Eggplant tips and ticks

Introduction

I am writing this tip not to recommend Eggplant but to show how did I managed to make it usable and useful.

Background

We were searching for an automation tool that is platform independent and has page rendering capability, and can be used for mobile automation and for Web/Desktop apps as well. Because Eggplant is based on working with images it is suitable for any devices that has VNC server installed.

I am not aware about the new enhancements that are coming with new versions of Eggplant this is why it worth to mention that the version I have used was: 12

In this article I am going to share the solutions I have found previously and which helped me improve the stability of the automated scripts.

Before going further with examples please note: the development language used by Eggplant is SenseTalk.

Try catch in SenseTalk

Pretty similar to other languages:

try  
        <critical peace of code here>       
catch e
        LogError("some text here", e)
end try

Global variables 

If you intend to use global variables you will need to use the global statement while declaring and using those variables:

put 1 into global startIndex
log "Start index:" & global startIndex
put 15 + global startIndex into global endIndex
log "End index:" & log global endIndex

the result of the above script is:

Start index:1
End index:16

Wait for object(image) capabilities

Because eggplant testing is based on images I have made several functions for waiting images to appear on the screen before trying to make any actions on them:

This function waits for an object to appear on screen

function WaitUntilObjectExist(myObject, timeout)    
    try    
        wait 1
        log myObject
        (*log timeout*)
        repeat timeout times            
            if ImageFound(2, myObject) then
                return 1
            end if                    
        end repeat
    catch e
        LogError("In Function WaitUntilObjectExist, " + 
          "error occured while searching for object["&myObject&"]", e)
    end try 
    return 0
end WaitUntilObjectExist

This function waits until an object exists at the same location with anchor one

function WaitUntilObjectAtTheSameLocationExist (anchor,targeting, 
          intLeftBound, intTopBound, intRightBound,intBottomBound, timeout)    
    wait 1
    put ImageRectangle(anchor) into bounds
    set the SearchRectangle to ((bounds.left + intLeftBound, 
      bounds.top + intTopBound), (bounds.right + 
      intRightBound, bounds.bottom + intBottomBound)) 
    put 0 into found
    try
        repeat timeout times            
            wait 1
            if ImageFound(2, targeting) then
                put 1 into found
                exit repeat
            end if                    
        end repeat
    catch e
    end try
    (*reset the search rectangle to the full viewer window(default location)*) 
    set the SearchRectangle to ()
    return found  
end WaitUntilObjectAtTheSameLocationExist  

This function will wait for the object to appear and will call PageDown event if not it will also click on the image in case it is found

on PageDownUntillObjectExist(targeting, timeout)
    try 
        repeat timeout times        
            wait 2
            if ImageFound(2, targeting) then
                exit repeat        
            end if 
            pressPageDown    
        end repeat    
    catch e
        LogError "Error while trying to page down while searching for ["&targeting&"]", e
    end try
end PageDownUntillObjectExist 

I will show the code for pressPageDown later in this article.

Finding Images

This function is returning the targeting object which is on the same line as the anchor object

function returnImageAtTheSameLocation (anchor,
       targeting, intLeftBound, intTopBound, intRightBound,intBottomBound)   
    put ImageRectangle(anchor) into bounds
    put ((bounds.left + intLeftBound, bounds.top + intTopBound), 
      (bounds.right + intRightBound, bounds.bottom + 
      intBottomBound))  into targeting.searchRectangle
    put ImageFound(targeting) into evaluate           
    return targeting    
end returnImageAtTheSameLocation

This function is returning an image location related to an anchor

function returnImageLocationAtTheSameLocation (anchor, 
            targeting,intLeftBound, intTopBound, intRightBound,intBottomBound)
    put WaitUntilObjectExist(anchor, 2) into evaluate
    put ImageRectangle(anchor) into bounds
    set the SearchRectangle to ((bounds.left + intLeftBound, bounds.top + 
      intTopBound), (bounds.right + intRightBound, bounds.bottom + intBottomBound)) 
    if ImageFound(targeting)
        put ImageLocation(targeting) into location
    else 
        put (0,0) into location
    end if
    set the SearchRectangle to ()
    return location
end returnImageLocationAtTheSameLocation 

Read Text

This function returns the text related to an anchor image

function returnTextAtTheSameLocation (anchor,intLeftBound, intTopBound, intRightBound,intBottomBound)
    put WaitUntilObjectExist(anchor, 2) into evaluate
    put ImageRectangle(anchor) into bounds
    put "" into valueReaded
    put ReadText ((bounds.left + intLeftBound, bounds.top +intTopBound), 
      (bounds.right + intRightBound, bounds.bottom + intBottomBound), (trim: true)) into valueReaded
    return valueReaded
end returnTextAtTheSameLocation

Press Key

Here are few examples of pressing keys in SenseTalk

On pressEnter    
    TypeText EnterKey
End PressEnter

On pressPageDown
    TypeText PageDown
End pressPageDown

On pressControl_T    
    TypeText ControlKey, "t"
End pressControl_T

On pressControl_C    
    TypeText ControlKey, "c"
End pressControl_C 

On pressControl_V    
    TypeText ControlKey, "v"
End pressControl_V

On pressTab    
    TypeText TabKey    
End pressTab

On pressWindows_R
    TypeText WindowsDown, "r" ,WindowsUp
End pressWindows_R

Reading property files

Supposing our property file contains the following lines:

testKey1,testValue1
testKey2,testValue1
testKey3,testValue1

Here is the function that reads the file

function readPropertyFile(datafile)
    if there is a file datafile then
        log "file ["&datafile&"] exists"
    end if
    repeat with each line of file datafile
        put item 2 of it into propertiesList.(word 1 of item 1 of it)
    end repeat     
    return propertiesList
end readPropertyFile 

Writing property files

On WriteDataIntoFile(str, fileName)
    if there is a file fileName then        
        open file fileName for appending
        write str & return to file fileName
        Close file fileName    
    else
        open file fileName
        write str & return to file fileName
        Close file fileName    
    end if
end WriteDataIntoFile 

Creating and using frameworks

Here are some tricks on how can frameworks be developed in eggplant: (I am not sure if there is another way to do this however this is the workaround I have found)

1. Create a suite named Framework.
2. Create a new (Framework.script) script and put some functions in it.
3. Create a second suite and start a new script.
4. To load the functions from the Framework.Script into the second suite use the following example:
   

   put "..\FrameworkSuite.suite\Scripts\Framework" into Framework 

   make sure the relative path is correct.

5. You can now use the functions from the framework:
   

   put Framework.WaitUntilObjectExist("Enter password", 15) into evaluate 

   or
   

   run Framework.PageDownUntillObjectExist("Login", imgLoginInput, 10)

   We use:

   put when the method is created using function statement.

   run when the method is created using on statement

Keep evidence of found defects

Each automated script should have a method to prove that the found defect is a valid one. So does Eggplant. It has the ability to capture screenshots.

In my case I am capturing a screen image whenever an error occurred while running a script.

Here is the function for logging errors:

on logErrorExit(errorString, e)
    (*Write error details into the log*)
    WriteDataIntoFile "Error and exit:" & errorString, global errorLogFile
        
    (*Capture and save the screenshot*)
    CaptureScreen (Name:errorLogFile & 
          ".errorImage" & global errorIndex, increment:yes)
        
    (* increment the index of the image found*)
    put global errorIndex + 1 into global errorIndex
    
    log "Error:" & errorString, e
        
    (*Exit execution*)
    exit all
end logErrorExit  

Points of Interest

Intended for those who plant to use eggplant for automation.