Automation Capabilities PowerBuilder to Java migration

[tapas]

Hello everyone,

Exploring automation eligibility for PowerBuilder Applications that will be converted to Java like for like.

Questions: Can we record/play test cases in PB which can be reused / or tweaked to accommodate in a Java app equivalent?

[odklizec]

Hi,

In my opinion, the xpaths recorded for PB-based app will be different from Java equivalent, even if the GUI of both apps look the same. So basically, the recorded actions might still be useful, but you will most probably have to adapt the recorded xpaths to make them working with Java-based app.

[tapas]

Thanks a lot for your response. But I think that would be lot of work if I understood it correctly. If I need to change xpath for each object, it would take time. We are targetting 20/25 application. Each application has 30/40 testcases.

Is there any other alternative ? I am just trying to reduce the amount of rework.

Thanks in advance.

[odklizec]

Hi,

No, I don't think there is an alternative way of editing all repo elements xpaths. There is definitely no automatic xpath update/conversion tool to do this for you. The amount of manual work depends on the structure of JAVA app as well as the structure of original repository created for PB app. If you are using a nicely structured repo with rooted folders, it may be somewhat easier to edit just the rooted folder xpaths? You may even be able to edit the xpaths by direct editing (via find/replace) of *.rxrep file since it's just a plain xml file. But you see, without seeing at least a snapshot from the original PB app and reworked Java app + some xpath examples from the original repo, it's really hard to say how much work is in front of you