The purpose of a Properties verification point is use in testing the properties of an object in our application.

When a verification point is recorded, a baseline of the object's properties gets created. Thereafter every time the script is played back, the properties will be compared to confirm if any changes have taken place, may be intentionally or even unintentionally.

With the help of Properties verification point we can identify the presence of potential defects in our application.

Steps to create a Properties Verification Point in IBM - RFT are as under:

Step – 1: Starting of the recording operation of script:

a) For RFT – Java Scripting: Click the "Record a Functional Tester Script" button on the RFT toolbar or the "File" > "New" > "Functional Tester Script Using Recorder" menu command.

b) For RFT – VB.NET Scripting: Click the "Record a Functional Tester Script" button on the RFT toolbar or the "File" > "New" > "Add Script Using Recorder" menu command.

Step – 2: In the RFT Recording Monitor, click the "Start Application" button to start the test application.

Step – 3: Locate the object in the application, which we want to test.

Step – 4: In the Functional Tester Recording Monitor, click the "Insert Verification Point or Action Command" button on the toolbar.

Step – 5: Picking up the object in the application:

The objects in our application can be picked up on the "Select an Object page" of the Verification Point and Action wizard, by either of the following three selection methods.

Method 1: Object Finder Tool method: For selecting an object and all descendents of the object, select one object, or select an object and the immediate children of an object.

Method 2: Test Object Browser method: For browsing for the object that we want to select. The browser displays a hierarchical tree of objects in our application. The top level shows any applications we are running. Under each top level, RFT displays the object hierarchy within that application. It is a dynamic view of the currently available objects.

Method 3: Time Delayed method: For selecting pop-up objects, like menus. This method uses the Object Finder tool, but enables us to set a delay, which gives us time to reach an object which requires clicking on other objects first.

Step – 6: Advancement to the next page in the Verification Point and Action wizard:

On the Select an Object page, the check box "After selecting an object advance to next page" is selected by default. This causes automatic advancement to the next page in the Verification Point and Action wizard.

Alternatively If the check box "After selecting an object advance to next page" is deselected, we need to manually click "Next" to move to the next page.

Step – 7: Selection of various options for properties verification point:

a) On the "Select an Action" page, click the "Perform Properties Verification Point" option, and then click "Next".

b) Use either of the following four options like:

1) "Include Children" – In case we want to include the properties of the object's child objects (in case it has child objects).

2) "None" – For testing the object only without children.

3) "Immediate" – For testing the object and any immediate children present at one level down)

4) "All" – For testing the object including all of its children down the entire hierarchy.

Step – 8: Providing a logical name to the Verification Point:

Under "Verification Point Name", accept the suggested default, or type a new name in the box. The new name if any must be in accordance with standard Java naming conventions.

Step – 9: Selection of properties type: Choose whether to use standard property or Nonstandard properties types.

Standard properties are available across platforms and browsers; whereas nonstandard properties can include platform-specific properties.

Step – 10: Setting of retry time for the verification point during the playback:

The retry option is helpful when playback does not find the verification point in the application & retry option checks the existence of the verification point.

a) We use the "Include Retry Parameters" for setting the retry time for the verification point during playback. We can either use the default values, or set our own values for the "Maximum Retry Time" & "Retry Interval".

Here by default RFT will check for the existence of the verification point in the application every 2 seconds, for up to 20 seconds.

b) The value set under "Maximum Retry Time" indicates the maximum number of seconds RFT will retry for the verification point to appear in the application during playback.

c) The value set under "Retry Interval" indicates the number of seconds between times that RFT will check for the verification point during the wait period.

d) Click "Finish", to write the retry for verification point into the script, which will take place on future playbacks.

Step – 11: Editing the properties data: (Optional step)

We need not test each & every property of the test object every time. Hence it is better to just test the specific set of properties we want while using a Properties verification point.

a) The test object's properties and their values are available for editing in a tree table format on the "Verification Point Data" page.

b) Only those properties can be edited which happened to be tested. We can edit the properties in the "Property" column, and can edit the property values in the "Value" column.

c) Making a selection of object properties by check marking them for the test:

# By default, all properties appear with no checkmark meaning thereby they will not be tested.

# We need to apply the check mark against the selected properties desired to be tested.

# Check marked properties will be tested each time we play back a script with this verification point.

# We can select all properties in the list by clicking the "Check All" toolbar button above the grid.

# We can use the "Uncheck All" button to clear the selection of all the properties.

# To edit a value, double-click the tree table cell. That particular cell becomes editable. We can click outside the cell, which causes the edit to take effect.

# In the case of the color property, we can edit the color value from the Color Chooser available to us.

Step – 12: Using a Datapool reference in place of a literal value for a property verification point:

a) In the "Property" column, select a property, right-click, and then click "Convert Value to Datapool Reference". This will open The Datapool Reference Converter dialog box.

b) Type a new name for the Datapool variable or click the "Datapool Variable" arrow to select the variable that we want the verification point to reference in the Datapool

c) Optionally, place a check mark on the "Add value to new record in Datapool" check box to add the value of the verification point to a new record row in the Datapool.

d) Click "OK".

Step – 13: Click "Finish" to complete the process of recording & adding the verification point to the script. Stop the recording by clicking the "Stop Recording" button on the "Monitor" toolbar.

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