1.0 Field of the Invention
This invention relates to testing software, and in particular, this invention relates to a method, system and article of manufacture for testing software applications that have a text-based screen with a test tool for testing software applications that have a graphical user interface that uses objects.
2.0 Description of the Related Art
Computer systems execute many software applications. A software application can comprise millions of lines of code. Therefore, it is important for organizations that develop software applications to test their software applications prior to selling that software to customers.
A test tool is a type of software application that is used to test other software applications. The test tool helps an organization to ensure the quality of a software application.
Some test tools are designed to test software applications that provide a graphical user interface in which the objects on the graphical user interface are Java® (Registered trademark of SUN Microsystems, Inc.) objects. One such test tool is the IBM® (Registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation) Rational® (Registered trademark of Rational Software Corporation) XDE tester™, also referred to as the IBM® Rational® Functional Tester. Many software applications for mainframe computers have a text-based screen as a user interface, and do not have a graphical user interface which comprises Java objects. A user interacts with those software applications using the text-based screen. The text-based screen comprises cells which are organized into rows and columns. Each cell is typically associated with a character. Therefore, test tools which are designed to test software applications which have a graphical user interface with Java objects cannot be used to test software application that has a text-based screen. Organizations which develop software applications having a text-based screen and software applications having a graphical user interface with Java objects typically use two different test tools—one test tool for software applications having the text-based screen and another test tool for the software applications having a graphical user interface with Java objects. However, using two different test tools is more expensive than a using a single test tool.
Therefore there is a need to allow a single test tool to test software applications that have a text-based screen and software applications that have a graphical user interface with Java objects.