Can we organize an Object Repository with parent object?

Feedback & Reviews Feature Requests
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Katalon is essentially free - certainly at the point of use. Many parts of it are now open source. You can modify, extend and improve Katalon using the Katalon platform (plugins and addons, essentially) so I’d prefer not to get into the TCO of Katalon - it’s not my interest, it’s not my “field” of expertise, and it’s not the focus of this community and what we discuss here. Plus, it’s a testament to the decisions made by the company that Katalon is the best testing platform available (by a long way) allowing a programmer to modify its subsystems to suit their needs.

With that in mind, now consider the forum category in which we’re discussing this topic - Feature / Imporovement Suggestions. Katalon Team are listening. Nobody is claiming Katalon is perfect - far from it. Katalon Team (expressed to me many times privately by @YoungNgo) want to improve Katalon and that is why they are listening. Being the best is one thing. Staying the best is hard work and is not achieved by standing still. Katalon clearly know this.

If your issues are that some caliber of your workforce are not able to use a particular tool in a particular way, that is a matter for you and your organization. Nobody is born knowing any of this stuff. If you need to train people, then train them (instead of bemoaning a particular tool).

That said, if you are a trained person, able to detect the lack of DRYness afforded by the OR, then do the obvious… stop using the OR. Better still, stop trying to satisfy two very different audiences at the same time. Good luck trying to find a tool that can do that.

I hope you don’t think this is some kind of personal attack – it’s not. I’m giving you straight answers to honest questions (or points of discussion) that you brought up. They’re colored by my experience and slanted toward my purpose (if that purpose suits yours, great and if not, well, that’s maybe not so great).

I don’t use Manual View, only Script View.

  1. Manual View is like Lego. You can construct things using prefabricated Lego bricks.
  2. Script View lets you manufacture bricks and construct things using them.

Those are your choices. If you need elements of #2 you’re likely to stay there, where the power is. If some of your coworkers need training to help them understand how to use #2, train them.

Building a POM using the scripting tools in Katalon is a relatively pain free process. At the present time, this is best accomplished using Katalon’s Custom Keyword subsystem. What you’re actually doing is defining new Groovy packages and classes which you can use to reflect the functionality of the pages in your AUT.

A very simplistic POM might look like this:

public class BizLogic {
  // stuff about the business rules managed by the AUT
}

public class BasePage extends BizLogic {
  // Methods and properties common to all regular pages
}

public class HomePage extends BasePage {
  // Methods and properties reflecting the home page
}

Obviously examples can get lengthier the more you try to capture all the possibilities that may appear in the real-world so I’ll stop there and let you think about it. And besides, you’re not even sure you want to stay with us yet :confused:

Here are the links you need to understand Keyword creation:

https://docs.katalon.com/katalon-studio/docs/introduction-to-custom-keywords.html

https://docs.katalon.com/katalon-studio/docs/sample-custom-keywords.html

Hope that inspired you to bite the bullet and get coding.

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