Forum Discussion

monitorwa's avatar
monitorwa
New Contributor
14 years ago

TestComplete and AlphaControls

I'm trying to write some test scripts for some of my apps that use AlphaControl controls (http://www.alphaskins.com/)
and are running into some problems. If I record operations in the UI
then edits seem to work OK but checkbox clicking doesn't work, combo box
selection doesn't work, radio groups are selectable with the keyboard but not with the mouse etc etc. Has anyone managed to use TestComplete
with an app using AlphaControls?



* For the combo box, there is no error raised but the selection doesn't occur.

* For the check box, TestComplete raises the error "Check box stays in the unchecked state." but the accompanying screen shot shows that the box has already been checked at that point.



I've seen that some other 3rd party controls have workaround code in the "How To" documentation but there is nothing for this suite. For some custom controls it makes sense that you'd need to code specifically for them as they won't be recognized or have different properties but in the case of the TsCheckBox for instance the control descends directly from TCustomCheckbox and has all the standard properties that are in the VCL for the checked state, onclick event etc so it is frustrating that this doesn't work out-of-the-box. Can someone explain why this doesn't work as I would expect?



Regards,

Hamilton

3 Replies

  • monitorwa's avatar
    monitorwa
    New Contributor
    14 years ago
    There is a demo available here if anyone wants to see this suite or try it with TestComplete.
  • tristaanogre's avatar
    tristaanogre
    Esteemed Contributor
    14 years ago
    There is no documentation specifically for those controls, however, there is documentation that lists out a number of different ways to interact with those controls.



    http://smartbear.com/support/viewarticle/11506/



    For myself, in the past, I've had a LOT of good success working with native properties and methods.  I did have to rely a good bit on my developers for some good understanding on how those native properties and methods are used to work with the control but, before the support for TMS objects, this was the best way to work with them.
  • monitorwa's avatar
    monitorwa
    New Contributor
    14 years ago
    Hi Robert,



    Thanks for the reply. I've investigated this further and learned that if I deactivate the Alpha Control skin manager then TestComplete starts recognizing the control properties. I've implemented a feature to turn off the skin manager in the app and now I can record tests the same as if I were using standard VCL controls. If I get more time later I'll investigate how the skin manager is affecting the control properties and see if I can come up with a better solution but this is sufficient for now.



    Cheers,

    Hamilton