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Set up Desired Capabilities in Windows Desktop App Testing in Katalon Studio

This article shows you how to configure desired capabilities for Windows Desktop Application testing.

Set desired capabilities for Windows Desktop Application testing​

For Windows Spy/Recorder Utility​

Important:

  • Katalon Studio version 7.0.0 onwards.

To set desired capabilities for Windows Spy/Recorder Utility, do as follows:

  1. Go to Project > Settings > Desired Capabilities > Windows.

    DC settings for Windows

    Alternatively, you can also edit desired capabilities settings via a Windows execution session. Start a Spy Windows/ Windows Recorder session, in the Configuration box, click Edit.

    Alternative way to change DC settings

  2. Enter WinAppDriver URL: http://<ip-address>:<port> - URL to the WinAppDriver server. By default, Katalon Studio is set to http://127.0.0.1:4723.

  3. Click Add on the command toolbar to add desired capabilities.

    Katalon Studio supports the same capabilities as WinAppDriver does. To learn more about supported capabilities for Windows Desktop App testing, you can refer to the WinAppDriver document here: Supported capabilities.

For Native Windows Recorder​

Important:

  • Katalon Studio version 7.7.0 onwards.

  • An active Katalon Studio Enterprise license. To learn more about activating licenses, you can refer to this document: Activate Katalon license.

To set desired capabilities for Native Windows Recorder, the steps are the same as setting capbilities for Windows Spy/Recorder Utility, see above: Set desired capabilities for Windows Spy/Recorder Utility.

Katalon only supports appArguments and appWorkingDir capabilities in Native Windows Recorder.

  • appArguments: Support passing arguments to the Application Under Test. You can also use this desired capabilities to record action without opening a Windows.

  • appWorkingDir: Specify the Application Under Test working directory.

Example uses​

Example 1: set delaying time for an app launch​

The following example shows you how to set desired capabilities to wait for a defined amount of time before initiating an app launch.

Important:

  • Download and install WinAppDriver version 1.2 onwards. You can refer to this document to install WinAppDriver: Set up WinAppDriver.

  • You also must install Appium version 1.16.0 onwards to support WinAppDriver.

Go to the desired capabilities settings, click Add, then input the following value:

NameTypeValue
ms:waitForAppLaunchstring25(*)

(*) This means delaying the app launch for 25 seconds. The maximum is 50 seconds.

Delay app launch

Example 2: set desired capabilities in Native Windows Recorder​

The following example shows you how to set desired capabilities in Native Windows Recorder.

  1. Open a Native Windows Record session. In the Configuration box, click Edit.

  2. In the pop-up dialog, click Add, then input the following value:

    NameTypeValue
    appWorkingDirstringC:\User\thongnmtran\Desktop\workspace\katalon
    appArgumentsList--arg1,--arg2

    Set DC for Native Windows Recorder

    Click Apply and Close when you finish. The results should be as follows:

    Results