.. Library of WONDERS ..

What are You Doing?

girlie — Tue, 29 May 2012 05:43:26 +0000

An investor once visited an IT company and was accompanied to the QA/Testing department. He approached the QA Analysts and tried to do some small talk.

Visitor: What are you guys doing?

Employee #1: Well, I’m executing these bunch of test scenarios repeatedly.

Image taken from www.zazzle.com

Employee #2: Well, I’m trying to earn a living.

New Peso Bills

Employee #3: Well, I make sure users will have a valuable experience with this cool stuff we are developing.

Although the three employees are doing the same task, only one of them sees the bigger picture of their work and truly understands the value of their job. #Perspective

What Drives You?

girlie — Fri, 11 May 2012 10:11:53 +0000

What drives you?

I’m consolidating great ideas I bump along the way that would somehow motivate us in our work place. I’ll be needing your help on this one, please feel free to add more on the list.

1. “Do whatever you want” Day

Inspired from Atlassian’s ”Fedex” Day. This is a time(24 hours) given to their developers to work on whatever they want as long as it is related to their products. This activity fosters creativity and fun.

2. Late Mo, Earning Ko

I heard this during one of my RX morning routines. This is company perks where employees tardiness deductions will be collected and distributed as reward to employees who have no tardiness. Cool huh!

Setup OpenVPN Client in Linux

girlie — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 09:33:38 +0000

I needed to install OpenVPN(open source virtual private network) in my Linux machine to be able to access our staging server. OpenVPN allows you to establish a secure point to point access to network resources and services.

OpenVPN can be used in two ways – Server and Client. OpenVPN server is the system that you wish to use as VPN end-point or the one you want to access. In my case what I needed to do is to install OpenVPN as client or the one making a service request.

1. Install OpenVPN using terminal:

sudo apt-get install openvpn

2. Create client configuration file in /etc/openvpn

sudo cp /usr/share/doc/openvpn/examples/sample-config-files/client.conf /etc/openvpn

3. Setup client config file, server keys and certificates in /etc/openvpn folder (in my case our client sent these files generated from the server)

/etc/openvpn/client.conf
/etc/openvpn/keys/ca.crt
/etc/openvpn/keys/hostname.crt
/etc/openvpn/keys/hostname.key
/etc/openvpn/keys/ta.key

4. Edit client configuration file (client.conf) based on above directory
# example client config file client remote [server] 1194 dev tun proto udp


ca /etc/openvpn/keys/ca.crt

cert /etc/openvpn/keys/hostname.crt

key /etc/openvpn/keys/hostname.key

ns-cert-type server

tls-auth /etc/openvpn/keys/ta.key 1
comp-lzo

keepalive 10 60

ping-timer-rem

persist-key

persist-tun

verb 3
5. Go to /etc/openvpn folder and start the VPN
exist@exist:/etc/openvpn$ sudo openvpn client.conf Mon Apr 23 13:44:43 2012 OpenVPN 2.1.0 x86_64-pc-linux-gnu [SSL] [LZO2] [EPOLL] [PKCS11] [MH] [PF_INET6] [eurephia] built on Jul 12 2010 Mon Apr 23 13:44:43 2012 IMPORTANT: OpenVPN's default port number is now 1194, based on an official port number assignment by IANA. OpenVPN 2.0-beta16 and earlier used 5000 as the default port. ... Mon Apr 23 13:44:50 2012 [server] Peer Connection Initiated with [AF_INET]xxx.xxx.xx.xxx:1194 Mon Apr 23 13:44:52 2012 SENT CONTROL [server]: 'PUSH_REQUEST' (status=1) ... Mon Apr 23 13:44:53 2012 TUN/TAP TX queue length set to 100 Mon Apr 23 13:44:53 2012 /sbin/ifconfig tun0 10.8.1.190 pointopoint 10.8.1.189 mtu 1500 Mon Apr 23 13:44:53 2012 /sbin/route add -net 192.168.3.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 gw 10.8.1.189 Mon Apr 23 13:44:53 2012 /sbin/route add -net 10.3.0.0 netmask 255.255.0.0 gw 10.8.1.189 Mon Apr 23 13:44:53 2012 /sbin/route add -net 10.8.1.1 netmask 255.255.255.255 gw 10.8.1.189 Mon Apr 23 13:44:53 2012 Initialization Sequence Completed

About Ubuntu

girlie — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 04:38:17 +0000

I’ve been using Ubuntu since 2009, then on I only knew it was an open source, secure Debian-based Linux operating system that most of our developers use so might as well use it.

I’ve never really cared about its story not until I read the book “Global Voices: The Compilation” by Craig and Marc Kielburger earlier this year where Archbishop Desmund Tutu contributed in the foreword:

“In Southern Africa we have a concept called Ubuntu – which is that you cannot exist as a human being in isolation . You can’t be human all by yourself. What you do, what I do affects the whole world.”

Wow! This was a refreshing idea for me. Ubuntu! what a strong word! Reading more About Ubuntu, I couldn’t agree more with some of their Code of Conduct - be considerate, be respectful and be collaborative.

Mitch Albom supports this idea in his book “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” where he emphasized that we are all connected:

“…there are no random acts. that we are all connected. That you can no more separate one life from another than you can separate a breeze from the wind.”

Now the Ubuntu logo makes more sense to me

“Humanity towards others”

Install Testlink in Windows machine

girlie — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 06:19:44 +0000

Testlink is an open-source management tool which includes test specification, planning, reporting, requirements tracking and collaborate with well-known bug trackers.

System Requirements:

• MySQL 4.1.x and higher
• php 4.3.x and higher
• Webserver (Apache 1.3.x or 2.0.x and higher, IIS 3 and higher, etc.)

Installation:

1. Download XAMPP for windows here. Latest version of xampp includes the following, one package that caters to the system requirements of Testlink.

Apache 2.2.21
MySQL 5.5.16
PHP 5.3.8
phpMyAdmin 3.4.5
FileZilla FTP Server 0.9.39
Tomcat 7.0.21

2. Double click xampp-installer.exe to start installation. From the installation wizard, under Service Section, install Apache, MYSQL, Filezilla as service

3. Select Testlink version to dowload here

4. Unzip testlink.tar file to your desired folder

5. Rename the folder to ‘testlink’ and copy it to your \xampp\htdocs folder (e.g. C:\xampp\htdocs\)

6. In your browser access http://localhost/testlink/install/index.php

7. Select New Installation

8. Provide Testlink admin and Database admin login creadentials

Testlink admin login/password – admin/admin (or whatever login/password you like)

Database admin login/password – root/ (this is the default login/password of MYSQL for xampp)

9. After completing the installation, you can now access http://localhost/testlink/login.php and start using Testlink by logging in as admin/admin or creating a new user

Using Android Emulator for Mobile Testing

girlie — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 04:03:50 +0000

One of our project required us to test their application in mobile phone – Android or iPhone. In my first attempt to do mobile testing, I found this handy tool created by Google. Let me summarize my Android SDK setup in 3 steps – install Android SDK, create Virtual Device and use emulator!

Pre-requisite: Java

Install

1. For 64bit Ubuntu, you’ll need to install the 32bit libraries

 ~$ sudo apt-get install ia32-libs

2. Download appropriate Android SDK here (in my case I chose android-sdk_r16-linux.tgz)

3. Unzip file in your desired folder

4. Complete Android SDK installation and updates

Go to the android-sdk-linux_x86/tools/ directory and run the Android program to open the Android SDK and AVD manager.


~$ cd ~/android-sdk-linux/tools/
~/android-sdk-linux/tools$ ./android

Create Virtual Device

You can create an AVD or Android Virtual Device via the AVD Manager or the command-line

1. Using AVD Manager


~$ cd ~/android-sdk-linux/tools/
~/android-sdk-linux/tools$ ./android

Go to Tools > Manage AVD

Click ‘New’ button to create new AVD

Input name, target, sd card, skin, hardware configurations

Click ‘Create AVD’

2. Terminal

android create avd -n  -t  [-

e.g. android create avd -n my_android1.5 -t 2

For more instructions see here

Use!

You can use your Android emulator in two ways:

1. Using AVD Manager

~$ cd ~/android-sdk-linux/tools/
~/android-sdk-linux/tools$ ./android

Go to Tools > Manage AVD

Select Virtual Device to use, then click Start

2. Launch emulator using command-line

~$ cd ~/android-sdk-linux/tools/
~/android-sdk-linux/tools$ ./emulator -avd avdname

See more emulator options here

Now you’re ready to test your mobile application in Android!

Testing versus Checking

girlie — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:06:00 +0000

I stumble upon this blog post Testing vs. Checking by Michael Bolton which I found very interesting and a fundamental for software testers. I tried to summarize it and place it in a table to see the distinction clearly.

Checking	Testing
confirming existing beliefs	finding new information
a process of confirmation, verification, and validation	a process of exploration, discovery, investigation, and learning
focused on making sure that the program doesn’t fail	focused on “learning sufficiently everything that matters about how the program works and about how it might not work.” – James Bach
We are checking when: * we’ve made a change to the code and we want to make sure that everything that worked before still works. When we have an assumption that’s important, we check to make sure the assumption holds. * developers write and modify their code, creating automated routines that they run frequently to check to make sure that the code hasn’t broken	We are testing when: * we configure, operate, and observe a product with the intention of evaluating it, or with the intention of recognizing a problem that we hadn’t anticipated * when we’re trying to find out about the extents and limitations of the product and its design, and when we’re largely driven by questions that haven’t been answered or even asked before
A check provides a binary result—true or false, yes or no	A test has an open-ended result
is all about asking and answering the question, “Does this assertion pass or fail?”	is about asking and answering the question “Is there a problem here?”
checking can prove the presence of bugs, but not their absence	the process of finding out whether our checks have been good enough
machine-decidable and are, in and of themselves, value-neutral	requires human, which makes it a sapient process
when done by a programmer, is mostly a quality assurance practice. The quality assurance angle: a programmer helps to assure the quality of his work by checking it.	is not quality assurance, but acts in service to it; we supply information to programmers and managers who have the authority to make decisions about the project.

*Checkers*	*Testers*
A person who needs a clear, complete, up-to-date, unambiguous specification to proceed	Does not require the certainty of a perfect specification to make useful observations and inferences about the product
A person who needs a test script to proceed	His job is to discover information; often that information is in terms of inconsistencies between what people think and what’s true in reality
A person who does nothing but to compare a program against some reference	A tester’s task might be to reveal problems that occur when our excellent code calls buggy code in someone else’s library, for which we don’t have a specification

I also liked how James Bach describes testing, “questioning a product in order to evaluate it.” Evaluation of a product doesn’t assure its quality, but it can inform decisions that will have an impact on quality.

Though people may or may not agree with these, it made me understand where to draw the line. =) Thanks Michael!

Helpful Unix Commands

girlie — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 05:54:10 +0000

Below are the helpful Unix commands I learned when we handled SHINE project, where part of our QA task is to checkout/update the latest SVN codes, run maven and jetty in order for us to setup a local build and run our Selenium scripts.

1. ps aux – ps short for “process status” displays all the currently-running processes in the terminal

aux is an option where:
“a” lists all processes on a terminal, including those of other users,
“u” adds a column for the controlling user for each process, and
“x” lists all processes without controlling terminals

2. grep – searches files or string that matches the given expression

e.g.
grep “id=inputaddress” *.pl – searches all files with “.pl” extension and returns files with string “id=inputaddress”

3. pipe “|” – allows you to execute number of commands in sequence

e.g.
ps aux | grep jetty – displays all the currently-running processes in the terminal and filters the jetty process

output:
exist 7712 0.0 0.0 8952 876 pts/0 S+ 18:21 0:00 grep –color=auto jetty

4. kill – sends termination signal, which requests that the process exit.

In our project we frequently used the command “kill -9″ everytime our scripts hang and Google taught me that there are several ways to kill a task. Based on our output in item #3 let’s try to kill the jetty process with process ID 7712:

e.g.
-9 and -KILL are options to send SIGKILL, a signal sent to a process to cause it to terminate immediately
kill -9 7712
kill -KILL 7712

-15 and -TERM are options for SIGTERM, a signal sent to a process to request its termination. This signal can do useful cleanup operations (e.g. saving configuration information to a file) before quitting
kill -15 7712
kill -TERM 7712

5. dpkg -L {package} – List where files/package are installed

e.g.
dpkg -L maven2 – list where Maven is installed

Perl-Selenium Helpful String Manipulations

girlie — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 06:45:49 +0000

Below are the string functions I found helpful during scripting in my current project using Selenium in Perl language:

Split(/PATTERN/,EXPR)
- Splits the string EXPR into a list of strings based on given PATTERN and returns that list.

# Scenario: Clicking Email link opens new window. Verify new location/URL displayed is correct
# Email element: Email

my $href = $sel->get_attribute("xpath=//html/body/div[2]/div[2]/div[2]/table/tbody/tr/td[2]/div[3]/a/\@onclick");
# $href = "window.open('http:test.url','EMAIL','width=730,height=450,status=yes,toolbar=no,menubar=no,location=no');"
my @url = split(/'+/, $href);
# @url = ['window.open(' , 'http:test.url' , ',' , 'EMAIL' , ',' , 'width=730,height=450,status=yes,toolbar=no,menubar=no,location=no' , ');' ]

Substr(EXPR,OFFSET,LENGTH)
- Extracts a substring out of EXPR and returns it based on defined OFFSET and LENGTH

# Scenario: Get the numeric value from the Total distance string element

my $str = $sel->get_text("css=div.olPopupContent>div.mainbubblecontent>div.mainbubbletabcontent>div.activetabcontent>div:nth-child(5)");
# $str = "Total distance: 100.25 miles";
my $distance = substr($str,16,5);
# $distance = '100.25';

Match (m/PATTERN/)
- match a string with a regular expression pattern

my $str = "Total distance: 100.25 miles";
 if ($str =~  m/ \d*.\d* miles/) {
   print "Pass";}
 else{
   print "Fail";}

Cmp_ok( $got, $op, $expected, $test_name )
– Test::More function that allows you to compare two arguments using any binary perl operator.

my $str = $sel->get_text("css=#panel > #collection_maneuvers > thead > tr > th");
# $str = "Total distance\: 100.25 miles"
cmp_ok($str, "=~", m/Total distance\: \d*.\d* miles/, "Verify estimated mileage is displayed");

Like( $got, qr/expected/, $test_name )
– Another Test::More function that evaluates any expression against a regular expression

my $str = $sel->get_text("css=#panel > #collection_poi > thead > tr.poi > th");
# $str = "5 locations found in your area"
like($str, qr/\d* locations found in your area/, "Verify number of locations is displayed");

Also came across this Perl documentation link (http://perldoc.perl.org) which is direct and comprehensive.

Agile Testing

girlie — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 09:43:51 +0000

I had the opportunity to attend one of the trainings on Agile Testing last August, 2011 conducted by CHEQ Systems. Inspired by this training I’ve compiled some of the basics of Agile Testing that I’ve learned:

Definition

Agile Testing is an iterative and incremental(evolutionary) approach to software development performed in a highly collaborative manner by self-organizing teams within an effective governance framework with “just enough” ceremony that produces high quality software in a cost effective and timely manner which meets the changing needs of the stakeholders.

Agile Values

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools – emphasis on people and group interactions.
Working software over comprehensive documentation – documentation is not a major goal but a supporting medium for the actual product – the software.
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation – involving the customers in the software development rather than on detailed contract negotiation.
Responding to change over following a plan – development progresses in response to user feedback, rather than as reaction to a fixed plan, but it does not mean that there is no plan.

Criteria in determining an Agile team

Highest priority is to satisfy the customer
Welcomes change
Deliver working software frequently
Business people and developers work closely together daily
Build projects around motivated individuals
Face to face communication is the best
Working software is the primary measure of progress
Promote sustainable development
Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility
Simplicity
The best architectures, requirements and design emerge from self-organizing teams
Introspective – teams should regularly review itself and its processes for improvement

Criteria to determine an Agile Team

There is an active participation of stakeholders/customers
Developers do Test-Driven Development approach and do regression testing
Team is producing high quality working software on a regular basis
Team is highly collaborative and self-organizing
Team is improving

That’s all for now, I’ll try to create a post for Agile Testing Strategies that the training highlighted.