Structure for How-tos

Introduction

This document explains the general structure of the how-tos for creating custom actions.

How-to Introduction

In the introduction of each how-to, you find a description of what the how-to will explain and in which situation it applies. It also states that you must create a new action. You use this action during the how-to. You must perform all the steps inside this action during the how-to unless stated otherwise.

The introduction also tells you what type of action the how-to explains. The how-tos are written based on the guidelines for building a custom action.

How-to Prerequisites

All of the how-tos have the prerequisite that you must read and if necessary complete the General section.

User Approach

After the prerequisites, you must define the user approach. The user approach has four different questions that you can answer. For each type of custom action, there is a question.

How Do You Cover the Functionality?

How you cover the functionality relates to a combined action. The term functionality can cover many widgets. The answer leads to what you must do to complete the functionality.

How Do You Interact with the Widget?

How you interact with a widget relates to an unsupported widget action. The answer leads to what you must do to trigger the widget.

How Do You Find the Widget?

How you find the widget relates to a search context action. The answer leads to what you must use to find an element surrounding your widget.

What Do I Want to Do?

What you want to do relates to a function action. The answer leads to what code you must use to perform what you want to do.

Action Structure

ATS is a functional testing tool, and it simulates a user. To ensure that ATS also acts like a user, you must create a structure of actions based on the user approach. This way you know for certain that ATS walks through the widget or functionality like a user.

Parameters

After creating the action structure, you must create and connect the necessary parameters to the actions. There is a naming convention that you must follow in most situations. There is a how-to for the basics of creating a custom action.

Final Check

Perform a final check to pick up on mistakes before using the action.

Add Logic

Some how-tos have an additional section that explains how to add logic to your action (“logic” in this scenario means adding conditional checks to ensure that the action works in a certain situation). This depends on the situation.