Spinner on a Form

May I ask why this request was made?  



Generally, in shops where I've done a lot of automation work, there is an understanding that the machines dedicated to executing the tests are sancrosanct and must not be touched on pain of pain.



However, secondarily, putting a form on the screen which would potentially overlay portions of the application undertest would be problematic.  You can't click on a button or link that is masked by a form so, practically speaking, with the way that automation works in TestComplete, I don't see how this would work.

The users want to know it is actually doing something and not just stuck saving or whatever, lest they be tempted to do something because it has been broken.  In particular TC takes some time to save files and sits there "doing nothing" which is annoying, at least to one tester who provided feedback.  I have a progress bar that helps somewhat - if you can update a progress bar in the middle of a file save, that would be a viable alterative, I think.  Some other operations take over a minute. 



When it is "doing things" controls are greyed out (inactive) so they can't do anything. I've been told that if it looks like it is doing nothing for over three minutes, a tester will be greatly tempted to shut it down and start over because "it is obviously broken - if it is still working, make it look like it is doing something."  



I have to address this in my response to review comments.

Also this is being run on dual monitors - app on one screen, form on the other.  The form provides feedback as to what script is being run and progress to date.  Basically the form allows you to select a batch of scripts, organize them and run them, and then reports the results.

If you are in a script that is not interacting actively with an application, you might be able to pop a User Form.

What do you mean by "pop a User Form"?

You can create a user form in TestComplete that, upon executing a test, call the ShowForm method.  So, in those non-interactive sections of the test, show that form... and then hide it when the scripts need to interact again.

Yes, as Robert says. There is a Test Complete test item called User Form. Right click on your project and select New Item. The listbox presented there will have an item type "User Forms".

Understood.



They want a moving icon of some sort on the form so they know TC is doing things and is not frozen. Is there an animated icon available?  If I simply provide a "Please Wait" form they say they will get impatient and kill the run and start over, or do the test manually under the firm conviction that might be faster. I am the cure for their dysfunctionality.

Hoestly, if it were me I would tell them, nicely,  to learn what is going on and knock it off. Putting a bunch of effort to appease their impatience seems silly to me. But that is me. :)



There is no progress bar. You will have to poke around in the help for forms and figure out how to make a moving looking widget. I am not even certain it is possible.

Ya know, I'm with Stephanie here...  at some point in time the testers monitoring the automation need to act professionally and understand the technical aspects of their job.



Little anectdote:



We had a set of automation that, for part of it, would take about 2 hours to run with no on screen interaction.  It was set to run overnight to be completed by morning.  When we got in, we'd check an e-mail inbox set aside to receive notifications of completed test runs.  We KNEW how long it was supposed to take to run a test project and, if it took longer than that, we would know there was a problem.  so... if we knew when the project was kicked off, we could look at the clock and know "Hey, look... it still has 2 hours to go" and go away and wait the 2 hours.  ONLY if it was taking longer than expected would ANYONE attempt to touch the box and "fix" it.  And, if they "fixed" it when it didn't need fixed and the person who had been waiting 2 hours for their test to be completed now has to RESTART the test, the person "fixing" it got an earful...