Introduction to UFT

HPE acquired the Quick Test Professional (QTP) in 2006 as part of its purchase of Mercury Interactive. UFT is formerly known as QTP. As a part of acquisition QTP and Service test were two separate tools. Later in 2012 HP combined QTP and Service Test and named it as Unified Functional Test (UFT). In 2016 September, HPE (Hewlett Packard Enterprise) merged software business with “Micro Focus” a UK based software company. From then UFT is officially a Micro Focus Product. Hence we can download UFT trial version only from “Micro Focus” website provided below and not from HP website.

• https://software.microfocus.com/en-us/products/unified-functional-automated-testing/overview

Advantages of using UFT in Automation projects:The following are the different advantages we get on using the UFT tool for Test Automation:

• UFT=QTP + Service Test + Mobile Automation.
• UFT is the only automation tool which can support all types of applications such as Desktop, Web and Mobile applications.
• Selenium tool took over on Web application automation, but there is no 100% replacement for UFT for Desktop application automation.
• We have many others tool in markets which can support Desktop applications automation such as Ranorex, Sikuli, Auto IT, Test Complete and so on. None of the above-mentioned tools are as much as reliable as UFT.
• UFT has rich object identification mechanism such as Smart object identification and Visual relationship object identification methods to identify object.
• UFT has its own IDE to develop automation scripts. VBScript is the only scripting language which UFT can supports.
• UFT is the best Automation tool to start your carrier as an Automation engineer as it is easy to learn with minimum or no coding knowledge.
• If you are working in a Process testing where you have to interact with Web applications and Desktop applications, you are advised to use UFT.

Using LeanFT plugin with UFT: The below points will give you more details on LeanFT plugin:

• LeanFT was introduced in UFT 12.5 version and is a part of UFT licenses.
• Using LeanFT we can develop automation scripts using object-oriented programming languages like Java/C#.
• LeanFT is a plugin for Visual Studio/Myeclipse IDE.
• We need to install my eclipse (for Java)/ Visual Studio (for C#) IDE prior to installing LeanFT plugin.
• We also get object spying capabilities and Object repository capabilities using LeanFT automation model
• We don’t need a separate tool to develop and run LeanFT tests as it comes with plugins for IDEs such as Eclipse and Microsoft Visual Studio.

Conclusion: Though we have several tools in the market for automating different types of Applications, we can use QTP/UFT for any of the below cases:

• When the Client requirement is to automate Desktop Applications
• When the Client requirement is to automate the Application across Web, Mobile and Desktop combinataion
• For easier Automation using the options provided by QTP/UFT

Please leave your questions/comments/feedback below.

Happy Learning 🙂

Rajan Domala (www.QAFox.com)
Contact me at (LinkedIn Profile)