Explain TestOptimal - Web Functional/Regression Test Tool

About TestOptimal Testing Tool

- TestOptimal provides a convenient way for the functional/ regression/ load/ stress testing of the web–based applications in an automated way. 

- It also works for the java applications. 

- The technology behind the TestOptimal testing tool is the MBT or model based testing and some mathematical optimization techniques. 

- It generates as well as executes the test cases directly from the model of the application. 

- Actually, TestOptimal is itself a web – based application. 

- It has facilities for integrating it with the JUnit. 

- Furthermore, it can be run along with the NetBeans and Eclipse.

- Another striking feature of TestOptimal apart from the technology is that it uses is the application modeling with graphs.

- Example of such graphs are the state chart XML or in short SCXML. 

- These charts have drag and drop user interface that are capable of running  on  the standard browsers. 

- TestOptimal has a number of test sequencers that effectively meet the testing needs of different users. 

- Mscript or java is used for the automation of the tests i.e., the XML – based scripting. 

-TestOptimal provides statistical analysis of the virtual users and test executions required for load testing. 

- TestOptimal can be integrated with other tools such as QTP, quality center etc. with the help of its web service interface. 

- TestOptimal supports multiple browsers on a number of platforms such as Unix, Linux and Windows.

- The following constitute this model – based test automation suite for load and performance testing:

1. Test optimal basic MBT
2. proMBT
3. enterprise MBT
4. runtime MBT

- Model based testing and DDT (data driven testing) are combined together by the TestOptimal so as to provide a sophisticated and efficient test automation and test case generation tool. 

- With MBT, one can find the defects in the early stages of the development cycle, thus enabling a quick and efficient response. 

- TestOptimal animates the test execution that provides the user with an insight in to the testing. 

- This also enables the user to validate the model visually. 

- It also lets you track the requirement coverage.

-The test cases can be visualized with the help of various graphs. 

- For achieving the desired test coverage, there are a number of algorithms capable of generating requires test sequences. 

- The same automation scripts and models can be re–purposed if the user wants to perform load and performance testing.

- TestOptimal helps you cut down the length of the development cycle and at the same time achieving desired test coverage. 

- This in turn improves you response to the frequent changes and makes you confident about your software.

- With TestOptimal, it is sure that over 90 percent of your coverage requirements will be met and release turnaround time will be improved. 

Features of TestOptimal

Below we state some unique features of this excellent testing tool:

1. Finite state machine notation via MBT modeling.
2. Superstate and sub-model: With this feature a larger model can be partitioned in to smaller library components that are reusable.
3. Graphs: It provides various graphs such as the MSC (message sequence chart), coverage graph, model graph, sequence graphs and so on.
4. Model import and merge: It offers various modeling formats based up on XML and UML XMI such as the graphML, graphXML and so on.
5. Test case generation: It comes with many sequencers such as the optimal sequencer, custom test case sequencer, random walk and so on.
6. Scriptless data driven testing
7. Scripting offered in mscript and java.
8. ODBC/ JDBC support: Relational databases can be accessed and operations such as reading, writing, storing and verifying test results can be performed.
9. Integration with REST websvc, JUnit, java IDE specifically netbeans and eclipse, remote agents and so on.
10. Cross browser testing support on browsers such as chrome, IE, opera, firefox and safari.

Explain Tellurium - Web Functional/Regression Test Tool

- Tellurium is an automated testing framework developed exclusively for the web–based applications.

- It is an open source tool and based up on user interface module.

- All UI elements grouped together are called as the UI module. 

- Usually, a composite UI object is what that a UI module represents in a format similar to that of the basic nested UI elements. 

- Building of UI locators is actually possible because of the UI module. 

- This tool comes with a Firefox plug – in called the TrUMP (tellurium UI model plugin) using which one can create UI modules automatically.

- The duty of the framework is to perform object to locator mapping or OLM. 

- It does this at the execution time automatically so that the user finds it easy to define the UI objects just by their respective attributes. 

- Another technique used by tellurium is the GLC or the group locating concept for the exploitation of the information contained in the UI components. 

- This information is used for locating the locators.

- It defines a complete new language for web testing known as the domain specific language or DSL. 

- UI templates are one of the powerful features of tellurium. 

- These templates can be used for representing many identical UI elements with their dynamic size at the run time. 

- These elements are quite useful for testing dynamic web elements like for example a data grid.

- Another characteristic feature of tellurium is that it can composite the UI objects very nicely in to tellurium widget objects. 

- The tellurium widgets thus obtained can be packed as a jar file. 

- Each of these widgets can be used as a single tellurium UI object once included with the jar file. Java and groovy wrote the code for the tellurium core. 

- However, tellurium trump and engine can be implemented with jQuery and JavaScript. 

- Users are free to test cases in any of these languages: groovy, pure DSL, or java. 

- Tellurium is kind of a portable framework and runs up on selenium. 

- JUnit and TestNG testing frameworks are both supported by tellurium. 

- Tellurium is hosted on Google code as an open source project.

- It comes with Apache license 2. 

- The credit for the creation of this tool goes to Jian Fang of the Georgia institute of technology.

- The major flagship project of the tellurium team is the tellurium core. 

- The UI modules act as a backbone to the tellurium tests since they define the html content of the page that is being tested. 

- But it does not make use of CSS and xpaths for defining the UI elements as selenium do. 

- It uses a much better thing i.e., DSL that also defines the relationships among those modules. 

- JUnit or TestNG can be used as testing container as preferred by you. 

- It is required to write the UI module DSL for writing a selenium test case. 

- This can be either be done using TrUMP or manually. 

- The robustness of the tests are further improved by the tellurium’s santa algorithm. 

- This algorithm locates the UI module at the execution time DOM. 

- But this feature is only available in 0.7.0 and higher versions.

- The lower versions require that the run – time locators are generated by the tellurium core based up on the definition of the UI module. 

- The selenium commands are then passed by to the tellurium for locating individual UI elements. 

- Using trump UI module DSL can be generated just by clicking on the page elements. 

- The DSL then can be saved to a groovy class and can be used by the tests any time. 

- It is the use of UI modules that have made the tellurium so expressive.

Explain SlimDog - Web Functional/Regression Test Tool

About SlimDog

- SlimDog is a web application testing tool that is based on simple script i.e., the httpunit. 

- The tool comes with a range of commands that help you to work with forms, navigating between the web pages and checking the table contents. 

- The hard task of writing lengthy xml files and JUnit test cases, the slimdog allows the users to create simple text scripts. 

- Each command is a test node that is contained in every line of the script.

- As such all commands contained in a file are treated as a test case and processed as the same. 

- Every command has a syntax that is quite simple as well as easy to learn. 

- If you want, you can form a test suite by combining several test scripts. 

- The results of the tests executed are written as an html page or file to the console. 

How to use SlimDog?

- To use slimdog, firstly you need to download its latest version from its web site. 

- The application will be in zipped form. 

- You need to extract the files to a directory of your choice. 

- Next step is to create a test directory. 

- After this you can start creating tests and save them in the test directory you just created. 

- After you have created the test, your next step is to get the html content. 

- You can run the tests from the command line. 

- After obtaining the results save them to a file. 

- Be careful that the file in which you are saving the result should be defined using the –o argument. 

- You can even navigate from one page to another. 

- All files in the test directory can be run as a test suite. 

- Every test case file must end with .test extension so that it becomes recognizable.

- You can even use a proxy. 

- The slimdog commands can even be used with the JUnit test cases.

- However, running a test case is the easiest way. 

- Firstly, the web tester needs to be instantiated and all commands need to be added through the parse line method.

- You do not have to worry about the syntax since it is the same as that of the script files. 

- After this runtest() method can be called and web test results can be obtained. 

General SlimDog Commands

Below we shall mention some general slimdog commands:

1. Get_html: This command is for establishing a connection with the given URL and thus reading its content. The read content then can be used later. The parameter to this command is the URL itself and it supports variables.
2. Check_title: Parameter for this command is the required title and it is of the type test. The title of the page that you specify is checked against the given title. There is one thing about this test which is that if it fails, the entire test will fail.
3. Set_proxy: The parameters for this command are the proxy port and host. It is of the type command.
4. Check_link (missing): The parameter for this command is the text within the tag and this one is also of the type test.
5. Check_text: The text to be found is passed as a parameter to this command and it is of the type test.
6. Click_link: The argument for this is the text within the tag. It is of the type command.
7. Seturlprefix: The parameter here is the URL prefix. This URL prefix is used as the base URL for other tests. It is of the type command.
8. Enable java_script: Parameter is either true or false. This command disables and enables the JavaScript based on the argument passed.

Explain Janova - Web Functional/Regression Test Tool

About Janova Testing Tool

- Janova is another tool in the class of the web testing tools but certainly better since it is automated. 

- The major characteristic feature that sets this testing tool apart from the others is its capability of running the tests in the cloud with security and reliability. 

- Janova can be configured using the project structures of features such as pages, test scripts and flows for accessing the web – based applications and defining its requirements in natural language such as English. 

How the application is supposed to work is described by its features.

- Firstly, the feature is created, verification elements are defined by the user that is supposed to be on that particular web page. 

- The tool also provides the detailed result reports concerning the tests performed. 

- Janova is all about automated testing in cloud which is powerful, effective and simple. 

- Using Janova, you can write tests in simple English. 

- Therefore, the need for coding is eliminated. 

- The tests are executed via the power of the cloud. 

- The detailed reports help you to understand the results of your test. 

- The plain English business rules are turned in to the tests by Janova. 

- Since the tests are run in the cloud, the need for keeping the software up to date and disparate files is reduced.

- Also, you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on the maintenance of the software testing equipment.

- For producing the code – free business requirements the features, flows and pages. 

- These requirements then become the automated tests that can be executed in the cloud at a speed that is 20 times faster than the usual web testing tools. 

How Janova actually works?

- Janova offers such an automated testing solution that lets you test an application across various environments. 

- You can use the power of the cloud for multiplying the effective workload and at the same time can track the progress of your development team. 

- Janova has been designed in such a way that the brittleness that other testing solutions have can be avoided.

- If the business requirements undergo any changes, they are automatically reflected in the tests since the tests are requirements and requirements are tests. 

- Therefore, changes made in one are reflected in the other.

- Using just plain English you can create a test in very less time that would be capable of creating and updating the variables automatically.

- It would also link the variable through the system of features, steps, scenarios, and pages.

-The tests are defined at a very high level allowing you to implicitly understand the desired outcome of the test. 

- Once you are done with the creation of the features and scenarios, you can define the variables by right – clicking on the ‘inspect element’ option with any tools preferred by the developer and moving that info in to the page files. 

What if you encounter an error in the page files? 

- Janova provides solution for this also. 

- You can edit it here and the changes will be retroactively be updated within the tests. 

- The application under test goes through the following stages:

1. Janova application
2. Broker
3. Workers
4. Secure access
5. Results

- Janova operates through the cloud – based system of workers.

- It scales and delegates the processing power automatically ensuring that you get results for your tests as fast as possible.

- The plain language syntax is converted in to a testing script. 

- This script is then distributed throughout the cloud.

- Janova has partnered with GoodData (which is a business intelligence provider) in order to provide it users with a more powerful analytic suite.

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. 

What are different Web Functional/Regression Test Tools?

As functional and regression testing is important for many software systems, the same way it is important for the web applications to undergo the functional and regression testing. At present we have a number of tools available for web functional/ regression testing.  

In this article we shall discuss many such tools available:

1. ManageEngine QEngine: This tool is for functional testing and load testing of the web applications. This tool enables you to carry out GUI testing in minutes and below are some of its features:

Ø Portability: With this feature you can record scripts in windows and play them in linux without any need of recreation.

Ø  Scripting capabilities: These are simplified script creation, keyword driven testing, data – driven testing, object repository, Unicode support.

Ø  Playback options: It includes playback synchronization, chain scripts, multiple playback options etc.

Ø  Validation and verification: The tool comes with a rich library of built – in functions for constructing function calls for requirements such as dynamic property handling, database handling, and screen handling and so on.

Ø   AJAX testing

Ø  Reporting capabilities: The tool provides you with clear and powerful reports indicating the status of the execution of the test.

2. SeleniumHQ: This tool has a number of smaller projects that combined to create a testing environment to suit your needs:

Ø  Selenium IDE: This one’s an add – on for firefox and can be used for replaying the tests in the same.

Ø  Selenium remote control: Web browsers can be controlled with this client/ server system located on either a local host or a remote one.

Ø  Selenium grid: This is the same as the previous one but can handle multiple servers at a time.

Ø  Selenium core: Testing system based on JavaScript.

Ø Further specific selenium projects have been developed for ruby, eclipse and rails.

3. Rapise: It was developed by Inflectra inc. This tool has an extensible architecture and cross browser testing capabilities. It supports various versions of Mozilla Firefox, chrome, MS internet explorer and so on. The tool comes with built – in support for AJAX, YUI, GWT, AIR, Silverlight, flash/ flex etc. one can use this tool for carrying out keyword as well as data driven testing through excel spreadsheets. The tool identifies the objects based up on CSS and Xpath. For bitmaps, the tool comes with a built – in OCR (optical character recognition). It uses JavaScript for scripting purposes and therefore also has a JavaScript editor.
4. funcUnit: This is an open source web application testing framework. The API is based up on JQuery. Almost all the modern browsers are supported on Linux and MAC. Selenium can also be used for executing the tests. It can simulate various user input events clicking, typing, and dragging the mouse and so one. 

5. qUnit: Any JavaScript code that is generic can be tested by this tool. It is somewhat similar to the JUnit but operates up on JavaScript features. 

6. EnvJS: This is a simulated browser environment and an open source tool whose code has been written in javascript. 

7. QF – test: It has been developed by quality first software  as tool for cross  - platform testing and cross browser automation of the web applications. It can be used to test web applications based up on html, ajax, GWT, exTJS, richfaces, Qooxdoo, java and so on. The tool has got some small scale capabilities for test management, intuitive user interface, extensive documentation, capture/ playback mechanism, component recognition and so on. It can be used for handling both custom and complex GUI objects. It has got customizable reporting and integrated test debugger system. 

8. Cloud testing service: This enables the cloud capabilities to be utilized while web testing. It has been developed by the cloud testing limited. Here, web functionality can be recorded via selenium IDE and a web browser. The scripts can be uploaded to the cloud testing website.

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.