Prerequisites to running Web UI tests

Before you can run a Web UI test, you must complete the prerequisite tasks.

You can find the following information about the prerequisite tasks:

For Apple® Safari®: Ensure that you have manually enabled the browser for recording Web UI tests. For instructions, see Enabling Apple Safari for Web UI tests on macOS.
Starting with 9.1.1, you can run a test that was recorded in Google Chrome Device Mode. This allows you to emulate tests of web apps on mobile devices. See Recording a test with Google Chrome Device Mode and Running a test recorded in Google Chrome Device Mode.
Also starting with 9.1.1, you can play back tests in Chrome Headless Mode. This allows you to run tests in an automated testing environment where a visible user interface shell is not required. See Running tests in the headless mode.
Starting with 9.2.1, you can use industry-standard mobile browsers, such as Chrome and Safari, to run Web UI tests for mobile web applications. You can run tests with Chrome on Android devices and emulators and with Safari on iOS devices and simulators.
Note: If you want to run a test on Chrome, you must have installed the appropriate version of Chrome driver for the UI Test Agent. For more information on the Chrome driver, see https://chromedriver.chromium.org/ and Troubleshooting issues.

Additional information about browsers

To use a specific browser profile for the test, see Using alternate browser profile for test playback.

You can run a Web UI test in the same web browser that was used for the recording or run the test in other web browsers. You can even run a Web UI test in several browsers simultaneously. You can also run the test as part of keyword execution from IBM® Engineering Test Management, as part of compound test, or from the Command Line Interface (CLI).

You can run a test that was recorded in Google Chrome Device Mode. This allows you to emulate tests of web apps on mobile devices. See Recording a test with Google Chrome Device Mode and Running a test recorded in Google Chrome Device Mode. You can also play back tests in Chrome Headless Mode. This allows you to run tests in an automated testing environment where a visible user interface shell is not required. See Running tests in the headless mode.

You can play back the Web UI tests by using browsers such as Microsoft Edge Chromium and Opera browsers on computers that are running on Windows or Mac operating systems.

Note: When you install the Opera browser on your computer, you must select All users on this computer in the Install for drop-down list. Otherwise, the Opera browser is not displayed in the list of browsers that are available for selection to play back the Web UI tests.

When you run a test, the steps in the test looks for the UI objects over and over again until they get the object or timeout. For example, if the step is to click a button with the name Submit, the test will look for the button with that name. If the name of the button changed, the test will keep looking for the button and then timeout. By default, the timeout is set to 10s. You can modify this value for the steps or at the test level. If you modify the timeout value in the step, that value takes precedence over the timeout value specified at the test level.

Web UI tests that were recorded in Internet Explorer, Firefox or Chrome can be played back with the Microsoft Edge browser, but you cannot record them in Microsoft Edge.

Note: If a test includes an action to open a new browser window from the existing window and the URL or the title of the new browser window changes dynamically at every run time and does not matches with the one in the test, the playback of the test fails. If either the URL or the title of the new browser window is constant, use that in the test and remove the other one. For example, if the URL dynamically changes at run time but the title of the window remains same, ensure that the test only includes the title of the window.