TestComplete Tip: Testing Web Pages in Netscape Navigator

Netscape Navigator ver. 8 can display web pages using Firefox’s or Internet Explorer’s rendering engine. When the Internet Explorer engine is used, TestComplete’s WebTesting plug-in is able to provide a scripting interface to web pages shown in Netscape Navigator.

You can select the engine in the following ways:

• By selecting View | Rendering engine | Display Page Like Internet Explorer from the main menu of Netscape Navigator.
• By selecting the desired engine from the status bar of the Netscape Navigator window:
  

• You can open the Tools | Options dialog, click Site Controls and in dialog set the Internet Explorer engine as the default rendering engine for the desired web sites.

Tip: You can record a script that will activate the Internet Explorer engine and execute this script at the beginning of the test run.

Once you select the Internet Explorer rendering engine, TestComplete can access the web page’s elements and their properties. Since the Internet Explorer engine is used, the testing procedures are very similar to the testing procedures you use for Internet Explorer. The only difference is the way that you obtain the Page object. For Netscape Navigator, you will have to go through a long hierarchy of the NS_AE_WindowClass windows:

The following sample code demonstrates how to obtain the Page object for Netscape Navigator:

‘ [VBScript]<br />‘ Obtains the process<br />Set p = Sys.Process(“netscape”)<br />‘ Obtains the window<br />Set w = p.Window(“NS_AE_WindowClass”, “PAGE_TITLE – Netscape Browser”, 2).Window(“NS_AE_WindowClass”, “”, 1).Window(“NS_AE_WindowClass”, “”, 3).Window(“NS_AE_WindowClass”, “”, 1).Window(“NS_AE_WindowClass”, “”, 1).Window(“NS_AE_WindowClass”, “”, 1).Window(“NS_AE_WindowClass”, “”, 1).Window(“Shell Embedding”, “”, 1).Window(“Shell DocObject View”, “”, 1).Window(“Internet Explorer_Server”, “”, 1)<br />‘ Obtains the Page object<br />Set Pg = w.Page(“https://www.MyURL.com”)<br />

After you obtain Page object, you can simulate user actions the same way you would for web pages shown in Internet Explorer. Since the Internet Explorer rendering engine is selected, the structure of tested objects that is shown below the Page node in the Object Browser coincides with the structure of tested objects, which TestComplete will use for web page elements shown in Internet Explorer.