Recording a Journey

The UI Recorder captures activity that is executed against a web UI, either by a manual tester of automated test.

The UI Recorder records “Journeys” through a UI, that are equivalent to tests. The recordings contain everything needed for automated testing: interactions with the application, the data entered, any message traffic generated, and the console activity. This information is stored and modelled in the VIP Test Modeller, where it can be analysed or overlaid onto logical models of the system under test. This allows you to automatically generate an optimised set of automated tests from the model.

Journeys are recorded as part of a “Session” that is then uploaded to a given “Context” in The VIP Test Modeller. This enables you to easily roll-back to previous recordings stored in a given Context, repeating a set of interactions as automated tests.

Note: You should record each individual test as its own individual Session, and each Session should be uploaded individually to The VIP Test Modeller. This reduces the amount of model editing required later. The process is as follows:

1. Record an individual test as a Session.
2. Upload the Session to The VIP Test Modeller.
3. Reset the UI Recorder.
4. Record the next test.
5. Upload the Session to The VIP Test Modeller.
6. Once you have recorded every test, import the activity to models in The VIP Test Modeller.

To record a test, navigate to the web UI under test. Next, open the VIP Test Modeller Explorer extension, log in, and select the relevant workspace, project, and release.

Click the “start” button in the main panel of the VIP Test Modeller Explorer to begin recording the Session:

The VIP Test Modeller Explorer icon will turn red to indicate that it is recording. To record activity once the recorder is running, simply execute the manual test as normal, or run the automated test or bot.

The UI Recorder will provide notifications of what is being recorded and how that interaction is being tagged:

When you have finished recording the test, navigate to the VIP Test Modeller Explorer icon to open the menu. Click “Stop” and the recording will end. The VIP Test Modeller Explorer will report the number of interactions recorded, and the recording time:

You can now review, edit and upload the Session. Once you have uploaded the session, click “Reset” before recording your next test.

Recording can also be paused in the VIP Test Modeller Explorer menu. If you pause a recording and click “Start”, further activity will be recorded as part of the same session. If you stop a recording and click “Start”, a new session will be created and previous activity will be lost.

The “Reset” button also deletes recorded activity.