Configuring Object Identification

QuickTest has a predefined set of properties that it learns for each test object. If these mandatory property values are not sufficient to uniquely identify an object you record or add, QuickTest can add some assistive properties and/or an ordinal identifier to create a unique description.

Mandatory properties are properties that QuickTest always learns for a particular test object class.

Assistive properties are properties that QuickTest learns only if the mandatory properties that QuickTest learns for a particular object in your application are not sufficient to create a unique description. If several assistive properties are defined for an object class, then QuickTest learns one assistive property at a time, and stops as soon as it creates a unique description for the object. If QuickTest does learn assistive properties, those properties are added to the test object description.

Note: If the combination of all defined mandatory and assistive properties is not sufficient to create a unique test object description, QuickTest also learns the value for the selected ordinal identifier.

When you run a component, QuickTest searches for the object that matches the description it learned (without the ordinal identifier). If it cannot find any object that matches the description, or if it finds more than one object that matches, QuickTest uses the Smart Identification mechanism (if enabled) to identify the object. In many cases, a Smart Identification definition can help QuickTest identify an object, if it is present, even when the learned description fails due to changes in one or more property values. The test object description is used together with the ordinal identifier only in cases where the Smart Identification mechanism does not succeed in narrowing down the object candidates to a single object.

You use the Object Identification dialog box (Tools > Object Identification) to configure the mandatory, assistive, and ordinal identifier properties that QuickTest uses to learn descriptions of the objects in your application, and to enable and configure the Smart Identification mechanism.

The Object Identification dialog box also enables you to configure new user-defined classes and map them to an existing test object class so that QuickTest can recognize objects from your user-defined classes when you run your component.