extended find question

Extended find, if you select that on an object, indicates that the name mapping engine will search for that object either as a direct child of the object's parent or somewhere within the tree of children.



There's a lot that can be learned about the various features of NameMapping by watching the following screencast



http://support.smartbear.com/screencasts/testcomplete/reliable-tests-for-dynamic-objects/



Essentially, though, extended find I have found to be a good option to use if the hierarchy for objects is very fluid and changes dynamically from build to build.  It's especially useful for Web applications... for Delphi apps, I did not find it to be a necessary feature as those applications are a lot more static when it comes to heirarchy.

is it correct to say that hierarchy of desktop apps are more static than web apps? but I don't really get how an object can have different parents. could you please give me some example? both on desktop apps and web apps? how can lets say a button be owned by two forms at the same time? thanks

Hierarchy of web apps shifts rather quickly, in my experience, during the course of development.  Tables, panels, cells, etc., all shift around as developers are coding and reorganizing so a form on the web may have a button visible to the end user in the same place, but the code and structures behind it may shift.



Meanwhile, in a Delphi app, you put a button on a form, that button is on that form and is owned by that form.  You may have two buttons that look the same on two different forms, but TC sees them as two different button objects.

so how does it possible in delphi apps (I assume delphi creates desktop apps, not web) have a need for extended find? do you have an example where when we test desktop app, we need to use extended find? thanks

In my experience, working with Delphi apps, I've not found need to use extended find.  That hierarchal structure does not change as quickly and, if it does, it's a lot easier to get advance notice (since it is a deliberate change usually where as with Web apps it's many times something that the compiler imposes).  This is not to say that it's not useful in certain situations, just that I've never found the need.



Web apps... whole other story.