Testlum IDE Recorder
The Web Recorder in Testlum IDE helps you build test scenarios by simply interacting with your website.
No need to manually add steps — just click, type, and navigate as a user would, and the recorder will capture everything for you.
The Web Recorder is a built-in tool that:
- 🖱️ Records your real-time interactions with a web page
- 🔧 Converts them into structured test steps inside your current scenario
- 🧠 Auto-detects actions, elements, inputs, waits, and assertions
- 💾 Saves all steps directly into the Testlum IDE
This allows anyone, even without coding skills, to quickly build reliable test scenarios by example!
!IMPORTANT In opened Recorder you would see only valid scenarios (Valid scenario is a scenario that contains “Settings” and “Overview” and at least one added tag with all required fields filled with correct data).
- Click on the special button to launch the Recorder modal window
- Click on Start button in opened modal window
- After that 2 Recorder windows will be opened: Configuration window and Project Editor. Configuration window consists of 2 tabs: Configuration tab and Website tab. Recorder will automatically open website from ui.xml settings. So make sure that you provided needed website URL.
- Configure test recording if needed.
From Configuration Tab in the left Recorder window you can:
- Configure automatic wait command adding with configured time to wait after each recorded step.
- Automatic screenshots capturing after each recorded step with configured match percentage and flexible screen resolution changing https://github.com/TestlumFramework/Testlum/wiki/Screenshots
- Also, you can record such actions as: tab (switch, open, close) and navigate (by clicking on Go button). All these steps will be recorded only when recording is enabled from Project Editor of the Recorder.
Information about Web commands are here: https://github.com/TestlumFramework/Testlum/wiki/Web-Commands
Information about Tab and Navigate commands are here: https://github.com/TestlumFramework/Testlum/wiki/Testlum-IDE-Recorder#-what-gets-captured
- Choose an existing testing scenario in Project Editor (or create a new one right in the Recorder by clicking on Add (+) button and fill necessary information, such as name, description and location). Location should specify path to the scenario from main folder to scenario file starting from “/” (e.g /RESOURCES_EXAMPLE/scenarios/test/scenario.xml)
- Click on Record button and start doing interactions with website
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Click Record button again when you want to stop recording
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After that you can verify recorded actions. Make some changes right in Recorder (you can edit command attributes such as locator id, comment, locator file, etc. just right in Recorder by clicking on corresponding field in command attributes) and switch back to IDE to verify that all recorded actions were successfully transferred to your automation test.
- Recorder also will generate a list of all possible locators for each web element you interacted with and place them in generated file inside locators/pages folder. By default locators will be collected into default.xml file
!Pay attention!! Sometimes different websites doesn't allow to collect some locators due to the realization of its HTML DOM structure or some restrictions. In most cases Recorder resolves this issue, but in some cases it can be impossible. If Recorder didn't find locator - it will notify user with alert, that no valid locators were found.
- Click Stop Recorder in the IDE when done with using Recorder
✅ Your test steps will be automatically added to the open scenario.
The web commands that Recorder can capture and generate steps in Testlum:
Navigate - To record the Navigate command, you need to click on the Configuration tab. In the Enter URL field insert destination url. Then click on the "Go" button and go to the web site tab. The Navigate command that was recorded by the Recorder, appears in the scenario in Recorder with all the necessary attributes. Navigate command appears in the XML Editor and UI Builder.
Screenshots - To record the Screenshots, you need to click on the Configuration tab. In the Screenshot configuration, you need to click on the "Automatically add screenshot comparison after each command" checkbox. Input values in the Screenshot match percentage, Screenshots width and Screenshots height fields. By default Screenshot match percentage is 95, Screenshots width is 1728, Screenshots height is 992. Click on the "SET BROWSER RESOLUTION" button. Image command that was recorded by the Recorder, appears in the scenario in Recorder with all the necessary attributes. Image command appears in the XML Editor and UI Builder. Screenshots appear in the folder with tests.
Wait - To record the Wait, you need to click on the Configuration tab. To turn on wait adding it needs to tick the checkbox "Add wait after command" and specify the time for wait. During the recording it's possible to turn on and turn off wait adding when needed. Wait command that was recorded by the Recorder, appears in the scenario in Recorder with all the necessary attributes. Wait command appears in the XML Editor and UI Builder. Tab - To record the Tab command, you need to click on the Configuration tab. Click on the “Plus” button. The web site is displayed. The Browser Tab Open command is displayed in the Project Editor and displayed in TestlumIDE (XML and UI tabs). Click on the previous tab in the Configuration tab. The Browser Tab Switch command is displayed in the Project Editor and displayed in TestlumIDE (XML and UI tabs). Close the tab in the Configuration tab. The Browser Tab Close command is displayed in the Project Editor and displayed in TestlumIDE (XML and UI tabs).
Hot key - To record the Hot Key command, you need to: Click Cmd + A - Hot Key Highlight command. Click Cmd + X - Hot Key Cut command. Click Cmd + C - Hot Key Copy command. Click Cmd + V - Hot Key Paste command. Click Enter - Hot Key Enter command. Click on Delete key - Hot Key Back Space command. Click on spacebar - Hot Key Space command. Click tab key - Hot Key Tab command. Click esc key - Hot Key Escape command. The Hot Key command is displayed in the Project Editor and displayed in TestlumIDE (XML and UI tabs).
Drop down - Drop Down One value is recorded by Recorder only if it is realized in HTML structure by tag. In another way, it will be recorded as Click.
Other web commands can also be recorded by Recorder, except the list below.
!!Pay attention!! Web commands that the Recorder doesn’t capture and doesn’t generate steps in Testlum:
javascriptrepeatconditionvar
After recording:
- You can review, edit, or rearrange the recorded steps
- Add assertions or variables to validate behavior
Assertion Mode allows you to quickly verify elements, values, and behaviors in your application ** without writing code — simply select what you want to validate.
- Start recording in the right Recorder window
- Click the 🔍 Assertion Mode button
- Hover over any element — you’ll see an outline around it
- Click the element to record assetion of web element presence
[Pay attention]: You can use assert only for one element. If you want use assert for another element you need to click the 🔍 Assertion Mode button again.
Information about Locators here: https://github.com/TestlumFramework/Testlum/wiki/Locators
When recording user actions, our tool automatically generates locator IDs (used to identify elements in your tests). By default, these IDs follow a standard pattern, but you can customize both the format and the storage location.**
After recording of particular step You can open generated details of the recorded command and change generated locator id using Locator Id input field.
Or change Locator File to existing file in Your project in IDE from the drop down or input a new file location inside pages folder and we will automatically create file with locator in specified place
Custom locator IDs help:
- Improve test readability
- Reduce test fragility
- Match existing project naming conventions
