There are two features available to support interactive testing with record and playback. They are referred to as ‘Native’ Record and Playback (‘Native’ R&P), and TestDrive. This section refers to ‘Native’ R&P.

‘Native’ R&P enables an interactive process to be captured and replayed later. Hence, a standard test can be created to include input that a person would normally be required to key, and which at the same time will check the screens and data that is displayed against the expected values.

With ‘Native’ R&P, ‘scripts’ can be quickly developed which define standard tests for an application, and which can then be replayed quickly, with minimal effort to check the programs perform in the same way as before. This is particularly useful for regression testing as tests can be quickly run over parts of the system which would not be expected to have changed, and hence exactly the same result would be expected. The advantage is that this can be confirmed quickly, or if an unexpected error has impacted an area of the system which it was not expected to, the regression scripts will find it.

Each ‘Script’ consists of a series of expected screens and initial values, plus the data that should then be used to populate this screen together with the function or action key used to get to the next screen in the sequence. This also means that these scripts are easily understood and easily maintained.

Separate scripts can be created for unit, system, QA or user acceptance testing as required. Also, scripts can be made modular, for example to perform error validation checks, functional processing, progression logic, or however it is convenient to sub-divide the tests. The Action Maps feature enables component scripts to be joined together to run consecutively.

The Play_IT command interface means that you can integrate the running of ‘Native’ R&P scripts with other tasks, such as promotion of programs in a change management system.

‘Native’ R&P includes:-

• Recording of new scripts
• Playback of scripts
• Automatic error checking
• Maintenance of Scripts
• Script amendment
• Script exclusions
• Variable Data
• Script Pause Mode

Methodology
When a Script is recorded or replayed with ‘Native’ R&P, another session is automatically created by TestBench. This session is then used until option 9 is taken when recording (see later section) or until automatically ended after playback. The User ID and Password with which the user is currently signed on will be used by default. However, it is possible to use a TestBench User Profile for the new session in situations where the current profile will not give the desired results. Details of this User Profile are not published here for security reasons – please contact Original Software for more information.

Recording is controlled by the menu options displayed when the Home key is pressed. On playback, a moving picture of the interactive sequence is displayed on screen, so some effects may not be replicated exactly.