Stop Skimming PDFs, Start Automating PDF Testing
On the surface, PDFs look simple, but testing them is a whole different story. Invoices, contracts, statements, compliance reports… they’re often the last thing that lands in a customer’s hands. That also means even the smallest issue, like a missing field or a misplaced decimal, can turn into something big. The challenge is that PDFs aren’t like web pages or apps where you can easily inspect elements. They’re containers packed with content, layout, images, and data from different systems. When you add in dynamic content that changes for every customer, formatting that has to stay perfect, and the regulatory risks in industries like finance or healthcare, you start to see why manual testing just doesn’t cut it. It’s slow, inconsistent, and doesn’t scale. This is where automation becomes essential. With automation, you can make sure data is always accurate, layouts stay consistent, and testing scales across thousands of documents without slowing down your team. Instead of spending hours opening PDFs by hand, QA can focus on higher-value work while still knowing that every report or statement going out the door is right. That’s exactly where TestComplete comes in. It’s built to handle the tough parts of PDF testing so you don’t have to. You can validate content down to the last character, run visual checks to keep layouts consistent, and plug it all straight into your CI/CD pipeline. The result is faster releases, fewer headaches, and a lot more confidence that the documents your customers see are exactly as they should be. Click on this link and check out a quick demo to see how TestComplete makes PDF testing easier and more reliable in action.Checking API Status in TestComplete
Introduction I first saw the need to verify the state of an API several years ago with an application that used an address validation API in several of it's operations. If this API was down or did not respond in a timely manor, many of the automated test cases would run and fail. In this case, and in others, I have found that doing a simple call to the API to check the returned status code allowed me to skip, fail or log a warning with a logical message instead of allowing the application to fail with another less direct error message due to the API issue. The aqHttp Object The TestComplete aqHttp object and it's methods are very useful for performing simple checks like this and are also useful for other more complex tasks like leveraging an API to return a test data set or even verifying a certain data is returned prior to running tests against the UI that depend on the data. Sending and Receiving HTTP Requests From Script Tests More Complete API Testing Most proper API testing should be done using a tools like ReadyAPI or SoapUI. Both of these tools will integrate with TestComplete or can be used alone and will provide much more capabilities and automation options. Integration With ReadyAPI and SoapUI Code Example Here I have provided a working example of how to code a Get request using 'aqHttp.CreateRequest' to confirm an API returns a status code of 200 and it will log the returned records. function sendGetRequest() { let resourcePath ="https://restcountries.com/v3.1/all" let resourceQuery = "?fields=name,capital"; let url = resourcePath + resourceQuery; try { // Send GET request let response = aqHttp.CreateRequest("GET", url, false).Send(); // Check for successful response if (response.StatusCode === 200) { // Parse JSON response let allData = JSON.parse(response.Text); Log.Message("Total records received: " + allData.length); // Process each record allData.forEach((record, index) => { Log.Message("Record " + (index + 1) + ": " + JSON.stringify(record)); }); return true; // Send a bool back to the calling function. } else { throw new Error("Failed to fetch data. Status code: " + response.StatusCode); } } catch (error) { Log.Error("Error during request or data processing: " + error.message); } } Enhancements You could accept parameters for the resourcePath and resourceQuery. Parameterize the logging loop run or remove it. Return the JSON to the calling function for use. Perform other tasks based on the return code. Conclusion With the growing use of API calls in desktop applications and the fact that APIs are almost the foundation of any web site checking an API before a test case run is almost a requirement for consistent test runs and good error logging. This small script can bring big rewards to your test runs and reports. Cheers! I hope you find it as useful as I have! If you find my posts helpful drop me a like! 👍 Leave a comment if you want to contribute or have a better solution or an improvement. 😎 Have a great dayHow To: Read data from the Windows Registry
Hello all, I have recently learned how to retrieve data from the Windows registry in JavaScript test units. I am using this to return the OS information and application path information. This is very useful when added to the EventControl_OnStartTest event code. This will allow you to return OS information and other needed data at each test run. Some test management systems may provide this information for you or it may be logged in the in data produced in a pipeline run. This will embed the information directly into your test log. SmartBear KB Links: Storages Object Storages Object Methods Storages.Registry Method Section Object Get SubSection Method This bit of code will return the Product Name and Current Build from the registry. This location may vary between OS's so you will want to check this with RegEdit. let Section = Storages.Registry("SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows NT", HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE); let regKeyString = Section.GetSubSection("CurrentVersion").Name; let productIdString = Storages.Registry(regKeyString, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, 1, true).GetOption("ProductName", ""); let currentBuildString = Storages.Registry(regKeyString, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, 1, true).GetOption("CurrentBuild", ""); Log.Message("Windows Version: " + productIdString + " Build: " + currentBuildString ) I have also found the need to find and set an application path and work folder in the project TestedApp for running through a pipeline because the pipeline deploys the application to a non-standard path. let Section = Storages.Registry("SOFTWARE\\WOW6432Node\\<_yourSectionName>\\", HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE); let regKey = Section.GetSubSection(<_yourSubSectionName>).Name; let Path = Storages.Registry(regKey, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, 0, true).GetOption("", ""); let WorkFolder = Storages.Registry(regKey, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, 0, true).GetOption("Path", ""); let appIndex = TestedApps.Find(<_yourAppName>); if (appIndex >= 0){ if(TestedApps.Items(<_yourAppName>).Path != Path){ TestedApps.Items(<_yourAppName>).Path = Path } if(TestedApps.Items(<_yourAppName>).WorkFolder != WorkFolder){ TestedApps.Items(<_yourAppName>).Params.ActiveParams.WorkFolder = WorkFolder; } } else{ Log.Error("TestedApp " + <_yourAppName> + " does not Exist.") Runner.Stop(true); } I hope you find these links and code examples as useful as I have! Have a great day!
CrossBrowserTesting to BitBar Selenium Script Migration - QuickStart Guide
On June 21, 2022, SmartBear launched web application testing on our unified cloud testing solution that will include both browser and device testing on the BitBar platform! We have listened to our customers and having one product for both web and device testing will better meet your needs. BitBar is a scalable, highly reliable and performant platform with multiple datacenters. On it, you will have access to the latest browsers and devices with additional deployment options to meet your needs, including private cloud and dedicated devices. For more frequently asked questions about the launch of web app testing on BitBar, visit our FAQ. This Quickstart Guide is intended to walk through the conversion of your existing CrossBrowserTesting Selenium tests to use BitBar! We have updated Selenium hubs and API calls that will require conversion, though little else will be required. As with CrossBrowserTesting, we have sample scripts and a Selenium Capabilities Configurator you may use to build out the specific capabilities for the desired tested device. This tool can be found here. To start conversion, you will need your BitBar API key versus the CrossBrowserTesting Authkey. This is a new method to authenticate the user and to make API calls. You may find your BitBar API Key in account settings as described here. Most of the Code examples and talking points for conversion are in reference to the CrossBrowserTesting Selenium Sample script that is available here. All code snippets in this article will be in Python. Now that you have your BitBar API Key, let's alter the original Authkey variable with our new BitBar API key located at line 18 in the CrossBrowserTesting sample script. This step is for connection to the BitBar API for processes such as taking screenshots and setting the status of your tests. # Old CrossBrowser Testing Sample Authkey Variable self.authkey = "<"CrossBrowserTesting Authkey">" # New Bitbar API Key Variable self.apiKey = "<"insert your BitBar API Key here">" In regards to the capabilities used in BitBar, there are a couple things to note. First, we do not need to specify a 'record_video' capability as we do in CrossBrowserTesting. Videos are generated automatically for every test, so we no longer need to provide this capability. Doing so will result in webDriver errors. The second thing to note is that we now also pass the BitBar API Key along with the Capabilities; capabilities = { 'platform': 'Windows', 'osVersion': '11', 'browserName': 'chrome', 'version': '102', 'resolution': '1920x1080', 'bitbar_apiKey': '<insert your BitBar API key here>', } With BitBar we now have four Selenium hub options to choose from. Both US and EU Selenium hubs are available to aid in performance for your location. Separate hubs are also provided depending on the type of device (Desktop vs Mobile) you wish to test against. You may pick the applicable Desktop or Mobile hub closest to your location and replace your existing hub with the updated URL; BitBar Desktop Selenium Hubs; US_WEST:DESKTOP: https://us-west-desktop-hub.bitbar.com/wd/hub EU:DESKTOP: https://eu-desktop-hub.bitbar.com/wd/hub BitBar Mobile Selenium Hubs; US_WEST:MOBILE: https://us-west-mobile-hub.bitbar.com/wd/hub EU:MOBILE: https://eu-mobile-hub.bitbar.com/wd/hub # start the remote browser on our server self.driver = webdriver.Remote desired_capabilities=capabilities command_executor="https://us-west-desktop-hub.bitbar.com/wd/hub" Now that we have our BitBar API Key, and Capabilities and Selenium Hub set up, we can move on to altering our requests for Screenshots and Test Result Status. In the CrossBrowserTesting sample script, we use standalone API requests to create Screenshots. For the BitBar sample scripts, we are doing this with the Selenium driver itself to create the Screenshot and store it locally. Afterwards use the BitBar API to push the locally saved image back to our project. The swagger spec for our BitBar Cloud API can be found here. In line 30 of the BitBar Selenium sample script we set a location to store Screenshots on the local machine. Note, this is set up to store files in a directory called 'Screenshots' in the root folder of your project. self.screenshot_dir = os.getcwd() + '/screenshots' To retrieve a Screenshot and store it, we perform a 'get_screenshot_as_file' call, as seen on line 45 in the BitBar Selenium example script. self.driver.get_screenshot_as_file(self.screenshot_dir + '/' + '1_home_page.png') Now we want to to take our Screenshot and push it back to our project in BitBar. Note that in this case for Python, we are using the 'httpx' module for the API calls back to BitBar. The 'requests' module only supports HTTP 1.1 and we will need a module capable of handling HTTP 2/3 requests. # Let's take our locally saved screenshot and push it back to BitBar! # First we start by declaring the 'params' and 'files' variables to hold our Screenshot name and location. params = { 'name': self.screenshotName1, } files = { 'file': open(self.screenshot_dir + '/' + self.screenshotName1, 'rb'), } # Now we build out our API call to push our locally saved screenshot back to our BitBar Project print("Uploading our Screenshot") response = httpx.post('https://cloud.bitbar.com/api/v2/me/projects/' + self.projectID + '/runs/' + self.RunId + '/device-sessions/' + self.deviceRunID + '/output-file-set/files', params=params, files=files, auth=(self.apiKey, '')) # Here we check that our upload was successfull if response.status_code == 201: print("Screenshot Uploaded Successfully") else: print("Whoops, something went wrong uploading the screenshot.") The final piece of the puzzle is to set our Test Result Status. We have alternate naming conventions for test results, these are 'Succeeded' and 'Failed' for BitBar vs 'Pass' and 'Fail' for CrossBrowserTesting. # CrossBrowserTesting Successful test syntax self.test_result = 'pass' # CrossBrowserTesting Failed test syntax self.test_result = 'fail' # BitBar Successful test syntax self.test_result = 'SUCCEEDED' # BitBar Failed test syntax self.test_result = 'FAILED' Note that in the snippet provided below, we start by performing Get requests for session information. These requests are sent to the same Selenium Hub we are using for the webDriver, so make sure the hub address is set to the same hub used for webDriver. We would recommend to turn this into a variable to avoid having to switch this manually for alternate hubs. These processes are found in the 'tearDown' function of the updated CrossBrowserTesting sample script found here. #get all necessary IDs of current session response = requests.get('https://us-west-desktop-hub.bitbar.com/sessions/' + self.driver.session_id, auth=(self.apiKey, '')).json() deviceRunID = str(response["deviceRunId"]) projectID = str(response["projectId"]) RunId = str(response["testRunId"]) Finally, we set the Test Result with the Post method below using session information retrieved with the Get request above. Note, the URL for the Post request will NOT need to be updated to reflect the specific Selenium hub in use. # Here we make the api call to set the test's score requests.post('https://cloud.bitbar.com/api/v2/me/projects/' + projectID + '/runs/' + RunId + '/device-sessions/' + deviceRunID, params={'state': self.test_result}, auth=(self.apiKey, '')) Now that we have made these changes you are ready to run your test through BitBar! As a summary, we replace our CrossBrowserTesting authKey with the BitBar API Key, set the new Selenium hub address, build new screenshot calls and update the test result function. Quick Reference Documentation; BitBar Web FAQ. Complete documentation with code samples in various languages are found here. Retrieve your BitBar API Key in account settings as described here. BitBar Selenium Capability Configurator and Sample Scripts are found here. CrossBrowserTesting Capability Configurator and Sample Scripts are found here. The Swagger spec for our BitBar Cloud API can be found here. Here is our complete Python CBT-BB conversion script; # Please visit http://selenium-python.readthedocs.io/ for detailed installation and instructions # Getting started: http://docs.seleniumhq.org/docs/03_webdriver.jsp # API details: https://github.com/SeleniumHQ/selenium#selenium # Requests is the easiest way to make RESTful API calls in Python. You can install it by following the instructions here: # http://docs.python-requests.org/en/master/user/install/ import unittest from selenium import webdriver import requests import os import httpx class BasicTest(unittest.TestCase): def setUp(self): #get rid of the old way of doing auth with just an API key self.apiKey = '' self.api_session = requests.Session() self.test_result = None self.screenshot_dir = os.getcwd() + '/screenshots' self.screenshotName1 = 'SS1.png' self.deviceRunID = "" self.projectID = "" self.RunId = "" #old platformName has been split into platformName and osVersion capabilities = { 'bitbar_apiKey': '', 'platform': 'Linux', 'osVersion': '18.04', 'browserName': 'firefox', 'version': '101', 'resolution': '2560x1920', } # start the remote browser on our server self.driver = webdriver.Remote( desired_capabilities=capabilities, #the hub is changed, also not sending the user and pass through the hub anymore #US hub url: https://appium-us.bitbar.com/wd/hub command_executor="https://us-west-desktop-hub.bitbar.com/wd/hub" #EU hub url ) self.driver.implicitly_wait(20) def test_CBT(self): # We wrap this all in a try/except so we can set pass/fail at the end try: # load the page url print('Loading Url') self.driver.get('http://crossbrowsertesting.github.io/selenium_example_page.html') # maximize the window - DESKTOPS ONLY #print('Maximizing window') #self.driver.maximize_window() #check the title print('Checking title') self.assertEqual("Selenium Test Example Page", self.driver.title) # take a screenshot and save it locally print("Taking a Screenshot") self.driver.get_screenshot_as_file(self.screenshot_dir + '/' + self.screenshotName1) # change pass to SUCCEEDED self.test_result = 'SUCCEEDED' except AssertionError as e: # delete cbt api calls # change fail to FAILED self.test_result = 'FAILED' raise def tearDown(self): print("Done with session %s" % self.driver.session_id) if self.test_result is not None: #get all necessary IDs of current session response = requests.get('https://us-west-desktop-hub.bitbar.com/sessions/' + self.driver.session_id, auth=(self.apiKey, '')).json() self.deviceRunID = str(response["deviceRunId"]) self.projectID = str(response["projectId"]) self.RunId = str(response["testRunId"]) # Here we make the api call to set the test's score requests.post('https://cloud.bitbar.com/api/v2/me/projects/' + self.projectID + '/runs/' + self.RunId + '/device-sessions/' + self.deviceRunID, params={'state': self.test_result}, auth=(self.apiKey, '')) # let's take our locally saved screenshot and push it back to BitBar! # First we start by declaring the 'params' and 'files' variables to hold our Screenshot name and location. params = { 'name': self.screenshotName1, } files = { 'file': open(self.screenshot_dir + '/' + self.screenshotName1, 'rb'), } # Now we build out our API call to push our locally saved screenshot back to our BitBar Project print("Uploading our Screenshot") response = httpx.post('https://cloud.bitbar.com/api/v2/me/projects/' + self.projectID + '/runs/' + self.RunId + '/device-sessions/' + self.deviceRunID + '/output-file-set/files', params=params, files=files, auth=(self.apiKey, '')) # Here we check that our upload was successfull if response.status_code == 201: print("Screenshot Uploaded Successfully") else: print("Whoops, something went wrong uploading the screenshot.") self.driver.quit() if __name__ == '__main__': unittest.main(warnings='ignore') Thanks for reading along, I hope this helps your conversion to BitBar! Happy Testing!Code for Tracking Tested App Info On Start Test.
Question I like to know the information about the tested app each test ran on so I wrote up a little code and put it in the OnStartTest Test Engine Event. Answer This will run every time I run a test telling me the tested app info. This is wonderful for tracking one off test runs and which app version a test passed on and which it failed on. https://support.smartbear.com/testcomplete/docs/testing-with/advanced/handling-events/index.html https://support.smartbear.com/testcomplete/docs/reference/events/onstarttest.html?sbsearch=OnStartTe... function EventControl_OnStartTest(Sender) { try { Log.AppendFolder("< EventControl_OnStartTest >"); Log.AppendFolder("Version Information"); var FileName = "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Some Folder\\TestedApp.exe"; var VerInfo = aqFileSystem.GetFileInfo(FileName).VersionInfo; var FileInf = aqFileSystem.GetFileInfo(FileName); var HostName = Sys.HostName; var dtObj; Log.Message("File Name: " + FileInf.Name); Log.Message("File Version: " + VerInfo.FileMajorVersion + "." + VerInfo.FileMinorVersion + "." + VerInfo.FileBuildVersion + "." + VerInfo.FileRevisionVersion); dtObj = new Date(FileInf.DateLastModified); Log.Message("File Date: " + FileInf.DateLastModified); Log.Message("Host Name: " + HostName); Log.PopLogFolder(); } catch(err) { Process.Halt("Exception: EventControl_OnStartTest - " + err.message); //Stop Test Run. } }Advanced search object for complex model
Hello all, Please find here my implementation of advanced search of in-memory object for complex tree model. Sometimes when the tested app is really complex (especially in heavy client application), the search for object could be too slow due to depth. One of the solution is to do by finding intermediate object to narrow and guide the search. So you multiply findChildEx. To ease that i made the following method : /** * <a id="system.findContainer"></a> * Rechercher un objet TestComplete en mémoire de manière containérisé<br> * Si <i>system.debug</i> est à <b>true</b> alors des logs complémentaires sur la recherche sont inscrits * @memberof system * @function * {Object} ParentObject - Objet parent porteur de l'objet à rechercher. Racine de départ de la recherche. Plus l'objet parent est de haut niveau, plus le temps de recherche peut être long * {array} Props - Tableau des propriétés des objets à rechercher par container, si plusieurs propriétés recherchées pour un container donnée alors le séparateur est le |, exemple ["Visible|Name", "Name"] -> recherche des 2 propriétés Visble et Name pour le premier container et recherche de Name seulement pour le deuxième container * {array} Values - Tableau des valeurs des propriétés des objets à rechercher * {number|array} [Depth=4] - Limiter la recherche a <i>Depth>/i> profondeur depuis l'objet parent. Plus la profondeur est grande, plus le temps de recherche peut être long. Peut être un tableau pour définir un temps de rechercher par container * @returns {object} Renvoie l'objet s'il existe ou <b>null</b> le cas échéant ou bien en cas d'erreur */ system.findContainer = function(ParentObject = null, Props = null, Values = null, Depth = 4) { // Vérification des paramètres obligatoires if ((ParentObject == null) || (Props == null) || (Values == null)) { if (system.debug) Log.Message('findContainer() - Un paramètre obligatoire est non renseigné (ParentObject ou Props ou Values)', "", pmHigher, system.logWarning); return null; } if (ParentObject == "current") { if ((typeof system.container != 'undefined') && (system.container != null) && (system.container.Exists)) ParentObject = system.container else return null; } if (system.debug) { let propsKey = typeof Props == "string" ? Props : Props.join("|"); let valuesKey; switch (typeof Values) { case "string": valuesKey = Values; break; case "number": case "boolean": valuesKey = Values.toString(); break; case "null": valuesKey = "null"; break; default: valuesKey = Values.join("|"); break; } Log.Message("findContainer(" + ParentObject.FullName + ", " + propsKey + ", " + valuesKey + ", " + Depth.toString() + ") - Recherche d'objet", "", pmLowest, system.logDebug); } var objectfind = ParentObject; let currentProps; let currentValues; let currentDepth; try { for (let i=0;i<Props.length;i++) { currentProps = Props[i].split('|'); currentValues = new Array(); currentDepth = typeof Depth == 'number' ? Depth : Depth[i]; for (let j=0;j<currentProps.length;j++) { currentValues.push(Values.shift()); } objectfind = objectfind.FindChildEx(currentProps, currentValues, currentDepth, true, system.time.medium); if ((typeof objectfind == 'undefined') || ((objectfind != null) && (!objectfind.Exists))) break; } } catch (e) { objectfind = null; if (system.debug) Log.Message("findContainer() - Une exception est apparue dans la recherche", e.message, pmHighest, system.logError); } finally { // Ne renvoyer que "null" sur non trouvé ou erreur if ((typeof objectfind == 'undefined') || ((objectfind != null) && (!objectfind.Exists))) objectfind = null; if (system.debug) { if (objectfind == null) Log.Message("findContainer() renvoie un objet null ou undefined", "", pmLowest, system.logDebug) else Log.Message('findContainer() a trouvé un objet', objectfind.FullName, pmLowest, system.logDebug); } return objectfind; } } It comes from my testing framework so everything starting by system. is specific but you should understand the use : system.debug -> true to activate an additionnal level of log. system.logDebug -> specific debug log attributes. system.container -> a global variable that can hold a frequently used object in portion of test system.time.medium -> this is 5 seconds (5000ms) Samples usage : let objectToTest = system.findContainer(SourceObject, ["Visible|Name", "Visible|Name"], [true,'dlmAccueil', true,'editionEnfants']); Will search in SourceObject a visible object named 'editionEnfants' which is located inside another visible object named 'dlmAccueil'. The search will use a default max depth of 4 levels for both objects. let objectToTest = system.findContainer(SourceObject, ["Visible|Name", "Name", "Header|Index|Visible"], [true, "Saisie", "DockingPanel"', "ILPaneGroup", 1, true], [2, 3, 2]); Will search in SourceObject a visible object with property Index to 1 and property Header to 'ILPanelGroup' which is located inside another object named 'DockingPanel' which is located inside another visible object named 'Saisie'. The search will use a depth of 2 levels for first object, 3 levels for second object and 2 levels for final object.
