Is this a known issue? When I launch my suite, I'm warned "Cannot load data for Manual Tests. Make sure the appropriate plug-in is installed" and some manual tests I had archived earlier won't open. The tooltip for the now unavailable Manual tests reads "The project node is not available. The factory is not installed." I tried to check for plug-ins, but I can't find anything about adding or re-enabling manual testing. I looked for tcManualTest.pls and tcManualTestEditor.pls in C:\TestComplete\Bin, but those files are not there.Has anyone been running into this same issue or have any suggestions?

I received a reply to the issue I raised with Tech Support. They confirmed that "Manual Tests" have discontinued support.They supplied me with URL's to download the "Manual Testing" extension for 10.40 TestComplete and 10.40 TestExecute. I have tried them and they appear to work from initial use, though their use is unsupported.I think Smartbear are protecting access to the downloads so I will not post the URL's in the forum. Interested parties can raise a Tech Support ticket to get the files.Cheers, Chris

Hi,From http://support.smartbear.com/viewarticle/64368/ :===============Discontinued SupportIn version 10.40, we have stopped supporting some rarely-used product features and technologies. This will help us concentrate our efforts on more important features for our customers.Project items:◾Manual testing◾Object-driven testing (ODT)◾ActiveX Objects===============If this decision can be reverted in the subsequent TC update, I am voting for it to be reverted. I consider Manual Tests as a great and useful feature of TestComplete.

Without ActiveX and Manual testing support this product is no longer of any use to our company. We would be forced into legacy use of 10.30 until which time we found a replacement solution from some other provider.Every test we have written for every product uses ActiveX dictionaries as containers for our objects.The idea that this sort of decision can be made in a vacuum without prior warning (or requests for feedback) does not bode well for any future support.

Not great customer service to remove features without warning. This sometimes happens in a major update with plenty of notice given, but its the first time in 35 years I've ever experienced it happen to any product in a minor update. I had to revert to 10.30 today as I use manual tests extensively.Our software interfaces with the hardware we design so I use manual tests to give instructions on changing the hardware configuration before running a test item. I suppose I could popup the information in message boxes and wait for the tester to press OK but the manual testing was a nice feature in my opinion.Very much a retrograde step by SmartBear!Cheers,Chris

OUPS !!!! thats why I can't get ODT /activeX to work after the update from 10.30 to 10.40 .... I have 100.000 lines of code which utilize ODT !!! so I also strongly vote not to remove this !!!!Also use a bit of manual test, it's pretty nice for a test planning / management that everything are collected in one tool (would not like to go back to HP QC...)

In this threadhttp://smartbear.com/forums/f81/t94683/cannot-load-data-for-activex-objects/the activex users that upgraded to 10.x were directed to support to get a plug-in that would solve the issue.

Just Updated to TC 10.40 -- Can No Longer Open Manual Tests

19 Replies

christophert
Occasional Contributor
10 years ago
I received a reply to the issue I raised with Tech Support. They confirmed that "Manual Tests" have discontinued support.

They supplied me with URL's to download the "Manual Testing" extension for 10.40 TestComplete and 10.40 TestExecute. I have tried them and they appear to work from initial use, though their use is unsupported.

I think Smartbear are protecting access to the downloads so I will not post the URL's in the forum. Interested parties can raise a Tech Support ticket to get the files.

Cheers,

Chris
AlexKaras
Champion Level 3
10 years ago
Hi,

From http://support.smartbear.com/viewarticle/64368/ :

===============

Discontinued Support

In version 10.40, we have stopped supporting some rarely-used product features and technologies. This will help us concentrate our efforts on more important features for our customers.

Project items:

◾Manual testing

◾Object-driven testing (ODT)

◾ActiveX Objects

===============

If this decision can be reverted in the subsequent TC update, I am voting for it to be reverted. I consider Manual Tests as a great and useful feature of TestComplete.
james_massa
Occasional Contributor
10 years ago
Without ActiveX and Manual testing support this product is no longer of any use to our company. We would be forced into legacy use of 10.30 until which time we found a replacement solution from some other provider.

Every test we have written for every product uses ActiveX dictionaries as containers for our objects.

The idea that this sort of decision can be made in a vacuum without prior warning (or requests for feedback) does not bode well for any future support.
christophert
Occasional Contributor
10 years ago
Not great customer service to remove features without warning. This sometimes happens in a major update with plenty of notice given, but its the first time in 35 years I've ever experienced it happen to any product in a minor update. I had to revert to 10.30 today as I use manual tests extensively.

Our software interfaces with the hardware we design so I use manual tests to give instructions on changing the hardware configuration before running a test item. I suppose I could popup the information in message boxes and wait for the tester to press OK but the manual testing was a nice feature in my opinion.

Very much a retrograde step by SmartBear!

Cheers,

Chris
mdh
Contributor
10 years ago
OUPS !!!! thats why I can't get ODT /activeX to work after the update from 10.30 to 10.40 .... I have 100.000 lines of code which utilize ODT !!! so I also strongly vote not to remove this !!!!

Also use a bit of manual test, it's pretty nice for a test planning / management that everything are collected in one tool (would not like to go back to HP QC...)
Marsha_R
Champion Level 3
10 years ago
In this thread

http://smartbear.com/forums/f81/t94683/cannot-load-data-for-activex-objects/

the activex users that upgraded to 10.x were directed to support to get a plug-in that would solve the issue.
AlexKaras
Champion Level 3
10 years ago
> Also use a bit of manual test, it's pretty nice for a test planning / management that everything are collected in one tool

For me personally, the real beauty of Manual Tests in TestComplete was the possibility to create a 'semi-manual' test when the user manually puts the tested application into the required initial state, then the next step runs some automated sequence of actions (I hope that all of you remember that a step in the Manual Test may execute some script/keyword routine, aren't you?) and finally the tester performs manual verification of the results that are too complex or not worth to be automated (e.g. check if 3D model was correctly produced by 3D printer).

Now the possibility for such tests has gone... :(
obaid_shirwani
Contributor
10 years ago
I have written over 1000s of lines of code using ODT. This is not good removing support for it. I strongly condemn this update. I will have to revamp lots and lots of code. This is totally unfair and wastage of lots of my productive hours. I just updated to v.10.40 and I am getting 'Cannot load data for ODT'. Its friday today and my weekend is ruined with the idea of redoing lots of work.
TanyaYatskovska
SmartBear Alumni (Retired)
10 years ago

Hi All,

I have some news for you. Based on your feedback and the feedback of other customers, we reinstated the Manual Testing project item in TestComplete 10.5.

After updating to this product version, Manual Testing will be available for you by default.
TanyaYatskovska
SmartBear Alumni (Retired)
10 years ago

Hi,

I've replied to you in this thread.