Tedsworld

Brand Awareness

2011-05-24T01:45:00.000-07:00

If you've been in or around the CMS Market Space in the last 10 Years, there's a good chance you're aware of some of the leading players in that time. Brands such as Autonomy, EpiServer, Immediacy, MediaSurface, SiteCore and Vignette have all been leaders in the space for some time, and were well known by people in the know.

It's well understood that there are a number of Vendors out there that are now offering FREE Content Management Solutions e.g. DotNetNuke, Joomla and Umbraco to name but a few. Free CMS solutions are certainly here to stay, and it's made the Content Management world a very cut-throat Market. However, when brands such as Immediacy and MediaSurface's Morello fall off the face of the planet, you have to wonder why. The Immediacy and MediaSurface brands were successful, and brought relatively good recurring revenue into their respective businesses, so you have to wonder why someone took the decision to wipe them off the map, and replace them with a brand that nobody had even heard of in the space.

Alterian are constantly using current, up-to-date forms of Social Media to encourage businesses to think about Brand Awareness and Engage with their consumers, but with the acquisition of MediaSurface, and the subsequent death of their successful Immediacy and Morello brand names, it's difficult to believe what they preach in their various Social Media Channels.

Recently, Alterian have seen a cataclysmic down turn in Profits, and have blamed a weak recovery in the UK Economy and contract delay in the US, but the costly purchase of MediaSurface and subsequent Marketing decisions, have to have some part to play in their current situation.

No Man 'should' be an Island

2011-01-07T08:13:00.000-08:00

No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main! This is most evident in Software Development. Having pockets of knowledge is bad for business, and simply dangerous, making it difficult to deliver on time and efficiently.

If I am the only person who has the knowledge in my head, and I can't make it into work, how long will it take to deliver the required Software?

How do you get round this problem? Can you do it easily without Teamwork?

The Sandwich Van

2010-11-04T03:21:00.000-07:00

I had no idea that Steven Seagal was the rounded individual that he seems to be........he's certainly got the Sandwich Van topic licked!

Are you doing Scrum if you're not involving the Stakeholders?

2010-08-27T03:55:00.000-07:00

I've long wondered if you're actually following Scrum when Stakeholders aren't getting involved, or you're not consulting them regularly. What if they simply don't care? How do you convince them that they should get involved?

The most important role in the Project is the Stakeholder! They're the ones who want it, and they're the reason we're doing the Project anyway! In my experience, failure to not involve Stakeholders, i.e. the customer for the Project, leads to the delivery of Products and Features that simply don't meet the requirements of the End User. In 9 out of 10 Projects, making decisions internally without external consultation will cause you to either deliver the wrong solution, or just part of it...badness!

Katie and Peter Rock!

2009-11-27T04:20:00.001-08:00

I never knew that Katie and Peter were held in such high esteem.....

http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B000JU8FXK/ref=cm_cr_pr_link_1?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&filterBy=addFiveStar

I laughed like a girl!

Understand my User Story!

2009-11-19T08:47:00.000-08:00

Ever struggled to get your point across through a number of Bullet Points in your User Story? Well, help is indeed at hand, with Balsamiq Mockups! For around £46 per Client Licence, you can quickly design interfaces which will help you explain what you need to be delivered, and help your Developers easily understand what you're talking about.

How to reduce a Test Automation Deficit

2009-04-15T00:57:00.000-07:00

For some time, I've been wondering how on earth you make sure a Legacy application has a full suite of Automated Tests. In my place of work, we follow Scrum as our Development Methodoligy. I was always led to believe that you should create Automated Tests for the Stories the Team accepted in the given Sprint.

However, my colleague has sent me the attached Link, which shed's some light on how to reduce your Test Automation deficit.

How to reduce a Test Automation Deficit

WatiN 2.0 - CTP Release 3.0

2009-02-12T01:40:00.000-08:00

WatiN just keeps getting better with the latest release. WatiN 2.0 CTP 3.0, now offers increased support for both Internet Explorer and FireFox.

Changes in this release:

Implemented support on Mozilla.Frame to get access to elements inside the document of a Frame
Implemented support on Mozilla.Frame to get access to elements inside the document of an IFrame
Implemented Eval on Mozilla.Document (= FireFox and Frame) and added to the IFrame interface

Fixed bug(s):

Form.Submit didn't wait for a possible postback and page load.

WatiN - Firefox with iFrames

2009-02-12T01:29:00.000-08:00

I’ve been trying to get my head back into WatiN (WatiN-2.0.1.754-net-2.0) recently, and came across an issue trying to get hold of the contents of an IFrame. Using IE, I was able to use an Assert to check the contents of an IPara which resides within an IFrame. However, running the same code against Firefox, I was unable to get inside ‘Mainwin’, even though FireBug can see it without issue.

However, having posted a message on the WatiN Users (Sourceforge) Forum, Jeroen van Menen has advised that the next CTP release of WatiN will support iFrames.

[Test]

public void CheckSplashContentTelephone()

{

IBrowser browser = BrowserFactory.Create(BrowserType.FireFox);

browser.GoTo(_loginUri);

browser.Maximize();

Thread.Sleep(3000);

CMS_Common.LogonDlg.LogonUserNamePassword(browser, "admin", "admin", appname);

Common.LogOn.ImportControl(browser, "Click Here to Skip Download");

Assert.AreEqual(Splash.Telephone(browser).Text.Trim(), "My Phone Number");

Toolbar.ClickButton(browser, Toolbar.Button.LOGOUT);

browser.Close();

}

public static IPara Telephone(IBrowser browser)

{

IFrame mainframe = browser.Frame(Find.ById(mainwin));

return mainframe.Paras[1];

}

WatiN 2.0 - CTP Release 2.0

2009-01-16T00:54:00.000-08:00

Over recent weeks I've been considering the use of Selenium over WatiN. This is purely & simply because it supports ALL the Major Standards Compliant Browsers out of the box. Also, another of our Development Teams is already using Selenium! However, both myself and my colleagues have invested a lot of time into WatiN, and Jeroen van Menen's WatiN Users Post yesterday has convinced me to stick with it. Here's a list of what comes with WatiN's latest incarnation:

Changes in this release:

- Works with FireFox 3.x and FireFox 2.x (both jssh.xpi plug-ins are included in the Mozilla directory)
- Greatly improved performance and stability when running tests with FireFox

Fixes reported bugs:

Problem with setting ActiveElement in FF 3.x
SF issue 1954487 Setting TextField.Value for TextArea in FireFox fails
SF issue 1913072 BrowserFactory.Settings.WaitForCompleteTimeOut doesn't work

WatiN - Running IISReset

2008-09-10T02:40:00.000-07:00

There might be ocassion where there's a need to run an IISReset as part of your Test. Here's how you do it.

{
// Run IIS reset to clear the  chache
Process  iisResetProcess = System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("cmd.exe",       ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["iisResetCommand"].ToString());
iisResetProcess.WaitForExit();
iisResetProcess.Close();
}

In order to allow this to work, please ensure that your App.Config has the following within appSettings.

<add key="iisResetCommand" value="/C iisreset MACHINE NAME"/>

Thanks to David Cromar

WatiN - Simple SQL Server Class

2008-07-28T06:19:00.000-07:00

For a while, I searched long & hard for a simple Class that would allow my tests to easilly query a SQL Server database. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything that suited my requirements, and so, I enlisted the help of my Boss, who helped me create the following. I cannot guarantee it's suitability for others, but it certainly works for me.

namespace Common
{
  public class SQLServer

  {
  private SqlConnection _sqlConn;

  public SqlConnection myConnection
  {
     get
     {

        if (_sqlConn.State != System.Data.ConnectionState.Open)
        {
           _sqlConn.Open();
        }
        return _sqlConn;
     }
  }

public void CONNECT(string uname, string pword, string dbserver, bool isTrustedConnection, string database, int connTimeout)

{
  string connStr = string.Empty;
  if (isTrustedConnection)
  {
     connStr = " server=" + dbserver + "; Trusted_Connection=yes" + "; database=" + database + "; connection timeout=" + connTimeout.ToString();
  }
  else
  {
  connStr = " user id=" + uname + "; password=" + pword + "; server=" + dbserver + "; database=" + database + "; connection timeout=" + connTimeout.ToString();
  }
  _sqlConn = new SqlConnection(connStr);

  try
  {
  _sqlConn.Open();

  }
  catch (Exception ex)
  {
     Console.WriteLine("Connection string not valid:" + connStr);
  }
}

public void DISCONNECT()
{
  myConnection.Close();
}

public string SELECT(string tableName, string columnName, string fieldname, string value)
{
  string sqlStr = string.Empty;

  sqlStr = " SELECT [" + fieldname + "] FROM [" + tableName + "] WHERE [" + columnName + "]= '" + value+"'";

  SqlCommand sqlComm = new SqlCommand(sqlStr, myConnection);

  object o = sqlComm.ExecuteScalar();
  if (o == null)
     return string.Empty;
  else
     return o.ToString();
  }

public System.Data.DataTable SelectMultipleValues(string tableName, string columnName, string[] fieldNames, string[] critieraValues)
{
  System.Data.DataTable values = null;
  string sqlStr = " SELECT ";
  foreach(string fieldName in fieldNames)
  {
     sqlStr+="[" + fieldName + "], ";
  }

  if (sqlStr.EndsWith(", "))
  {
     sqlStr = sqlStr.Substring(0, sqlStr.Length - 2);
  }
  sqlStr += " FROM [" + tableName + "] WHERE [" + columnName + "] IN(";
  foreach (string criteriaValue in critieraValues)
  {
     sqlStr += "'" + criteriaValue + "',";
  }
  if (sqlStr.EndsWith(","))
  {
     sqlStr = sqlStr.Substring(0, sqlStr.Length - 1);
  }
  sqlStr += ")";

  SqlCommand sqlComm = new SqlCommand(sqlStr, myConnection);

  SqlDataReader reader = sqlComm.ExecuteReader();
  if (reader != null && reader.HasRows)
  {
     values = GetTable(reader);
     reader.Close();
  }
  return values;
}

public System.Data.DataTable GetTable(System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader _reader)
{

  System.Data.DataTable _table = _reader.GetSchemaTable();
  System.Data.DataTable _dt = new System.Data.DataTable();
  System.Data.DataColumn _dc;
  System.Data.DataRow _row;
  System.Collections.ArrayList _al = new System.Collections.ArrayList();

  for (int i = 0; i < _table.Rows.Count; i++)
  {

     _dc = new System.Data.DataColumn();

     if (!_dt.Columns.Contains(_table.Rows[i]["ColumnName"].ToString()))
     {

        _dc.ColumnName = _table.Rows[i]["ColumnName"].ToString();
        _dc.Unique = Convert.ToBoolean(_table.Rows[i]["IsUnique"]);
        _dc.AllowDBNull = Convert.ToBoolean(_table.Rows[i]["AllowDBNull"]);
        _dc.ReadOnly = Convert.ToBoolean(_table.Rows[i]["IsReadOnly"]);
        _al.Add(_dc.ColumnName);
        _dt.Columns.Add(_dc);

     }
  }

  while (_reader.Read())
  {

     _row = _dt.NewRow();

     for (int i = 0; i < _al.Count; i++)
     {

     _row[((System.String)_al[i])] = _reader[(System.String)_al[i]];

     }

     _dt.Rows.Add(_row);

     }

     return _dt;
     }
  }
}

How do I use the Class?

public static void SelectValues()
  {
     Common.SQLServer sq = new Common.SQLServer();
     sq.CONNECT("sa", "sa", "SQLServerInstance", true, "Database", 10);
     string[] fieldNames = { "ColumnValue" };
     string[] criteriaValues = { "field1", "field2", "field3", "field4", "field5", "field6", "field7", "field8" };
     System.Data.DataTable result = sq.SelectMultipleValues("Option", "Name", fieldNames, criteriaValues);

     foreach (System.Data.DataRow row in result.Select())
     {
        foreach (System.Data.DataColumn column in result.Columns)
        {
           Console.WriteLine((string)row[column]);
        }
     }
  sq.DISCONNECT();
}

Agile Testing - why do it any other way?

2008-07-10T03:03:00.000-07:00

I recently went to a BCS SIGIST Conference in London and was quite frankly shocked by the number of QA Professionals that weren't working in an Agile environment. In my past, I have worked in a Development Team that ran with the Waterfall approach, but in recent Years (whether I've realised it or not), I've been working in Agile Development.

More recently, my company 'Immediacy' (or Alterian as we're now known) has been using SCRUM, which is a Lightweight Management Framework that makes it really easy to demonstrate the progress of the project to both you and your customer. I certainly couldn't go back to the archaic practices of Waterfall, or 'dumping over the fence' as I've often been known to refer it to.

My boss sent me this useful Google Video recently, which is a really good insight into Testing in an Agile environment. Give it a watch.........it's really interesting.

Agile Testing Video
Scrum Alliance

How good @ Testing are you?

2008-07-09T08:48:00.000-07:00

WatIR Vs. WatIN?

2008-07-03T07:46:00.000-07:00

I've been questioning why I should move from WatIR to WatIN. There will always be a divide on Open Source Tools, and some Testers will go with Selenium, some with WatIR, and possibly some with WatIN. I'm not sure if everyone will ever agree, and its obviously a question of what you need to test.

There's clearly a number of Pro's & Cons for each tool, but personally, I'm going to opt for WatIN! Out of the box, I can get my tests running under IE & Firefox, without the need to install an additional IDE for the Browser. The biggest downside to WatIN is that the Community doesn't appear to be anywhere near as big as WatIR. Moving from Ruby to C# isn't as painful as you might think, and with the help of the.NET Developers I work with (nobody seems to like Ruby here(except me)), I've been able to pick up .NET fairly quickly.

Within a matter of a fortnight, we've got out tests running with NUnit & Firefox with what seems to me as 'simple' code changes.

WatIN - Timing out waiting for my Page to load

2008-06-25T08:44:00.000-07:00

I was scratching my head with this one on my 1st Day of teaching myself WatIN! Basically, I was waiting for my page to load, & Visual Studio was blowing up after 30 Seconds with a Timeout. Well, you can indeed override the Default of 30 seconds by using WaitForComplete = XX.

IE.Settings.WaitForCompleteTimeOut = XX
ie.Frame(Find.ByName("menu")).Link(Find.ByTitle("MyLink")).Click();
ie.WaitForComplete();

WatIN - Web Application Testing in .NET

2008-06-25T02:48:00.000-07:00

Over the past 6 or so Months, I've been learning/playing with WatIR, and I must say, it's really powerful. Having never written a line of code before, picking up Ruby as a language seemed really quite straight forward. However, my colleagues are ALL .NET Developers, and I'm starting to wonder whether or not using WatIR might end up curbing this already steep learning curve. I, along with my other Ruby colleague (Dave Richards), ran a Lunchtime Nuggett on WatIR some time ago, and as of yet, nobody has really adopted it as a great way to automate your tests.

Knowing this, and the requirement to test our software in other Browsers, we're starting to look @ WATIN, which seem to have similar functionality, as well as the ability to cheat with Intellisense.......am I right to dump WatIR?

WatIR - Web Application Testing in Ruby

2008-06-09T03:14:00.001-07:00

To be honest, up until I joined Immediacy, I'd always tried to run a million miles away from the whole idea of Automated Testing. However, I'm now starting to wonder why on earth I've spent the last 6 or so years going over the same tests over and over again. So many organisations want to have their testing automated, but rarely want to invest some of their hard earned cash in it.

When I joined Immediacy, they too wanted to have their Code tested in an automated fashion. I went through the rigmarole of trying to find something that would fit their requirements. The company then brought in an Elderly Fellow by the name of Dave Richards, who had years of Development experience, as well as a little on this thing called WatIR.

I'd always been scared of writing code, as I didn't want to be labelled as a GEEK, so when he mentioned writing Scripts, I almost layed a Brick! However, it's nowhere near as bad as I first thought, & I now love writing code that tries to break others code!

More on WatIR to follow.........or maybe not!