Silk Test Workbench supports API playback and native playback for Web applications. If your application uses a plug-in or AJAX, use native user input. If your application does not use a plug-in or AJAX, we recommend using API playback.
Advantages of native playback include:
- With native playback, the agent emulates user input by moving the mouse pointer over elements and pressing the corresponding elements. As a result, playback works with most applications without any modifications.
- Native playback supports plug-ins, such as Flash and Java applets, and applications that use AJAX, while high-level API recordings do not.
Advantages of API playback include:
- With API playback, the Web page is driven directly by DOM events, such as
onmouseover or
onclick.
- Scripts that use API playback do not require that the browser be in the foreground.
- Scripts that use API playback do not need to scroll an element into view before clicking it.
- Generally API scripts are more reliable since high-level user input is insensitive to pop-up windows and user interaction during playback.
- API playback is faster than native playback.
You can use the
Options dialog box to configure the types of functions to record and whether to use native user input.
Differences Between API and Native Playback Functions
The
DomElement class provides different functions for API playback and native playback.
The following table describes which functions use API playback and which use native playback.
|
API Playback
|
Native Playback
|
Mouse Actions
|
DomClick
DomDoubleClick
DomMouseMove
|
Click
DoubleClick
MoveMouse
PressMouse
ReleaseMouse
|
Keyboard Actions
|
not available
|
TypeKeys
|
Specialized Functions
|
Select
SetText
etc.
|
not available
|