Recording a Test

8 min read

A recording is made in a separate Chrome window that the Hawzu Recorder extension opens for you. You do the test there as you normally would, and each action appears in Hawzu as it happens.

Recording works with test cases in the Multiple and Single step modes. On a Gherkin test case, or with Gherkin selected in the create form, the tab says Recording works with the Multiple and Single step modes. Switch the step mode to record this test. in place of Record. A test case changed to Gherkin after it was recorded keeps its recordings: you can still open them, copy or download their scripts, and delete them.

Install Hawzu Recorder

Open the Hawzu Recorder listing in the Chrome Web Store. You can also reach it from Get the extension on a test case’s Recordings tab.
Select Add to Chrome and confirm.
Chrome opens a Hawzu Recorder tab. Select Allow recording, and accept Chrome’s request for the two permissions the tab explains: Access to all sites, because signing in often passes through another domain, and Navigation events, to tell a typed address from a link click or a redirect. The extension only acts in its recording window. The button then reads Recording allowed.
Return to Hawzu and select I’ve installed it on the Recordings tab.

When Hawzu asks you to update

Hawzu needs Hawzu Recorder 1.2.0 or later, the version that records the page each step happened on and can pick an element again for the Object Repository. When yours is older, the Recordings tab shows Update Hawzu Recorder, with the version you have and the version it needs, such as Version 1.1.0 is installed; this needs 1.2.0 or newer. Recording stays off until you update.

Select Open the store page to update from the Chrome Web Store. If that button is not shown, select Copy chrome://extensions, paste the address into a new tab (Chrome does not let a page open it for you), and update the extension there.
Return to Hawzu and select I’ve updated it, or reload the page.

Record on an existing test case

Open the test case and select the Recordings tab.
In Start recording at, enter the address the test starts from. Hawzu remembers the last address you used in each project.
Select Record. A new Chrome window opens on that address.

If you have not allowed recording yet, the extension opens its Hawzu Recorder tab instead. Select Allow recording there and accept Chrome’s request, then select Record again.
In the recording window, the page shows Hawzu is ready to record this window. Select Start recording. The Hawzu Recorder panel opens beside the page, in Chrome’s side panel.
Do the test. Each action appears in the Recordings tab as you go.
Select Stop in the panel, or Stop and save in Hawzu. The recording is saved to the test case, and the recording window closes after 10 seconds unless you select Keep open.

Until you select Start recording in the recording window, the button in Hawzu reads Cancel, and cancelling saves nothing. Once recording starts, the page you are on is recorded as the first step straight away, and the button reads Stop and save.

Closing the recording window yourself also stops the recording, and what was recorded is saved.

Record while creating a test case

While you create a test case, select the Recording tab next to Steps and record the same way.

The recording is saved as a draft and attached to the test case when you select Create. Its scripts appear once the test case exists, because each script is named by the test case’s code. A draft that is never attached is removed after seven days.

Recorded steps are not added to the new test case on their own. To use them, open the recording and select Use as manual steps. See Manual Steps and Scripts.

What gets recorded

Going to an address, reloading, and going back or forward
Clicks, including right-clicks, middle-clicks and double-clicks
Typing into a field, saved as one step with the final value
Choosing an option from a select list
Checking and unchecking checkboxes, and selecting radio buttons
The keys Enter, Escape, the arrow keys, Page Up, Page Down, Home, End, Delete, Backspace and F1 to F12, and Ctrl or Cmd shortcuts
File uploads, recording the file names only and never their contents
Hovering, when you use the panel’s Hover button

Tab and Space are not recorded. Inside a text field, the keys that move the caret or delete text (Left and Right arrows, Home, End, Delete and Backspace) and Ctrl or Cmd with A, C, V, X, Z or Y are part of typing, so they are not recorded either.

A page that loads because of a link click or a form submission is recorded as part of the action that caused it.

What is not recorded is listed in Limits and Permissions.

The recorder panel

The controls sit in Chrome’s side panel, beside the page rather than on top of it. The panel takes its width from the page, so the recording window opens wider to make room. If you close the panel, select Show controls on the page to open it again. If the panel does not open, select the Hawzu Recorder icon in Chrome’s toolbar.

Before you start, the page offers Start recording and Cancel, and the panel offers only Cancel.

Button	What it does
Start recording	On the page. Begins recording, records the page you are on as the first step, and opens the panel.
Cancel	Before you start. Ends the session and saves nothing.
Pause / Resume	Stops capturing actions for a moment, then picks up again. While paused, the panel shows only Resume, Undo and Stop.
Undo	Removes the last recorded step. It never removes the first step.
Add a check	A heading over Is visible, Has text, Has value, Is checked and URL is. URL is checks the current address at once. For the others, select the element to check next.
Hover	Records hovering over the element you select next.
Secret	Marks the next field you type into on the page as a secret.
Stop	Ends the recording and saves it.

While you pick an element for a check or for Hover, the panel reads Click an element in the page to pick it (Esc cancels). Press Esc, or select the same button again, to stop picking. A short notice confirms each check you add. A check that repeats the last step exactly is not added again, and the notice says That check is already the last step.

Notices appear in the panel, or on the page while the panel is closed.

Assertions compare exactly. Has text checks the element’s whole text, not part of it.

After you stop

When the recording ends, whether you stopped it or cancelled it from the panel, the page or Hawzu, the panel shows what happened:

Recording sent to Hawzu, which changes to Saved to Hawzu once Hawzu has saved it
Nothing was recorded, after a cancel

It then counts down, This window closes in 10s, and closes the recording window with every tab in it. Select Keep open to keep the window, or Close now. If the panel is closed, the countdown and Keep open show on the page instead.

Passwords and other secrets

When you type into a field the recorder recognises as a secret, or into a field you marked with Secret, only a variable name such as HAWZU_PASSWORD is saved, never what you typed. The step reads Enter the value of HAWZU_PASSWORD in the “Password” field, and the scripts read the value from that environment variable when they run.

The recorder recognises as a secret:

A password field
A field whose autocomplete attribute marks it as a password, a one-time code, a card number, a card security code or a card expiry date
A field whose name, id, label, aria-label or placeholder contains pass (as in password or passcode), secret or token, the words OTP, PIN, CVV, CVC or SSN, or one-time, security code, social security or API key

The variable is named HAWZU_ followed by the field’s label, or failing that its name, id or placeholder, in capitals with underscores, such as HAWZU_PASSWORD or HAWZU_API_KEY. When two fields would get the same name, the second gets _2.

Secret applies only to fields in the page itself, not to a field inside a frame. If you select Secret and then type inside a frame, the mark waits for the next field you type into on the page. Fields inside frames are still recognised automatically.

Hawzu refuses a Has value check on a field it recognises as a secret, with A secret field’s value can’t be asserted. A field you only marked with Secret is not protected this way: a Has value check on it saves what the field holds as the expected value, in the recording and in both scripts. Do not add a Has value check to such a field.

When a step opens a new tab

A recording follows one tab. If an action opens a new tab or a popup, what happens there is not recorded, and the step that opened it is marked for review in the recording and in both scripts.

Remove steps or delete a recording

A recording keeps what you did, so it can be trimmed but not rewritten.

Remove a step: on the recording’s Steps tab, select the delete icon beside the step. Any expected results under that step are removed with it. The first step, which opens the starting address, cannot be removed.
Delete the recording: select Delete, then Confirm delete.

Both need permission to edit test cases. That includes a recording made in the create form, where the buttons show to everyone creating a test case, but Hawzu refuses the change without that permission.

Removing steps changes the scripts as well, because they are rebuilt from the recording.

Each saved step that acts on an element also gets an object in the project’s Object Repository. A removed step stops using its object, and deleting a recording does the same for all its steps. The objects stay, and show as unused if nothing else uses them.