This document
describes new features, changes and bug fixes delivered by T-Plan Robot
Enterprise
2.3.x releases.
Contents:
Latest public
release available: T-Plan Robot Enterprise 2.3.4 released on 16
January 2012
The IMS references in the text refer to our T-Plan Incident Management
System (IMS).
Version
2.3.4 Updates
New features:
- IMS CR-886: Provide support of console
log storing and displaying
The application is
newly capable of
capturing all messages printed out into the console (command prompt)
and saving them to a log file in the local OS temporary folder. The log
files can be viewed through the Log
Viewer window ( Help->Log
Viewer).
- IMS CR-887: Java syntax highlighting
The script editor
highlights syntax of the Java code the same way as the TPR ones:
- IMS CR-888: Tracking of preference value changes
As
the system of User Preferences is shared across all automated testing
threads running on a single machine, this mechanism has been introduced
to allow tracking of selected preference value changes into the
application log. The feature is avaliable through the root node labeled
Preferences
of the Preferences window.
- IMS PRB-3480: Track more platform details
(arch, memory limit)
The Help->About window provides
additional information about the local environment such as the Java and
the OS bitness (32/64bit), the memory usage and the maximum heap size
limit.
Bug Fixes:
- IMS PRB-3464: XML reports fail to open in
Safari on Mac OS
- IMS PRB-3465: Exec fails on command with spaces
on Mac OS
- IMS PRB-3466: Reset RFB pseudo cursor in custom
views
- IMS PRB-3467: ConcurrentModificationException
thrown on longer script execution
- IMS PRB-3468: Show the executed line in the
center of the editor
- IMS PRB-3469: Image selection rendering issue
- IMS PRB-3470: Method warning(String, File)
throws a ClassCastException
- IMS PRB-3471: Exec writes an extra new line to
the output file
- IMS PRB-3472: Java files on internal compiler
fail to save
- IMS PRB-3473: Force compatibility of javac with
local Java
- IMS PRB-3474: Improve indication of class name
& package mismatch
- IMS PRB-3475: Improve parsing of param=value
pairs in CLI
- IMS PRB-3476: Default report provider does not
shut down cleanly
- IMS PRB-3477: Verify the pass rate bounds
- IMS PRB-3478: Intermittent
FileNotFoundException thrown by report on Windows
- IMS PRB-3479: Intermittent WaitFor failure
- IMS PRB-3480: Track more platform details
(arch, memory limit)
- IMS PRB-3481: Add line break to warnings in
report
- IMS PRB-3482: Enterprise report performance
improvements
- IMS PRB-3483: Reports from Java scripts should
fail on thrown exception
- IMS PRB-3484: Report screen shots produced by
Java link to .class
- IMS PRB-3485: Capture screen needs a mouse move
to display
- IMS PRB-3486: Java code blocks fail to compile
on external JDK
- IMS PRB-3487: Default report with scope=file
doesn't filter images correctly
- IMS PRB-3488: Low quality of JPEG screen shots
Version
2.3.3 Updates
New features:
- IMS CR-883: Ability to call external Java
compiler (javac)
One
of the most important improvements of the 2.3.3 release is the ability
to call an external Java compiler to compile and execute the Java
source code (typically a Java Test Script or
a Java Code Block
embedded in a TPR script). While the previous versions required Robot
to run using the "java" binary from a Java Development Kit (JDK),
version 2.3.3 simply asks for the path to a JDK installation if the
internal compiler is not found and calls the Java compiler ("javac") at
the OS process level. This feature significantly improves set up of
T-Plan Robot Enterprise for development of scripts using Java.
- IMS CR-884: New script type and template
Creation
of
a
new script has been enhanced as follows:
- The GUI asks for the script type (TPR or Java).
- The new script is then created from a script template. While a TPR script
is populated with the most used report, output and template directory
settings, a new Java test script builds a fully functional skeleton of
the default Java test script class which is ready for adding of
automated testing calls.
- IMS CR-859: The ability to Comment Out
the highlighted/selected code
To comment out or
uncomment a block of code press Ctrl+/
in the script editor or select "Comment Out" or
"Uncomment"
in the Edit
menu of the main application window. The short key may be eventually
changed in the editor preferences.
- IMS CR-876: Optional sorting of image files
loaded from directories
Versions
prior
to
2.3.3
loaded images from image collections in the natural
order as they were listed by the underlying OS. Version 2.3.3
introduces optional sorting of the images by the name or date. This
allows to define the search order and optimize the performance by
loading of the most probable component images first. For details on the
image collection sort order see the Image Collections
documentation.
- IMS CR-877: Make
Eval return an exit code on failure
The Eval command
originally provided no handling of runtime errors caused by syntax
errors in the argument numeric expression. This made it difficult to
test whether the variable calculated by Eval was populated correctly.
Version 2.3.3 delivers modifies the command to return the exit code
other than zero in such situations which allows to test the Eval
operation success in the usual way illustrated by the following example:
// Increase
the
existing
variable
of SUM by 10
Eval SUM={SUM}+10
// The Eval returns a value other than
zero when the
// SUM doesn't exist and evaluation of the expression fails.
if
({_EXIT_CODE} != 0) {
Exit 1
}
- IMS CR-879: Add a break point hot key
Break
points
may
be newly toggled in the script editor through Ctrl+B or from the context (right
click) menu. The short key may be eventually changed in the editor
preferences.
- IMS CR-880: Make
numeric expressions tolerant to variable calls
Though numeric
expressions are widely accepted in many constructions of the scripting
language, the compiler reported an error where a it contained a
variable which was not available at the time of compilation, for
example the _SEARCH_X and _SEARCH_Y coordinates of an component located
through the image search. A typical workaround to satisfy the compiler
was to declare these variables with dummy numeric values prior to their
usage. Version 2.3.3 delivers an improved compiler which is able to
handle these expressions without reporting of an error.
- IMS CR-881: Enable view of long values in the
Variables table
The
Variables
table has been enhanced as follows:
- The table newly consists of two tabs called "Compilation Vars"
and "Execution
Vars" allowing to view variables created by the most recent
script compilation or execution.
- A double click
onto a variable displays a simple window with its value. This allows to
read long and/or multiline values.
- A right click
onto a variable opens a simple context menu with the supported actions.
- IMS CR-882: String command to support white
space trimming
The
String
command was enhanced with a new "trim" operation
which removes all leading and trailing white characters (spaces,
tabulators, ...) from the argument string. See the String trim
specification for details.
Bug Fixes:
- IMS PRB-3444: Tesseract OCR leaves files in the
temp folder
- IMS PRB-3445: Exit command with the scope of
procedure fails
- IMS PRB-3446: For statement executes always at
least one loop
- IMS PRB-3447: ConcurrencyModificationException
shown intermittently in console
- IMS PRB-3448: TPP Script associations not
working properly in subscripts
- IMS PRB-3449: Result Manager tree structure
issues
- IMS PRB-3450: Object Search fails if cmparea is
specified
- IMS PRB-3451: Object Search fails with 1 pixel
cmparea
- IMS PRB-3452: Image editor too large
- IMS PRB-3453: Take a Screenshot window shows
black screen
- IMS PRB-3455: Make upgrade more robust against
connection failures
- IMS PRB-3456: Nested image collections not
displayed correctly in the GUI
- IMS PRB-3457: Inaccurate report data for
stopped scripts
- IMS PRB-3458: Break point fails to remove
- IMS PRB-3459: Improve the Java test script
execution failure message
- IMS PRB-3460: Incorrect handling of escaped
double quotes
- IMS PRB-3461: For statement variable shown with
a floating point
- IMS PRB-3462: Large
dialogs don't scroll and fit the screen
Version
2.3.2 Updates
New features:
- IMS CR-874: Force
the result XML to open in web browser
The 2.3 release
relied on the undlerlying operating system to view the automation
result
XML file. This required the user to associate the XML format with
a web browser in the system. This behavior was changed to open the XML
always in the web browser and rely on the system settings only when
this option is activated through the Web Browser Preferences.
- IMS CR-875: Enable painting of Object Search
results into screen shots
The
Screenshot command and the corresponding screenshot() Java methods were
enhanced in v2.1 to allow drawing of matching areas located through the
Image Search algorithm into the screen shot image. This functionality
was newly enhanced also for results of the Object Search algorithm.
Bug Fixes:
- IMS PRB-3439: Start up failure on a clean
environment
- IMS PRB-3440: Component Capture dialog fails to
open for empty template path
- IMS PRB-3441: The GUI creates duplicated script
interpret for included files
- IMS PRB-3442: RFB v3.8 client connection
intermittently fails on security
- IMS PRB-3443: Wrong desktop colors in low color
session
Version
2.3.1 Updates
New features:
- IMS CR-855:
Tesseract OCR to support fuzzy string matching
The Tesseract OCR
interface newly allows to compare the recognized text to the expected
one with a similarity based on the Levenshtein distance. For details
see the TOCR section of the language
specification.
- IMS CR-857: Enable help topics to display in
web browser when JavaHelp fails
Loading
of
help
topics
has
been
made
robust. When the JavaHelp library is
missing completely, the tool automatically loads help topics in the
local web browser. If the local help set is not found, the tool falls
back to the online documentation.
- IMS CR-858: Enable
export of results with missing or invalid TPP script number
Test results recorded
with no reference to an existing T-Plan Professional script entity can
be newly imported to the T-Plan database after the user picks up the
target script from the GUI component.
- IMS CR-863: Enable
Update & Upgrade through a proxy
The online Update & Upgrade
service has been improved to support communication over a proxy server
(HTTP
or SOCKS). For manual settings see the Update & Upgrade
panel of the Preferences
window.
- IMS CR-864:
Provide a connection recovery mechanism
The tool newly
features automatic recovery of crashed connection to the VNC server.
This can be activated through an option in the Execution panel
of the Preferences
window. The recovery operation may be eventually customized at the
level of Java API. For details see the DisconnectListener
interface documentation.
- IMS CR-865: Allow to extract comments from
script and save them to file
Version 2.3.1
introduces a new mechanism and a GUI component allowing to generate
test cases from comments present in the
main script body and export them to a file and/or display them in the
test result XML. See the Comment
Exporter
help topic for details.
- IMS CR-866: Provide
access to script context from automated process
- IMS CR-867: License
usage tracking mechanism
- IMS CR-871: Provide
a mechanism to track client state
Updates of the Java
API allowing for better customization, logging and debugging of test
scripts and custom automation networks.
- IMS CR-870: Provide
an option to remove steps from report body
Ability to set off
displaying of steps in the XML reports. This allows to produce visual
reports consisting only of the script entity and a table with steps and
their results. The option is available in the Enterprise Report
Provider panel of the Preferences
window.
- IMS CR-873: Display
line number in the script editor gutter
Bug Fixes:
- IMS PRB-3418: Client pooling broken in 2.3
- IMS PRB-3419: Compilation of a test script
calling inexistent JAR file crashes the tool
- IMS PRB-3421: Image area selection performance
issues
- IMS PRB-3422: OCR on non-UTF8 systems produces
corrupted text
- IMS PRB-3423: The DOTALL preference in
Tesseract OCR preferences fails to save
- IMS PRB-3424: Circular Run/Include reference
causes a deadlock
- IMS PRB-3425: Packaging issue - fix help file
permissions
- IMS PRB-3426: Export to T-Plan window skips the
Result Source panel
- IMS PRB-3427: Enable export of automation
results with no Step records to TPP
- IMS PRB-3430: Operator "exists" doesn't work
for local variables
- IMS PRB-3431: Record a failure when a test
script fails for missing connection
- IMS PRB-3432: Mouse command fails on preference
loading
- IMS PRB-3433: Capture dialog fails to open on
certain environments
- IMS PRB-3434: Slow performance on script
reopening
- IMS PRB-3435: Undo/Redo editor actions not
working correctly
- IMS PRB-3436: VNC client key & pointer
calls may crash for buffer overrun
- IMS PRB-3437: Robot allows to pool the same
client multiple times
Version
2.3 Overview
New features:
- Ability to call regular test scripts and procedures from
Java code. Together with enhancements delivered in v2.2 the Java API now allows to
create test suites which may consist of any mix of regular test scripts
and Java code:
- Support of load & performance testing. The
Waitfor match/mismatch command was updated to be driven by screen updates rather than
at regular intervals. This makes the command faster (no idle time,
resumes right after the component displays on the screen) and also more
accurate in terms of measuring of elapsed time. This combined with the
new Timer command
and timer()
Java API method allows to measure time of automated tasks, compare it
to XML reference data created by a previous execution and generate a
report showing performance differences.
- RFB (VNC) client enhancements:
- Support of RFB 3.7 and 3.8 protocol versions.
- Support of Cursor pseudo-encoding defined in
chapter 6.7.1 of the RFB
3.8
Protocol. As mouse pointer is no longer rendered in the desktop
image, it leads to higher reliability of test scripts employing image
comparison.
- Debug mode allows to print out log
messages of configurable granularity to the console window in order to
inspect the connection process and debug eventual client-server
communication failures. See the client preferences for more.
- Static image client enhancements:
- Support of relative image file URLs which are
resolved against Robot's install path.
- Support of loading
of images packaged inside a JAR file.
- Support of fallback procedures
which allow to define a common action triggered by a broken server
connection or failed image comparison.
- The Excel command has
been enhanced to support MS Excel
2007 XML format (.xlsx).
- Test scripts have
access to OS specific environment
variables through the _ENV prefixed script
variables.
- The multi threaded Java
API has been improved to suspend
a script execution and wait for a free license rather than
throwing an exception when the number of connections exceeds the
licensed seat count.
- New Result Manager window allows
to view, edit and save test results of the recently executed test scripts. The
window can be also displayed through the
-m/--resultmanager
CLI option
when multiple scripts are being executed in the CLI mode without the
GUI. See the GUI Changes below
for a screen shot.
- New Update & Upgrade window
allows online user friendly upgrade of the product. See the GUI Changes below for a screen shot.
- A number of bug fixes
and minor improvements across the whole application.
GUI Changes:
- Login Dialog
has been reimplemented to display in a JFrame when the main application
GUI is not displayed. This makes the window display in the task bar on
Windows.
- New Result Manager window is
available under the Tools menu:
- New Update & Upgrade window is
available under the Tools menu:
- The Image Search Details window was
improved to support zooming and display pixel colors below the cursor:
- Color parameters (such as the one
used by the Object Search image comparison algorithm) are now
represented by a simple component which allows to pick up the color
comfortably from an image or from a generic color chooser:
|
