Spotlight on Rapise 6.0: UI Redesign, Dynamics Unified Clien

February 26th, 2019 by Adam Sandman

Our automation group is wrapping up the final testing and documentation for our next major release of Rapise, our powerful and easy to use codeless test automation tool. With the new 6.0 version getting ready for release in the next couple of weeks, we thought it would be useful to highlight some of the major changes and new features you can expect with the new version.

Completely Revamped User Interface

Time never stands still, at we are always looking for ways to make our products easier to use, more aesthetic, and reduce the time taken to perform common tasks. Before we unveil the curtain on the latest UI changes to Rapise, we thought it would be good to first show you the main "ribbon" style UI in the current version of Rapise. Although we have made many changes over the years to improve usability, the core concept of the Office 2010 style ribbon had remained:

When Rapise was a relatively new product, ribbons were the "cool new thing" in terms of UI design, since we only had a small number of options to display, it seemed like an obvious choice. Here's how the ribbon looked in Rapise 1.8:

Now as we added features to Rapise (better Spy tools, support for manual test creation, logging defects, better Spira integration, support for mobile testing, web services, web profiles and NeoLoad integrated) the ribbon started to get very cluttered and we found ourselves constantly switching between the Test, RVL, Settings and Edit ribbons just to click on one option. So in our new v6.0 release, we have finally ditched the ribbon and moved to a classic Toolbar and Menu layout instead:

We will discuss the changes we have made and the reasons later on in this article, but we found in testing that a typically user can now find the button they want in at least 3 fewer clicks for every operation (!). That's time saved, and one more frustration removed.

One other area we have made changes to over the years is the Rapise Start Page. Well in version 6.0 we have gone one step further and performed a full redesign to present our new video playlists front and center, remove some of the lesser-used widgets, and simplify the list of sample and useful documentation links:

Moving the Browser Selection to the Top

One of the most frequently used options in Rapise, is the ability to playback tests against different web browsers or mobile devices. Previously this option was buried in the ribbon settings or required opening the Start Page. With v6.0, we have moved this dropdown to an easily accessible location, regardless of what view you have open:

Rapise 6.0 Menus and Toolbar

As we discussed earlier, we have removed the old Rapise ribbon, and instead moved all of the functions formerly in the ribbon into a set of quick to access menus that allow access to all the features from any page (vs. requiring the right ribbon to be displayed):

File
Edit
View
Test
Tools
Settings
Help

In addition, the compact toolbar replaces the ribbon and provides even faster access to the most commonly used features (e.g. saving tests, recording, learning, playback, spy tools, debugging, viewing the RVL test script, viewing custom function JavaScript files, viewing the manual test steps) without needing to have every option on the toolbar, which was one of the limitations of the ribbon design.

For example, if you look at the Edit menu, all of the options for editing the current test script (whether it be a codeless RVL file or a JavaScript function) are in one place:

Similarly, the View menu provides access to the shortcuts to the different parts of the test script (the main test, user functions, manual steps, web services) from a central place:

We have also made some changes to the Object Viewer as well. We have redesigned the various icons used in the object repository to be more contemporary, and easier to distinguish at a glace (especially on lower resolution displays such as RDP sessions when connecting to a remote machine or cloud instance)

In addition, we removed the Test Settings options from the object tree as it typically was confusing to see the settings there, and users were never able to find those settings, as opposed to the global application-wide settings. Consequently, we have moved all of the general settings to its own menu entry:

Similarly, if you use the new View > Test Settings option in the View menu, you can see the current test's settings in a much larger, easier to use modal dialog box:

This is much better than the old, squashed test settings box from the current version.

Support for SAP Fiori Applications

We are pleased to announce that Rapise 6.0 also adds support for the SAP Fiori suite of enterprise applications Based on the OpenUI5 web application framework, SAP Fiori brings the power of the world's most popular ERP package into the cloud computing age:

As companies switch to the new versions of SAP, Rapise will be ready to help them with their testing and process automation needs.

Enhanced Support for Dynamics 365 CRM

Not to be outdone, Rapise 6.0 also includes enhanced support for the latest versions of Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM, including its new Unified Client Interface that is designed to work across a full range of devices and platforms:

Rapise now covers all the latest versions of Dynamics 365, including Sales, Finance & Operations, and Business Central as well as support for the traditional Dynamics AX and NAV platforms.

New Documentation System

Since all these changes necessitated massive updates and redesigns of our entire documentation library for Rapise (every screenshot has changed!) we have decided to implement a completely new documentation system that replaces the current collection of separate web pages, PDF documents and Microsoft Help files.

The new documentation will live at a dedicated URL - https://rapisedoc.inflectra.com/ and will provide a central gateway to the latest, most up to date documentation:

This documentation centralizes the documentation for all of the following:

How to use the product
Information on each of the specific libraries available
How to setup the environments for testing
Shortcuts to the Inflectra knowledge base
Links to the www.libraryinformationsystem.com sample application
Links to the UI Testing Playground set of advanced samples

For example, when you are looking for specific information on automating a technology (e.g. Dynamics 365 CRM):

or if you need help setting up your mobile testing environment:

We think you will like the new documentation system, and depending on the feedback, we are planning on switching our Spira documentation over to the same system.