Handling object identification failure of Functional Tester on a successfully enabled Internet Explorer browser

Functional Tester is an object-oriented automated testing tool that tests HTML, Java Dojo, Ajax, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft .NET, Microsoft Silverlight, Microsoft Visual Basic, SAP, Siebel, Flex, GEF, and PowerBuilder applications that run on Microsoft Windows or Linux operating systems.
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In this blog, we shall discuss how to overcome the object identification failure on a successfully enabled Internet Explorer (IE) browser. 

​While automating the application, you might experience an object identification failure even after successfully enabling the browser and Java software. 
 
The symptoms of object identification failure are as follows: 

• When you try to capture/record the object on a webpage, the functional tester would capture only the browser document object and not the inner objects. 
• The functional tester captures only the outer object during recording. However, the script would be empty. 

For the successful identification of a test object, the browser should be enabled. 

IE browser is considered as enabled when the Functional Tester and Java add-ons are enabled in the browser settings and the browser test gets PASSED. 

If the add-ons are not enabled, perform the following steps to enable the browser add-ons and do a browser test from Functional Tester.
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​1.  Enable the Java software and the browser from Functional Tester. 
​2.  Enable the browser add-ons if they aren’t enabled already as shown in the screenshot. 

Object identification will fail even after enabling the add-ons and the browser test gets PASSED. 

This behavior is observed when the user logged in to the system doesn't have write permissions to the Functional Tester installation directory and its workspace folders.  
To overcome the object identification failure, you must clear the read-only properties from the following folders: 

• Functional Tester installation folder (C:\Program Files) 
• Functional Tester workspace folders 

If the user doesn't have permissions to provide write access to the directories present in C:\ drive, you must install the functional tester in another drive where the user has read and write access.  

This behavior is observed in the following environments; however, you might experience the same behavior in other functional testing environments too. 

• Functional Tester 9.1.1.1 
• JRE: 1.7 
• Windows Server 2012 R2 
• Internet Explorer 11 

Vijayakumar Pandi
​Technical Lead

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Vijayakumar Pandi is a Technical Lead for Functional Tester and Test Workbench suite of products, working with global teams and delivering L2 technical assistance focused on application functional testing. Vijayakumar Pandi is with HCL Technologies, Products and Platforms division, as part of the IBM and HCL partnership to develop and support Test Workbench suite of products.