Chapter 4: Replaying GUI Events
In this chapter, we will show how to simulate a GUI event, and how to store a series of GUI events as well as replay them on a widget.
The approach to storing a series of events and replaying them is quite similar to the approach explained in chapter 2. All you need to do is to add a data function to your test class:
class TestGui: public QObject { Q_OBJECT private slots: void testGui_data(); void testGui(); };
Writing the Data Function
As before, a test function's associated data function carries the same name, appended by _data
.
void TestGui::testGui_data() { QTest::addColumn<QTestEventList>("events"); QTest::addColumn<QString>("expected"); QTestEventList list1; list1.addKeyClick('a'); QTest::newRow("char") << list1 << "a"; QTestEventList list2; list2.addKeyClick('a'); list2.addKeyClick(Qt::Key_Backspace); QTest::newRow("there+back-again") << list2 << ""; }
First, we define the elements of the table using the QTest::addColumn() function: A list of GUI events, and the expected result of applying the list of events on a QWidget. Note that the type of the first element is QTestEventList.
A QTestEventList can be populated with GUI events that can be stored as test data for later usage, or be replayed on any QWidget.
In our current data function, we create two QTestEventList elements. The first list consists of a single click to the 'a' key. We add the event to the list using the QTestEventList::addKeyClick() function. Then we use the QTest::newRow() function to give the data set a name, and stream the event list and the expected result into the table.
The second list consists of two key clicks: an 'a' with a following 'backspace'. Again we use the QTestEventList::addKeyClick() to add the events to the list, and QTest::newRow() to put the event list and the expected result into the table with an associated name.
Rewriting the Test Function
Our test can now be rewritten:
void TestGui::testGui() { QFETCH(QTestEventList, events); QFETCH(QString, expected); QLineEdit lineEdit; events.simulate(&lineEdit); QCOMPARE(lineEdit.text(), expected); }
The TestGui::testGui() function will be executed two times, once for each entry in the test data that we created in the associated TestGui::testGui_data() function.
First, we fetch the two elements of the data set using the QFETCH() macro. QFETCH() takes two arguments: the data type of the element and the element name. Then we create a QLineEdit, and apply the list of events on that widget using the QTestEventList::simulate() function.
Finally, we use the QCOMPARE() macro to check if the line edit's text is as expected.
Preparing the Stand-Alone Executable
As before, to make our test case a stand-alone executable, the following two lines are needed:
QTEST_MAIN(TestGui)
#include "testgui.moc"
The QTEST_MAIN() macro expands to a simple main() method that runs all the test functions, and since both the declaration and the implementation of our test class are in a .cpp file, we also need to include the generated moc file to make Qt's introspection work.
Building the Executable
You can build the test case executable using CMake or qmake.
Building with CMake
Configure your build settings in your CMakeLists.txt file:
# Copyright (C) 2022 The Qt Company Ltd. # SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.16) project(tutorial4 LANGUAGES CXX) if(NOT DEFINED INSTALL_EXAMPLESDIR) set(INSTALL_EXAMPLESDIR "examples") endif() set(INSTALL_EXAMPLEDIR "${INSTALL_EXAMPLESDIR}/qtestlib/tutorial4") find_package(Qt6 REQUIRED COMPONENTS Core Gui Test Widgets) qt_standard_project_setup() qt_add_executable(tutorial4 testgui.cpp ) set_target_properties(tutorial4 PROPERTIES WIN32_EXECUTABLE TRUE MACOSX_BUNDLE TRUE ) target_link_libraries(tutorial4 PRIVATE Qt6::Core Qt6::Gui Qt6::Test Qt6::Widgets ) install(TARGETS tutorial4 RUNTIME DESTINATION "${INSTALL_EXAMPLEDIR}" BUNDLE DESTINATION "${INSTALL_EXAMPLEDIR}" LIBRARY DESTINATION "${INSTALL_EXAMPLEDIR}" )
Next, from the command line, run either cmake
or use the qt-cmake
convenience script located in Qt-prefix/<version>/<platform>/bin/qt-cmake
:
<Qt-prefix>/<version>/<platform>/bin/qt-cmake <source-dir> <build-dir> -G Ninja
Then, run your preferred generator tool to build the executable. Here, we're using Ninja:
ninja
Building with qmake
Configure your build settings in your .pro
file:
QT += widgets testlib SOURCES = testgui.cpp # install target.path = $$[QT_INSTALL_EXAMPLES]/qtestlib/tutorial4 INSTALLS += target
Next, run qmake
, and, finally, run make
to build your executable:
qmake make
Running the Executable
Running the resulting executable should give you the following output:
********* Start testing of TestGui ********* Config: Using QtTest library %VERSION%, Qt %VERSION% PASS : TestGui::initTestCase() PASS : TestGui::testGui(char) PASS : TestGui::testGui(there+back-again) PASS : TestGui::cleanupTestCase() Totals: 4 passed, 0 failed, 0 skipped, 0 blacklisted, 18ms ********* Finished testing of TestGui *********
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