Regular Expressions in QTP
Sometimes there might be situations where values of objects keep
on varying and QTP may fail to recognize them or checkpoints might get failed
as the expected and actual data are not matching. In such cases Regular
expressions come into picture. It enables QTP to identify objects and text
strings with varying values.Regular expressions can be used:
1. In identifying the property values of an object
2. In parametrization
3. For creation of checkpoints on objects with varying values
1. In identifying property
values of an object:
In this concept, let’s see how to handle QTP when a value of an
object is varied. Let’s walk through this section with a small example:
Assume that you have to record a scenario of verifying the mails
in a mail account. Open the mail with valid username and password. Now click on
Inbox. When you have opened your mail account assume that there are 5 mails. So
the inbox would be showing Inbox (5). When you click on that, the mails get
displayed. Following would be the statement that gets generated when clicked on
Inbox:
Browser(“Gmail”).Page(“Gmail”).Link(“Inbox(5)”).click
Now when the same script is run again, QTP fails at the same
step as the number of mails in the inbox is 4. Or even more if some new mails
have come. The script execution doesn’t get passed unless the total number of
new mails is again 5. We make use of regular expression here as the value for
the number of mails keeps varying.
For creating a regular expression, go to object repository from
Resourcesà Object repository. Select the link object Inbox (5) from object list
displayed in the left side.
Go to the object properties screen displayed in the right side
of the screen. Select the property that has the value Inbox (5). Click on the
configure icon that gets displayed there.
‘Value configuration Options’ dialog box gets displayed.
Check the Regular expressions check box. A dialog box gets
raised asking the user whether to add a back slash before each special
character in order to treat it literally. As we have special characters ‘(‘ and
‘)’ we need to click on Yes and QTP adds a slash character before both the
Parenthesis characters.
If you want qtp script to be successful for 0-9 mails then give
the following value in Constant edit box:
Inbox\([0-9]\)
For 0-99 mails
Inbox\([0-9][0-9]\)
For 0-999 mails
Inbox\([0-9][0-9][0-9]\)
Click on OK and close the object repository window. For first
option QTP executes the scripts successfully if the Inbox has 0-9 mails. Second
option executes successfully for 0-99 mails and third option for 0-999 mails.
2. In Parameterization:
In some cases, we need to parameterize the varying values in the
script. In such cases we parameterize the values and use the regular expression
in parameterized value i.e., in data table sheet where the value is present.
Using the same example mentioned above lets discuss how can be regular
expressions in parameterization process.
Select the link object Inbox (5) from object list displayed in
the left side of Object repository.
Go to the object properties screen displayed in the right side
of the screen. Select the property that has the value Inbox (5). Click on the
configure icon that gets displayed there.
‘Value configuration Options’ dialog box gets displayed. Set the
Parameter Radio button and select the location of data table (global/local).
Enter a title for the column.Now check the Regular expressions checkbox in
advanced configurations option. Click on Yes in the dialog box that gets
displayed.
Click on OK and close the object repository window. If you want
QTP script to be successful for 0-9 mails then give the following value in Data
table sheet of QTP:
Inbox\([0-9]\)
For 0-99 mails
Inbox\([0-9][0-9]\)
For 0-999 mails
Inbox\([0-9][0-9][0-9]\)
For first option QTP executes the scripts successfully if the
Inbox has 0-9 mails. Second option executes successfully for 0-99 mails and
third option for 0-999 mails. Using this example, the values can be changed
directly in the data table sheet.
3. For creation of checkpoints on
objects with varying values
Assume that you have to create a text check point on some text
which gets varied continuously. In the same example mentioned above, you need
to insert a text checkpoint on Inbox (5) which gets varied basing on the number
of mails available in the inbox. When the checkpoint is created, it takes Inbox
(5) as the expected value and when the same script is run again when there are
4 mails in the inbox, and then the checkpoint fails. To overcome such
situations, regular expressions is used again.
Insert a checkpoint by selecting
Insert-->Checkpoint-->Text Checkpoint. (Make sure that QTP is in
recording mode)
Select the text on which you want to insert text checkpoint
(i.e., Inbox (5)). Text checkpoint properties window gets opened.Make sure that
the radio button is set to constant dialog box. Click on Constant Value options
icon that gets displayed there.
‘Constant Value options’ dialog box gets displayed. Now check
the regular expressions check box and Click on yes in the dialog box that gets
displayed to treat ‘(‘ and ‘)’ as literal characters. Now in the same way as
mentioned in the above two examples enter the data as per your requirement.
For 0-9 mails
Inbox\([0-9]\)
For 0-99 mails
Inbox\([0-9][0-9]\)
For 0-999 mails
Inbox\([0-9][0-9][0-9]\)
Click
on OK and close the Text checkpoint properties window. For first option QTP
checkpoint gets passed if the Inbox has 0-9 mails. Second option gets passed
for 0-99 mails and third option for 0-999 mails.