Report improvements In QTP 10.0

Report improvements

The native QTP report includes several new improvements:

Tracability: Selecting a report-node will automatically focus on the relevant code-line in the script. This may sound like a cool feature at first, but a closer look revels that it only works for actions (not functions); and that in any case, using a custom report function (as most of us do) completely nullifies the feature (since you’re always at the same code line when performing the report).

Exporting: The report now has a two-click export feature, which comes with a built-in ability to export to Word and PDF documents, as well as the ability to export through a custom XSL of your choosing. You can choose between Short and Long formats (corresponding to PShort.XSL and PDetails.XSL) to get a document relevant to your needs. This blessed feature has one major flaw – It has no API support. This means that you cannot export the results automatically at the end of a test run, which is quite a miss, to say the least.

Resource Monitor: QTP can now hook onto the Windows Performance Monitor and present it as part of the test results. You can select several counters to monitor (e.g. GDI objects, memory usage etc.), and the monitor output graph will be available in special tab in the result window. You can set up a “checkpoint” for a counter (e.g. Fail the test if there are more than 500 GDI objects), facilitating a kind of a poor-man’s version of load-testing.

The fact that clicking the graph focuses on the relevant test step (as well as the other way around), provides an effective way to quickly locate problematic actions and resource usage spikes. This feature is well executed, and HP has even went the extra mile and added several unified counters that simplify monitoring the application. However, the fact that you can only monitor one process per test may leave the more advanced users with their own implementation of a resource monitor.

Considering the simple design and implementation of this feature, I believe it will become a popular tool in every automation project that uses QTP 10.

Native image integration: This is a small, yet long-awaited feature. The ReportEvent command now has a new optional parameter – you can specify a path to a picture file, and it will be attached to the report node of the current event. When used in conjunction with the CaptureBitmap method, this presents a technical, yet revolutionary upgrade to the native QTP report. Finally, users can attach screenshots to their custom report events without any special functions or frameworks.