Learn Object Repository in UFT in An Efficient and Fast Manner

Object Repository in UFT

The post will cover the following topics Details of Object Repository in UFT, Details of Object Repository in QTP, add object repository in QTP,add object repository in uft, what is object repository in UFT explain, what is object repository in UFT explain, object repository in UFT with examples, object repository in UFT with examples, Object Repository in UFT,Object Repository in QTP. Apart from these you will also able to learn how to work export object repository to Excel and Automatic Object model to handle Object Repository.

Object Repository:

It is a storage place of UFT or QTP where we can store the objects information those are required for testing and it also acts as the interface between the test script and the AUT to identify the objects during execution.

So Object repository is a collection of objects and their properties. As it acts as an interface, with these properties QTP/UFT will be able to be to identify the objects and work on them. Similarly, if UFT/QTP cannot identify the objects, it will not be able to work on these objects.

In a simple term, an object is a graphic user element in an application and object repository is a graphical representation of the objects.

Object:

The object is something, which has structure and properties. Mostly this concept is based on OOPs hierarchy of Objects.It consists of data that describes the object [properties] and Functions that can be performed on that object[methods].

In OOPs an object is an instance of a class and in QTP or UFT, the objects are defined by the class. Like a go button in web, context is an instance of a web button.

Software objects:

We call windows, WebPages, buttons, edit boxes, check boxes, etc.. as software objects.

Types of Object in QTP:

There are four types of object available in QTP.

1. Run time objects
2. Test objects
3. Utility objects
4. Automation objects/User-defined objects.

Run time objects:

During execution, the actual objects are called Runtime objects. The runtime objects are not present in the object repository. The objects present in the AUT. Ex: Buttons, links, etc…This is another important thing to learn on object repository in UFT with examples.

Test Objects:

Test objects are the replica of the actual objects(or controls) fetched from the application under test. It can be said test objects are references of Run time objects. They are UFT/QTP’s representation of the objects. This is another important thing to learn on object repository in UFT with examples.

Ex: WinEdit, WinButton, WebButton, Link, etc.
Note:
Test objects names vary from one environment to another.
Ex:

Run time objects	Test objects in Windows Environment	Test objects in VB Environment	Test objects in web Environment
buttons	WinButton	VBButton	WebButton
Edit box	WinEdit	VBEdit	WebEdit
Checkbox	Wincheckbox	Vbcheckbox	Webcheckbox

Utility objects

They are QTP/UFT reserved objects used for testing and result reporting. This is another important thing to learn on object repository in UFT with examples.

Ex:

1. SystemUtil for launching/closing the application.
2. The reporter for defining results.
3. Services for inserting transaction points
4. Environment for using environment variables

Automation objects/User-defined objects

User can create objects; those can be used for performing specific operations. Ex: Creating objects in file system object class, adodb.connection class, dictionary object class, excel. Application class etc. This is another important thing to learn on object repository in UFT with examples.

More on User-defined Object:

If UFT/QTP refuses to recognize an object from the application(maybe standard classes does not support the object), UFT/QTP, in that case, will recognize the object as WinObject.

It is different than the common convention that you need to open UFT/QTP first then the application, otherwise, UFT/QTP will not be able to recognize the general objects and they will be identified as WinObjects.

The second reason why you may go to user-defined objects is that we want UFT/QTP to work an object just like another object. Like if we want to use combo box as button or link or any other control.

Navigation to create user-defined objects in UFT/QTP

1. Click on Tool.
2. Click on Object Identification.
3. Object Identification window activates.
4. Select Environment as a standard window.
5. Click on User-defined.
6. Let the object mapping window open.
7. Click on the class name or use hand symbol to identify the object.
8. Click on the Map to drop-down to select any other control.
9. Click on add to create one more or click on OK to close the Object Mapping

This is how you create user-defined objects in UFT/QTP.

In general, there are two types of repository available in QTP/UFT

1. Local repository (.MTR extension-Module Test Repository )
2. Shared repository(.TSR extension- Test Shared Repository)

Local Repository:

For each action based test, the UFT will create and manage the individual repository. It is good when the test is small. It is local to test action. It is automatically saved in a test whenever we record a test. It resides in the bdb folder in action subfolder.File extension is .mtr(modular test repository). As this is local to any action, it can not be used for any other action or test. By default, QTP/UFT saves its objects to the local repository. This is another important thing to learn on object repository in UFT with examples.

How to locate the Local Object Repository?

1. Open any test
2. Navigate to Resource
3. Click on Object Repository(Shortcut Ctrl+R)
   
   • QTP/UFT creates a Local Repository for every action automatically during Recording. That cannot be shared among tests.
   • User can add some more objects to Local repository
   • User can perform rename, delete operations in the local repository. As it is QTP/UFT’s internal file, the user no need to save modifications. In other words, it is auto-saved.
   • User can have multiple shared object repositories along with local object repository.
   • You can export the local object repository to the shared object repository.

   In case if your test has shared object repository and local object repository attached to it, If you add a child object to local object repository and the parent of that object stays in the shared object repository, UFT/QTP will automatically move the parent to the local object repository.

   If you add the same object from your application to two different actions, UFT will treat them differently as each action has its local repository.

   Components of Local object Repository

   If you open the Local object Repository, the first thing you notice the action drop down. As the local object repository is a private property of an action, you have to select an action to catch hold of the respective object repository.

   Once you have selected the Action, you will get the test object tree. The lowest element of the tree is often referred to as an object. In general, every node of the tree is an object. Once you click on any node, you will get the object properties in the right-hand side.

   The Object details pane will have:

   1. Name- Object Identifier- Name of the object
   2. ClassName- Object Class name coming from add-ins or UFT/QTPs class selection mechanism. This field is not editable.
   3. Repository- Local- The location of the Object Repository. This field is not editable too. It just tells where the object is in the repository.

   Now the lower pane shows the Object details:

   Description Properties:

   Each object comes with mandatory properties and assistive properties. By default UFT/QTP provides some properties here, but we can customize this as per our need.

   • NativeClass-Edit
   • Attached Text- The attached text retrieved from the application.

   Visual Identifier- You can use it to enhance the object identification. That may reduce the chance to wrong object identification. This can be used to identify the object relative to other nearby objects.

   • Visual relation Identifier- Visual Identifier or visual relation identifier settings
   • Ordinal Identifier- Ordinal Identifier if any- mostly Type and value
   • Additional details- Enable smart identification
   • Comment
     

     Advantage of local object repository:

     1. It is not an overhead.
     2. Very Fast.
     3. Object conflict will not occur.
     4. Objects can be edited from the repository only

     The drawback of local object repository:

     1. Difficult to maintain
     2. The duplicate entry of Objects to a repository is possible.

     How to add objects to the local repository?

     You can record while interacting with the application, UFT/QTP will automatically add objects to the Object Repository. You can also add objects manually to the Object Repository.

     How to Navigate:

     • Click Resource
     • Click on Object Repository
     • Click on Objects
     • Click on Add objects to Local
     • Show the object
     • Click ok
       

       You may also get three options to filter from

       1. Only selected object(adds the selected object)
       2. Selected Object and it’s all its direct children
       3. Selected Object and all its descendants

       How to add Objects repositories to an action?

       if we miss to add object during recording time but we need that we can add objects using add object feature. We can also work with object spy to identify the required object.

       How to rename the object in the local object repository?

       We can rename the object in the object repository. Navigation will be as below:

       1. Click on Resources
       2. Click on Object repository
       3. Select the object which you want to rename
       4. Right-click on that object
       5. Rename
       6. Type the correct name
       7. Select some other object

       It will automatically rename the previous object.

       How to delete objects from Object repository?

       We can delete the object in the object repository. Navigation will be as below:

       1. Click on Resources
       2. Click on Object repository
       3. Select the object which you want to delete
       4. Right-click on that object
       5. Click delete
       6. Click on confirm delete option
       7. Close repository.

       Shared Object Repository

       It’s central storage where the object information associated with multiple tests can be stored. So a Shared object repository is shared resource among multiple actions. After creating the repository we should associate that repository to your action and then perform Testing. This is another important thing to learn on object repository in UFT with examples.

       Object Repository Manager can be used for this. The file extension is .tsr (Test shared repository). When we associate a shared object repository, we make the test asset available to the local action.

       User (Test Engineer) creates a shared repository by adding objects. That can be shared among the number of tests. Using this method user can perform modifications on objects easily Navigation:

       1. Go to Resource
       2. Go to the Object repository manager
       3. Select Object
       4. Click on Add Objects
       5. Show the window/objects
       6. Click ok or File->Save
       • The selected object only-It stores only one object
       • Default object types-It stores all default objects
       • All objects types-All default objects with static objects
       • Selected object types-It stores objects along with Object class. in this case, we can add more class.

       Step-1&2

       Step-3

       Step-6 Save a Shared Object Repository

       Notes on Shared Object Repository:

       • You can not add an object to the shared object repository if the object is already present.
       • You can not add a checkpoint to the shared object repository.
       • You can certainly export the shared object repository to an XML file or Excel file.
       • You can merge one shared object repository to other shared object repository. This will create a 3rd object repository containing elements of both shared objects repositories contents.
       • You can add multiple test objects by enabling the option to Navigate and Learn.
       • You can not add output values to the shared object repository.
       • You will get a question mark if you have not installed properly add-ins in your machine. This also happens if the proper environment is not installed on your machine.

       Advantage of shared object repository:

       1. Easy to update hence easy to maintain.
       2. Consumes less memory as we can avoid multiple copies of the same object.
       3. Highly reusable.

       The disadvantage of shared object repository

       1. Object repository size will be huge
       2. Execution will be slow if the shared object repository is too big.
       3. Object conflict needs to be handled properly.
       4. Many test engineers may use shared object repository, hence it is very tough to edit concurrently.
       5. any change in the shared object repositories will affect the associated test case.
       6. In case of property identification, if UFT/QTP does not get a proper match, it will activate smart identification that may also slow down the execution.

       When to use the Shared Object Repository?

       When we know that the application is not stable and may change it’s object or object properties frequently (and we do not want to use descriptive programming),it makes sense to use shared object repository. We need to change in one place and that can reflect in all other test dependant on the same shared object repository.

       How to make shared Object repository editable?

       This is another important thing to learn on object repository in UFT with examples.

       We have to open Object Repository Manager- another tool which enables us to make shared object repository editable.

       1. Click on Resource
       2. Go to the Object repository manager
       3. Click on File
       4. Click on Open
       5. Click on the browse button to browse path of the repository file
       6. Select file
       7. Enable editing

       How to rename the object in the shared object repository?

       1. Click on Resource
       2. Go to the Object repository manager
       3. Click on File
       4. Click on Open
       5. Click on the browse button to browse path of the repository file
       6. Select file
       7. Enable editing
       8. Select object
       9. Right-click on the object
       10. Choose rename
       11. Change the name
       12. Click on the other object
       13. The last object name automatically changed
       14. Save the file
       15. Close repository manager
           

           How to delete the object in the shared object repository?

           1. Click on Resource
           2. Go to the Object repository manager
           3. Click on File
           4. Click on Open
           5. Click on the browse button to browse path of the repository file
           6. Select file
           7. Enable editing
           8. Select object
           9. Right-click on the object
           10. Choose delete
           11. Confirm deletion
           12. Save the file
           13. Close repository manager.
               

               Priority Logic for repository selection

               This is another important thing to learn on object repository in UFT with examples.

               In case one local object repository and one shared object repository has the same object

               In case an object is mentioned in the Local object repository and shared object repository, during execution the corresponding action will give priority to Local object repository and pick up values from there to identify the object.

               In case two shared object repositories have the same object

               In this case, it depends on the sequence of association. In case the first repository is associated before the second one, the action will consider the first one. Just in case the first object repository is associated after the second object repository, the action will pick up the second one.

               Can we change Local object repository to shared object repository or vice versa?

               Yes, we can!!. we can switch between local object repository or shared object repository at any given point of time. The navigation is Test->Settings->Resources

               Here we have to choose as per our need. This is called switching of the repository.

               When to use a Shared Object repository?

               In case we are in a large project and many test engineers are working on different functionalities but use the same object, in that case, it is good to use Shared Object Repository. This is another important thing to learn on object repository in UFT with examples.

               How to associate the shared object repository to the UFT/QTP test?

               We can associate the shared object repository in three different ways: