CustomKeywords javadoc not appearing in script view

[james.milos]

Apologies if this is not in the correct category.

I am noticing that after upgrading to Katalon 7.9, the CustomKeywords javadoc is no longer working in test script view.

Sample method:

Method viewed in Test Case Manual View (shows the javadoc)

Method viewed in Test Case Script View (does not show the javadoc)

This was working until I upgraded from 7.8 to 7.9.
Has anyone had this problem before? If so, how was it fixed?

[Russ_Thomas]

Quite a few oddities like this appeared in 7.9.0.

Firstly, are you using 7.9.0 or 7.9.1?

If you called your keywords directly, I think they’d work fine - it’s that stringy stuff that’s getting in the way:

import your.package.class.Test

function("s")

By the way, calling a method “function” is confusing - can’t you think of something less obscure? You’ll thank yourself later.

I think @ThanhTo did some work JavaDoc … or maybe it was @duyluong…

[james.milos]

To answer your first question, it appears that I am actually using 7.9.1. Sorry about the discrepancy.

The import method you have suggested seems to fix this, so I can use this for now.

By the way, the keywords do work as intended, I am just no longer seeing their definitions when hovering over them without using your workaround (sorry about my poorly named function, just giving the most basic example I could come up with)

Thanks for looking into this.

[Russ_Thomas]

I’ll move this to bug reports - that’s clearly a loss of functionality.

More about calling the keyword directly…

The only real reason to use custom keywords and @Keyword, is to make them appear in the lists offered by Manual view. If, like me, you live in Script view, you don’t need to write them like that. And if you have a library of utility methods you’d like to use in numerous places, make the methods static and import them statically, too:

public class Myclass {

  static void myMethod() {
    // do things
  }

  static void myOtherMethod() {
    // do more things
  }
...
}

In your TC:

import static mypackage.Myclass.*

// call myMethod ...
myMethod()

// call myOtherMethod ...
myOtherMethod()

Notice, no @Keyword so mymethod will NOT appear in the list offered in Manual view.

[james.milos]

Thanks for the tips. By the way, does this only work for .groovy files and not .java files? When I change the Myclass file from the .groovy to the .java extension, the test case will not run (button is enabled, but nothing happens).

[Russ_Thomas]

@james.milos

does this only work for .groovy files and not .java files?

There is a way to tell Katalon to read your Java classes - it’s in the project settings somewhere. But I’m not an expert in this area.

@anon46315158 @Brandon_Hein @kazurayam

[Brandon_Hein]

I’m not aware of any such setting. You can certainly have .java files as part of your project, and reference them from test cases, but from what I understand, your test cases must be .groovy files. (Not saying that it isn’t possible to define them as .java, just that I’ve never seen the setting to make that work).

[kazurayam]

@james.milos

You can write a Java class in KS. Let me show you an example how to write a Java class and use it in a Test Case.

I wrote a Groovy class in <projectdir>/Keywords/my/GroovyGreeter.groovy:

package my

public class GroovyGreeter {
	
	static sayhelloto(String name) {
		return "Hello, ${name}!"
	}
}

I wrote a Java class in <projectdir>/Include/scripts/groovy/my/JavaGreeter.java

package my;

public class JavaGreeter {

	static String sayhelloto(String name) {
		return String.format("Hello, %s", name);
	}
	
}

I wrote a test case script in Test Cases/TC1:

import my.GroovyGreeter
import my.JavaGreeter

println "GroovyGreeter greeted ${GroovyGreeter.sayhelloto('Sapiens')}"
println "JavaGreeter greeted ${JavaGreeter.sayhelloto('Neandertal')}"

When I ran the test case, I got the following output in the console:

2021-02-10 12:12:15.185 DEBUG testcase.TC1                             - 1: println(GroovyGreeter greeted $GroovyGreeter.sayhelloto(Sapiens))
GroovyGreeter greeted Hello, Sapiens!
2021-02-10 12:12:15.221 DEBUG testcase.TC1                             - 2: println(JavaGreeter greeted $JavaGreeter.sayhelloto(Neandertal))
JavaGreeter greeted Hello, Neandertal
2021-02-10 12:12:15.239 INFO  c.k.katalon.core.main.TestCaseExecutor   - END Test Cases/TC1

See the following screenshot:

[kazurayam]

I personally never write Java code in Katalon Studio.

In case I need to develop a fair amount of Java codes for UI testing in KS, I always develop Java codes outside KS. I would design the Java codes completely independent of the com.kms.katalon.** classes, create a jar file, and import the product jar into the Drivers directory of KS project.

Why I do not develop Java in KS?

Firstly, KS is not as good as IntelliJ IDEA as a Java IDE.

Secondly, I think, Groovy language is better fitting for writing scripts for UI testing than Java.

Thirdly, KS forces me a project directory structure which is specifically designed for its problem domain (UI testing by Selenium etc). It is different from the Gradle-conventional directory structure that I like. I feel uncomfortable with KS’s directory structure for Java programming in general. For example, have a look at this path for example:

<projectdir>/Include/scripts/groovy/my/JavaGreeter.java

Here Katalon Studio forces me to locate a *.java file under a directory named groovy. I find this design ugly.