Since both TestComplete and Windows Vista are currently under development, the information contained in this article is not final and may change at any time, without notice.

The previous article (Testing Microsoft Access Applications With TestComplete - Part 1) states that to test Microsoft Access applications, you have to use both the MSAA engine and COM interfaces to access the application's forms and controls. The article explains how you can use the MSAA functionality to simulate user actions over forms and controls.

AutomatedQA starts beta testing soon for TestComplete 5 - the next version of our industry acclaimed automated testing tool for Win32 and .NET applications. This new version includes many exciting new features and enhancements that will help you create more powerful and thorough tests and organize the testing process better.


The beta test application link is at the end of this post.


Here's a list of some of the new and enhanced features:

A Microsoft Access database or project typically contains tables, queries and forms that are used to view, input and modify data, macros, different reports and other objects. You can test your Microsoft Access databases (projects) in the same way you would test any other Windows application: by simulating mouse clicks and keystrokes. Also, you can use low-level procedures, manual tests and other features provided by TestComplete to test black-box applications.

In his book, “The Tomes of Delphi Algorithms and Data Structures”, Julian Bucknall wrote that programmers do not pay enough attention to symbols and strings. Typecasting is performed by the compiler, so, quite often, a programmer does not even know what binary code is executed for the code he (or she) wrote. However, knowing this may help you create faster code. For instance, Delphi's Pos function can work faster.

ASP.NET applications can be considered as Internet Information Services (IIS) applications that are built with .NET compilers and use functionality provided by the .NET Framework and .NET assemblies. The manner that you profile your ASP.NET application depends on the development tool that you used to create it.

"Jim, we need to get some automation in place for the Aquarius project." Jim looked up at Laurie in amazement. The Aquarius project was still being prototyped, and probably months away from being stable enough to create any worthwhile scripts.

Microsoft's Application Verifier is a tool that monitors the execution of unmanaged applications, traces the application's interaction with the operating system and reports errors and problems with kernel objects, the registry, the file system, and Microsoft Win32 API calls (heaps, handles and others).

Have you tested to see what happens to your application when the clock turns to midnight? How about when a new year starts?

Microsoft Access includes a powerful report building engine. However, when you double-click a report in the database window to view it, Access displays the printable version of the report in the Print Preview window. This window displays the report as it will be printed and does not contain any child controls that provide access to report data. So, how do you retrieve the data from the report?

Diffxml, a free utility for comparing xml files, was recommended from one user to another on the TestComplete message boards recently. Diffxml is a Java command-line tool setup to run on Linux/Unix and it's not obvious how to use it on Windows. There are many programs like this that are designed for Linux but run fine on Windows if you know the steps to make them work.

TestComplete can store and retrieve test data in XML files. For example, an XML file could define the name of a control where user actions will be simulated and it could store the value to be entered into the control.

//[TestComplete jscript/javascript]<br />// Verify text entered into an edit control<br />function Win32EditTest()<br />{<br />var p,<br />processName = "NOTEPAD",<br />win32Edit,<br />textToTest = "Win32ControlEditTest";<br />p = Sys.Process(processName);<br />win32Edit = p.Window("Notepad", "*").Window("Edit");<br />win32Edit.Click();<br />win32Edit.wText = "";<br />win32Edit.Keys(textToTest);<br />if (win32Edit.wText != textToTest)<br />Log.Error("The wText property of the edit control is '"<br />+ win32Edit.wText<br />+ "'. Expected '" + textToTest + "'.");<br />win32Edit.wText = "";<br />p.Close();<br />}<br />