Name Mapping dynamic objects for desktop app

Question

How to use Name Mapping in TestComplete UI objects for desktop applications?

Answer 1

For dynamic objects its better to avoid Namemapping and rely on inbuild methods like Find(), FindChild(), FindAllChildren(), etc.

Answer 2

I don't use Namemapping because I have a similar problem to you, where the form names in the desktop application I test change constantly. What I did was create a separate script called 'Helper Funcs'. In that, I have two functions:

function findControl(module, propertyName, propertyValue) : Object;
var
  m_process : Variant;
begin
  m_process := Sys.Process(module);  
  Result := m_process.Find(propertyName, propertyValue, 1000); 
end;

function findChildControl(parent : Object, propertyName, propertyValue) :  Object;
var 
  m_result : variant;
begin
  Result := parent.FindChild(propertyName, propertyValue, 1000);
end;

To use:

uses HelperFuncs;

procedure Test1;
var

  frmActionForm_1 : variant;
  edNewComplex : variant;  

begin


frmActionForm_1 := findControl('Payroll', 'Caption', 'Company Address Details - Edit');

  Delay(4000);

  edNewComplex := findChildControl(frmActionForm_1, 'ObjectIdetifier', 'edNewComplex');

  Delay(4000);

  edNewComplex.Click(76, 11);

end;

In the above example, frmActionForm_1 is a form, edNewComplex is a control on the form. When funning the test, I search for the caption of the form, which is 'Company Address Details - Edit'.

Once the form is found, I search the child components of the form using findChildControl.

For the child components, I just use the name of the object. That I get by either using their Object Finding tool or I record a test and convert to script. It will usually have all the names of the objects you interacted with in the recording.

Good Luck.

Seth