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. 

What are different characteristics of alpha testing?

For alpha testing, it won’t be wrong if we say that it is another name for acceptance testing. Alpha testing is very much similar to the acceptance testing. Alpha testing is performed in the front of the customer or the client for their satisfaction and acceptance.

The client or the customer needs to verify or check whether the software artifact has been developed according to their:
- Service level agreement or SLA as it is abbreviated.
- Requirements
- Specifications
- Defect rate efficiency or DRE as it is known in short form.

If during the alpha testing the client or the manufacturer missed something, and discovers it later, then the software system has to again undergo a second alpha testing before giving the software product another green signal. But, client or customer revision is required mostly in beta testing.

Alpha testing can be formally defined as an actual operation or simulation testing before the launch of the software system and it does not involves software developers.

It is the testing of software on the site of the software developer by the customer or the client after the completion and finishing of the software system or the application.

- Alpha testing can also be called a kind of user acceptance testing or UAT a sit is known in short form.
- Alpha testing is carried out at the site of the software development. It is done by the clients or the customers. When the project is the development phase, it is said to be under alpha testing.
- Alpha testing allows the software tester to make some minor changes or modifications during the testing or at the end of it.
- It is carried out in the front of the developers, so that they can now what is the error or the bug and what it is and how it can be fixed efficiently.

- Alpha testing can be thought of as a stage of software prototype at which it may be discovered that the software system does not have all the required functionalities and specifications. But, one thing is definitely sure that the software system will have all the core functionalities and operational abilities and it will efficiently accept the input data values and generate the proper output as expected.
- Alpha testing is carried out on any system other than the system on which the software system was developed in the office of the developer.
- Client or the customer carries out the alpha testing under the leadership of the software developer.
- These days the alpha testing is being done by both the end users and the software developers.
- Alpha testing is the complete testing as it contains most of the functionality and specifications.
- Sometimes a group of clients or users are selected to perform alpha testing for the software system.
- Mostly the alpha testing is performed in-house or sometimes is performed by an external testing firm which in close terms or cooperation with the concerned software development corporation or the company.
- Sometimes it may also happen that the software developers may test the software system in front of the end users present within the development environment.
- This kind of testing is popularly known as off site testing. The end user side or the testing side is also called the development end.

In alpha testing it is necessary to determine whether the the software system is delivering the service as it was expected by the client or the customer. The environment in which the alpha testing is performed is called the client environment.

Hierarchical or Tree Network Topology

In its simplest form, only hub devices connect directly to the tree bus, and each hub functions as the "root" of a tree of devices. This bus/star hybrid approach supports future expandability of the network much better than a bus (limited in the number of devices due to the broadcast traffic it generates) or a star (limited by the number of hub connection points) alone.
This type of topology suffers from the same centralization flaw as the Star Topology. If the device that is on top of the chain fails, consider the entire network down.Obviously this is impractical and not used a great deal in real applications.Each node in the network having a specific fixed number, of nodes connected to it at the next lower level in the hierarchy, the number, being referred to as the 'branching factor' of the hierarchical tree.

- A network that is based upon the physical hierarchical topology must have at least three levels in the hierarchy of the tree, since a network with a central 'root' node and only one hierarchical level below it would exhibit the physical topology of a star.
- The total number of point-to-point links in a network that is based upon the physical hierarchical topology will be one less than the total number of nodes in the network.
- If the nodes in a network that is based upon the physical hierarchical topology are required to perform any processing upon the data that is transmitted between nodes in the network, the nodes that are at higher levels in the hierarchy will be required to perform more processing operations on behalf of other nodes than the nodes that are lower in the hierarchy. Such a type of network topology is very useful and highly recommended.

Topology in Distributed systems

The sites in the system can be connected physically in a variety of ways. While choosing a topology, following criteria should be kept in mind : Basic cost, Communication cost and Reliability.

Mesh Networks : The value of fully meshed networks is proportional to the exponent of the number of subscribers, assuming that communicating groups of any two endpoints, up to and including all the endpoints.

- Fully Connected Networks
The fully-connected connected network topology, also referred to as a mesh topology, requires that all the terminals be connected to all the other terminals, as it's name implies.
Advantages: A fault in one terminal on the network will not effect the rest, as the data has multiple redundancy paths, depending on the size of the network, that are open to it.When network usage is high, data packets can be transmitted via different cables, thereby reducing network clogging - keeping data transfer rates at an acceptable level.
Disadvantage : A large amount of cabling is required.



- Partially connected Networks
The type of network topology in which some of the nodes of the network are connected to more than one other node in the network with a point-to-point link – this makes it possible to take advantage of some of the redundancy that is provided by a physical fully connected mesh topology without the expense and complexity required for a connection between every node in the network.
In most practical networks that are based upon the physical partially connected mesh topology, all of the data that is transmitted between nodes in the network takes the shortest path (or an approximation of the shortest path) between nodes, except in the case of a failure or break in one of the links, in which case the data takes an alternative path to the destination.

Overview Of Distributed Systems

A distributed system is a collection of processors that do not share memory or clock. Each of the process has its own clock and memory and the processors communicate with each other through various communication lines. These processors are referred to by different names such as sites, machines, hosts, nodes, computers and so on.
A distributed system provides the user with access to various resources that the system maintains. A distributed system must provide various mechanisms for process synchronization and communication, for dealing with the deadlock problem, and other failures which are not encountered in a centralized system.

There are 4 reasons for building distributed systems :
- Resource sharing : If a number of different sites are connected to one another, then a user at one site may be able to use the resources available at another.
- Computation speedup : If a computation can be partitioned into sub computations that can run concurrently, availability of a distributed system may allow us to distribute the computation among various sites, to run the computation concurrently.
- Reliability : If one site fails in distributed system, the remaining sites can potentially continue operating. The failure of the site must be detected by the system and the appropriate action may be needed to recover from failure.
- Communication : Information can be exchanged when several sites are connected to one another by a communication network.

The advantage of a distributed system is that these functions can be carried over great distances.