ACCELQ Recorder Overview

The ACCELQ Recorder is where you develop your test automation logic against the live application. It loads the application under test directly inside your ACCELQ workspace, side by side with the Logic Editor: a web application in an embedded browser, a mobile app mirrored from a real device or emulator, a PDF document, or an Electron desktop application. You build automation by interacting with the application itself. The steps you perform, and the commands you choose, become automation statements in the Logic Editor, without writing any code.

Recording is only half of what the Recorder does. The same environment plays your logic back against the live application, statement by statement. You can verify that each step works the moment you create it, replay any portion of the logic while you refine it, and troubleshoot failures right where they happen, with the application in front of you. Instead of the traditional cycle of writing a script, running it, and coming back to debug, authoring and validation happen together in one continuous loop.

This makes the Recorder central to every stage of test development in ACCELQ. When you are starting fresh, you can generate a working draft of your logic just by walking through the application. When you are enhancing existing logic, you can insert verifications and reuse your library of Actions with precision. When a flow breaks after an application change, you can play the logic up to the failing step, fix it against the live screen, and confirm the fix immediately. And because it is a single unified interface across web, mobile, PDF, and Electron applications, the skills you build with one application type carry over to all of them, including flows that span several technologies at once.

What You Can Do with the Recorder

• Build logic by using the application. In Fluid mode, your clicks, text entries, and selections are captured automatically as complete, ready-to-run statements. This is the fastest way to get from an empty Action to a working draft.
• Record exactly the steps you intend. In Intent mode, you right-click an element and choose the command yourself: a verification, a wait, a data capture, or any command from the extensive library. Nothing is recorded unless you ask for it.
• Compose flows from reusable Actions. The right-click menu also lists your project's Actions, so you can drop an entire "Login to App" or "Fill Beneficiary Form" step into your flow instead of re-recording it.
• Validate as you build. With Auto Playback, each statement executes on the live application as soon as it is complete. You see immediately whether the step works, not at the end of the day's work.
• Play back any portion of your logic. Run everything, run only the selected statements, or run up to or from a chosen point. The Playback Console shows the status, messages, and timing of every step.
• Troubleshoot in place. When a step fails, the application is right there. Turn the recorder off to interact manually, inspect the state, adjust the statement, and replay from that point.
• Maintain existing logic. Lock the recording position to insert steps in the middle of established flows, reconcile elements after UI changes, and work from captured Views even when the live application is not available.
• Automate across application types in one flow. Combine web, mobile, and other steps in a single Scenario. ACCELQ manages the environment transitions during execution.

One Recorder, Multiple Application Types

The Recorder is a single interface that adapts to the application technology you are testing. The icon rail on the left edge of the panel selects the recorder type:

More recorder types will be added over time.

Switching recorder types is instant and available at any time during an editing session. Statements recorded from different recorder types coexist in the same Action or Scenario, which is the foundation for multi-modal flows such as initiating a transaction on a desktop browser and verifying it in the mobile app. See Multi-Modal Automation.

Whichever recorder type you use, the working model is identical: the same recording modes, the same right-click menu, the same Playback experience, the same Views and Element Repository, and the same sidebar panels (VIEWS, ELEM, PARAM). Learn the Recorder once and you know it for every application type. The differences that do exist are technology-specific and deliberate: how elements are identified, how devices are configured, and similar concerns, covered in each recorder type's own articles.

A Typical Recording Session

To make this concrete, here is how a session usually flows:

1. Open the Recorder from the Logic Editor (open an Action directly, or open a Scenario in Design Studio), and pick the recorder type for your application.
2. Set up your starting state with the recorder OFF: navigate to the right page or screen, log in, prepare data. None of this is recorded.
3. Record your steps in Fluid mode (interact naturally and let ACCELQ write the statements) or Intent mode (right-click and choose each command). Mix in verifications and reusable Actions as you go.
4. Watch each step validate. With Auto Playback on, statements execute on the live application as you complete them. Failures surface immediately in the Playback Console and the statement margin.
5. Play back the full flow once the draft is ready, fix anything that needs attention, and your logic is ready for formal execution through a Scenario or Test Suite.

Recording Modes

Three modes control how your interactions are captured, switchable at any time:

• OFF. Use the application freely; nothing is recorded.
• Fluid. Your interactions are recorded automatically as you perform them.
• Intent. You record each step deliberately through the right-click menu.

The Mobile Recorder records through right-click only, so its control is a simple ON/OFF toggle, and the PDF Recorder offers OFF and Intent. Web and Electron offer the full three-mode selector. See Recording Fundamentals for how each mode works and when to use it.

Element Identification

For your logic to run reliably, ACCELQ must be able to find each element again at execution time. Each recorder type supports the identification strategies best suited to its technology:

In day-to-day recording you rarely think about this: elements are identified and saved automatically as you record. Views, Elements, and Identification explains how it works, and each recorder type's articles cover its strategies in detail.

Where to Go Next

If you work with a single application type, start from that recorder type's Overview and follow the reading order it suggests:

• Web Recorder Overview
• Mobile Recorder Overview
• PDF Recorder Overview
• Electron Recorder Overview

The foundation articles below round out the picture for everyone:

Prerequisites at a Glance