Start with Rational Functional tester (RFT)

Welcome to the world of RFT !!! RFT as in Rational Functional Tester. We want to know what is RFT ? How RFT works ? What is the use of RFT ? etc etc. So, let us start with the introduction of RFT.

RFT- Rational Functional Tester. 

Yess !! RFT is nothing but a Tester which tests the functionality. This is a 'Rational' product . Now, Rational has been owned by IBM. So we call RFT as - IBM Rational Functional Tester. 

RFT is used for automation testing of the functionality. So what RFT does is, it makes the manual job of testing easy. How ? The answer is, manually if the tester has to test a functionality then the tester opens the application, does some action on the screen, compares the actual result with the expected result, tells if the functionality test is passed or failed. Now, all this work of entering the data, comparing the results and announcing the result is done by RFT. 

In order to make RFT do the job for us, we have to teach RFT how to do it. This can be done by writing the scripts. These scripts can be written using either Java or .net.

Now let us understand how to write the scripts. There are two ways to do this job.

• Recording - Click On Record , perform the testing steps manually and once we are done press stop. A '.java' file will get created. In order to run it again and test; press the run button. RFT works !!  

• Write the scripts(Customization of scripts) - First ask yourself one question. Do I know Java? If Yes go ahead else learn java. In this case, we are going to write our own scripts instead of using RFT recorder. In order to accomplish this create an empty script. A '.java' file gets created. It will have a testMain method. Write the code inside the this method. Compile your code and play. RFT works !!!

This was about the basics of RFT. This article is meant for the beginners who have no idea about RFT.