This article is a part of the series “Self Learning Tutorials on IBM - Rational Functional Tester ”

1. Tutorial - 11 How to Data Drive a Test Script using IBM – Rational Functional Tester - RFT
This short tutorial presents a simple method of data driving IBM - RFT Test Script
Steps for data driving a script are as under:
Step – 1: Creation of a Project: Project is the first & foremost workbench required to store the
test assets which are needed for testing any application.
Step – 2: Beginning of the test script recording: Involves two steps like:
a) Choice of Datapool record selection order: While playing back, the test script accesses
various records in the datapool either sequentially or randomly. Thus choice out of these two
options is done from the “Datapool Record Selection Order” box from the Select Script Assets
dialog box.
# Sequential order: Records are accessed by the test script in a sequential order as they appear
in the Datapool.
# Random order: Every record gets accessed by the test script randomly once from the
Datapool.
b) Finish the selections: Click “Finish” to minimize the Functional Tester window and
launching the Recording Monitor.
Step – 3: Navigation across the application to a point desired to be data driven:
# Click “Start Application” on the Recording toolbar.
# Now do necessary actions across the application as desired to be recorded in the test script.
Step – 4: Data Driving the test:
a) Opening of the Insert Data Driven Actions page after halting the recording of the test script. To
do this; click “Insert Data Driven Commands” on the “Recording” toolbar,
b) Key in the initial values which are desired to be seen in the Datapool in the fields required to be
data driven in our application under test.
While recording is halted, we avoid recording of unwanted actions in the test script by populating
such fields.
Step – 5: Selecting the test objects: Under “Populate then Select Test Objects” select the
test objects through either of the two methods:
Method –1: “Press and drag hand to select test objects” is used to select an object and all
the descendents of the selected object. This is the most common and direct method of selecting
an object.
Method –2: For opening the Select Object to Data Drive page, “Use selection wizard to select
test objects”. To do this click on the “Drag Hand Selection” method with its options,
alternatively click on the “Test Object Browser” method.

2. Step – 6: In case we had opted for method –1 under Step – 5 above i.e. “Press and drag hand
to select test objects”
a) Use the mouse to drag the hand shaped, “Object Finder tool”, to the object in the application
which is desired to be selected. RFT automatically outlines this object with a red border.
b) Now release the mouse button.
The Data Drive Actions page shall open now. The information about the objects selected by us
appears under the DataDriven Commands table.
For viewing the line of the code inserted by RFT in our test script, we need to place the mouse
pointer over a row in this table for data-driving our application.
Step – 7: In case we had opted for method –2 under Step – 5 above i.e. “Use selection wizard
to select test objects”, click on “Selection method” arrow for making a selection out of either
of the further two methods:
Method –A: “Drag Hand Selection” method is used to include only the selected object, the
selected object and the immediate children of the selected object, or to include the selected
object and all descendents of the selected object.
Method –B: “Test Object Browser” method is used to browse for the object desired to be
selected.
Step – 8: In case we had opted for method –A under Step – 7 above i.e. “Drag Hand Selection”
method
a) Select or clear the option “After selecting an object advance to the next page”.
b) Use the mouse to drag the hand shaped Object Finder tool, to the object desired to be
selected in the application. RFT automatically outlines this object with a red border.
c) Release the mouse button.
d) Click on “Next” if we opt for not selecting the option “After selecting an object advance to
next page”.
e) Click on one of the following options:
# “Just the selected object”
# “Include the immediate children of the selected object”
# “Include all descendents of the selected object”
Step – 9: In case we had opted for method –B under Step – 7 above i.e. “Test Object Browser”
method
a) Browse the object tree to find the object required to be data-driven.
b) Click on the part of the tree required to be selected. Then Click “Next”.
c) Click on one of the following options.
# “Just the selected object”
# “Include the immediate children of the selected object”

3. # “Include all descendents of the selected object”
d) Click “Finish”.
The Insert Data Driven Actions page opens & presents all the information filled in under
“Data Driven Commands” and “Selected Command Description”.
Step – 10: Click “OK” to finish the data-driving process for the script. This closes the “Insert
Data Driven Actions” page and RFT presents a Datapool containing all the data gathered from
the application.
Step – 11: Perform all other actions in the application, which we want to record. The actions can
be like: Recording a verification point or inserting desired script support functions into the script
such as such as a call script command, log entry, timer, script delay command, or comment etc.
Step – 12: Close the application, if we want closing of the application to be part of the script.
Step – 13: Click on “Stop Recording” on the “Recording” toolbar, to append all the recorded
Information to the test script and update the Datapool with new variables and associated initial
values.
RFT window opens and the recorded script gets displayed in the editor window.
Tutorial by :
http://www.softwaretestinggenius.com