SWTBot Vs WindowTester

[aleem]

Hello

I feel WindowTester is simply an extension of the open source tool SWTBot. It provides almost similar feature set with some enhancements. (See the site for SWTBot: http://swtbot.sourceforge.net/index.html). Difference between the two is subtle. Can you please elaborate on that?

Further when we can expect the addition of JUnit4 support in WindowTester?

Regards
Aleem

[Phil Quitslund]

Hi Aleem,

WindowTester by design is intended to be a bit higher level than the 'Bot approach (such as the AWT Robot, Abbot and SWTBot). The distinction is a essentially like that between JFace and SWT. WindowTester is to JFace as Bots are to SWT. Where this is particularly noticeable is in WindowTester's implementation of a "managed runtime" which allows us to do some interesting things with condition monitoring. See the Shell Monitor docs for an example of this approach in action:

http://downloads.instantiations.com/WindowTesterDoc/integration/latest/docs/html/reference/javadoc/com/windowtester/runtime/swt/condition/shell/IShellMonitor.html

We've found that this mechanism is really handy in writing robust tests.

Similarly, using conditions and handlers in our new ensureThat(..) clauses makes for robust and communicative test setup:

http://downloads.instantiations.com/WindowTesterDoc/integration/latest/docs/html/reference/javadoc/com/windowtester/runtime/IUIContext.html#ensureThat(com.windowtester.runtime.condition.IConditionHandler)

To get a sense for how this all fits into our test writing philosophy you might skim the runtime core docs:

http://downloads.instantiations.com/WindowTesterDoc/integration/latest/docs/html/programmer/core/index.html

The runtime is also meant to be user-extensible. Pointers for how this can be done are here:

http://downloads.instantiations.com/WindowTesterDoc/continuous/latest/docs/html/programmer/core/Creating%20a%20Custom%20Locator.html

Moreover, a growing body of examples is being collected in our Open Source Commons project here:

http://code.google.com/p/wt-commons/

Beyond the runtime, WT ships with a fully featured recorder which can be used to generate tests that interact with and make assertions against an existing SWT/GEF/Swing application.

http://downloads.instantiations.com/WindowTesterDoc/continuous/latest/docs/html/ui/index.html

Lastly, you asked about JUnit4. We plan to support JUnit4 as soon as the Eclipse Test Framework fully supports it. Something we hope to see real soon!

https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=153429

I hope this starts to answer you questions. If not, feel free to follow up. Thanks!


-phil

[Eric Clayberg]

I feel WindowTester is simply an extension of the open source tool SWTBot.

That could not be further from the truth. WindowTester predates SWTBot by a very ling time and is substantially more sophisticated in terms of what it can do.

It provides almost similar feature set with some enhancements

WindowTester provides much more complete support for the full range of SWT widgets as well as JFace & RCP components and GEF-based apps.

It also includes a very powerful recording tool that will generate the GUI test code for you. That by itself will save you a tremendous amount of time.