Analyze a Recording

Learn more about the Recorder working environment and how to analyze the sample recording from the example test.

The Recorder working environment has four sections:

1. Projects view: Displays all files that are created and managed as part of a test project in a folder hierarchy. For more information, see Ranorex Studio Start page.
2. Module browser: Shows all modules and module groups you can use to build tests. For more information, see Test suite.

3. Action table

   - The steps you record appear as actions in the action table.
   - The table lists the actions in the order you perform them. For more information, see Actions.

4. Repository

   - Repository items represent UI elements in your application under test (AUT)
   - A corresponding repository item references each UI element affected by an action during recording. For more information, see Repository.

Let’s have a closer look at the five actions in the action table. For more information about actions, see Actions.

1. Mouse click action
   - Represents the click into the name text field.
   - The last column of this action contains a reference to the repository item that represents the UI element EnterYourName (the name text field).
2. Key sequence action
   - Represents the text input into the name text field.
   - In our example, Harry is the input, and the UI element EnterYourName is the target UI element.
3. Mouse click action
   - Action #3 represents the click on the Submit button in the Demo App.
   - The Submit button UI element is referenced in the last column by a corresponding repository item.
4. Validation action
   - The test validations are also represented as actions.
   - Ranorex matches the text in the changed welcome message against a reference value.
5. Reset
   - Represents clicking on Reset to reset the welcome message.

Our example consists of four repository items organized into two folders. Each repository item corresponds to a UI element in the application under test. For more information  Repository.

1. Item 1 – EnterYourName
   Represents the name text field of the Demo App.
2. Item 2 – BtnSubmitUserName
   Represents the Submit button of the Demo App.
3. Item 3 – Reset
   This repository item represents the Reset link of the Demo App.
4. Item 4 – LblWelcomeMessage
   Represents the text label that contains the welcome message of the Demo App.

Recorded actions and repository items are managed and stored separately, but they are linked to each other.

The link between actions and repository items is described in Actions & repository items.

1. Actions referencing UI element(s)
   Both the mouse clicks into the name text field (Action #1) and the Harry text input into the name text field (Action #2) affect the same UI element. Therefore, they are both actions are linked to the EnterYourName (Item #1) repository item.
2. Repository item representing a UI element
   - UI elements are represented by repository items.
   - Repository items have a name (e.g., EnterYourName) and a location in the repository (path).

Reference: To learn how to add UI elements to the repository manually, and add actions to a recording that aren’t connected to repository items, watch the video Ranorex Studio Recorder basics 5: Add elements and actions manually