Tosca XScan view options

Your application has various "controls", which are screen elements that Tosca Cloud interacts with in your tests. For example, buttons, text fields, menus, table cells, and so on.

To get the required technical information on these controls into Tosca Cloud, you need to scan your application. This creates modules, which are the building blocks of your tests.

In this topic, we'll take you through the Tosca XScan interface.

View options

The Tosca XScan scan interface offers different views. You can use the scan's ribbon menu to switch between views at any time, depending on what works best for you in the moment:

  • Advanced View is our recommended view, especially if you're dealing with more extensive user interfaces and/or nested controls. You can drill down into detailed views of your controls and their structure, filter for specific control types, or choose different identification methods for controls.

  • Basic View is best when you have small user interfaces with simple controls. In this view, you can only identify controls by properties.

  • Condensed View is best when the scan window is in your way and you only want a minimized version. In this view, you can only identify controls by properties.

Ribbon menu options

Depending on the view you're in, the ribbon menu offers different options:

Advanced View is our recommended view for scanning, since it works with all degrees of complexity in your application.

When you open the view, scan mode is already active, so you can go straight to choosing your controls. To do that, select them from the tree view in the scan window. If there are issues with a control you've selected, Tosca Cloud gives a warning and highlights it in orange in the tree view.

In Advanced View, you can choose from the following options:

Option

Description

Condensed

Switch to Condensed View.

Basic

Switch to Advanced View.

Finish Screen

Stop the scan for the current page, so you can go to the next page of your application. Tosca Cloud saves your selected controls as a module.

Start Screen

Restart the scan for the new page. This starts a new module.

Highlight selection

Highlights the selected control in red in your application. This is especially helpful if you're trying to figure out control groupings or parent elements.

Select on screen

Choose controls by selecting them in your application instead of in the tree in the scan window.

Identify by

Choose your preferred control identification method. By default, that's properties, but you can switch to identification by index, images, or anchors.

Self-Healing Properties

Show or change self-healing properties.

Filtered items slider

Define the degree of detail you want to see in the tree view of the scan. By default, you start off with certain, visible control types. To see any code element, including invisible ones, move the slider to the right-most position.

Filter

Filter for specific control types on the entire page. To filter within a specific region, select New and highlight your region on the screen.

Search

Search for control names.

Show Content Preview

Show the content of a selected table element. For example, to change headers.

Select New Application

Open the applications window, so you can select a different application to scan.

Close

Close the scan.

Basic view is best when you have small user interfaces with simple controls.

When you open the view, scan mode is already active, so you can go straight to choosing your controls. To do that, select the respective controls in your application. If there are issues with a control you've selected, Tosca Cloud gives a warning and highlights it in orange on the list.

In Basic view, you can choose from the following options:

Option

Description

Finish Screen

Stop the scan for the current page, so you can go to the next page of your application. Tosca Cloud saves your selected controls as a module.

Start Screen

Restart the scan for the new page. This starts a new module.

Condensed

Switch to Condensed View.

Advanced

Switch to Advanced View.

Close

Close the scan.

Condensed View is best when the scan window is in your way and you only want a minimized version for now.

When you open the view, scan mode is already active, so you can go straight to choosing your controls. To do that, select the respective controls in your application. If there are issues with a control you've selected, Tosca Cloud gives a warning.

In Condensed View, you can choose from the following options:

Option

Description

Basic

Switch to Basic View.

Finish Screen

Stop the scan for the current page, so you can go to the next page of your application. Tosca Cloud saves your selected controls as a module.

Finish Anyway

This button only appears if there are issues with a control you've selected, and it does the same thing as Finish Screen. However, we suggest you think long and hard before you save a module with issues. It's better to review the control before you finish your module.

Review Items

Review the control in Basic View. This button only appears if there are issues with a control you've selected.

Start Screen

Restart the scan for the new page. This starts a new module.

Additional options for Basic and Advanced View

In Basic View or Advanced View, you also have access to the Technical properties section for individual controls.

  • Basic View displays it if you double-click a control on the list that's highlighted in orange.

  • Advanced View always displays it.

The Technical properties section allows you to perform the following actions:

  • Select additional properties to make your control unique.

  • Deselect properties you don't want for identification.

  • Change property values. For example to add a wildcard.

  • Choose one of the following options:

Option

Description

Make unique

Let Tosca Cloud choose a combination of properties to make a control uniquely identifiable.

Some properties are too unstable for reliable identification: ActionPoint, ControlArea, ConstraintIndex, IsSteerable, and XPath. Consequently, Tosca Cloud doesn't consider them even if they make a control unique. 

If there's no way to make a control unique through its properties, switch to Advanced View and choose a different identification method.

More

Expand the dropdown to get access to additional options:

  • Load all: Load all properties associated with the selected control. This gives you a wider range of properties to choose from to make your control unique.

  • Refresh: Refresh all properties of the selected control.

Please note that all other options in the More dropdown are currently not supported.

To learn other tips and tricks for identifying controls by property, check out Identify controls by properties.