SilkTest^® 2009 R2 Release Notes

This file contains important information that may not appear in SilkTest Online Help. Read this file in its entirety.

Note: For the most up-to-date version of the Release Notes, go to SilkTest 2009 R2 Release Notes.

For information about installation, deployment, and licensing issues (including the evaluation version of SilkTest), see the SilkTest Installation Guide.

For an overview of the new features, see the What's New section below.

What's New

This section lists significant enhancements and changes that were made for SilkTest 2009 R2.

Warning: If you upgrade your licenses to use SilkTest 2009 R2, the new license file(s) will not contain license keys for using any SilkTest International release. The license file(s) will not contain license keys to use the .NET, AOL and BlueExpress add-ons in conjunction with any version of SilkTest which precedes SilkTest 2009, and which supports these add-ons. Please consider this before you upgrade your licenses.

Dynamic Port Allocation

The Open Agent now uses dynamically allocated ports. To assign a specific port number to the SilkTest Open Agent, you must configure the information service to use that port. For instance, if you assigned a specific port with an earlier version of SilkTest, to continue to use that port you must configure the information service to use that port.

SilkTest Open Agent Supports SYS Functions

Previously, the SilkTest Open Agent supported a subset of SYS functions. Now, the SilkTest Open Agent supports all SYS functions with the exception of SYS_GetMemoryInfo.

Adobe Flex Support for Version 3.4

You can test applications that use Adobe Flex version 3.4.

Java SWT Support for Version 3.5

You can test applications that use Java SWT version 3.5.

System Requirements

Your computer must meet the hardware requirements listed below:

Supported Environments and Technologies

This section includes information about the supported environments and technologies for SilkTest 2009 R2:

• Platform Support
• Supported Environments
• Silk4J Eclipse Plugin
• Adobe Flex Support
• Java Support
• DSN Support
• PVCS Integration Support

Platform Support

SilkTest 2009 R2 runs on the following platforms:

• Windows XP version SP2, SP3
• Windows Server 2003 SP2
• Windows Vista (see supported environments for details)
• Windows 7
• Windows 2008

SilkTest 2009 R2 supports applications that use the following browsers/are developed in:

Supported Environments

Supported environments, by platform, are listed below. For supported environments, technical support is available and defects can be logged. Note that it is not possible to test all combinations. Experience indicates that various combinations can result in different behavior with SilkTest. Micro Focus makes every attempt to test as many of these combinations as possible.

Note: While you can use SilkTest on 64-bit operating systems, SilkTest only supports testing 32-bit applications.

Silk4J Eclipse Plugin

Silk4J supports the following technology domains using the SilkTest Open Agent:

• Adobe Flex
• Java SWT/RCP
• Windows API-based client/server applications
• Windows Forms
• Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)
• xBrowser

Silk4J requires Eclipse 3.4 and Java Runtime Environment (JRE) version 1.6 or higher.

Adobe Flex Support

SilkTest supports testing Flex 3.0, 3.2, 3.3 and 3.4 applications using the following browsers:

• Firefox 3.0, 3.5 (replay only)
• Internet Explorer 6 (SP 1 and SP 2)
• Internet Explorer 7 (GA)
• Internet Explorer 8 (GA)
• Standalone Flash Player 10
• Adobe AIR

Note: Currently, Adobe offers experimental support for Flex applications in AIR. As a result, you may encounter issues when testing Flex in Adobe AIR that are not related to SilkTest.

Java Support

SilkTest supports the following Java components:

• IBM JRE 1.5
• Sun's Java J2SE versions 1.4.2, 5.0, and 6.0
• Eclipse 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, and 3.5 SWT standalone and Rich Client Platform (RCP) applications (SWT standalone applications executed as an applet in the browser not supported, embedded IE control inside of SWT standalone or RCP application not supported)
• AWT
• Java Foundation Classes (JFC, Swing)
• Symantec Visual Café
• Applets
• Sun's Java Plug-in versions 1.4, 1.5 and 1.6

DSN Support

SilkTest's Data Driven Workflow supports:

• Text files and comma separated value files (*.txt and *.csv files)
• MS Excel
• MS Access
• MS SQL Server
• Oracle (partial support)
• SyBase SQL Anywhere

SilkTest accesses the preceding databases using ODBC and therefore supports the versions of those databases that have a working ODBC driver.

Note: The SilkTest Select Data Source dialog box allows you to choose either the Silk DDA Excel or the Segue DDA Excel data source. For new data driven testcases, choose the Silk DDA Excel data source. Choose the Segue DDA Excel data source for backward compatibility. This allows existing .g.t files that reference Segue DDA Excel to continue to work.

PVCS Integration Support

SilkTest's interface with the PVCS proprietary API supports:

We assume that you are familiar with PVCS and are familiar with how PVCS works. If you are not, consult your PVCS documentation and PVCS release notes for more information.

Resolved Defects

The following items have been resolved in SilkTest 2009 R2.

Known Issues

The following are known issues in SilkTest 2009 R2.

General

• In SilkTest 2009, the OPT_ENSURE_FOCUS option was removed, which causes compile errors in legacy scripts. Workaround: Remove the OPT_ENSURE_FOCUS option from your scripts. [45021]
• Verification of the Tree::Items property fails in special cases. A verification on a Tree that returns a Tree datatype (such as Items, ...) which contains a "{" or a "}" results in a scripting error. [43617]
• Using the silent installer on Windows 64-bit systems sets wrong environment variables and installs some files to the wrong location. Workaround: Change the szDir value in the Install.iss file to reflect the location where you want to install SilkTest to, for example szDir=C:\Program Files (x86)\Silk\SilkTest. For detailed information on using the silent installer, see the SilkTest Installation Guide. [38734]
• AutoComplete does not distinguish between SilkTest Agents. As a result, AutoComplete displays all methods, properties, variables, and data types regardless of the SilkTest Agent that you are using. For example, if you are using the SilkTest Open Agent, functions and data types that work only with the SilkTest Classic Agent are also displayed when you use AutoComplete. For details about which methods are supported for each SilkTest Agent, review the corresponding .inc file, such as the winclass.inc file.
• The keyboard delay value (OPT_KEYBOARD_DELAY) and the mouse delay value (OPT_MOUSE_DELAY) should not be greater than the window timeout value (OPT_WINDOW_TIMEOUT).
• Using CaptureBitmap on a system where the color depth is 256 colors (8-bit) causes the Open Agent to not work as expected. [38712]
• Cannot upload a testplan to SilkCentral Test Manager using a secure Tomcat frontend server. [38532]
• Occasionally, the frame.inc file is created in the SilkTest installation directory, rather than in the project directory. [38455]
• Setting the recovery system using the command line results in compile errors if the characters "{ }" are included. For instance, including coveragepath={"C:\Program Files\Silk\SilkTest\JavaEx\TestApp.jar"} in the command line results in a compile error. [38190]
• StarTeam integration is not available with SilkTest 2009 R2. [37740]
• SilkTest crashes when using the FindWindow function. Workaround: Use 'tag "{sTag}"' instead of 'tag sTag' and the crash no longer occurs. However, FindWindow() is not able to find window declarations using dynamic tags. [37081]
• For machines running Windows 2003 SP2, the SilkTest Classic Agent name cannot be set using NetBIOS. [36625]
• On Windows Vista, captured bitmaps are not recognized. [34800]
• In a dual core environment, SilkTest may encounter problems because of timing issues. This issue occurs with the SilkTest Classic Agent only. [34475]
• If VerifyProperties() fails for a dialog, e.g. "File open" or "Save as", regardless of which property was selected for verification, call SetActive() for the dialog window before. The problem is that otherwise the Exists property is always false, which causes VerifyProperties() to fail. [34128]
• In Windows XP environments where Visual Studio is installed, occasionally SilkTest hangs when a test is executed. [32974]
• In the accex.inc file, which is used for accessibility testing, the accSelect and the accNavigate methods are commented out. These methods and their related constants did not go through formal QA testing and are not supported in this version of SilkTest. The SELFLAG constants, which are used as the parameters for accSelect, will eventually call IAccessible::accSelect. For more information, refer to http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms696148.aspx. The NAVDIR constants, which are used as the parameters for accNavigate, will eventually call IAccessible:accNavigate. For more information about the NAVDIR constant, refer to http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms697230(VS.85).aspx. [32018]
• SetText() is appending characters instead of substituting characters. Workaround: Use ClearText() before calling SetText(). This prevents the extra characters from being appended. [31961]
• A mapped network drive cannot handle more than 235 chars when using FileOpen(). Workaround: Use shorter filenames. [29557]
• If you notice a performance degradation with the browser when SilkTest is not running, choose Tools > Manage AddOns. Choose QAPHlprObjClass from the Enabled list and click the Disabled option button in the Settings group box. Click OK to save the change. [28551]
• If you receive an error message that the SilkTest_Java3.jar cannot be deleted when uninstalling SilkTest, then you must delete the file manually. [27548]

Browser

• browserChild in Internet Explorer 7 does not have the parent Browser as default. This is due to the implementation of IE7. If the existing browserChild windecl does not have the parent statement, you may see a runtime error similar to "browserChild xxx not found". Workaround: Add parent Browser to the windecl.
• With the SilkTest Classic Agent, Internet Explorer 8 hooking is broken (Windows 2008 R2). Workaround: Set the "RequireSignedAppInit_DLLs" registry key in "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion \Windows" to "0". See also:
  • http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd744762(VS.85).aspx
  • http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/E/7/7E7662CF-CBEA-470B-A97E-CE7CE0D98DC2/AppInit_Win7.docx
  [45513]
• FireFox: File Upload - clicking the input field does not open the file open dialog. Workaround: Firefox does not support opening the file upload dialog programmatically. Use native click: click(1, 5, 5). [44241]
• When you record opening a new tab, during replay the new tab does not become active. Workaround: Use low-level replay or specify the Internet Explorer option to "always switch to new tabs..." in Internet Options / General / Tabs. [44091]
• Internet Explorer performance degrades with SilkTest installed. Workaround: Disable the SSVHelper browser object from Sun. The SSVHelper is not a vital component of Java. Disabling it has no detrimental effect. (Java applets still execute normally). [42988]
• With Internet Explorer 7, Record/Replay menuitems does not work. Workaround: Interactions with menu items and other controls that are defined in the explorer.inc file should not be recorded. Use the window declarations in the explorer.inc file. [38413]
• If Mozilla Firefox is set as your default browser, an error message may occur when you access a URL from another application. Workaround: See Firefox issue 246078. [36995]
• When Security Patch KB918899 is installed, SilkTest causes a crash of Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 on playback of testcase. This problem occurs on Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) or Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) systems, after installing security update 918899. Workaround: Install the latest Windows hotfix (see also http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923996/). [29386]
• There is a memory leak in Internet Explorer when running JavaScript on a web page. Workaround: Restart the browser. [28965, 28593, 28334]
• When ShowHtmlForm=TRUE and ShowBorderlessTables is a value less than 1.0, SilkTest cannot recognize controls within a table even if ShowBorderlessTablesFlags is set to "input" or to "img|input". Workaround: Do not set ShowHtmlForm=TRUE. [27979]
• The recorder does not highlight Java controls when recording in an applet on Internet Explorer on Windows XP SP2 machines. Workaround: Click anywhere inside the applet; the controls will then become visible during playback. [27416]

Adobe Flex

• Participants in the SilkTest 2008 Early Release for Flex program who recorded Win32 applications with the Open Agent may need to re-record menu items. In the Early Release, the "&" sign for the shortcut was included when menu items were recorded. For instance, the New menu item was recorded as “&New”. Additionally, if there was a shortcut specified separated by a tab from the actual caption, it was recorded as “&NewCtrl+N”. Both cases were changed to record only “New”.
• When you press Ctrl+Alt to verify properties for an element, such as a combo box or drop-down list, the focus shifts from the element to the “Verify Properties” progress bar. Because of the loss of focus, the element disappears and SilkTest cannot verify the properties for the element. An error message also displays. This issue affects only those types of controls that close or disappear when the focus shifts to a different object on the screen. Workaround: Manually verify properties for elements that close or disappear when the focus shifts to a different object on the screen.
• If a Flex Web application is started before the SilkTest Open Agent, the Open Agent does not load the Flex extension. Workaround: Start the SilkTest Open Agent before you start the Flex Web application that you want to test. [43280]
• Replaying the OLAPDataGrid results in a #1009 error occasionally. Workaround: Manually insert a sleep(1) function between the OLAPDataGrid control and the commands that continue the recording in the Flex application. [38538]
• When a user records a click on the “Refresh Browser” button and then continues recording against the Flex application in the browser, SilkTest does not record the time between the refresh process and the continuation of the recording. As a result, replay fails. Workaround: Manually insert a sleep function between the “Click Refresh button” and the commands that continue the recording in the Flex application. [37078]
• The following commands are not supported:
• Record Method
• Record Defined Window
• Record Class
• Record Window Locations
• A maximum of 20 Flex applications can be tested simultaneously. Windows 2000 platforms are the exception to this rule. See the following item for details.
• Windows 2000 does not support simultaneous testing on multiple Flex applications. Only one Flex application can be tested at a time. This is an operating system restriction. [38499]
• When you record actions, the actions are not shown immediately. Recorded actions are shown when recording stops.
• The recovery system for browsers is limited in the following ways:
• If no URL is retrieved, you must enter the URL as a parameter for the browser in the command line string.
• SilkTest does not identify the browser window as a browser window. Therefore, the browser class functions are unavailable.
• Functions/classes in the winclass.inc file that are marked with the “supported_ca” keyword are supported on the Classic Agent only.
• The SilkTest Flex Automation SDK is based on the Automation API for Flex. The SilkTest Automation SDK supports the same components in the same manner that the Automation API for Flex supports them. The following is a partial list of known issues:
• Actions are recorded in invalid order if the ColorPicker control is open when you record actions outside of the ColorPicker control. SilkTest records the closing action for the ColorPicker control automatically and appends it after the recorded action. Workaround: Move the line with the ColorPicker control Close command into the correct line, or delete the line. [38482]
• When the FlexUIMovieClip::ChangeFocus method is used, an error occurs in the Flash Flex Integration Kit. You can monitor this issue at: https://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/FLEXENT-750
• The "mx:FormItem" does not work with automation. You can assign an empty label with at least one space to the FormItem to resolve this issue. For instance:

mx:FormItem label=" "

mx:Button id="myButton" label="Validate" click="{updateLabel ()}"/

/mx:FormItem

You can monitor this issue at: https://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/FLEXENT-747

• If you record actions against controls that become visible only when the mouse hovers over them, the replay will fail. SilkTest does not record the MouseOver action on controls of this type. As a result, the controls do not display during replay. For example, in the Flex Store sample application, in the Products view, when you move the mouse over a mobile phone, three buttons become visible. However, when you replay that action, it fails because the buttons are not visible during replay. To resolve this issue, manually add a MouseMove to the script before the buttons become visible.
• The typekey statement in the Flex Automation API does not support all keys. You can use the input text statement to resolve this issue.
• When an application is compiled with automation code and successive .swf files are loaded, a memory leak occurs and the application runs out of memory eventually. The Flex Control Explorer sample application is affected by this issue. The workaround is to not compile the application .swf files that Explorer loads with automation libraries. For example, compile only the Explorer main application with automation libraries. Another alternative is to use the module loader instead of swfloader. You can monitor this issue at: https://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/FLEXENT-402
• Dragging and dropping an element that uses the FlexChart class may not work if a chart element is clicked near its edges before you start dragging the element. This results in a failed replay because the drag start coordinates can be incorrect.
• The FlexTitleWindow control is recorded and recognized by SilkTest as a FlexPanel (although it is defined as a separate control).
• If too many events are fired simultaneously, some events are suppressed by the API. For example, if the slider in the Flex scroll bar is moved too quickly, the last position is not recorded. [36372]

For more information about the Flex Automation API known issues, see the Adobe Flex Release Notes.

Adobe AIR

SilkTest does not support the following Adobe AIR functionality:

• FileDialog handling including: FileEvent, FileSystemComboBox, FileSystemDataGrid, FileSystemEnumarationMode, FileSystemHistoryButton, FileSystemList, FileSystemSizeDisplayMode, FileSystemTree
• HTML control (AIR introduces an HTML control that displays web content)
• Applications with multiple windows
• Drag and Drop operations on the FlexListBase extended controls

Java

• Double-clicking an item in JavaJFCListBox is recorded as two separate 'Select' statements, which causes replay to fail. Workaround: Manually remove one of the 'Select' statements. [34409]
• Verifying properties for a dialog box fails regardless of which property of the dialog box is selected for verification. Workaround: Before verifying properties, issue a SetActive() for the dialog box. [34128]

Silk4J

• You must have local administrator privileges to run Silk4J. [45554]

TrueLog

• TrueLog Explorer always displays the name of the script as Script(#1).
• TrueLog Explorer only displays Unicode characters if the machine displaying the TrueLog Explorer has the same code page as the Agent machine that created the TrueLog.
• TrueLog Explorer for SilkTest provides a read-only view of results.
• You may not run TrueLog simultaneously with multiple remote systems.
• If you are running a remote agent, you may not put in a null path name for the TrueLog.
• The bitmap for a button click action that closes a child window can be a blank gray area in the "After action" tab. That occurs due to a timing problem, because the window is already closed when the screenshot is taken. [34655]
• A TrueLog component outline box can be out of alignment because certain technologies, such as Java, do not always provide the necessary information accurately. [34563]
• Depending on the amount of controls on a Web page, enabling the "Control Creation/Deletion" option for Firefox tests can adversely affect the performance of the TrueLog Explorer. [34098, 34102]
• When recording against an application with a transparent dialog box, the bitmap is not captured. [29143]
• In certain situations, the bitmap for an action that you are logging may be inaccurate. It may not show the correct window or the correct part of the window. This happens most frequently on the first case on the first action in a testcase. If this occurs, try inserting a SetActive method call just prior to the action in question in the testcase. [28138]
• If you raise an error in a testcase via a raise statement that specifies a command line, then the corresponding error entry in a TrueLog file will include the command line in the Description field for the error. For example:
  raise 10, "Exception 10", "Notepad.exe"
  will result in the TrueLog description:
  Exception 10Notepad.exe
  [27645]

Installation Instructions

For information about installation, deployment, and licensing issues (including the evaluation version of SilkTest), see the SilkTest Installation Guide.

Getting Help

For information about using SilkTest, see the SilkTest Online Help, available from Help > Help Topics. You can also walk through the SilkTest tutorials, available from Start > Programs > Silk > SilkTest 2009 R2 > Documentation.

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