Lets start with examples instead of explaining the theory. See this pseudo code  in an automated test case for an application for entering details in the ‘Enter Address’ screen

{

 AddressLine1.SetText("line1")

 AddressLine2.SetText("line2")

 City.SetText("city")

 Zip.SetText("00000")

 Country.SetText("country")

 SubmitButton.Click

}

Say you need to enter different addresses for different test cases and you have recorded/coded the script for each test case. So you will have to repeat these steps in each of your test cases. To reduce that complexity and effort, what we can do is, create a function and keep this code in that function and pass only the actual address details as parameters to that function for each of those test cases. This is a very simple step towards getting into a framework, called Modular Framework – converting your reusable lines codes into small functions/modules and call them whenever needed.

Function EnterAddress(var Line1,var Line2,var City,var Zip,var Country)
{

 AddressLine1.SetText(Line1)

 AddressLine2.SetText(Line2)

 City.SetText(City)

 Zip.SetText(Zip)

 Country.SetText(Country)

 SubmitButton.Click

}

'And call this function in you test cases with different values passed
for different test cases

Call EnterAddress ("lineOne","lineTwo","MyCity","99999","MyCountry")

Say, now you have been asked to report/log the steps while performing actions on each of the objects in your applications. In the same scenario, if we are implementing reporting/logging, lets see how big the script will become.

{

 AddressLine1.SetText("line1")

 Log ("line1 is entered in the Address Line1 textbox")

 AddressLine2.SetText("line2")

 Log ("line2 is entered in the Address Line2 textbox")

 City.SetText("city")

 Log ("city is entered in the City texbox")

 Zip.SetText("00000")

 Log ("00000 is entered in the Zip texbox")

 Country.SetText("country")

 Log ("country is entered in the Country textbox")

 SubmitButton.Click

 Log(Submit Button is clicked")

}

Think, if you didn’t have a Modular Framework, how big the test suite would become after this ? So with a Modular Framework, the script would look like this –

Function EnterAddress(var Line1,var Line2,var City,var Zip,var Country)
{

 AddressLine1.SetText(Line1)
   Log ( Line1 + " is entered in the Address Line1 textbox")
 AddressLine2.SetText(Line2)
   Log (Line2 + "is entered in the Address Line2 textbox")
 City.SetText(City)
   Log (City + "is entered in the City texbox")
 Zip.SetText(Zip)
   Log (Zip + "is entered in the Zip texbox")
 Country.SetText(Country)
   Log (Country + "is entered in the Country textbox")
 SubmitButton.Click
   Log (Submit Button is clicked")
}

'And call this function in your test cases with different values passed
for different test cases

Call EnterAddress ("lineOne","lineTwo","MyCity","99999","MyCountry")

So with a Modular Framework you could save a lot of time and effort on this. Still your coding effort is more to accomplish the Reporting requirement from your client.

Okay, the next requirement is to check whether the object (text box/button) is present before entering the value or clicking the button. So the code will look like this. (To reduce the complexity of reading, I took one text box for demonstrating the example)

{

If AddressLine1 is present then
    AddressLine1.SetText("line1")
    Log ("line1 is entered in the Address Line1 textbox")
Else
    Log ("Address Line1 textbox is not present and value is not entered")

.....

}

See, with this your test case/suite would become even bigger, if you have to implement this requirement without a framework. You have to write this code for each line of your script. I think, now you have got a fair idea why we need a framework. Lets continue…

Still, you have to repeat the same approach for all the reusable modules in your test suite. Lets go one step further, lets create functions/methods at the object level rather than the reusable functionality level. Like create a method to handle a TextBox, Button etc., to check the existence, entering the value, clicking the button, log the message etc.. ,

Function EnterValueInTextBox(obj TextBoxObject, var value)
{

If TextBoxObject is present then
    TextBoxObject.SetText(value)
    Log (value+ " is entered in the " + TextBoxObjectName +" textbox")
Else
    Log (TextBoxObject + " textbox is not present and " + value + " is not entered")
}

Function ClickButtonObject(obj ButtonObject)
{

If ButtonObjectis present then
    ButtonObject.Click
    Log (ButtonObject + " button is clicked")
Else
    Log (ButtonObject+ " button is not present and not clicked")

}

'And call these functions in your test cases with different values or even objects passed
for different test cases

Call EnterValueInTextBox (AddressLine1, line1)
Call EnterValueInTextBox (AddressLine2, line2)
.
.
.

ClickButtonObject(SubmitButton)

You can use ‘EnterValueInTextBox’ function to enter any value in any text box. Just call this function with the correct text box object and the value to be entered. Same is the case with ‘ClickButtonObject’ method as well.

Now you frame your test cases with this function calls in the order of the actions/steps to be performed using the name of the functions and the values passed, if required. Like  ‘LOGIN’, ‘GO_TO_ADDRESS_PAGE’, ‘ENTER_ADDRESS’ etc.

And that’s how you create a Keyword Driven Framework.

A framework with modules (methods/functions) created for each of the below features are called a Hybrid Framework.

– Object types (HTML or third party controls)

– Test case design via keywords and via scripting

– Simplified test data management

– Customized Reports (Test results)

– Recovery Mechanisms (Recover when the application crashes/test case fails unexpectedly)

– Data driven testing (Executing the same test scenario with multiple sets of test data)

 

 

To be continued…