Record First

A critical best practice when automating with PTF is to record first, and record whenever possible, to drive as much information, including PeopleTools metadata, into the recorded test as possible.

You must assertively record every test step from the test. That is, even if the input fields are already set to the expected value, you must explicitly set or verify that value when recording. The recorder only captures actions that you take against objects during record time. If you skip an object during recording because it is already set to the desired value, the test will ignore it and fail if the default value of the same object is different during runtime.

When you record a date field that includes a calendar object that enables the user to select a date, it is best to explicitly enter the date value in the edit box.

You may need to perform two actions instead of one. For instance, if the test instructions say to select a check box but the check box is already selected, then you will need to pause the recording, deselect the check box, restart the recording, and then select the check box. Alternatively, you could click the check box twice and then delete the extra step from your test.

If you need to add a new step to a test, select the spot in the test where the new step will occur and record the step at the insertion point. Recording a step is more likely to drive accurate information into your test than trying to construct the entire step by editing the fields through the Test Editor.