remove from source control), we suggest you shut down and restart the Administrator before attempting another such operation.

Double-byte Character Limitations on Datastore Names

There is a known issue when naming datastores in double-byte foreign characters that have backslash (code 5C) in the second byte. The datastore works correctly when renamed so that the second byte of a double-byte character is not code 5C (backslash).

Changing Test Datastore Type

To change a datastore type from Microsoft Access to SQL, always upgrade the project assets first (including the datastore itself), then change the datastore type.

SQABasic

Guidelines and Restrictions

One of the Trap options allows you to call your own error handling function written in SQABasic. Do not use a dialog box or message box (MsgBox) command from an error handling function, as this can cause the system to hang. Instead, have your function write to a file. For more information, see the SQABasic Language Reference Help.

In SQABasic, trapable error 53 (File filename not found) is used when a BasicLib module is not found during playback. (See the Declare statement in the SQABasic Language Reference Help.) If an SQABasic file has not been compiled, you get this error when you play back a test script that tries to call a function or sub in this module.

IBM Rational TestFactory

Guidelines and Restrictions

Standalone Source Instrumentor

The Rational TestFactory User's Guide refers to the standalone source instrumentor as sqa7sci. The correct name is rtsci.

Unsupported Platforms

Rational TestFactory no longer supports Windows Me, Windows 98, or Windows 95 operating systems.

Changing the System Font Size Between Mapping Sessions

If you change the size of the system font between mapping sessions, you also change the size of dialog boxes and the placement of controls within those dialog boxes. TestFactory recognizes previously mapped dialog box controls as new controls and maps them as such.

To work around this issue:

  • Change back to the system font size used previously.
  • Delete all objects (except the StartAUT object) in the application map, and then map the application-under-test from the beginning.

If you change the size of the system font after you map the AUT and then try to run a Pilot, the Pilot run fails. TestFactory sees the controls that contain the changed text as unmapped controls.

To work around this issue:

  • Change the system font size to the size used when you mapped the AUT.
  • Delete all objects (except the StartAUT object) in the application map, map the AUT from the beginning, and then proceed with testing.

Moving a TestFactory Project for a Visual Basic Application

If you map a Visual Basic application on the Windows 95 or Windows 98 operating system, and you then move the project to Windows NT or Windows 2000 and remap the application, any message box mapped previously is remapped as a duplicate window. This also occurs if you map the Visual Basic application first on either Windows NT or Windows 2000, and then remap the application on Windows 95 or Windows 98. This mapping inconsistency occurs because the size of button controls on a message box is not consistent between operating systems.

To work around this issue:

  • Do not switch to a different operating system after mapping the Visual Basic application-under-test.
  • If you must move the project to a computer with a different operating system, delete the message box object in the original application map, and then remap the area of the AUT that contains the message box.

Recommended Java Virtual Machine

This release of TestFactory supports the running of Java applications on the following virtual machines:

  • Microsoft Jview 5.0
  • IBM 1.3 JVM
  • Sun JDK 1.2.2

Mapping Java Applications Developed Using JDK 1.1.8 or Earlier

If the application-under-test was developed using the Java Development Kit (JDK) 1.1.8 or an earlier release, you cannot use the Java virtual machine included with that JDK to run the application during mapping and testing from TestFactory. You must use either Jview or the Java virtual machine included with the JDK 1.2 or later release.

Installing the Java Enabler Before Mapping a Java Application

If you map a Java application-under-test without first installing the Rational Test Java Enabler, the resulting application map contains only a top-level window object and an exit transition object. To correct the problem, install the Rational Test Java Enabler, delete the top-level window and exit transition objects, and then remap the Java application.

You can install the Rational Test Java Enabler from the Rational Software Setup program. For information about how to run the Rational Test Enablers, see the IBM Rational Software Desktop Products Installation Guide.

To install the Rational Test Java Enabler, click Start > Programs > Rational Software > Rational Test > Java Enabler, and then follow the instructions provided on the install wizard.

Inprise Delphi Not Supported

TestFactory does not support Inprise Delphi applications.

Working with Third-Party Controls

TestFactory does not support the mapping and testing of certain third-party controls. If the AUT contains a third-party control that TestFactory does not recognize, you can create a region object to represent the control and assign an interaction method to use on the control during mapping and testing. However, there is no guarantee that Pilots will test it correctly.

Running Test Scripts without Running TestFactory

If a Pilot generates a test script to test a Java AUT, and you play back the test script in Robot without running TestFactory at the same time, Robot may not be able to start the AUT. This is because Robot cannot determine the Java virtual machine that you specified in TestFactory to run the AUT. Without TestFactory running simultaneously, Robot also cannot determine what options, if any, that you specified in TestFactory to run the AUT.

To play back a Pilot-generated test script in Robot to test a Java application without running TestFactory, you must use the following:

  • For .class files, use Java.
  • For .jar files, use Java with the -jar option.
  • For .html files, use appletviewer.
  • For .bat files, just execute.

Testing a Java Application that Runs on the Sun JVM

If you want to run a .jar or .class file on a computer running Windows 98 using the LaunchAUT button on the TestFactory toolbar, do the following:

  1. In the autoexec.bat file, enter the following environment variable:

     set PURE_VPC_95=1 
  2. Restart your computer.

After you test, and before you map the AUT the next time, be sure to do the following:

  1. Click Tools > Options, and click the Project tab.
  2. Under Known provider, click Virtual machine and Sun.
  3. Click OK.

Running a Pilot Against a C++ AUT

When you run a pilot against a C++ application-under-test (AUT), the following Rational PureCoverage message may appear:

The module <path and file name of AUT>.Original is missing.

If the message appears, click OK to close the message box and complete the Pilot run. This message does not block the Pilot run from completing.

IBM Rational TestManager

For information about TestManager, see the IBM Rational TestManager Release Notes.

IBM Rational XDE Tester

For information about XDE Tester, see the IBM Rational XDE Tester Release Notes.

Contacting IBM Rational Customer Support

The IBM software support Internet site provides you with self-help resources and electronic problem submission. The IBM Rational Software Support Home page can be found at http://www.ibm.com/software/rational/support/.

Voice Support is available to all current contract holders by dialing a telephone number in your country (where available). For specific country phone numbers, please go to http://www.ibm.com/planetwide/.