Coded UI - keeping up with development of an application

Question

I hope I can explain our current situation well. We have an application that is being upgraded from vb6 to a .net application, module by module. For example, our application is an accounting app and the next projected upgraded module will be General Ledger. I would like to be able to build my UI Maps and created CodedUI tests alongside the development of the module. Is this possible? I guess what I am asking is:

Is it possible to produce Coded UI tests from a development "branch", by building it in VS? I am not a developer but I am just trying to find some way to stay caught up so that I don't have to play catch up after the upgraded application has been deployed. Any ideas or suggestions are welcome :)

Thank you

Answer 1

@alexcharizamhard is right. It's analogous to making the transition from recording a macro to hand-coding a macro. The latter approach lends itself to thinking like a programmer. If you ever get stuck with the more manual approach, you can always record a step or two and look at the generated code. If you're using source control, you can copy-paste the recorded code you want into Notepad++ (for example), discard your changes, and find a more elegant way to insert the code into your project.

Answer 2

To shorten my answer on msdn :):

If you handcode your tests, you can get your skeleton code up no problem.

If you record your maps and tests, probably a waste of time.