nexial-core 4.0 (2021-06-12)

Release 4.0

2021-06-12

General

Fixes

• FIXED: screen recording (i.e. base » startRecording()) now accurately determine the screen resolution of the active monitor during recording.
• minor improvements on execution output (HTML) to remove unnecessary escaping of double quotes.

  Improvements

• console output margin changed from 80 to 100 characters to reduce line wrapping, possibly improve readability.

Interactive

• Option 1 (1 <script>) now supports loading of test script without path. Assume such script is located in the artifact/script directory of the current project.
• Option 2 (2 <data>) now supports data file without path. Assume such data file is located in the artifact/data directory of the current project.
• increase current display margin from 80 characters to 100 characters to reduce line wrapping occurrence, and thus possibly improve readability
• activity listing now merged into single line to reduce generating too many lines on console.

System Variables

• nexial.desktop.explicitWait: NEW System variable to support explicit wait for desktop automation. Currently, only supports the **Locator() desktop commands.
  • added optimistic retry logic during explicit waits to reduce test flakiness.
• nexial.desktop.simulateClick: NEW System variable to simulate mouse click rather than using actual one. Such feature allows for one to automate clicks without waiting for the target component to complete the corresponding event handling.
• nexial.web.explicitWait: NEW System variable to replace now-deprecated nexial.web.alwaysWait System variable. Both serves the same purpose except that nexial.web.explicitWait defaults to `true.
• nexial.browser.chrome.enableExtension: NEW System variable to allow chrome extensions to be installed during automation. Installation of a chrome extension must be performed manually at this time.

base commands

• assertEqual(expected,actual): avoid long-running comparison between text with regex-typed characters.
• assertContains(text,substring): properly consider empty text comparison.

desktop commands

• selectCombo(name,text):
  • performance improvement when target combo element contains no selection.
  • collapse dropdown after the appropriate selection is made.

• Table/Grid improvements:

  • clickTableRow(row):
    • stability improvement when requested row does not exist in the current table component.
    • accuracy improvement by considering [COLUMN].format information in the "extra" section of the “autoscanned” JSON file.
  • clickFirstMatchRow(nameValues): performance improvement to find matching row over multiple column criterion.
  • saveTableRows(var,contains,csv): improve accuracy by omitting the last/not-yet-exist row.
  • assertTableCell(row,column,contains): code fix to properly consider empty text comparison.
  • editTableCells(row,nameValues):
    • fixed logical error when editing an empty table with no rows created.
    • when the last column is provided by some shortcuts as the last keystroke sequence, Nexial will perform the shortcut keystrokes but will not forward to the subsequent column even if nexial.desktop.table.tabAfterEdit is set to true
    • performance improvement during editing of data grid cells, when the target cell contains the same data as in the parameter
    • special handling of checkboxes, especially when they are placed at the end of a row.
    • improvement on checkbox fields to eliminate unnecessary clicks and mouse movements.
    • account for row(s) that are not currently visible within the bounds of the corresponding table.
  • performance improvement during scanning or fetching data from a data grid when it contains no rows:
    • saveTableRows(var,contains,csv)
    • assertTableColumnContains(column,contains)
    • saveAllTableRows(var,csv)
    • assertTableContains(contains)
  • focusFirstTableRow: NEW command to put focus on and select the first row of the current table.
  • focusLastTableRow: NEW command to put focus on and select the last row of the current table.

• Checkbox improvements:

  • check(name): NEW command to check a Checkbox component only if it is currently unchecked.
  • uncheck(name): NEW command to uncheck a Checkbox component only if it is currently checked.
  • checkByLocator(locator): NEW command to check a Checkbox component only if it is currently unchecked.
  • uncheckByLocator(locator): NEW command to uncheck a Checkbox component only if it is currently checked.

• Improved support on autoscanned JSON via the “extra” section:

  • support the use of nexial.desktop.useTypeKeys for any TextBox element; this configuration should be set in the "extra" section of the corresponding JSON document.
  • assertText(name,expected): handling of combo element when no selection is made.
  • FIX: properly translate newline characters so that they are reflected in the type* commands:
    • typeAppendTextArea(name,text1,text2,text3,text4)
    • typeAppendTextBox(name,text1,text2,text3,text4)
    • typeTextArea(name,text1,text2,text3,text4)
    • typeTextBox(name,text1,text2,text3,text4)
  • support the reformatting of component value via the “extra” section of the corresponding JSON configuration.
    • for example, the following reformat a “number with the thousand separator” to a plain number:

      "Field 1": {
        "type": "DesktopElement",
        "xpath": "/*[... ...]",
        ... ...
        "extra": {
          "format": "[#,###,##0.00],[0.00]"
        },... ...
      }, ... ...
      

    • for example, the following reformat a “date with time” to just date:

      "Field 12: {
        "type": "DesktopElement",
        "xpath": "/*[... ...]",
        ... ...
        "extra": {
          "format": "[M/d/yyyy h:m:s a],[MM/dd/yyyy]"
        },... ...
      }, ... ...
      

  • support the clicking of an input element prior to typing on it via [nexial.desktop.clickBeforeEdit], which can either be configured as part of the target element’s extra section, or as a System variable. Impacted commands are:
    • sendKeysToTextBox(name,text1,text2,text3,text4)
    • typeAppendTextArea(name,text1,text2,text3,text4)
    • typeAppendTextBox(name,text1,text2,text3,text4)
    • typeTextArea(name,text1,text2,text3,text4)
    • typeTextBox(name,text1,text2,text3,text4)
  • nexial.desktop.explicitWait: NEW System variable to support explicit wait for desktop automation. Currently, only supports the **Locator() desktop commands.
    • added optimistic retry logic during explicit waits to reduce test flakiness.
  • nexial.desktop.simulateClick: NEW System variable to simulate mouse click rather than using actual one. Such feature allows for one to automate clicks without waiting for the target component to complete the corresponding event handling.
• implemented auto-retries for both implicit and explicit wait scenarios to reduce occurrence of flaky tests.
  • clickByLocator(locator)
  • typeByLocator(locator,text)

web commands

• openInTab(name,url): NEW command to open an url in another tab.
• switchBrowser(profile,config): fixes for switching between multiple headless browsers.
• minor logging improvements.
• reduce logging during webdriver initialization.
• browser performance metrics:
  • upgrade to ChartJS 3.3: vulnerability fix
  • realign the commands from which browser performance tracking should be made
• clickByLabel(label): improved implementation by supporting case-insensitive matching.
• remove commands due to unsupported/non-working underlying JavaScript:
  • web.scrollElement(locator,xOffset,yOffset): use scrollTo(locator) or scrollPage(xOffset,yOffset) instead
  • web.scrollLeft(locator,pixel): use scrollTo(locator) or scrollPage(xOffset,yOffset) instead
  • web.scrollRight(locator,pixel): use scrollTo(locator) or scrollPage(xOffset,yOffset) instead
• nexial.web.explicitWait: NEW System variable to replace now-deprecated nexial.web.alwaysWait System variable. Both serves the same purpose except that nexial.web.explicitWait defaults to `true.
• nexial.browser.chrome.enableExtension: NEW System variable to allow chrome extensions to be loaded during automation. Setting nexial.browser.chrome.enableExtension to true will enable the installation and loading Chrome extensions.

webmail commands

• read(var,profile,id): fix minor runtime errors when automating mailinator webmail service.
• improved extraction of “clickable” links on mailinator mails.
• improved/reduced harvested text content from webmail.
• search(var,profile,searchCriteria,duration): support the search of all messages via setting searchCriteria as (empty).

ws commands

• enable custom HTTP response handling to support the fetching of response content even when the corresponding status code is 204 or 205. Useful for testing non-conformant API endpoint.
• oauth(var,url,auth): add URL encoding to request parameters during OAUTH token exchange.