Ranorex Forum

Dear All,
I do have some questions regarding best practices working with Ranorex and SAP. Is there anybody who has experience using Ranorex for SAP Automation and if yes, what challenges did you face?
We’re currently in the requirements gathering phase for test automation and I like Ranorex so far the most for what we want to do, however I’ve used Ranorex previously only in the web-area and not for ERP-Systems. Therefore I have some concerns which I’m sure you can take away from me very easily.

I’m worried most about
• Maintainability

For any process changes in SAP, how much rework will be generated on the test automation side?

• Data Sources

I’m not sure if Excel “Data Sets” will be the most sufficient when we do have a data warehouse in place?

• Complexity to automate which does not result in a ROI

During the requirements gathering, I’ve often seen the “human component”, which makes decisions and I already expected more than just using the record and play, but I don’t want to have a too static solution which needs lot of maintenance in the end – which sort of refers to the first point
Nether the less, I’d like to tackle all this issues using Ranorex. If somebody already has more knowledge I would appreciate, if you share it 

Thank you very much & Best Regards,
Freddy

Hello Freddy,

Thank you for your question. It highly depends on the process changes and how you've designed your test. In order to discuss your problems in more detail I would suggest continue communicating via e-mail. Please send your request to [email protected]. My colleagues will be happy to answer your questions and help you with your POC.

Regards,
Bernhard

Hello

I was in the exact place where you are right now. Had to choose an automation framework that would meet the SAP requirements as well as all the other common requirements (eg. web testing etc).

Regarding automation for SAP - best choice in my opinion IS Ranorex. 2 main reasons: fantastic competability regarding SAP as well as having a great tool for other automation needs.

The main issue I faced is getting the SAP environments automation compatible. For me to find out the requirements took some time as the documentation on this part is lacking. BUT - now as i have done this i can tell you exactly what you need. In short words a parameter for SAP BE needs to be set, a paremeter for WebDynpro automation needs to be set and client side scripting needs to be installed. Without the parameter WebDynpro will have some generated Id's for web page objects which aren't static.

About Data connectors. You are wide open to choose your own if Ranorex doesn't meet the requirements with a feature. Ranorex is based on .NET and you are free to add functionality with C# or VB.

About automation complexity. It all comes down to what rights you have in SAP. (Meaning if you have a developer key or not and if you are free to add functionality if needed). So far there hasn't been anything that i haven't been able to overcome. For our automation purposes we actually automate test as well as some time consuming business side tasks. And i have no developer rights for our SAP setup meaning that i work in the extent of existing functionality.

If you have any questions or would like to get some more info feel free to send me a PM directly.

Hello Martin, Hello Bernhard,

thank you very much for your replies. I will contact Ranorex Evaluation once we have the scope outlined for our POC. I would like to discuss certain approaches with your team, but at this stage I’m still gathering all information and guess it doesn’t make sense to include you right away.

@Martin: I’ll definitely come back to you, for issues I’m facing during SAP Automation. Your input in regards of WebDynpro is already very valuable – seems like I would have searched for the cause of this for a longer period.
Maybe some further details on the automation complexity, the idea of automation is that we first focus on the “time consuming business side tasks” and then take another step and automate tests.
We will have end-to-end scenario tests, which should interact like multiple teams working from first contact with a customer until the payment closing.
The automation will be then featured during our big releases and should eventually become something, which happens more frequently. However – this is still an idea and might be adjusted once we know more about complexity.

Can you share some thoughts on obstacles that you have faced during the gathering of requirements and how did you document them without causing too much overhead. This is something I’m still a bit worried about.

Thank you very much upfront & Best Regards,
Freddy

Hey Freddy

To be honest, I didn't have to document much of the research process for a new automation framework. My thoughts on this matter were taken as it was. So on this matter I probably cannot give you much input.

But on the other hand - obstacles I faced, were more related to other frameworks not being compatible enough.

But to be honest, the time it takes to start with the automation solution after Ranorex was chosen for me was half a day.

My previous post probably covers most (if not all) the requirements on SAP side. And I haven't met anything on SAP side yet that cannot be handled through Ranorex. I faced issues related to SAP and it's functionality itself. But as I said - nothing that cannot be overcome by Ranorex.

Feel free to contact me at any time