Automating Google Web Toolkit(GWT) applications with QTP and Selenium

Hello,

From past couple of days I was trying to automate Google Web Toolkit( henceforth mentioned as GWT). There are certain issues that needs to be addressed explicitly.

1. Some time objects are not recognized or object class property gets changed every time the UI gets rendered.

Solution: The element IDs in such applications can be dynamic and tend to change based on the way a screen is rendered.
It does not support XPath as such but you can use HTML DOM (in case you are working on IE only) to find the elements.

QuickTest Code
Browser("Main Dashboard").Page("Provider Search_2").WebElement("Show Advanced Options").Click

Call SendKey()

Function SendKey()
Wait(WaitTime)' May not be needed -- depends on the server
ExecuteFile "\\tsheth\Quick\FunctionLibrary\Send.vbs
Wait(WaitTime) 'May not be needed -- depends on the server
End Function


This is the VBS code:
Option Explicit
Dim ws
Set ws = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Ws.SendKeys "~"

HTML Code from page under test

1. It records the wrong element.

Solution: it sometimes recording xpaths on co mputed attributes which you can't forsee with a reasonable investment of time. In this case I assign my own IDs
(DOM.setAttribute(element,"myId"))
to elements and use the respective locators (that's selenium jargon for an expression be it xpath, javascript etc which returns a DOM element). If you decide to go that way, do yourself a favor and try to design your widgets in a way that this ID assignment is done more or less automatically.
2. It doesn't record clicks on images.

Solution: You have to add a user extension to the selenium recorder - don't worry, it's javascript, it's easy and it is somewhere on their site.

3. It can't find the elements it's supposed to click on?

Solution: That's the A in Ajax - Selenium wants to click on an element as result of a click on a link or button that is not there yet. You will make good friends with waitForText or waitForElement which you will have to append manually to your scripts where you see it fit. This way you tell selenium to pause the execution until the page has changed into the state you want it to. You can set timeouts there after which you assume that your test has failed.
You will have to come to peace with the setFrame function which (It works more or less like the 'cd' command on the command prompt where you descent into child frames or navigate up to the parent frame of the current frame.

4. It doesn't do well with closed windows.

Solution: When you have a listener that closes a window, you essentially are killing the living space of Selenium. In this case move the 'close' call to a deferred command.

5. QTP with the Web Add-In does indeed work with Ext GWT.

Of course, because even the simplest of EXT widgets are complex UI controls made up of multiple generic WebElements, using Record & Playback will not get you very far in interacting with and validating these controls.We've implemented a library of functions specific to supporting ExtJS and Ext GWT controls as part of the overall generic framework we use for validating our web-based applications.


That library currently supports interaction with, and validation of Ext comboBoxes, grids, panels, windows, form edit fields, tool tips, and menus.Our biggest challenge has been updating the library functions each time a new version of the Ext GWT controls are released, as our functions make extensive use of the innerhtml and outerhtml properties of the various WebElements that comprise a single Ext widget.

I tried with the descriptive programming (QTP) on the GWT application and it worked well 75% of the time and other 25% of time it failed to recognize the objects.

"Most of us are pretty comfortable with the way we are, what we're doing and how we operate. But today the typical organization is telling the middle manager that he has to be a different kind of manager. These middle managers have been promoted throughout their careers and gotten bonuses based on their performance,
but that's now history. ..." (Carr, Hard, Trahant: "Change Process")

Good Bye!!