QTP Descriptive programming Basics

Descriptive programming is creating of description of objects so that they can be identified once executed from QTP. It is approach for object identification together with object repository.

Why Descriptive Programming:

 Descriptive programming is useful due to following reasons:

• It reduces the effort of maintaining and associating object repository with the test.
• Maintenance is simpler.
• In scenarios, when application is not developed but we know the properties of objects that will be added in the application. In such scenarios , we cannot maintain object repository since application is not ready and Objects cannot be learned from the  application. So Using Descriptive programming, we can prepare the scripts which can be executed once application is up and running.
• It is useful when performing similar actions on multiple objects with similar properties
• It is useful when object can be uniquely identified using fewer set of properties existing across multiple set of objects.

 

     OR Vs Descriptive programming

      When QTP learns an object during recording session or through object spy, object is identified and saved in object repository. QTP saves properties like innertext, name for the object in the object repository to uniquely identify an object. Similar to this, Descriptive programming creates a unique description of the object which is identified.

      With using Object Repository, we can use features like relative identifier, and other QTP specific features. Also time to create script based on descriptive programming is more compared to object repository. So for projects and for limited use of automation pack and applications with mostly static pages, Object repository can be better approach.

    Types of Descriptive programming

       Descriptive Programming can be implemented in following ways.

•           Creating description string
•           Using Description object.

Let us discuss the ways in some details:

•       Creating description string:

             Browser("title:=Google").Page("title:=Google").WebEdit("name:=q").Set “DP”

 Above we created a description string similar to tree structure we see in expert view.

Below are few points to remember in creating description strings.

1. The parent object in the string can be used from Object repository, in case child object is defined in string.

2. Child objects cannot be used from OR  if string description is described for parent in the tree.

  Browser("Google").Page("Google").WebEdit("name:=q").Set “DP” is possible but

  Browser("title:=Google").Page("title:=Google").WebEdit("q").Set “DP” will not identify the object

  In case multiple objects are to defined , they needs to be separated by , .

  Browser("title:=Google").Page("title:=Google").WebEdit("name:=q”,html tag = In").Set “DP”

     To identify the properties of the object to be used in descriptive programming, Go to Object Spy and click on object.

•       Go to Identification button and properties tab
•       Select properties and property values and create string such that the identification is unique.
  

     In case of multiple objects with same properties, we can use index property to identify object based on indexing.

•      Using Description.Create:  

Description object creates a collection of object based on object matching the defined properties.

Steps in description Object

         1. Define description object:

          set odesc = description.create
          we have defined an description object odesc.

         2. Add property to the object defined in step above.

               odesc(“name”).value =”q”

               odesc(“html tag”).value =”Input”

               we have defined the object with properties.

      3. Replace string with description object.

            Browser("title:=Google").Page("title:=Google").WebEdit(odesc).Set “DP”

            we have replaced string with description object.

     This description object can also be used to find child objects in the tree structure. For e.g : we can find all the links in the pages, check box, perform action on all the objects in the collection.

Below code explains the same:

odesc = Description.create

odesc(‘”html tag”).value =”Input”

odesc(“type”).value = “checkbox”

Set ochkbox = Browser("title:=Google").Page("title:=Google").childobjects(odesc)

For each obj in ochkbox

obj.set “ON”

Next

We can use ochkbox.count to get objects matching the description