What is a Silk Test Test plan? What are the types of text lines in a test plan file?

A silk test plan consists of large amounts of data as well as information based on which are the details of the plan which in turn will be used in the organization and the development of the software system or application. 

It has three basic qualities as mentioned below:

1. Well structured
2. Hierarchical
3. Ideal model

A silk test test plan constitutes of two parts which are entirely different:

1. First part consists of an outline which gives a detailed description of the all the requirements of the testing process.
2. Second part consists of a statement which establishes a relationship between the outline of the first part and 4test scripts as well as test cases which are bound to implement the requirements defined above.

What is a Silk Test Plan?

- Test plan helps in achieving a guided way for the creation as well as execution of the test cases. 

- A new test plan can be created by following the below mentioned steps:

1. Go to the file menu and then click on new option.
2. From the drop down list that follows select test plan and hit OK. You will get a test plan window. Fill in the required fields and click OK.

- This is a known fact that silk test specializes in the field of functionality as well as regression testing and has been a known product when it comes to web, java or windows based applications. 

- Silk test provides you with two ways for defining or creating the automated tests:

1. By using the record test case command for recording the actions and the verification of steps.
2. Using visual 4test scripting language by writing the test cases manually.

- Test plans in silk test are stored as ‘test plan (.pln)’ file type. 

- This file type is sometimes used for making combinations of the test scripts. 

- The basic purpose of a silk test test plan is to provide a frame work for the testing process and also for the organization and maintenance of the testing requirements. 

Benefits of using a Test Plan

Using a test plan has following benefits:

1. With test plan you have a chance to implement top down approach for defining the testing requirements, developing thoughts and refining the requirements.
2. Attributes can be assigned to individual tests or group of tests.
3. Redundancy is reduced single only actually implementing statements are allowed.
4. Can be used as a comprehensive inventory of requirements consisting of most general as well as specific requirements.

What kind of text lines are there in a test plan file?

Test plan file consists of 5 types of text lines that we have described below:

1. First type of text lines are the comments which are usually marked in green color.These types of text lines provide commentary type of information regarding the test code.
2. Group Description: This type of text lines are represented in bold black color. Furthermore, they are included so as to provide a description of a group of tests rather than describing individual tests. Usually, a test plan consists of many tests which are then grouped in to multiple levels of various groups.
3. Test Description: This type of text lines are written in blue color and are meant for showcasing the description of the individual tests only.
4. Test plan statement: This type of text lines in a test plan file provide information regarding the relations to the following elements:

a)   Test cases

b)   Link scripts

c)   Test data

d)   Closed sub test plans

e)   Include files to a test plan.

These are marked in red color.

5. Open sub plan file marker: These text lines are marked in magenta color and thus providing info regarding relations to link sub test plans with the master plan.

How Silk Test records user actions?

Software systems or applications as we all know are composed of a GUI or graphical user interface objects such as those mentioned below:

1. Windows
2. Menus
3. Buttons and so on.

These GUI objects can be manipulated by the user via a mouse or a key board for initiating the operations on an application.

These GUI objects are interpreted by the silk test and are recognized in to different categories based up on the following aspects that uniquely identify them:

1. Class
2. Properties and
3. Methods

While the testing is in progress, an interaction takes place among the silk test and the GUI objects so that the operations can be submitted to the application under testing or AUT automatically without much efforts and also because the actions of a user can be simulated. 

This is also done to verify the results of each and every operation. The silk test is said to be the simulated user which is then said to drive the application under test or AUT. 

The silk test comes with two distinct components namely:

1. The silk test host software
2. The silk test agent software

- The first component of the silk test i.e., the silk test host software is used for developing, editing, compiling, running and debugging of the test plans as well as the test scripts. 

- The machine on which this component is installed is called the host machine. - The latter component of the silk test i.e., the silk test agent is the one that interacts with the graphical user interface of the application under test. 

- The commands present in the 4test scripts of the application are translated in to GUI specific commands which help in driving and monitoring the application under test.

- It is possible to run the agent locally on the same machine on which the host is already running or else it can be run in a networked environment. 

- But in this case, the machine will be known as the remote machine. 

How the user actions are recorded by the silk test?

 

- A repository is created for storing the information regarding the application under test or AUT before the test scripts are created and executed. 

- This repository consists of the descriptions of the GUI objects that are responsible for compromising with your application under test. 

- The silk test associates with these objects by means of two things namely:

1. Object properties and
2. Object methods

- Using these two aspects the actions performed on the objects can be easily recognized by the silk test and can be intelligently recorded in to the test script using the 4test language. 

Below we are giving some examples of what is recorded by the silk test for some user actions:

-User action	As recorded by the silk test
-Selection of a radio button from a group	select
-Setting the main window as active	Set Active
-Closing a dialog box	close
-Selecting an item from a list box	Select
-Scrolling the scroll bar to the maximum position possible	Scroll to max
-Writing text in a text field	Set text
-Checking a check box	Check
-Picking a menu item	pick
-Unchecking a check box	uncheck

- A property is that characteristic of an object that can be accessed directly and may be common among some classes. 

- On the other hand, the methods constitute of the user actions and are particular to an object. 

- Methods that are particular to an object are inherited from the parent class of the object. 

- Methods are unique to the objects of a class. 

What are main features of Silk test?

The Borland silk test automation tool is said to possess all the features and qualities that an ideal testing tool is said to have. Therefore, in this article we shall focus on the features of the Borland silk test automation tool.

1. It is quite easy for use since it is possible for the business users to create the automated tests without requiring any actual software coding.
2. Further the silk test automation tool takes lesser time for its deployment i.e., it can be deployed fast which in turn enables the software testers to keep an appropriate pace with the rate with which the development takes place.
3. It's third most important feature is its flexibility while use which in turn enables the software developers to create tests in an integrated development environment that is chosen by them only.
4. The fourth feature of the silk test is that it provides the role based test automation. Usually it happens that the domain experts, business analyst, developer or automation engineer – all of these people have their own way of working i.e., they have a tendency to work with different interfaces such as some may work with a visual interface, others with script based or some others with interfaces that are IDE powered. The silk test automation tool provides each of them with a suitable interface with which they are comfortable. Thus, in a way a kind of empowerment is granted to the users so that they can participate in the testing process with confidence and ensure that their critical applications go through a continuous validation.
5. Fifth most popular feature is the cross browser web testing by silk test. Most advance web 2.0 applications can be verified for their functionality very well before you are able to launch them with confidence. Using silk test automation tool, one powerful script can be used for carrying out testing in  a number of different  browsers as well as browser versions as well as in locales such as the following:

a)     Microsoft internet explorer

b)     Mozilla firefox

c)     Google chrome

d)     Html 5

e)     Fx

f)      Ajax

g)     Microsoft silverlight

h)     Java and so on.

Even the embedded technologies can tested very well at speeds that are non -parallel with that of the any other software test automation tool.

6. Sixth feature is the support for the .net and java platform and scripting language. With silk test, it really does not matters now that whether you go for vb. Net, C#, java which are industry standard languages or you go for 4test language of the silk test. Using any of these you can improve the working of the silk test in whichever environment you are working up on. Both visual studio as well as the eclipse is supported by the silk test and it takes care that they can be well integrated with the acceptance tests and unit tests frame works such as fitness e.
7. Seventh feature of the silk test is its powerful recorder. The powerful recorder of the silk test has got many powerful features which enable the quick capturing of the reusable as well as the common sequences of the test steps. There is also a provision of the easy modification and customization of the sequences so that they can be reused in the test automation frame works.
8. The eighth feature is the debugging feature of the silk test. The debugging feature of the silk test consists of some powerful debugging capabilities which enable one to step through the automation sequence and check out what is actually happening there. 

What are advantages of WinRunner over other market tools silk, robot etc.?

Winrunner has got many competitors in market these days. Every day some new software testing tool is being introduced that is giving competition to the winrunner in one or the other way. 

The below mentioned are two such software testing tools:

     1.   Silk test automation tool

     2.   Robot testing frame work

In this article we shall discuss about all these three software testing tools i.e., the winrunner, silk and robot and discuss what advantages winrunner has got over these other two emerging software testing tools in the market.

About Silk Test Automation Tool

First, we shall discuss about the silk test automation tool. 

- The silk testing tool is promising a bright future as the software testing industry is moving towards a hi - tech end. 

- Till now silk test automation tool has proved to be good with many platforms and test management tools and there is an insight that it may become much more powerful in the coming days. 

- The silk test tool facilitates the automated regression testing and functional testing for the enterprise applications. 

- The original developer of the silk test tool was the Segue software which was later taken under the micro focus international in the year of 2009.

- Silk test automation tool has got many clients to offer unlike the winrunner which can support a few platforms only. 

- The silk test tool has got two very important features as mentioned below:

1. Silk test host: responsible for the storing all the source script files
2. Silk test agent: responsible for the translation of the script commands in to the commands of GUI or we can say user actions.

About Robot Framework

Now let us see what robot frame work is. 

- This testing frame work is quite a generic one and has proved to be quite useful in the test automation process. 

- The robot frame work provides a very useful and efficient testing frame work for the following:

1. Acceptance testing
2. Acceptance test driven development or ATDD

- It is very easy to use tabular test data syntax and this is what makes it quite popular among the testers. 

- This frame work is known to make use of the key word driven testing approach. 

- Its capabilities are extendible i.e., they can be extended using the test libraries which were implemented either with java or with python. 

- It also provides the users with the facility of creating new key words of their convenience with the help of the same syntax that is used in the creation of the test cases. 

- It has following features:

1. Creation of test cases in a uniform way through the easy to use syntax.
2. Data driven approach
3. Behaviour driven approach
4. Key word driven approach
5. Reads HTML format
6. Modular architecture
7. Has a simple library API
8. XML based outputs and command line interface
9. Remote library interface
10. Built in support for variables
11. Tagging facility

Advantages of WinRunner over Silk Test and Robot

Though both of these software testing tools are quite advanced, there are certain places where they lag behind when compared with winrunner. 

- The winrunner takes less time as compared to the silk test tool and robot frame work. 

- The tediousness is reduced in the winrunner but not in silk test tool.

- The winrunner requires less investment in human resources contrary to the case of the silk test tool and robot test frame work.

- Silk test tool and robot frame work actually help in creating, organizing, managing and executing the test cases but they offer less help when it comes to rooting out serious bugs whereas the winrunner lays down a considerable focus in this regard. 

Test Scripting Language : 4Test used in SilkTest

SilkTest is Segue Software’s offering for automated functional testing. It supports the testing of client-server and browser-based applications, as well as standalone programs.
- In SilkTest, users modify automated test scripts using a proprietary, object-based programming language called 4Test.
- 4Test is an object oriented 4GL language and offers sufficient built in functionality to ease our life.
- SilkTest scripts can also directly access databases to execute SQL commands and perform verification of database content.

There are basically four classes to which the methods belong:
- AgentClass
- AynWin
- ClipboardClass
- CursorClass
Important Methods in test scripts are :
- Accept (): closes the dialog box and accepts values specified there.
- ClearText (): removes all text from text field.
- Click (): Clicks a mouse button on the push button.
- Close (): Closes the window.
- Close Windows (): Closes all windows of the application except main.
- Exit (): Terminates the application.
- GetActive (): Returns the active window in the application.
- GetCloseWindows (): Returns the windows that must close to return the application to base state.
- GetFocus (): Returns the control with the input focus.
- Invoke (): Invokes the application.
- SetActive (): Makes the window active.
- Wait (): Waits for the specified cursor and returns the value of elapsed time.
- VerifyActive (): Verifies that the window is active.
- Start (): Invokes the application and waits for the main window to appear.
- Size (): Resizes the window.

What is the architecture of SilkTest ?

When you test an application GUI, Gui objects are manipulated such as windows, menus, buttons etc. using mouse clicks and keyboard. SilkTest interprets these objects and recognizes them based on its class properties and methods that uniquely identify them. SilkTest simulates the operations done by the user (mouse clicks and keyboard entries) and verifies the expected results automatically.
SilkTest has two components that execute as separate processes:
- Host Software
- Agent Software
The machine on which the host software component runs is called the host machine. Host software is the component that is used to develop test plans and test scripts. Test scripts can be created, edited, compiled, run the scripts and then debug them.
The agent software is the component that interacts with the GUI of your application. The agent software drives and monitors the Application Under Test (AUT). It translates the commands in the 4Test script into the GUI specific commands. The AUT and the agent software have to run on the same machine. Each GUI object has a unique match to the 4Test object.
SilkTest testing process involves four steps:
- Creating a test plan.
- Recording a test frame.
- Creating test cases.
- Running test cases and interpreting these results.

What is Silk Test and what are its features?

Segue Software's SilkTest can be used for testing a variety of applications such as
- standalone Java, Visual Basic, and Win32 applications.
- PowerBuilder applications.
- Databases.
- Dynamic Linked Libraries (DLLs).
- Web Sites written in DHTML, HTML, XML, JavaScript, ActiveX, Applet, using Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator.
- AS/400 and 3270/5250 applications.

Important Features of SilkTest

- To facilitate unattended testing, SilkTest has an in-built customizable recovery system. So, while automated testing is in progress, even if the application fails in between, automatically the test continues without halt.
- It has an object-oriented scripting language called 4Test; using the scripts written in 4Test, an application can be tested on different platforms.
- It can access the database and validation can be done.
- For test creation and customization, workflow elements are available.
- Test Planning, management and reporting can be done by integration with other tools of Segue Software.