Can we automate an application available in the neighborhood of Citrix?

Question

I tried to automate the application available in Citrixl Program Neightbourhood using QTP 9.5, but QTP does not identify objects within the application. Can we automate a citrix application using QTP?

What are the different tools for testing Citrix application automation?

Answer 1

I used Scapa Technologies testing for Citrix ICA or Terminal Services. Scapa provides an automation tool installed on a Citrix server. Then it has a controller that starts a citrix session, communicates with the server and launches an automation tool that calls your automation script. It actually runs on the server so that it can interact with application controls.

Answer 2

QTP supports Citrix only if it is installed on a Citrix machine, it does not support work through the client.

For technical reasons, this is due to the fact that QTP should be able to listen to Windows messages and load its DLL into some applications that it cannot run from another machine.

Answer 3

Traditional tools usually do not work with applications running in remote desktop applications. Required interfaces are not available. Probably your only option is an image-based tool like Eggplant .

Answer 4

For what it's worth, I automated the CITRIX application in the same way as you described for a large telecommunications firm in the early 2000s. I did this by delving into the Windows SendMessage API and the Optical Character Recognition package. You would probably be surprised at how much data was transferred from one system to another using my CITRIX / scraping command for robots. I came across this question because I was recalling this project and was wondering if there is a need for this type of solution on this day and age.

Answer 5

The difficulty with Citrix automation is that the applications are arranged on the client computer as an image, so you cannot access the user interface of the element tree.

UiPath can automate very simple Citrix applications (also desktop or web sites) using some special image automation techniques, such as

• click on image
• using OCR to clear text
• using keyboard shortcuts
• click on OCRed text

Here's a complete tutorial showing various Citrix (or virtual desktop) automation techniques for

• data recording
• Clear OCR Data
• clicking and entering text relative to an image or text

UiPath has an SDK that can be used from code. By default, visual automation (workflows) will be created directly from UiPath Studio.

Note: I work in UiPath. You should also try other visual automation tools such as Automation Anywhere, WinAutomation, QTP, Selenium, etc. Use them side by side and choose the one that best suits your needs.

Answer 6

As Motti said, you cannot automate the Citrix client. In general, the Citrix client is difficult to automate. I know that someone in my work played with him, and he managed to catch some messages and objects that may be useful for test automation through Citrix, but this will be a separate development project to create such a solution, which can be very limited.

Answer 7

Through Citrix QTP Object Recognition, totality is different. QTP on remote computers works with objects based on location and links, so it is almost impossible to automate it.