Writing script in MonkeyTalk

Before we start writing scripts let us understand the syntax of MonkeyTalk’s scripting language

Syntax:

The entire info given below is sourced from (Source): http://www.gorillalogic.com/testing-tools/monkeytalk/documentation/monkeytalk-spec/command-syntax

MonkeyTalk commands are newline terminated and have the following syntax:

ComponentType  MonkeyId  Action  Args…  Modifiers…

ComponentType (required) – The type of component on which to perform the action. Examples include Button and TextArea. Component types are not case sensitive. ComponentTypes can extend other ComponentTypes, as described below, and inherit any defined actions as well as Arguments. ComponentTypes are typically the logical name of the UI component (like Button rather than UIButton), but can also have platform-specific aliases.  All UI components inherit from the View component type, and so specifying View on a command is like specifying a wildcard that will match any component type. 

For example:

# Tap on any component labeled "OK"

View OK Tap

MonkeyId (required) - An identifier that is used to distinguish between components of the same type being displayed simultaneously. MonkeyId can be specified as asterisk (*), which finds the first matching component.

MonkeyId’s can also be specified as a 1-based (not zero-based) index of the form #N. In this case, the MonkeyId identifies the Nth component of the specified type that’s currently displayed. Components are indexed according to upper-left-most position, i.e., by sorting components by (x,y) coordinate.

Action (required) – The action to be performed. Examples include Tap, Select, and EnterText. Actions are not case sensitive.

Arguments/Args (required according to ComponentType and Action) – A space-separated list of one or more arguments. Arguments are assumed to begin at the fourth token. Although always specified as strings, args are interpreted as necessary by the command. If an Argument is required but not specified (left off the end of the list), it takes on a default value. An Arg may be specified as an asterisk (*) to force it to take on it’s default value,

Modifiers… (optional) - A space-separated list of named arguments of the form %name=value, where the % prefix identifies it as a Modifier. There are three system-defined modifiers:

%timeout - how long in ms to continue retrying a command before timing out

%thinktime - how long in ms to wait before executing the command for the first time

%retrydelay - how long in ms to delay between retry attempts

Once you install the MonkeyTalk IDE and the make the necessary changes to the source code of the app provided by the developer, you can connect the MonkeyTalk to the emulator/device that app is installed on and you can start writing scripts.

It is suggested that before writing scripts one should record multiple actions on the app and let monkey record (write) the script for you. This way one can learn which action is related to which command.

A MonkeyTalk script can write in three forms:-

1.  Table View
2. MonkeyTalk script
3. Javascript

These are just three different representations of same script. In the background both these run in exact same manner.

Script examples:
1. Simple Login script Click here
2. Data driven script Click here
3. Passing variables script Click here
4. Conditional statement script Click here