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Automating Web Testing with cURL and Perl With little or no budget to acquire test automation tools for Web applications, many testers think there is nothing they can do to replace manual tests with automated ones. Not true! Paco Hope introduces two free tools-cURL and Perl-and explains how you can use them to design both positive (functional) and negative (security) test cases. cURL is a free program that helps automate HTTP, HTTPS, and other common types of Web commands. Perl is a well-known programming language well-suited for writing test scripts. Paco describes the basics of automating tests with these tools and explores the automation complexity that these tools help solve. He demonstrates how a few simple commands can generate thousands of test cases, whether your Web platform is Java EE, .NET, or something else. Leave with an understanding of scripting basics and a list of resources you can turn to for learning more about free Web test automation tools.
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Paco Hope, Cigital, Inc.
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Free and Cheap Test Tools Too often, testers have limited money, time, or both to purchase, learn, and implement the robust commercial test tools available today. However, as a tester, one of the best things you can have is your own personal testing toolkit. Since 2001, Randy Rice has been researching free and inexpensive test tools and has compiled a set of tools that have been a great help to him and many others. Randy presents an overview of these tools that can add power and efficiency to your test planning, execution, and evaluation. He presents and demonstrates tools that can be used for pairwise test design, test management, defect tracking, test data creation, test automation, test evaluation and Web-based load testing. Learn how you can use these tools together to achieve a combined effect of greater test speed and better test coverage-at little or no out-of-pocket cost.
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Randy Rice, Rice Consulting Services, Inc.
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"A" is for Abstraction - Managing Change in Successful Test Automation Implementing a test automation project can be like a mountain climbing expedition-many find the task daunting, some attempt it, and only a few are successful. Showing real-world examples-such as the need for scripting across different platforms-Mark Meninger explains how to embrace change and use abstraction to provide creative ideas and approaches for your test automation project. You'll learn how to implement a platform abstraction layer in the automation architecture to overcome multi-platform issues and much more. Mark helps you understand how the roles of change and abstraction in test automation can impact your automation project. You can become one of the few who are truly successful by embracing abstraction in your test automation architecture. Otherwise, you may spend money, invest in tools, and build a team that never makes it to the top of the test automation mountain.
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Mark Meninger, Research In Motion
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Improving Your Testing Assets Through Domain Modeling Just as agile approaches have made inroads in development, FitNesse is doing the same in acceptance testing. Many testers rely heavily on FitNesse to improve collaboration and communication among the product owner, developers, and testers. However, beginning by writing tests based on a specific tool will ultimately lead to ineffective testing. Renato Quédas asserts that by basing your tests on a domain model of your application rather than your test tool, you will gain a better understanding of what needs to be tested and, therefore, design more effective test cases. Once the model is created, test cases can be derived automatically from the model. Also, should the model change, test cases can be easily recreated. Renato demonstrates this concept applied to FitNesse using the open-source Eclipse Modeling Technology (EMT).
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Renato Quedas, Borland Software
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Cheap and Free Test Tools Too often, testers have limited money, time, or both to purchase, learn, and implement the robust commercial test tools available today. However, as a tester, one of the best things you can have is your own personal testing toolkit. Since 2001, Randy Rice has been researching free and inexpensive test tools and has compiled a set of tools that have been a great help to him and many others. Randy presents an overview of these tools that can add power and efficiency to your test planning, execution, and evaluation. Randy presents and demonstrates tools that can be used for pairwise test design, test management, defect tracking, test data creation, test automation, test evaluation and Web-based load testing. Learn how you can use these tools together to achieve a combined effect of greater test speed and better test coverage at little or no out-of-pocket cost.
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Randy Rice, Rice Consulting Services
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Demystifying Virtual Test Lab Management The benefits of a virtualized test lab environment are compelling and quantifiable--rapid provisioning and tear down of environments, faster test cycles, and powerful new capabilities to resolve defects. Although many test teams have experimented with virtual machines and have experienced some of the benefits, they've also discovered issues with virtual machine "sprawl," difficulties administering the lab, and lack of virtual private networking. Ian Knox provides solutions to these problems and offers ways to simplify both using and managing virtualization in your test environment. Ian describes the basics of virtualization and how you can use virtual labs to solve some of the most pressing and expensive challenges in testing. He guides you through the important implementation choices for building a virtual lab and explores the common pitfalls with real-life case studies.
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Ian Knox, Skytap
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End-To-End Test Automation for Complex Systems As a world-leading provider of telecommunications equipment, Ericsson knows that test automation is a key factor for driving a successful test organization. Thomas Thunell describes their automation solution-test system for complex, end-to-end environments. Ericsson's networks typically consist of mobile terminals, base stations, radio network controllers, switching systems, protocol analyzers, and possibly other components. Thomas discusses the lessons Ericsson has learned-obtain management commitment up front, use dedicated automation teams, and take the long-term view in automation work. When it came to planning, establishing guidelines, and getting the right people on board, Ericsson treated test automation exactly the same as any other software development project. In so doing, they built-and depend on-a rock-solid, easy-to-use, reliable test automation framework.
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Thomas Thunell, Ericsson AB
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Automate API with White-box Tests with windows PowerShell Although a myriad of testing tools have emerged over the years, only a few focus on the area of API testing for Windows-based applications. Nikhil Bhandari describes how to automate these types of software tests with Windows PowerShell, the free command line shell and scripting language. Unlike other scripting shells, PowerShell works with WMI, XML, ADO, COM, and .NET objects as well as data stores, such as the file system, registry, and certificates. With PowerShell, you can easily develop frameworks for testing-unit, functional, regression, performance, deployment, etc.-and integrate them into a single, consistent overall automation environment. With PowerShell, you can develop scripts to check logs, events, process status, registry check, file system management, and more. Use it to parse XML statements and other test files.
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Nikhil Bhandari, Intuit
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Adventures with Test Monkey's Most test automation focuses on regression testing-repeating the same sequence of tests to reveal unexpected behavior. Despite its many advantages, this traditional test automation approach has limitations and often misses serious defects in the software. John Fodeh describes "test monkeys," automated testing that employs random inputs to exercise the software under test. Unlike regression test suites, test monkeys explore the software in a new way each time a test case executes and offers the promise of finding new and different types of defects. The good news is that test monkey automation is easy to develop and maintain and can be used early in development before the software is stable. Join John to discover different approaches you can take to implement test monkeys, depending on the desired "intelligence" level.
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John Fodeh, Hewlett-Packard
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Man and Machine: Combining Automation Tools with the Human Mind When we think of automated testing, we usually think of unattended tests that are executed by computer software. When we think of manual testing, we think of a human being executing tests without the aid of a machine. These activities need not be mutually exclusive-we can use automation tools to help us as we undertake manual testing. Instead of thinking of tests as either automated or manual, Jonathan Kohl explores areas where you can blend the activities. You might ask questions such as: "To what extent will test automation help me in my testing work?" or "What do we lose if we run these tests without human supervision?" Jonathan discusses and demonstrates a different way to think about test automation, as an intersection between automated and manual testing. He highlights techniques of this hybrid testing approach, providing examples from other disciplines and from his own experiences.
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Jonathan Kohl, Kohl Concepts Inc.
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