How does Winrunner identify GUI Objects?

We all are familiar with the functional testing tool that has been developed by the mercury interactive known by the name of winrunner. In this article we are going to discuss one of the important aspects of the winrunner i.e., how the GUI objects are identified by the winrunner. 

How does WinRunner identify GUI objects?

- The software testing conducted by the winrunner is based up on the identification of the graphical user interfaces objects present in the software system or application under testing.

- The identification of the GUI objects takes place in the context sensitive recording mode. 

- In such recording, the application can be tested by the point of view of the user i.e., in the terms of the graphical user interface objects like buttons, windows, menus, lists and so on. 

- Each of these GUI objects have their own individual properties that are known to define their appearance as well as behavior.

- These properties are learnt by the GUI and are used in identification and location of the GUI objects while a test is in execution. 

- In this mode there is no need for the winrunner to know the physical location of a GUI object for its identification. 

- There is a tool called GUI spy which you can install on your system and properties of any of the GUI objects present in your software system or application that is to be tested can be known very quickly and easily. 

- All the information recorded by the winrunner regarding the behavior of the GUI objects is stored in the GUI map.

- While a test is in execution, this GUI map provides a lot of help in locating a particular object. 

- Actually, the information or the object description is read by the winrunner from the GUI map and then it searches for an object with same properties in the software system or application that is being tested.

- The tester can even have a view of the GUI map in order to know the scenario of the GUI objects that are present in their software system or application.

- The GUI map is actually many small GUI map files added together. 

- Two modes have defined for the organization of the GUI map files:

1. Default mode: A GUI map file is created for the whole application software or separately for each window in the application software. A common GUI map file can be referred by multiple tests. This mode holds good for the users who are quite experienced with the winrunner.
2. Global GUI map file mode: In this mode the GUI map files are automatically created by the winrunner for every test that is created by the user. This mode holds good for the users who are new to the winrunner since it is quite simple.

- In many cases what happens is that the interface of the software system or application under testing changes  but this is not a reason to worry since the winrunner provides solution for this also. 

- The tests that you created for the previous interface can be used for the next interface also. 

- You just need to delete, add or edit the object descriptions in the GUI map so that the same can be located by the winrunner in the modified software system or application. 

- The tests are created by the scripts that have been either recorded or programmed. 

- These test scripts are constituted of the TSL (test script language by mercury) statements. 

- A logical name is given by the winrunner for every object to help in the identification process which is actually a nick name or an alias for the description of the GUI object.