Web Object API

Squish for Web provides a comprehensive API for Web Objects, which is documented here in its entirety. Some of these APIs are also available when testing embedded web browsers in other Squish editions.

Testing custom AJAX/DHTML/JavaScript widgets

The Web Object Extension API explains how to support testing of custom AJAX/DHTML/JavaScript widgets.

Web Object API Functions

Web Object API Classes and Objects

Web Object API Function Parameters

In all the functions listed here that take an objectOrName argument, the argument can be a reference to an object or the name of an object.

Some of the Web Object API functions can take a modifierState argument which indicates which special keys are pressed at the time of a mouse click, and if the right button is clicked. Tthe default is the left button.

The modifierState can be one or more of the following: HTML_Event.AltKey, HTML_Event.ControlKey, HTML_Event.ShiftKey, HTML_Event.RightButton. The form shown here works for Python and JavaScript. For Perl and Ruby replace the period with two colons, e.g., HTML_Event::ControlKey, and for Tcl use the enum function, e.g., enum HTML_Event Control.

The modifierState values can be combined by using bit-wise OR, for example (JavaScript, Perl, JavaScript, Ruby) mouseClick(..., HTML_Event.ShiftKey | HTML_Event.RightButton).

Interacting with Multiple Tabs or Browser Windows

Squish supports interaction with multiple browser windows or tabs for Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Safari on Mac, Google Chrome and Chromium-based Applications at the moment. It uses the concept of an active browser tab to execute clicks in or query object information. So whever the active tab is changed by opening a new tab or window or using the dedicated tab functions provided by Squish for Web the interactions and object lookups will happen in the newly activated tab.

The individual tabs are represented by the BrowserTab Class and can be accessed either through the activeBrowserTab(), browserTabs() or by using multi-property names as described for the BrowserTab Class.

The support for Chromium-based Applications is somewhat limited as Squish can only access the contents of multiple web views inside such an application. If the application allows changing which web views are visible and which ones are hidden - for example because it uses a tab widget to show them - Squish cannot record or replay such changes.

Native Variants of Web Functions

Many of the interaction functions (such as, mouseClick, setText, clickItem, or selectOption) that do not mention native generate events inside the web page on the JavaScript level. Whereas the ones that do mention native generate operating system events.

The native variants need to properly determine the place of the object on the screen, which can be a challenge depending on the browser and web site content. They also require that nobody interacts with the system and disturbs them. The functions that use JavaScript events generally work even if you use the mouse or keyboard for something else.

However, certain interactions are limited by browsers for security reasons, so they must not be triggered from the JavaScript on the web site. Further, the JavaScript-based functions might not be able to replicate the original intent properly. For example setText cannot properly generate keyboard events in JavaScript, so it sets the value of the field and triggers a change event, which is not sufficient to make some web sites aware of the new value.

Synthetic Properties in Web Objects

The objects representing HTML elements in the DOM tree provide access to the common properties and attributes of HTML elements according to HTML standards. In addition to that, they may provide Synthetic Properties for convenience. Most Synthetic Properties in Squish for Web can not be used as part of realnames for looking up web objects, as Squish provides them through a mechanism that is not available directly for object lookup. So for example the HTML_Object.height property cannot be used in realnames. There are some exceptions to this rule noted in the individual property documentation, for example HTML_Object.simplifiedInnerText.

Web Object API Classes and Objects (Tree)

Here are some quick links to the Web Object API's objects and classes (shown in terms of their inheritance hierarchy):

• Browser Object
• BrowserTab Class
• HTML_Object Class
  • HTML_Anchor Class
  • HTML_Array Class
  • HTML_CalendarEvent Class
  • HTML_ColorField Class
  • HTML_CustomButtonBase Class
    • HTML_CustomButton Class
    • HTML_MenuButton Class
  • HTML_CustomCheckbox Class
  • HTML_CustomItem Class
  • HTML_CustomRadioButton Class
  • HTML_DateChooser Class
  • HTML_Document Class
  • HTML_ExpandableSectionHeader Class
  • HTML_Form Class
  • HTML_FormElement Class
    • HTML_ButtonBase Class
      • HTML_Button Class
      • HTML_CheckBox Class
      • HTML_ImageButton Class
      • HTML_RadioButton Class
    • HTML_CustomComboBox Class
    • HTML_CustomItemView Class
      • HTML_CalendarView Class
    • HTML_CustomSelectList Class
    • HTML_CustomText Class
    • HTML_Select Class
    • HTML_TextBase Class
      • HTML_Text Class
      • HTML_TextArea Class
  • HTML_Menu Class
  • HTML_MenuItem Class
  • HTML_Option Class
  • HTML_ProgressBar Class
  • HTML_Style Class
  • HTML_Table Class
  • HTML_Tab Class
  • HTML_TabWidget Class
  • HTML_XPathResult Class
  • JsObject

Deprecated Functions