1. Automation of IPP Flex
applications
Gokuldas K Pillai
@gokool

2. Objective
• Identify a tool to automate the functional
testing of a Flex application. In my application,
we have the following use-cases:
– Create/Edit Invoice
– Search for a customer

3. Tools Evaluated
• FlexMonkey 1.0 by Gorilla Logic
• SilkTest 2009 R2 by Borland (Plugin for Flex)
• Ranorex Studio
• Other tools (not evaluated/less popular)
– QTP
– Selenium4Flex
– RiaTest

4. Automation support in Flex
• Adobe provides automation delegate implementations for the
framework components
– Automation.swc (delegation implementations)
– Automation_agent.swc (Facilitate communication with a tool)
– Automation_dmv.swc (delegates for charts and advanced datagrid)
• Third party tool developers leverage these and build on top of it.
– The tool developers are limited by what Adobe exposes via the
automation hooks.
• Custom components
• Components that extend framework components
– Automation delegates supplied should work
• Components that do NOT extend framework components (extend
UIComponent instead)
– Developer of component needs to provide automation delegates and override event
handlers.

5. Agent mechanism

6. Tool #1 : Flex Monkey
• Quick Facts
– Open Source
– Ver 1.0 GA released
– Adobe AIR application
– Scripting language – Actionscript
– Support for:
• Record/Playback
• Validation
• Timing delays
• Exporting script – integration with ANT script
• Pluses
– Simple to setup
– Works on both OS (Windows/Mac)
– Works with both IE and Mozilla
• Negatives
– Does not scale beyond simple usecases
– Sparse documentation for advanced usage
– Community is in infancy (Opensource like support )
– Recently moved out of Google code and the transition was not smooth for forum users
– Core developers offer paid consulting gigs for training and help with tool.

7. Tool #2 : SilkTest Flex plugin/Silk4J
• Quick facts
– 2009 R2 – Flex support since 2008 R2
– Silk4J – Eclipse plugin
– Scripting language – Java or Silk script
– Object identification using Xpath
• Pluses
– JUnit like test generation (Silk4J)
– Familiar tool(Silk not Silk-Flex) for QA teams in Intuit
– Enterprise support plan
• Negatives
– Performance hog (Seems like it is broken)
– Tool is not very developer friendly.
– Does not work with IPP native flex apps.
– Support from Ireland (timezone) – primarily e-mail based

8. Tool #3: Ranorex Studio
• Quick facts
– Ver 2.2 (2.3 coming out next week, 3.0 targeted for Fall ’10)
– Built on .NET framework
– Scripting support – C#, Python and VB.NET
• Pluses
– Mature tool – very intuitive interface
– Object recognition using custom XPath
– System integration testing with Quickbooks possible (not tested out)
– Support for AJAX/Javascript testing
– In-tool support for the whole object tree once the application is instrumented.
– Has support for object preview.
– Once the test is fully baked, you can export it as an executable (.exe). This can
then be run simply by double clicking the exe.
– Executable can be passed in command line params
• Negatives
– ?

9. Criteria for selection
• Excellent support for object identification
– Custom components like custom combo-box, item
renderers
• Easy to setup and ramp up
• Mature support for scripting using standard
languages
• Ability to integrate with CI build
• Performance
• Good record and replay capability
• Support for IE and Firefox

10. Quick Summary
• FlexMonkey dropped from the list since it could not
recognize some of the non-trivial objects like Custom
ComboBox and DataGridColumn with item Renderer.
• SilkTest 2009 is a good attempt but has a long way to
go to be more developer/QA friendly in terms of the
tool. Also, it has a higher cost for the license.
• Ranorex satisfies our current requirements for
automated testing, goes beyond what Adobe provides
for automation support and delivers a great experience
for the developer.