This file contains important information that may not appear in SilkTest Online Help. Read this file in its entirety.
For information about installation, deployment, and licensing issues (including the evaluation version of SilkTest), see the SilkTest Installation Guide.
For an overview of the new features, see the What's New section below.
| Contents | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| What's New | Resolved Defects | Installation Instructions | |
| System Requirements | Known Issues | Getting Help | |
This section lists significant enhancements and changes that were made for SilkTest 2008.
Warning: If you upgrade your licenses to use SilkTest 2008, the new license file(s) will not contain license keys for using any SilkTest International release. The license file(s) will not contain license keys to use the .NET, AOL and BlueExpress add-ons in conjunction with any version of SilkTest which precedes SilkTest 2008, and which supports these add-ons. Please consider this before you upgrade your licenses.
SilkTest 2008 provides a new, next generation Open Agent that enables communication with Adobe Flex and Windows API-based client/server applications. The Open Agent provides the same record and replay capabilities as the Classic Agent. You can set record and replay options for the Open Agent using the Open Agent tab in the Agent Options dialog. To review the differences between the SilkTest Classic Agent and the SilkTest Open Agent classes, functions, and parameters, see the SilkTest online help.
Regardless of the Agent that you use, the same SilkTest features are available with the exception of TrueLog support. The Silk TrueLog Explorer works with the SilkTest Classic Agent only. Use the Difference Viewer to analyze results for testcases that use the SilkTest Open Agent.
SilkTest automatically assigns a default Agent to your project or scripts. When you create a new project, the type of project that you select determines the default Agent. For instance, if you specify that you want to create an Adobe Flex project or a Windows API-based client/server project, the Open Agent is automatically set as the default Agent. When you open a project that was created with an earlier version of SilkTest, the Classic Agent is automatically set as the default Agent. However, you can change the Agent type as needed.
When you test remote Flex applications, the Open Agent handles security initialization settings and must be running before the browser is started in order to create the test environment. To ensure the Agent starts before the application, SilkTest automatically starts the default Agent when you open a project or create a new project. Regardless of whether your project uses the Classic or Open Agent, the default Agent starts when you open a project or create a new project.
SilkTest 2008 provides built-in support for testing Adobe Flex applications using Internet Explorer, Firefox, the Standalone Flash Player, and Adobe AIR.
Note: SilkTest supports testing with Adobe AIR for applications that contain Flex 3.0 controls (.swf files) only. Currently, Adobe offers experimental support for Flex applications in AIR. As a result, you may encounter issues when testing Flex in Adobe AIR that are not related to SilkTest.
Use the online help to determine how to use Flex with SilkTest. In the online help, click the Contents tab and then expand Testing in Your Environment/Testing Adobe Flex Applications to view an overview of Flex functionality within SilkTest. The Enabling Your Flex Application for Testing book details the steps that developers should follow to setup Flex applications. The Testing the Control Explorer Sample Application book provides a tutorial for how to test the Control Explorer sample application using SilkTest.
SilkTest contains a sample Adobe Flex test application called the Control Explorer. The sample application is installed by default and is located at Start/Programs/Borland/SilkTest 2008/Sample Applications/Adobe Flex/Flex <version>/Flex Control Explorer/Control Explorer with Automation. Currently, a sample application exists for both Flex 2.0 and 3.0.
Additional Flex sample applications are also available for testing a Flex Dashboard, Flex Store, and Adobe AIR. Choose Start/Programs/Borland/SilkTest 2008/Sample Applications/Adobe Flex/Flex Sample Applications and choose the sample application you want to use.
To slow down a testcase during playback so that it can be observed, check the Animated Run Mode (Slow-Motion) check box in the Runtime Options or the Run Testcase dialog. Typically, you will only use this check box if you want to watch a testcase run. For instance, if you want to demonstrate a testcase to someone else, you might want to check this check box. You can set this check box in the Run Testcase dialog, which enables you to enable or disable animated run mode each time you run a testcase. When you enable or disable animated run mode in the Run Testcase dialog, SilkTest makes the same change in the Runtime Options dialog. Likewise, when you enable or disable animated run mode in the Runtime Options dialog, SilkTest makes the same change in the Run Testcase dialog.
The Silk TrueLog Explorer captures TrueLog data and activates logging settings. You can enable TrueLog using the Run Testcase dialog or the TrueLog Options dialog. Using the Run Testcase dialog enables you to enable or disable TrueLog each time you run a testcase. When you enable or disable TrueLog in the Run Testcase dialog, SilkTest makes the same change in the TrueLog Options dialog. Likewise, when you enable of disable TrueLog in the TrueLog Options dialog, SilkTest makes the same change in the Run Testcase dialog. The Silk TrueLog Explorer works with the SilkTest Classic Agent only. Use the Difference Viewer to analyze results for testcases that use the SilkTest Open Agent.
The Compatibility tab of the Agent Options dialog now contains a Use ANSI Calls check box. This check box provides the same functionality as the ansicall keyword that is available in the dll declaration with the convenience of using the Agent Options dialog.
The DOM Extension dialog now includes a List Item check box. If this check box is checked, the DOM extension shows the text contained within HtmlList controls in your browser. When set in the domex.ini file or DOM Extensions dialog, this setting is global. However, if you want to set this option for only certain points in your script, use BrowserPage.SetUserOption() as described in SetUserOption().
SilkTest supports testing Java applications that use the IBM JRE 1.5. By default, SilkTest uses the Sun JRE. You must manually configure the IBM JRE to work with SilkTest. For details, see the SilkTest online help.
SilkTest includes two new 4Test keywords:
Standard 4Test methods, such as AnyWin::GetCaption(), can be marked with one of the preceding keywords. A method that is marked with the supported_ca or supported_oa keyword can only be executed successfully on the corresponding Agent. Methods that do not have a keyword applied will run on both Agents.
To find out which methods are supported on each Agent, see Overview of the Methods Supported by the SilkTest Agents in the online help. Or, open the .inc file (such as winclass.inc) and verify whether the supported_ca or supported_oa keyword is applied to it.
SilkTest includes AnyWin::GetAgentType() that returns the SilkTest Agent type, Classic or Open, for the specified window declaration. The GetMachineAgentType() function returns the SilkTest Agent type for the specified machine handle.
SilkTest uses the following Open Source Libraries:
The license text for each library is located in the SilkTest Installation directory in the Extras folder.
Several icons and dialog boxes have been revised to create a more up-to-date look and feel within the product.
TopYour computer must meet the hardware requirements listed below:
| System Area | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Platform | Windows 2000 version 5.0, Service Pack 4; Windows XP version 5.1, Service Packs 1, 1a, and 2; Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1; Windows Vista; Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS version 2.1 and 3.0; or Solaris version 9 and 10 |
| Processor | Intel Pentium processor running at 1 GHz |
| RAM | 1 GB RAM on a Windows machine. Add to this the amount of RAM required to run your application under test. |
| Hard disk space | 500 MB |
This section includes information about the supported environments and technologies for SilkTest 2008:
SilkTest 2008 runs on the following platforms:
SilkTest 2008 supports applications that use the following browsers:
SilkTest 2008 supports applications developed in:
Note: .NET Framework 3.0 uses the Common Language Runtime of .NET Framework 2.0, so WinForms and WebForms developed with .NET 3.0 are supported. However, the new components in .NET 3.0, including the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), are not supported.
Note: SilkTest provides support for testing applications built with PowerBuilder, but does not support new controls developed in PowerBuilder 6.5 and later.
Note: Motif 2.1 should be binary compatible with Motif 2.2 and 2.3 on the Linux and Solaris platforms, but it has not been tested. For Solaris 9 and 10 and Linux 2.1, SilkTest was built with Motif 2.1. For Linux 3.0, SilkTest was built with Motif 2.2.
Additionally, the SilkTest Extension Kits provide specialized support of custom objects. See the SilkTest 2008 Extension Kit for Windows and the SilkTest 2008 Extension Kit for .NET PDFs, located in the Documentation folder of your SilkTest installation, for more information.
Note: BlueExpress is no longer supported.
Supported environments, by platform, are listed below. For supported environments, technical support is available and defects can be logged. Note that it is not possible to test all combinations. Experience indicates that various combinations can result in different behavior with SilkTest. Borland makes every attempt to test as many of these combinations as possible.
Windows 2000 (v 5.0, SP4)
Note: .NET Framework 3.0 uses the Common Language Runtime of .NET Framework 2.0, so WinForms and WebForms developed with .NET 3.0 are supported. However, the new components in .NET 3.0, including the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), are not supported.
SilkTest supports testing Flex 2.0.1 and 3.0 applications using the following browsers:
Note: Currently, Adobe offers experimental support for Flex applications in AIR. As a result, you may encounter issues when testing Flex in Adobe AIR that are not related to SilkTest.
SilkTest supports the following Java components:
SilkTest supports Infragistics NetAdvantage WinForms UltraWinGrid and UltraWinToolbar controls within the following versions of the NetAdvantage Suite:
SilkTest can be configured post-installation to support NetAdvantage version variations in the last two version fields, for example, x.x.20061.28, as described in the SilkTest Online Help.
The CLR 2.0 library differs from the CLR 1.1 library. As a result, .dll files cannot be shared between CLR 2.0 and 1.1.
SilkTest's Data Driven Workflow supports:
SilkTest accesses the preceding databases using ODBC and therefore supports the versions of those databases that have a working ODBC driver.
Note: The SilkTest Select Data Source dialog box allows you to choose either the Silk DDA Excel or the Segue DDA Excel data source. For new data driven testcases, choose the Silk DDA Excel data source. Choose the Segue DDA Excel data source for backward compatibility. This allows existing .g.t files that reference Segue DDA Excel to continue to work.
SilkTest's interface with the PVCS proprietary API supports:
| Database version (archive directory) | Supports PVCS version |
| 6.5 | 6.5, 6.7, 7.5 |
| 6.7 | 6.7, 7.5 |
| 7.5 | 7.5 |
We assume that you are familiar with PVCS and are familiar with how PVCS works. If you are not, consult your PVCS documentation and PVCS release notes for more information.
TopThe following items have been resolved in SilkTest 2008.
| Defect # | Description | Fix Applied | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30555 | SYS_ListWrite requires the third parameter. This was not true for earlier versions of SilkTest. | 2008 | |
| 31436 | GetBitmapCRC({1,1,1,1}) does not work in SilkTest 7.5 but it does work in SilkTest 6.5. | 2008 | |
| 32019 | When recording a Java application with a treeview filing system, SilkTest closes every time an object is recorded. | 2008 | |
| 32049 | Migrate SilkTest Help to a format recommended by Microsoft for Windows Vista. | 2008 | |
| 32241 | ListView.Select() accepts different parameters in SilkTest 7.5 and SilkTest 2006. | 2008 | |
| 32520 | Using SYS_GetRegistryKeyNames returns an unusable output. | 2008 | |
| 32726 | Improve SilkTest's performance when playing back web applications that contain forms. | 2008 | |
| 32773 | In PowerBuilder 10.5 applications, after SilkTest starts, the icons in the menu bar cannot be seen when the Powerbuilder application re-starts. | 2008 | |
| 32963 | For Java AWT applications, PopupSelect() does not select the specified item and blocks the replay of the script. | 2008 | |
| 33350 | Include a compiler option within SilkTest to allow users to switch easily between ANSI and Unicode string modes. | 2008 | |
| 33955 | Update German tags for Internet Explorer 7 in explorer.inc and browser.inc. | 2008 | |
| 33957 | SilkTest Runtime is crashing intermittently. | 2008 | |
| 34007 | HtmlList FindItem is not functioning as expected. | 2008 | |
| 34067 | The GetRowChildren function results differ form one version to the next. | 2008 | |
| 34303 | Customer experiences delays when calling a Java program with Sys_Execute. | 2008 | |
| 34382 | Simplified Chinese include files are not translated completely for Internet Explorer 6. | 2008 | |
| 34434 | "Internal error - Read past end of buffer" when running the function GetRowChildren() against a HtmlColumn control. | 2008 | |
| 34625 | The SilkTest Agent is not releasing memory after the application closes. | 2008 | |
| 34815 | Improper error prompt to use menuid instead of menutext. | 2008 | |
| 35035 | Random partner.exe crashes when executing a series of tests in automation initially called from a batch file system. | 2008 | |
| 35044 | The application does not recognize the ID Attribute tag. | 2008 | |
| 35100 | SilkTest crashes when a browser child’s tag is over 400 characters. | 2008 | |
| 35159 | When recording window declarations, using the "Windows Identifier" does not recognize objects that only have the Attributes tag. | 2008 | |
| 35219 | GetItemText() and GetItemRect() do not work when using the optional parameter for column number. | 2008 | |
| 35306 | The Exists( ) function will not wait for the specified amount of seconds if a windows tag contains ~ActiveApp. Also, if the parent application exists but the window defined with ~ActiveApp does not, the Exists function will return TRUE. | 2008 | |
| 35582 | The isMultiSel() method always returns true regardless of whether the JavaJFCTable actually allows multi-selectable elements. | 2008 | |
| 35604 | When a command-line partner.exe statement contains 63 or more parameters, SilkTest crashes. | 2008 | |
| 35685 | The SilkTest script fails when calling the listview.Select method. | 2008 | |
| 35696 | When trying to set a messageBox that is not present on desktop as active, SilkTest replay hangs indefinitely on the setActive() and setFocus() method calls. | 2008 | |
| 35773 | Unable to click the Start button on the Windows Taskbar for Vista machines. | 2008 | |
| 35971 | Control object recognition changes from OLEMhTree to ListBox during testing. | 2008 | |
| 36037 | Using a string with the TABLECOL data type returns an error. | 2008 | |
| 36193 | With Internet Explorer 7, the Back button does not work when using the French explorer.inc file. | 2008 | |
| 36246 | When trying to record actions or windows declarations against a Java application, the application closes. | 2008 | |
| 36455 | Listview.GetColumnName() does not return expected values. | 2008 | |
| 36606 | The shortcut key to uncomment code (ALt+N) does not work. | 2008 | |
| 36776 | SYS_Execute hangs if strings that are returned from command-line calls contain text with more than 8191 characters. | 2008 | |
| 37109 | Internet Explorer 7 crashes with an error that a problem occurred on QAPHlprObj Class. | 2008 | |
| 37170 | When launching the Java main window using the system-tray menu for a JFC application, SilkTest recognizes the JavaMainWin only and does not recognize any of the children of the window. | 2008 | |
| 38389 | Internet Explorer crashes when running the DefaultBaseState with an error that the Add-on QAPHLPR.dll was the cause. | 2008 | |
| 38452 | When recording with Internet Explorer or Firefox, SilkTest crashes with the error, "Partner executable has encountered a problem and needs to close" or "Record Status: partner.exe - Application Error: The instruction at "0x77c43869" referenced memory at "0x0000db1f". The memory could not be "read". | 2008 |
The following are known issues in SilkTest 2008.
szDir value in the Install.iss file to reflect the location where you want to install SilkTest to, for example szDir=C:\Program Files (x86)\Borland\SilkTest. For detailed information on using the silent installer, see the SilkTest Installation Guide. [38734]coveragepath={"C:\Program Files\Borland\SilkTest\JavaEx\TestApp.jar"} in the command line results in a compile error. [38190]VerifyProperties() fails for a dialog, e.g. "File open" or "Save as", regardless of which property was selected for verification, call SetActive() for the dialog window before. The problem is that otherwise the Exists property is always false, which causes VerifyProperties() to fail.
[34128]SetText() is appending characters instead of substituting characters. Workaround: Use ClearText() before calling SetText(). This prevents the extra characters from being appended.
[31961]QAPHlprObjClass from the Enabled list and click the Disabled option button in the Settings group box. Click OK to save the change.
[28551]browserChild in Internet Explorer 7 does not have the parent Browser as default. This is due to the implementation of IE7. If the existing browserChild windecl does not have the parent statement, you may see a runtime error similar to "browserChild xxx not found".
Workaround: Add parent Browser to the windecl.ShowHtmlForm=TRUE and ShowBorderlessTables is a value less than 1.0, SilkTest cannot recognize controls within a table even if ShowBorderlessTablesFlags is set to "input" or to "img|input".
Workaround: Do not set ShowHtmlForm=TRUE.
[27979]sleep(1) function between the OLAPDataGrid control and the commands that continue the recording in the Flex application. [38538]mx:FormItem label=" "
mx:Button id="myButton" label="Validate" click="{updateLabel ()}"/
/mx:FormItem
You can monitor this issue at: https://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/FLEXENT-747
typekey statement in the Flex Automation API does not support all keys. You can use the input text statement to resolve this issue.For more information about the Flex Automation API known issues, see the Adobe Flex Release Notes.
SilkTest does not support the following Adobe AIR functionality:
SetActive method call just prior to the action in question in the testcase.
[28138]raise statement that specifies a command line, then the corresponding error entry in a TrueLog file will include the command line in the Description field for the error. For example:raise 10, "Exception 10", "Notepad.exe"Exception 10Notepad.exeFor information about installation, deployment, and licensing issues (including the evaluation version of SilkTest), see the SilkTest Installation Guide.
For information about using SilkTest, see the SilkTest Online Help, available from Help > Help Topics. You can also walk through the SilkTest tutorials, available from Start > Programs > Borland > SilkTest 2008 > Documentation.
Borland offers a variety of support options. To find out about support options, refer to Borland Answers at http://support.borland.com. From the web site, you can:
Find out how to contact Technical Support
Browse the Borland Knowledge Base
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