Forum Discussion

rmnrdi's avatar
rmnrdi
Contributor
7 years ago

compare object

I have a program that I need to check the properties of in two different states. TC only allows one object to be captured by object spy at a time.   Is there any way to do a side by side comparison...
  • tristaanogre's avatar
    tristaanogre
    7 years ago

    No additional save, just a refresh of the variable as per below.

     

     

    procedure CompareObjects;
var
tracePanel, PropertyNames, CollectionName, tfrmModifyTrace2 : OleVariant;
begin
//Get panel object
tracePanel := Aliases.SettingsNavigator.frmModifyTrace2.VCLObject('Panel3');

// Sets the name of the property collection
CollectionName := 'TracePanelProps';

// I want it to check all properties, so I leave the property name blank.
Objects.Save(tracePanel, CollectionName);

tfrmModifyTrace2 := Aliases.SettingsNavigator.frmModifyTrace2;
tfrmModifyTrace2.MainMenu.Click('Manage|Get Library Trace');
tfrmModifyTrace2.pnlLibLookup.isLibName.Keys('[Enter]');

tracePanel := Aliases.SettingsNavigator.frmModifyTrace2.VCLObject('Panel3');

Objects.Compare(tracePanel, CollectionName, true, lmMessage);

Objects.Remove(CollectionName); 

     Additionally... there is more information in the error than just "Object Compare error".  Any additional info/text would be useful.

rmnrdi's avatar
rmnrdi
Contributor

Thanks for your reply tristaanogre. I guess I should have said:

 

Is this currently possible with TestComplete? Or. Does TestComplete have a feature that accomplishes this?

 

I'll look into doing that.

 

 

 

tristaanogre's avatar
tristaanogre
Esteemed Contributor
7 years ago

The answer to that is... no, not that I am aware of.  Properties of an onscreen object are gathered in real time.  So, to compare the object properties in run time from one point to another requires creating some sort of storage and comparison as described.

  • rmnrdi's avatar
    rmnrdi
    Contributor
    7 years ago

    STOP THE PRESSES!!

     

    I think I figured out how to do this.

     

    1) Grab object with object spy

    2) Press the button "Highlight object in the object tree"

    3) At the top of the page select the "Save Object Snapshot" button

    4) Choose a file name BUT choose *.tcObject in the "Save as type"

    5) Choose to export All properties

    6) Change program state

    7) Repeat steps 1 through 5. Changing the file name to something else, so it doesn't over write the old one.

    8) Diff the resulting files (xml)  in the program of your choice

     

    Boom goes the dynamite!

     

     

     

     

    • tristaanogre's avatar
      tristaanogre
      Esteemed Contributor
      7 years ago

      You wouldn't need to diff the resulting files in a different XML choice.  you could use the Stores|Object object to do the comparison... load each tcObject file into the stores, use Object.Compare to compare the two, and then remove.

      • rmnrdi's avatar
        rmnrdi
        Contributor
        7 years ago

        I was looking at Object.compare and it looks like it's more of a true/false thing.

         

        Could you give a little code sample to do what you're talking about? It sounds great.

  • rmnrdi's avatar
    rmnrdi
    Contributor
    7 years ago

    A great feature would be to have an exportable list of properties. Have a button in the object spy that would simply export the current properties visible and their values to a .txt file.

     

    _NewEnum: (Enumerator)

    ChildCount: 79

    ControlID: 199753

    ...

    That way you could diff the two files, in the two states and see what changed.

     

    The problem I'm having is that some of the panels I need to check for my tests have a picture. Which, as you said, is not a good way to check things. Trying to find some other property that changed, is like finding the old needle in a haystack.

    • tristaanogre's avatar
      tristaanogre
      Esteemed Contributor
      7 years ago

      Actually... further investigation....

      Look into the Stores | Objects project object.  You can store object properties that way.  Doing a comparison is then doing the object.Compare

       

      Here's a sample bit of code from the help topic (https://support.smartbear.com/testcomplete/docs/reference/project-objects/items/stores/objects/compare.html)

      function Test()
{
  var w, PropertyNames, CollectionName;
  w = Sys.Desktop.ActiveWindow();

  // Prepares the property list
  PropertyNames = "Top Left Height Width";
  // Sets the name of the property collection
  CollectionName = "ActiveWindowProps";
  // Saves the values of the properties specified in PropertyNames.
  // Note that the Save method also has the fourth parameter
  // that lets you not to save certain properties.
  Objects.Save(w, CollectionName, PropertyNames);
  ...
  // Compares property values
  if (! Objects.Compare(w, CollectionName))
    Log.Message("Properties have been changed.");
}

      This might be able to be adapted for your use.  I didn't consider this before because the Object Checkpoint operation has been deprecated... but this is slightly different and SHOULD work for your purposes.