Conceptual topics

Technical topics

Some common errors

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How does actiWATE work?

In terms of test development procedure actiWATE looks mostly as a programmatic library that is used for developing of automated tests. actiWATE doesn’t offer any special scripting language. Automated test in actiWATE is a Java code that uses actiWATE API. Therefore this test can be executed by means of different tools. For example, almost any Java IDE, JUnit test runner, Apache Ant, etc. actiWATE does not require any Internet browser to execute automated tests, because its framework already contains the emulation of Internet browser functionality. During the test execution this emulated browser acts in the same way as a regular Internet browser on your computer.

The approach with browser emulation brings additional advantage of using action-based API provided by actiWATE. It means that instead of operating with HTTP requests, HTML forms or even particular HTML page your automated test performs a set of actions (like user does) with browsers, windows, buttons, links, text fields etc.

As it is well known - action-based test is easier to write, comprehend and therefore support through the regression testing process.

Finally, in case of the test failure actiWATE generates a report in the HTML-format that simplifies the problem allocation and its further correction. Other information regarding test execution process is stored in log files (HTTP communications, actions, asserts, etc.).

What is actiWATE TWA?

actiWATE (actimind web application testing environment) consists of a framework and additional modules that facilitate the testing process.

actiWATE TWA (test writing assistant) is a plug-in module for Internet Explorer 6.0 that automates a routine part of the test writing process by generating the appropriate code for HTML object location within HTML-page. So you do not have to view a source code of HTML-page trying to figure out how to address an object.

TWA implies the following usage scenario after its installation:

1. User opens particular page of targeted web application using Internet Explorer.
2. User activates TWA plug-in.
3. User selects HTML object such as table, button, link, text field etc. TWA suggests alternatives of code to refer to a selected object.
4. User selects necessary option and then a corresponding code can be copied to a test script through the clipboard.

It is important to mention that TWA can be used not only for a new test development, but also when you need to update existing test after objects modification. This also can save some of your time.

Can I use actiWATE to record and then playback my tests?

No, actiWATE is not a test script recorder/ player.

Can actiWATE be used for performance/load testing?

Hypothetically it is possible. But you should take into account that performance testing is not a primary target of actiWATE. And therefore actiWATE does not provide some adequate instruments for the appropriate solution for this task. It may require an additional effort from you (for example, for setting up an appropriate test environment and developing log file parser) and it depends on what kind of performance testing you would like to accomplish.

Is it possible to test a .Net web application with actiWATE?

Yes. actiWATE communicates with a web application in the same way as a real browser, - through HTTP/S. It doesn't matter which technology is used on the server-side.

What versions of Internet Explorer are supported by actiWATE TWA?

actiWATE Test Writing Assistant works under Internet Explorer 6.0.x and 7.0.x.

What web-technologies are supported by actiWATE Framework/API?

Web-Technology	Support status
JavaScript	Yes, according to ECMA-262 (ECMAScript Language Specification)
JavaScript Object Model (acc. IE 6.0)	Yes, most of the objects are supported others are covered by stubs
DOM	Yes, in the bounds of W3C specification
VBScript	No
ActiveX	No
HTML 4.0	Yes, Including Frames, Image Maps, Forms etc.
CSS	No parsing, but actiWATE checks the availability of external .CSS files and supports JavaScript object "style" properties See more details in the "Appendix A: CSS implementation description" section of the Tutorial.
HTTP/S	Yes, but actiWATE doesn’t distinguish signed and unsigned certificates yet
AJAX (XMLHTTPRequest)	Yes, see Working with asynchronous events
Cookies	Yes, actiWATE can handle cookies, but doesn’t allow yet to change cookies through API
Basic Authentication	Yes
Proxy	Yes, typical proxies with or w/o authorization

More detailed information may be found in other documentation available on this site (Tutorial and API).

What versions of Java are supported?

actiWATE works under Java 1.4 and later.

How do I handle Security Alert (from IE 6.0) that appears at my secure web site?

This pop-up alert with three buttons (OK, Cancel and View Certificate) is a feature of IE 6.0 that notifies you about non-trusted certificates. actiWATE doesn't emulate such alerts and goes directly to the page without any check of certificates. Therefore, there is no need to handle it at all.

What class and method do I need to use to handle basic authentication dialog?

Refer to the "Handling Basic Authorization" section of actiWATE Tutorial and learn "Handling Basic Authorization" sample.

Does actiWATE support different charsets?

Yes. It reads the charset name from HTTP response headers or from META tags and decodes responses according to it. See also Configuration file reference.

I got the exception while emulating a mouse click: "java.lang.IllegalStateException: The page is invalid"

This exception means that you are attempting to click on an element that doesn't belong to any page currently loaded into actiWATE. I.e. the page where the element was found is already unloaded at the time the click happens.
Example:

// find a link on the page
Link link = linkByText("next page >>");

// click the link. actiWATE will load a new page as the result.
click( link );

// click the link again. The current link variable references to a Link
// instance that belongs to the element from the previous page, so
// the second click will result in error even if the current page
// contains the "next page >>" link too.
click( link );

I got the following error in my test: "JavaScript error: undefined is not a function."

This error means that JavaScript attempts to call a function that was not found by actiWATE. There are many reasons for that but if you are sure that your test scenario works fine in real Internet Explorer 6.0 then please send us the following materials so we can fix the problem or implement the missing function:

1. HTML Page and all related JavaScripts where the error occurs.
2. Full exception stack-trace
3. Your Java test source
4. actiWATE logs produced by your Java test.

I started my test and got the following error message: "Connection timed out: connect"

It is most likely that you are running your scripts behind a proxy. If this is the case, you need to configure proxy parameters in actiwate.properties. See description of these properties in the "Configuration file" section of the Tutorial.

I emulated click on image in my test but nothing has happened

Many people make mistake by writing something like

click( imageByAlt("next page >>") );

If you want to follow a link your code should look like this:

click( imageByAlt("next page >>").outerLink() );

If this is not the case, then please send us your test code.