Eggplant Functional
programming tool
Eggplant Functional is a black-box graphical user interface (GUI) test automation tool. It was developed in Boulder, Colorado, by Doug Simons, Jonathan Gillaspie, and John McIntosh. The software was initially developed by Redstone Software, a subsidiary of Gresham Computing PLC, starting in 2002. On September 2, 2008, Redstone Software was acquired by a UK-based company called Testplant, which later rebranded itself as Eggplant.
Approach
Eggplant Functional employs a two-system model, comprising a controller machine—where scripts are authored and executed—and a system under test (SUT), which may run a VNC server. Eggplant Functional can connect to the VNC server via its built-in viewer via TCP/IP or to a system that supports Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). Any system running a VNCserver can function as a SUT. Originally designed for Mac, the controller environment/IDE is now also available on Linux and Windows via GNUstep.
The SenseTalk feature allows for the creation of scripts either manually or through an 'assisted scripting' mode, where the user guides Eggplant Functional in navigating a system and verifying a set of test steps. Additionally, the 'Turbo Capture' feature streamlines the image capture process and automatically generates SenseTalk code based on the user's actions.
In 2011, Eggplant released Eggplant Functional v11, which introduced an integrated Optical Character Recognition (OCR) engine.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5347931. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2002, 2008 and 2011.
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