Explain Rapise - Web Functional/Regression Test Tool

In this world of web–based applications, every application is unique and therefore its testing needs are also different from the other applications. To satisfy all those different testing requirements, environments, specifications, scenarios and so on we require many different testing tools. So a number of web functional/ regression testing tools have been developed and all of them possess some unique features that suit to needs of the different testers. 

In this article we discuss about one such web functional/ regression tool called Rapise that has been developed by the Inflectra inc. 

About Rapise

- This tool provides a platform for functional test automation. 

- The architecture of this tool is quite open and can be extended if required. 

- These two qualities make it very flexible for testing the applications.

- Rapise has built–in cross–browser testing capabilities that support several versions of the following web browsers:

1. Microsoft internet explorer
2. Mozilla firefox and
3. Google chrome

- It supports the following applications:

1. Ajax
2. GWT
3. YUI
4. Flash/ flex
5. AIR
6. Silverlight and so on.

- Microsoft excel spreadsheets can be used for following approaches such as keyword driven testing and data driven testing.

- Rapise identifies the objects based up on CSS and Xpath. 

- Rapise comes with a built–in OCR i.e., optical character recognition.

- It relies on JavaScript for scripting purpose. 

- An open format is used for storing the scripts as well as the identified objects unlike other tools that store them in a database or a proprietary binary file. 

- The JavaScript editor included with Rapise is full function edition and has a feature called the automatic code completion. 

- An active JavaScript debugger that is plug-gable plus has watches and break points, is also included in Rapise tool. 

- Rapise has made cross browser testing much easier than before. 

- This is all because of the cross – browser testing capabilities that are of the best standard and multiple browser versions as mentioned earlier in the article. 

- You have the choice of recording and creating one test script and executing the same in all the major browsers without making any modifications to it. 

- Rapise claims to have the most flexible as well as the powerful test automation features ever available in the market. 

Features of Rapise Testing Tool

Below we mention some features of Rapise testing tool:

1. Learn and go functionality: This lets you create test scripts rapidly. This works in a more efficient manner than what traditional recording and playback methods we have. The editing of the object takes place during the learning process.
2. Keyword driven testing and data driven testing
3. Windows and web application testing
4. Can be extended using Javascript
5. Adobe AIR and Flash support
6. Supports DevExpress, Infragistics and telerik controls.
7. Support for Qt framework
8. Integrated reporting capabilities that are very powerful.
9. Integration with SpiraTest for effective test management.

- This tool has leveraged the power of extensible architecture by a great measure. 

- For user, the JavaScript source code has been made available for library recognition as well as execution. 

- All these features let you automate the test where other testing tools are bound to fail. 

- With such advanced features, Rapise can be called as the most customizable, extensible and flexible test automation tool. 

- Key functions can be modified by the users as per their requirement and the recording aspects can be customized with the help of custom plug – in libraries. - Since Rapise is using Javascript, a broad range of users can access it.  

Explain Jubula - Web Functional/Regression Test Tool

Today we have around 100 tools available for functional and regression testing of the web based applications. Jubula is one among such tools and will be discussed here in detail. 

About Jubala

- This is an open source tool that is available both as a standalone application and as a part of the eclipse package.  

- The former comes with an installer that is quite easy to use and the latter one can be downloaded from an update site. 

- Jubula client can be used for viewing the actual and the expected results and also it can be used for viewing the current as well as the previous results. 

- Here, you can easily the automatic screenshots whenever an error occurs. 

- Jubula supports many applications such as:

1. Html
2. Swing
3. SWT/ RCP/ GEF and so on.

- Some features of Jubula tool have been listed below:

1. Heuristic object recognition
2. Command line client
3. Context sensitive help in client
4. Multi – user database for storing projects
5. Portability
6. Version control

- Command line has been included in this tool so as to facilitate continuous integration.

- Version control is achieved via the exports in XML format. 

- The contribution in this regard was made by BREDEX GmbH (also the developer of GUI dancer). 

- The GUIdancer was actually built up on the lines of Jubula core and offer some more features. 

- Jubula is not dependent on any platform windows, unix, linux or MAC. 

- A project by the name of ‘jubula functional testing tool’ was created as an open source project. 

- This project was a part of the eclipse technology project. 

- Other functional testing tools work up on the thing that the saving and management of the scripts is done through coding. 

Now depending up on the testing approach you are following, your test automation process may involve steps like recording, generation or straightaway writing of the code. 

What differentiates Jubala from other testing tools?

- It considers the importance of the automated acceptance tests as same as that of the project code. 

- According to Jubula, same best practices (reusability, modularity, readability etc.) should be used for creating these tests as well without requirement of any extra code. 

- Thus, the power of testing is given in the hands of the software testers and at the same time for the customers the access improves for monitoring the tests. 

- This results in a code free approach that minimizes the need for test maintenance, thus allowing the users to write the tests from their perspective. 

- If the team focuses on the software from the viewpoint of the user, it can gains a whole lot of quality info which often goes un-utilized when only JUnit tests are run.

- Jubula comes with a library of actions which is used for creating the tests. 

- You can combine the actions contained in the library using drag and drop.

- This library contains all the necessary actions that one may require for writing the tests. 

- This library is also independent of platform and application which implies that you can start writing the tests before the software is actually made available to you. 

- When you work with Jubula, you save on time since as soon as the code is committed the tests can be executed. 

- The time between the introduction of an error and catching it is reduced.

Objectives of Jubala

Jubula has got the following objectives:

1. Providing tooling for carrying out automated GUI testing on html and java based applications.
2. Specifying and maintaining a model specifications and requirements of the tests.
3. Providing API for projects so that the test scenarios can be generated, test can be executed and results can be obtained. 

Explain Telerik TeamPulse?

About Telerik TeamPulse

- Telerik TeamPulse has been developed by Telerik as an agile project management tool in the year of 2010. 

- One of the characteristic features of the TeamPulse is that it can be integrated as well as hosted as local Microsoft team foundation server 2008, 10 and 12 services. 

- However, it cannot be integrated with the Microsoft visual studio.

- This Telerik product is available under commercial license. 

- The features of TeamPulse have been mentioned below:

1. Bug tracking
2. Integration with the telerik’s web UI test studio
3. Time tracking
4. Backlog management
5. E – mail notifications
6. Cross – project dashboard known as xView and developed with html5.
7. Task board
8. Storyboard with WP limits
9. TeamPulse can be integrated with Microsoft TFS (team foundation server) 2008, 2010 and 2012.
10. Requirements manager
11. Best practices analyzer

- The extension provided with the Telerik TeamPulse is the TeamPulse ideas and feedback portal which is based on html and is compatible with html5.

- Since TeamPulse is commercial software, it is not available for a hosted solution but it is to be used only on premise. 

- When you add TeamPulse to TFS the planning, tracking and collaboration improves automatically.

- With the real time project intelligence of Telerik TeamPulse you can improve decision making power. 

- It provides you with up-to-date views of the status of the project. 

- By using TeamPulse, you bridge the boundaries between the team members and their geographical location i.e., the communication is improved. 

- This tool has been exclusively designed for scrum and kanban teams i.e., any of these either kanban or scrum or scrumban can be used.

- It has been designed to reduce the delivery time, eliminate the waste and improve the work flow. 

- It also provides you a convenient way for collecting and managing the customer feedback. 

- It lets you create products that your customer actually needs. 

- TeamPulse lets you manage project well with the following:

1. Work burn down
2. Velocity
3. Cycle time
4. Iteration delta
5. Agile best practices and a number of other reports. 

- Telerik TeamPulse favors most of the agile projects.

- It lets one plan, manage and monitor the results thus improving the overall process. 

- TeamPulse has got a rich interface with in–context guidance making the integration with TFS faster. 

- Its other features include:

1. Automatic notifications
2. Bug tracking
3. Gantt charts
4. Interactive gantt charts
5. Privacy settings
6. Project templates
7. Reporting
8. Scheduling
9. Task feedback
10. Workload
11. Dashboard
12. Email integration
13. Issue tracking
14. Messaging or IM
15. RSS feed
16. Collaborative
17. Issue tracking system
18. Risk management capabilities
19. Web application

- The tool has not got any remote capability features. It comes with the following resource management features:

1. Time sheets
2. Compare project
3. Management software

- Teampulse has been developed with the view that all the clients, scenario and environment differ from each other.

- Large enterprises require a tool that is capable of scaling their workload. 

- Teampulse fits every scenario even though if you require some time to master it. 

- Firstly, you need to set up the project info, template, iterations. 

- Then you need to create your team and lastly take a view of the summary of your project. - It is recommended by the system to start with the stories.

- Being an enterprise tool, it has got many features which might make you feel like it might be quite complex to use. 

- But it is quite user friendly. 

What is object map technology in IBM rational functional tester work?

IBM rational functional tester was developed in the league of automated functional testing tools which could assist the users in the creation of the tests that could mimic the assessments as well as the actions of the human testers. However, till date the rational function tester has found its primary use in the field of software quality assurance for performing the automated regression testing. 

About Rational Functional Tester

- This functional testing tool is used in the process of quality assurance for carrying out the regression testing. 

- The test scripts are created with the help of a test recorder whose function is to capture the actions of users against the AUT or application under testing. 

- This recording mechanism assists in the creation of the test scripts from the actions. 

- The test scripts that are produced using the rational functional tester are either based up on visual basic. NET application or a java application. 

- Eventually, the test scripts came to be represented as a series of screen shots with the release of the version 8.1 of the rational functional tester and formed a visual story board. 

- Using the standard commands as well as the syntax of these languages, they could be edited by the testers. 

- This could also be done by carrying out an act against the screen shots available in the story board. 

- Then the test scripts are ready to be executed by the rational functional tester in order to validate the functionality of the application.

- Usually, the test scripts are executed in the batch mode where there several test scripts have been grouped together and have been executed unattended. 

- The user needs to introduce several verification points while the recording phase is in progress. 

Verification points are introduced so that the expected state of the system can be captured such as the following:

1. A specific value in a particular field.
2. A given property of an object whether enabled or disabled.

- A baseline is captured during recording which is compared with the actual result and if any discrepancy is found between the two, it is noted down by the rational functional tester in its logs. 

- The log then can be reviewed by the tester in order to determine whether the actual software bug or error has been discovered or not.  

What is Object Mapping Technology?

- Object mapping technology or OMT is counted among the key technologies of the rational functional tester. 

- This is actually an underlying technology whose purpose is to find objects within a software system or application and act against them. 

- The test recorder creates automatically the object map by itself whenever some tests are created containing a list of properties that can be used for the identification of the objects during the play back progress. 

- For the rational functional tester to interact with a particular object in a software system or application it should be able to understand the interface of that object. 

- This usually does not pose any problem for the standard objects such as list boxes, buttons and edit fields etc.

- But, in some cases it does pose problems when the application developers try to create their own customs objects in order to meet a certain requirement of the software system or application. 

- Application developers can overcome this problem by creating an object proxy using which they can identify the interfaces to a custom objects in the code. 

- This mechanism is termed as the SDK or software development kit interface. 

- Using it, the users can develop programs in .net or java in order to add the functional testing support for .Net as well as java custom controls. 

How to run a test automatically in Test Director?

The whole testing process revolves around the execution of the tests. As the changes are introduced in to the software system or application, running tests either manually or automatically becomes mandatory so that the defects can be located and quality can be assessed. 

How are tests run?

- One starts the testing process with the creation of the tests and adding these tests to a test set. 

- Tests are grouped into test sets by the test director so that some specific goals can be achieved. 

- Execution process of the tests can be controlled via the various controls provided by the test director. 

- Along with these controls, there are certain conditions and settings which need to be configured for the execution of the tests as desired by the tester. 

- The date and time can also be scheduled when the tests will be executed. 

- Once the tests have been defined the tester can begin with the execution of the tests. 

- Whenever the tests are executed manually, it is basically the test steps that were defined earlier during the test planning which are executed one by one. 

- The steps are passed or failed by the tester depending up on whether there is a match between the expected results and the actual results. 

- For the automatic run of a test, the selected tool is directly opened by the test director and the test is run. 

- The result hence obtained is exported to the test director. 

- Setting conditions and specifying date and time for the execution of a test both can be done with the help of the execution flow tab.

- In the execution, one thing should be noticed which is that the condition is always dependent on the result of some other specified test in the same flow. 

- Also, the sequence in which the tests are to be executed can be specified. 

In this article we shall see how the test execution can be automated. The tool selected for the execution of the tests is opened directly by the test director and the tests are run on either local or remote machine. It is either choice if you want to run all the tests or some specified ones. 

For running the tests automatically one of the following tools must be installed on the system:

a)   Astra quick test

b)   Quick test professional

c)   Winrunnner

Follow the below mentioned steps:

1. Clicking on the test lab tab will display the test lab module. This is a must for the automation of the tests.
2. The test set you want to execute automatically should be displayed in the execution grid. For doing this click on the execution grid tab and select the required test from the test sets tree.
3. Select a test. For running the winrunner test select the required test or if you want to run an astra quick test or QTP test select the required one. Next clicking on the run button will open up the execution dialog box and the test will be displayed.
4. Configure the test run settings and select the ‘run all tests locally’ option for running the tests on the local machine.
5. For running the tests click on run tests and the tool will be opened automatically by the test director and the tests will be run. The execution progress can be viewed in the status column.
6. Once the execution of the test is complete close the execution dialog box by clicking on the exit option.
7. Also the summary of the test results can be viewed in the execution grid.

What is a Silk Test project? How to create a new Silk Test project?

These days silk test projects are quite popular with the software test automators. In this article our focus is on the silk test projects only. The first aspect of the article discusses what a silk test project is and the other aspect discusses how a new silk test project can be created. 

"A Silk Test Project can be thought of as a collection of files consisting of the information regarding to a test project". 

How to create a Silk Test Project?

- For creating a silk test project you need to go through the following steps:

1. First step, is to run the silk test.
2. Next step, involves selecting the appropriate basic work flow bar.
3. Now you need to open up your project on the work flow bar.
4. Select a new project from the list of options.
5. Just double click on the icon “create project” which is available in the new project dialog box.
6. Once you have opened the create project dialogue box, enter the name and the description of your project in the box.
7. Finally click OK after checking that all the details that you have entered are correct.

- All the resources associated with a set of test cases are organized by the projects in silk test and are later presented in the project explorer. 

- Such a presentation makes it much easier to view, work up on and manage the project in the test environment. 

- The project holds the relevant information regarding the project as well as other references to the associated resources such as the following:

1. Test plan
2. Test scripts
3. Test data
4. Test option sets
5. .ini files
6. Frame/ include files
7. Editor settings
8. Data files for queries as well as attributes
9. Results and lastly
10. The configuration information.

- All of this information is organized in the projects at the level of the project. 

- This also means that once the project has been configured after adding all the appropriate files to it, there is no need to do it again and again. 

- In silk test, it is quite simple to switch between the projects. 

- Whichever project you want to open, you can open it and execute the tests on it. 

- Whenever a new project is created, silk test agent is employed by the silk test automatically as a measure to provide support to the type of application that is being tested. 

- By default the following settings are not enabled in any project:

1. Enabled extensions
2. Agent options
3. Class mappings and so on.

- In silk test it is possible to retain the settings from the current test set by just saving the settings as the option set by using the option save new options set. - The saved option set then, can be included in the project whenever you create one. 

- Silk test provides you with two ways of creating a project:

1. Manual
2. Automatic

- Of course a project can be automatically generated by the silk test based up on the existing files as specified by the use. 

- Two project files are used by the silk test for storing the information regarding the project:

1. Project name.ini: It is an initialization file which stores information regarding the option sets, queries and so on that form a part of your project.
2. Project name.vtp: The extension stands for ‘verify test project’. This file stores the leftover things of the project information i.e., the names and locations of the files that are in use by the project. 

How will you check a web application for broken links using QTP?

Checking for the broken and ill links forms a very important aspect of any web testing profile. The below mentioned are few testings which take the priority of the web testing check list:

1. Usability testing
2. Functionality testing
3. Compatibility testing
4. Interface testing
5. Security testing
6. Performance testing

Out of all these the functionality testing tests the following basic aspects of a web page or site or application:

1. all the links in web pages
2. data base connection
3. forms in the web pages
4. cookies

When it comes to checking of the links the following links are tested:

1. out going links from a specific domain
2. internal links
3. links jumping on same page
4. links for sending mails
5. orphan pages and lastly
6. broken  links

Our focus is on last aspect i.e., testing of the broken links in a web page, site or web application with the help of the quick test professional. 

What are broken links?

- Broken links are also termed as dead links since they are permanently unavailable and hence cannot be accessed by the user. 

- If you would have observed you might have surely come across 404 error while browsing some site. 

- This signifies the presence of a broken link. 

- Using quick test professional, the broken links can be identified during the run time itself by following any one of the two methods mentioned below:

1. via manual creation of a check point
2. via automatic page check point

How a broken link be checked manually by creating a page check point?

- A direct menu option is not available in the quick test professional for incorporating a page check point. 

- Therefore, you need to take assistance of a standard check point. 

- What you actually need, is to click on the start recording session and then select insert option, then check point and finally standard check point option.

- You can use F12 if it works for you.

- Get the hand pointer on the web page and click OK. 

- You will get a page check point properties dialog box which has a broken link check box. 

- You need to check that box and click OK. 

- After this, you need to run the scripts and check the status of links in broken link result. 

- If the links pointing only to the current host have to be checked then you need to check the box titled check only links to current host by going to the tools menu and then selecting web options. 

- Similarly, if the links pointing to all the hosts have to be checked then this box has to be kept unchecked. 

For following the second method you need to go through the following:

Tools à options à web à advanced

- You will get two boxes labeled “broken links” and “create a check point for each page while recording”, check these both boxes. 

Now every time the quick test professional starts recording on a new page, a check point will be automatically included for all the broken links. 

One thing that you should know is that the quick test professional experiences some issues with the windows vista if the internet explorer version that you using is 7.0. 

Tabbed browsing is something that is not supported by the quick test professional especially in Microsoft internet explorer. 

An alternative to this can be to disable tabbed browsing first and then proceed with quick test professional. In internet explorer the quick test professional may not be able to recognize the web objects. 

What are the benefits of creating multiple actions within any virtual user script?

It is one of the most frustrating things when your software system or application crashes once the whole software development life cycle or SDLC is over while the user tries to install it. 

You can just make out what impression it will have of your work and efforts on the user!

- Time wasted!

- Reputation spoiled!

- No benefits!

Nowadays to avoid such kind of situations and inconvenience to the users, a standard procedure of QA (quality assurance) has been defined to test the software systems and applications. 

In previous years, the task of software testing was thought to be an ultimate drudgery but now it has all been eased with the help of automated testing tools and one of them being the VU or virtual user. 

In this article we shall discuss about virtual user as well as the benefits one can have of creating multiple actions within any virtual user script. 

What is Virtual User?

- Emulating a real world human user becomes such an easy task with the help of virtual user which otherwise will take up a lot of time.

- A virtual user can almost perform most of the actions that are performed by a human user like:

1. Clicking the mouse
2. Hovering or pointing the mouse over some object on the screen.
3. Typing the words and commands.
4. Selecting some object.

- The system on which the virtual user software package is installed acts as the host computer and one more computer is paired with this one called the target system. 

- The responsibility of the host system is to control the other computers present in the network while the target computer is programmed to receive the instructions from the host computer. 

- In the environment of the virtual user, the software system or application takes up the task of compiling and running the scripts called virtual user scripts.

Benefits of creating multiple actions with virtual user script

Now coming to the benefits of creating multiple actions within a virtual user script:

1. Creating multiple actions within a VU script becomes quite effective when employed in tests that are highly repetitive and consist of many variations.
2. With the multiple action feature, more and more tasks can be performed which otherwise would be quite a tedious job to do for the human users. But for a system it is possible since it does not bother itself with tiredness, tediousness and thus proving itself as an ideal tester.
3. Another benefit of the multiple actions in one virtual user script is that such tests can be created which can be run at almost every internal build of the software system or application under question in the stages like:

a)   Development stage

b)   Alpha stage

c)   Beta stage

d)   Final release stage

4. With a virtual user script with multiple actions it can be easily verified that no functionality was broken by the code changes that were made to the earlier version of the software system or application.
5. With the help of multiple actions containing virtual user scripts, an automatic bug verification mechanism can be set up by imitating the steps through which a bug can be reproduced.
6. The automatic big verification test thus developed can be used to test each and every release of the software system or application thus ensuring that the bug has been fixed and there are no chances of it sneaking back in to the program code.
7. These multiple actions scripts can be split in to single ones whenever required.