can captivate work with windows application automate tools

[holicols]

Hi,

I am assigned a task to create demos of some web applications, I do not want to run the application then click and input manually and am willing to use some windows automate tools to record my action first, then capture the screen while doing automation playback.

I've recorded some actions with rational robot, but the playback is freezed while Captivate is recording. If I stop Captivate recording, the automation continues flawlessly.

So my question is whether captivate can work with windows automation tools, if rational robot is not the choice, can anyone give me some suggestions?

Thanks very much!

[CatBandit]

Huh?? I think I'm interested in the concept of "rational robots" (whatever that is) but right now I'm no help because I have no idea what you are talking about ... but I am interested in knowing more, so I'll kkeep peeking in on this thread . . .

Welcome to the Captivate User Community!!

[holicols]

Hi, Larry,

Rational robot is a general-purpose test automation tool ( http://www.ibm.com/software/awdtools/tester/robot/index.html). It can be used to record user input (mouse clicks, keystrokes, etc.) and automatically plays back scripts that emulate user actions interacting with the GUI of applications under test.

There are many other applications doing the same work, including this one which is written by myself 🙂 ( http://swat.sourceforge.net).

Using Captivate with automation tools is an ideal way to create application demos because the automation scripts can be easily created. stored and edited. Once I created an automation script, It can be played as many times as I want.

My purpose is to create demos in the following steps:
1) record user actions interacting with the GUI by an automation tool;
2) edit automation scripts manually to modify something (ie. time interval between some actions)
3) start captivate recording;
4) use the automation tool to play back automation scripts and record the screen by Captivate
5) edit the demo with Captivate
6) finish

But it seems that Captivate is incompatible with all of the automation tools I've tested (not only Captivate, Turbodemo, TechSmith Camtasia Studio are also incompatible). The automation playback is freezed while Captivate is recording. If I stop Captivate recording, the playback continues flawlessly.

I guess it's something related to windows events processing. As you can figure out, the automation tools need to capture all the windows events generated by target applications, it looks like Captivate also captures some windows events of the target application and it prevents automation tools from receiving those events, so the automation playback is freezed.

Thanks for you reply and I am looking forward for soon hearing from you.

[CatBandit]

Hi holicols,
Very cool application - at least, as I now understand it. I noticed the IBM toy is what I'd consider "pricey", but even having said that, I know it is an ignorant statement. To someone whose time in conducting repetitive tasks is being chewed away by pounding a keyboard, I can see how it might be the least expensive hammer in the tool-box. Anyway, back to the issue at hand . . .

I believe you have nailed the problem. It is almost certainly an issue caused by conflicts with Windows event handling. Captivate (and the other apps you mention) are creating image-captures triggered by a perceived "event" resulting in a screen background change. Though I am still ignorant of the inner workings of tools like Rational Robot, it makes sense that with Captivate reading and acting on Windows events to capture images of background changes, and Rational Robot playing back previously recorded events, there almost has to be a natural conflict with Windows event-handler between the two.

Though I'm out of my depth, is it possible you can still benefit from Captivate by leaving RR (or your own tool, "SWAT") in the box while recording with Captivate . . . or by using "manual" capture (force needed image captures by pressing the PrtScr keyboard key) in Captivate to get the background changes needed to create the movie project???

Have a great day - and please forgive my ignorance on this issue!

[holicols]

Thanks Larry for you suggestions.
Since this issue can not be easily resolved, just take it as a feature request and I wish it could be solved in the next release of Captivate. Am I the first one who is too lazy to create demos by manual clicking and inputting? 🙂