11+7.3 The Recording Log

When recording is stopped, QF-Test automatically creates a recording log. It is accessible via the »Record« menu. The recording log contains several sections that expose the different processing stages of the recorded events. It is therefore a useful diagnostic tool when recording does not produce the expected result.

The sections are:

Received Events

This section contains the raw events as received from the SUT, before any filtering or processing. It shows the complete event stream: mouse clicks, keyboard input, text input, window events, etc. Comparing it with later sections makes it clear which events were removed by the filtering steps.

Extra Event Filter

This section only appears if the filter actually removed events. It cleans up superfluous events at the beginning and end of a client sequence. Typical candidates are KEY_RELEASED events for Alt, Ctrl, or Tab at the very start, which occur when the user switched to the SUT window via a keyboard shortcut, as well as trailing KEY_PRESSED or KEY_RELEASED events for Alt or Ctrl and MOUSE_MOVED events at the end of a sequence. The section may appear more than once in the log, as the filter is applied in two passes.

Raw Nodes

This section contains the nodes created from the filtered events before any further processing such as consolidating mouse or keyboard events takes place. Each remaining event is converted into the corresponding node, for example a mouse click into a Mouse event node or text input into a Text input node.

Text Input Packer

This section only appears when text input was recorded and only if keyboard events were actually consolidated. It merges consecutive KEY_PRESSED, KEY_TYPED, and KEY_RELEASED events directed at the same component into a single Text input node. The section lists the individual nodes that were replaced and the resulting Text input node. It may appear more than once in the log if several independent text inputs were recorded.

Recorded Nodes

This section contains the nodes after consolidation of mouse and keyboard events, but before processing by the recording post-processor (see "Procedure calls: recording and converting"). This sequence corresponds to what would end up in the test suite without any post-processor processing, and is therefore well suited for comparison with the final result.

Procedure Call Recording

This section only appears if the option Entries for the recording log is set to a value other than "Log nothing" and nodes are being converted into procedure calls. It contains diagnostic information about the conversion of nodes into procedure calls. The level of detail depends on the selected log level. For details, see "Entries in the recording log".