Forum Discussion

jthompson1's avatar
jthompson1
Contributor
4 years ago

Anyone have some really good material for name mapping?

I'm wondering if someone can relate and has gone through what im about to explain but they found a really good write up that educated them about name mapping. I've already gone over the material prov...
Name Mapping
Object Recognition
Recording
  • vinniew's avatar
    vinniew
    4 years ago

    The name mapping guides are in itself quite useful as they show you how to do things like add items, maintain items.

     

    I see you mentioning using xpath solves your issue, You know you can use xpath selectors in the name mapping? 

     

    To do this enable xpath and css for web objects. 

     

    In an existing project 

     

    Click on tools On the Open Applications > Web Testing > General page of the existing project’s Properties page.

     

    Or open a new project all together and enable it. 

     

    Going forward as you record new items, in the the namemapping it will reference the same alias but instead of using object properties it will use xpath and css selectors 

     

    You can remove or add in what ever selectors you want, and as many as you want. 

     

    That way testcomplete will try to find what ever selectors you reference in the name mapping in the order you list them. 

    This is a useful alternative method for web apps. 

     

    This also allows you to scale your web tests using Smartbears Device Cloud, (simply using that web test against a local browser,  connects to the device cloud CBT with thousands of real browser configurations on multiple platforms like IOS,Android, MAC and Windows and run them on those configuration) 

    See 

    https://support.smartbear.com/testcomplete/docs/app-testing/web/cross-platform/index.html

     

    If you dont want to use Device cloud you can still enable that mode for scaling down the line in the future or even leveraging using Xpath and Css selectors  

    See On the https://support.smartbear.com/testcomplete/docs/testing-with/object-identification/name-mapping/xpath-expressions-and-css-selectors.html

     

     

vinniew's avatar
vinniew
Staff

The name mapping guides are in itself quite useful as they show you how to do things like add items, maintain items.

 

I see you mentioning using xpath solves your issue, You know you can use xpath selectors in the name mapping? 

 

To do this enable xpath and css for web objects. 

 

In an existing project 

 

Click on tools On the Open Applications > Web Testing > General page of the existing project’s Properties page.

 

Or open a new project all together and enable it. 

 

Going forward as you record new items, in the the namemapping it will reference the same alias but instead of using object properties it will use xpath and css selectors 

 

You can remove or add in what ever selectors you want, and as many as you want. 

 

That way testcomplete will try to find what ever selectors you reference in the name mapping in the order you list them. 

This is a useful alternative method for web apps. 

 

This also allows you to scale your web tests using Smartbears Device Cloud, (simply using that web test against a local browser,  connects to the device cloud CBT with thousands of real browser configurations on multiple platforms like IOS,Android, MAC and Windows and run them on those configuration) 

See 

https://support.smartbear.com/testcomplete/docs/app-testing/web/cross-platform/index.html

 

If you dont want to use Device cloud you can still enable that mode for scaling down the line in the future or even leveraging using Xpath and Css selectors  

See On the https://support.smartbear.com/testcomplete/docs/testing-with/object-identification/name-mapping/xpath-expressions-and-css-selectors.html

 

 

jthompson1's avatar
jthompson1
Contributor
4 years ago

is it risky to change to xpath and css with existing project? There are some elements that actually do work with my current name mapping. 

  • vinniew's avatar
    vinniew
    Staff
    4 years ago

    I wouldnt say its risky. the old mapping will still exist.

    and it can be turned on and off(Switched), and as long as the old criteria works and is in the name map then thats ok. 

    Essentially by enabling your telling TC what to reference in the namemap as you record. So only going forward and creating new tests are you using Xpath nd CSS in the name map.

     

    As for maintaining both in a single project, it is doable but I can also see how testers may prefer just the one approach per project.

    perhaps open a separate project and see how it works for you and this app under test.

    It might help your decision to determine how best to move forward  

     

     

     

    • jthompson1's avatar
      jthompson1
      Contributor
      4 years ago

      Thanks ill run another project with just xpath and css and see how it works.

      • AlexKaras's avatar
        AlexKaras
        Champion Level 3
        4 years ago

        Hi,

         

        Most of modern web applications are awful from automation point of view because they do not bother about testability and do not provide unique and stable identifiers for web objects. With this in mind, it is highly recommended not to rely on default NameMapping algorithms during recording, but manually NameMap/Alias all web elements that are required for your test before recording and only then do recording.

        Preliminary NameMapping and general investigation of the tested application in the Object Browser should give you an understanding what properties of web elements can be used for mapping and what cannot. Whether these properties stable and unique so they can be used as they are or, because of their dynamic/not stable nature you should combine different approaches to get stable mapping. For example, you may consider to map just a container object and then use, say, .FindChild() calls to find required web element. Or use .FindAllChildren() and iterate through the obtained resultset to get the element you are looking for. Consider 'Required Children' functionality of NameMapping - sometimes it is quite handy and useful. Do not overuse Extended Find property of NameMapping but use it only when necessary. Do not forget that NameMapping allows complex conditional search criteria and regular expressions - really helps sometimes.