OBJECT IDENTIFICATION IN QTP

QTP : Object Identification

The process of uniquely identifying an object from the application window is known as Object Identification. QTP uses two modes object identification. to recognize the object uniquely.

• Normal Identification mode
• Smart Identification mode
• Ordinal  Identifiers

Normal Identification

QTP has two lists of properties based on which it will identify the object uniquely. The first list is the list of mandatory properties. QTP learns these default property values and checks if any object matches the description. If no object in the application is identified uniquely it adds properties from the second list called as assistive properties. All the properties in the assistive list are added one by one till a unique object is identified.
 
 Ordinal Identifiers

Even after using mandatory and assistive properties if the object is not uniquely identified then QTP uses the ordinal identifiers to identify the object uniquely.There are three types of ordinal identifiers :

1. Index: This identifier indicates the order in which the object appears in the application code. This order is unique even though identical objects are present.
2. Location: This identifier indicates the order in which the object appears within the window, frame or dialog box irrespective of objects with identical description.
3. Creation Time: This identifier is applicable only to web applications. This identifier indicates a unique id in the order in which the browser were opened. This identifier is handy in identifying the browser to be worked on when a group of identical browsers are open.

Smart Identification

When normal identification fails to identify a unique object. QTP switches to next mode of identification called smart identification, the smart identification mode must be enabled for the test. The smart identification mechanism uses two lists of properties:

• Base Filter Properties: The list of properties contain the most fundamental properties of a particular test object class whose values cannot be changed without changing the original object. 
• Optional Filter Properties: Other properties that can help identify objects of a particular class as they are unlikely to change on a regular basis, but which can be ignored if they are no longer applicable.