T-Plan Robot Enterprise 3.0.1 Doc Collection GUI Reference

20/07/12

T-Plan Robot Enterprise 3.0.1 Script Editor

Contents
1. Script Editor Overview
2. Editor Context Menu
3. Writing Test Scripts
4. Compiling Test Scripts
5. Executing Test Scripts

1. Script Editor Overview

Script editor allows to create and edit test scripts. It is a standard text editor with additional features designed to facilitate easy writing and execution of test scripts. Editors are organized in a tabbed pane in the left bottom part of the GUI. Each editor consist of three main components:

1. The Enclosing tabbed pane serves as the editor container. The tab name is always set to the script file name. If the editor content has been modified, an asterisk gets appended to the name. If the editor content hasn't been saved to a file yet, the tab text is set "Untitled". When you hover your mouse pointer over the tab text, it displays a tool tip message with the full script file path. The tab also provides a context menu on a right mouse click with a selection of actions available in the main GUI File menu, such "Close Test Script" or "Save Test Script".   
2. The Editor gutter provides line numbering and allows to define break points to suspend (pause) the script execution at.
   
3. The Code Editor is a standard text editor featuring:
   

• The code syntax highlighting improves readability of the code and helps to distinguish individual elements of the script language (TPR or Java). The color scheme can be customized in the Script Editor panel of the Preferences window.
  
• The Editor Context Menu provides access to selected actions of the script and/or the particular script element (a command or a Java method call) at the current line. See the Editor Context Menu chapter for details.
• The Command and Code Template Wizards provide a comfortable GUI assisted way to create scripting language commands or even fragments of code (snippets). See the Writing  Test Scripts chapter for details. This functionality does not apply to Java test scripts.
• The Script Execution Support allows to control and debug execution of a test script. As the editor closely cooperates with the underlying test script interpret, it allows to restrict execution just to a subset of commands, trace the execution progress, set up and activate break points or even enter into a mode where just one command is executed at a time (Step Execution). See the Compiling and Executing Test Scripts chapters for details.
  

1. The Full View displays the whole Java class.
2. The Short View displays just the contents of the test() method (or the main try/catch block inside the method) which represents the test script body. The rest of the Java class is collapsed into the Java Class Header and Java Class Footer nodes. These can be eventually expanded through a click onto the + box.
   

2. Editor Context Menu

1. Stable editor actions such as Compile Script and Configure Editor. These are always available, usually at the bottom of the menu.
2. Context actions are associated with the text element on the current line.
   

• If the line is empty the menu provides access to the Command and Code Template Wizards. The action called Capture a component... allows to save a component image from the screen to a file and create a script action on that component.
  
• If the line contains a valid TPR command or a Java Test Script API method call the menu contains the command actions. The Properties actions allows to edit the command/method call with the parameter editor. If the command relies on configurable parameters there's the Configure <command> action. 
  

3. Some of the commands/method calls define additional context or execution specific actions. For example, the Continue action of the Wait command is a dynamic action available only during the command execution  and it allows to resume the script immediately.
   

3. Writing Test Scripts

The editor is equipped to support easy script writing even for those users who are not fully familiar with the scripting language. The following work flow is recommended for writing of test scripts:

1. It is highly recommended to configure the script to use the project template and report paths and to create an XML file (so called "report") with the test results. See the Project View topic for details.
2. Use the  Component Capture feature to create whole blocks of actions working with the screen recognition. For a finer development take advantage of the Command Wizard (Ctrl+Enter or right click->Create a command/method call) to create atomic script operations.
   
   Alternatively use the script recording feature to generate the basic flow of mouse and keyboard events in your script. See the Script Recorder help topic for details. Then perform manual adjustments to the generated code - modify timeouts, merge commands, create reusable procedures or parametrize command arguments through variables where necessary.
3. As you record, define points of verification when it is appropriate to verify content of your remote desktop and/or existence of a component using image comparison. Stop recording at each such a point and take advantage of one of the Component Capture wizard to create the component image and to create the script action on the component. Alternatively use the CompareTo, Screenshot or WaitFor Wizards to create the template image and to set up an atomic comparison operation in the script.
   

4. Often used fragments of script code can be easily created through the Code Template Wizard (Ctrl+I or right click->Insert a code template). There's a template editor allowing to create custom templates as well. See the Code Templates topic for details.
   
5. Once the basic automation code is in place, decide how you want to report the results. The Tool Panel allows you to define where to save the test results (report) and in which format. To create screen shots insert Screenshot command instances into appropriate locations of your test script. The Screenshot Wizard is designed to help you to create the command without having to know the command syntax.
6. To modify the script right click the command or the method call you wish to modify and select the Properties item to open the parameter editor.
   

4. Compiling Test Scripts

• TPR test scripts do not really compile because their code is interpreted. The compilation is limited to checking of the script for syntax errors and verifying of existence of dependencies and resources (images, libraries, ...).
  
• Java test scripts have to be on the other hand compiled into byte code (.class) through the javac Java compiler. If Java Development Kit (JDK) is used as a runtime for T-Plan Robot Enterprise, the tool is able to compile the Java code seamlessly in the memory and execute it without even saving the byte code to a file.

1. On-demand compilation can be invoked through the Compile menu item either from the editor context menu or the main GUI Script menu.
   
2. On-the-fly compilation is performed automatically after each script modification and the configured idle time. This allows continuous checking of script's validity as it is being created and/or modified. As compilation is quite time expensive operation you may experience slower performance especially when working with a large script. To switch off this feature or to modify the time out value open the Preferences window and navigate to Scripting -> Execution. If you switch it off the editor will not report syntax errors until you either compile the script manually or execute it.
   

1. The Compiler tab icon turns to a red ball and its pane displays the list of script errors. Clicking onto an error will jump to the corresponding line in the editor. A right click onto an error allows to copy it into the clipboard. See also the Compiler Tab topic.
2. The editor tab displays a red exclamation mark icon to indicate that the script contains errors.
3. The editor line which contains the error gets underlined in red. The underline color is configurable through the Appearance & Accessibility -> Script Editor panel of the Preferences window.
4. The error message gets displayed in form of a tool tip whenever the mouse pointer is hovered above the line.
5. When the caret (dot) is on the corresponding editor line the error message is also displayed in the status bar.
   

5. Executing Test Scripts

Script opened in the active topmost editor can be executed using the controls in the Script menu of the main GUI window or their corresponding  tool bar buttons.

The Pause button and menu item allow to pause the script. Setting the pause on doesn't apply to the currently executed command which gets always finished and the script gets suspended at the point of start of the next command. The Pause functionality is used by other features. Break points set on the pause flag when reached. The tool also supports Step By Step Execution  where the script gets paused after every command, allowing to execute one command at a time.

Execute Selection (Block Execution)

If the test script is a TPR one you may execute just a block of commands instead of the whole script. To do so select (highlight) the lines you want to execute and select the Execute Selection menu item or tool bar button. The commands do not have to be highlighted completely. Even if you select just a single character of the command, T-Plan Robot Enterprise executes the whole line. The following picture shows execution of two selected command lines.

• Even if you run just a few selected commands, all procedures and variables contained in the script will be correctly defined and they may be referenced in the selected commands.
• Execution of commands which form part of a procedure is not allowed. If you select part of a script which contains a procedure, all commands in the procedure body will be skipped. You can however call that procedure inside the selected block.

• The Open Included Files During Script Execution flag available in the Scripting -> Execution panel of the Preferences window. When you execute a script it might run or include other scripts using the Run or Include commands. This flag defines whether T-Plan Robot Enterprise should open these linked scripts in a new editor as they get executed.
• The Follow Execution Trace menu item and toolbar button makes T-Plan Robot Enterprise to switch among editors and scroll the current editor to keep the executed line. in the view This flag is by default switched on. If you switch among editor manually or start to edit a script during execution, this feature gets automatically set off.

• When the Step By Step feature is on, the execution gets paused on every line and you have to unpause to proceed to the next line.
  
• If the script line contains a command which involves execution of other commands located in a different file, the behavior depends on two flags, Open Included Files During Script Execution flag (configurable via Preferences->Scripting) and the Follow Execution Trace menu item and toolbar button. This applies mainly to procedure calls and command Run:
• If both flags are on, the file gets opened in an editor and the involved commands are also executed step by step.
• If at least one of the flags is off, the command gets executed in one shot, e.g. the whole procedure or file is executed at once.