XStudio 1.2: Copy a campaign session

It's now possible (in XStudio 1.2) to copy a campaign session. The use cases are pretty simple:

1) You already executed a campaign session and need to execute it again exactly the same way
Just select the campaign session, press the "copy campaign session" button and validate by pressing "Submit". A new session identical to the original one is created with the exact same parameters (operator, agent, SUT, launcher configurations) and is ready to be executed.

2) You already executed (or not) a campaign session and need to duplicate it with slightly different settings
Just select the campaign session, press the "copy campaign session" button, change the settings you want to be changed and validate by pressing "Submit". A new session identical to the original one but including your changes is created and is ready to be executed.

XStudio 1.2: Copy a campaign

XStudio 1.2 includes a "Copy Campaign" feature. This is available through a new button in the task bar and this allows duplicating a campaign in just a couple of clicks. You have just to select the destination folder and submit.

Optionally, the user can also modify the content (add or remove some tests) on the fly - filter and import features are obviously available during this process.

If the user select the original folder as destination folder, then the new campaign will be renamed "Copy of XXX". If you do several copies in the same folder, a number will be appended to the name of the new copies.

Of course, once the copy has been done, the user can rename the campaign from the "Details" tab.

XStudio 1.2: Better search in tree

The contextual search in trees (through the search bar) is now more flexible as it will pop up all the similar items (and not only items which names start with the searched string). Hence, ANY node having the search string (what the user type in the text field) in its name, whatever the position and case insensitive, will be popuped.

However, to have the exact match indicator it will have to be exactly the same (case sensitive).

XStudio 1.2: Page selector

The page selector is now implemented. It completes the feature included in XStudio 1.1 introducing two new buttons "Previous" and "Next" allowing to return to one of the previously browsed object etc.

The page selector is a small icon located on the right to the two existing buttons and allows showing the exact list of the lately browsed objects. A cursor is highlighting the currently viewed object.

The use can use his mouse to manually select any of the item in the list or use the arrow keys and validate by ENTER.

It basically provides comparable flexibility than users get on their favorite browser (i.e. Firefox).

XStudio 1.2: New form layout

Starting from XStudio 1.2, the forms will all use a new layout (basically, align to the top-left instead of center). In addition, the HTML editors/viewers widgets are now sizable by configuration which allow to better fit the circumstance.

XStudio 1.2: Mandatory fields distinguishable

In all the forms included in XStudio 1.2, mandatory fields are distinguishable (different color and an asterisk).
Just a detail, but quite useful sometimes.

XStudio 1.2: Submit defects while executing manual test campaigns

I've just finished developing the new feature allowing to submit defect (integrated defects only as there is no way to call synchronously equivalent processes from a Bugzilla or Mantis page in a browser) while executing some manual test campaigns. This will work with both the manual.jar and simple_manual.jar launchers.

If the feature is enabled (through a parameter in the usual configuration file), 2 new buttons will appear in the popup box:

• One to create a new defect
• another one to link the test that has just failed with an already existing defect

Clicking any of those buttons will result in the test to be set as "Failed" (as when clicking on "Failed")
however, when the user clicks on "Create a new defect", he is prompted with the standard form:



While when he clicks on "Link to an existing defect", he's asked to just pick a defect in the tree:

Release of XStudio 1.1b3

XStudio 1.1b3 is available at the usual location: http://www.xqual.com/support/download.html

Here is the change log:

* Add the testcaseName to the SDK API
* Add the Selenium Python launcher
* Update the following launchers:
- Autoit 1.5
- Beanshell 1.0
- Exe 1.1
- JUnit 1.3
- Marathon 1.2
- Nunit 1.2
- PyUnit 1.0
- Selenium .NEt 1.1, html 1.1, java 1.1 and Python 1.0:
. give some time to the selenium server to start
. incorrect default values for selenium server path
. incorrect default values for junit path
- Squish 1.3
- TCL 1.2
- testComplete 1.3
- TestNG 1.2
- TestPartner 1.2
- VisualStudio 1.5
* Update jarbuilder
* Remove all the limitation about open a document under MacOSX
* Disabling sandbox in JNLP mode to:
- Remove security warnings
- Accelerate the connection to a third-party MySQL server
* Bug-fix:
- MacOS release fixed and tested
- Campaign session reports corrupted
- Do not try to save the last logged user in JNLP
- Delete attachment in the document tree
- Status wrongly retrieved (for email notification) from integrated defect details
- crash under MacOSX when editing an document
* Improve notification mechanism fir the integrated BTD

Release of XStudio 1.1b2

XStudio 1.1b2 is available at the usual location: http://www.xqual.com/support/download.html

XStudio recommended at NFJS (No Fluff Just Stuff) conference

During the excellent NFJS Conference (http://www.nofluffjuststuff.com) XStudio has been strongly recommended :)

GUI Test Automation: XStudio with Squish Integration Released

Official announcement: http://www.linuxpr.com/releases/11786.html

Nice, France and Hamburg, Germany—2009-12-08 XQual and froglogic GmbH today announced that XStudio 1.0, a free, cross-platform test management solution has been released, along with an integration for the popular automated GUI testing framework, Squish.

XQual Studio (XStudio) is a free GUI-based test management application that handles the complete life-cycle of QA/testing projects from end to end—users, requirements, specifications, development projects (scrum oriented), SUTs, tests, test plans, test reports, and test campaigns. XStudio uses a modular design to make it easy to extend with additional components.

Squish is the leading functional GUI and regression testing tool that enables the creation and execution of automated functional tests for GUI applications on Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, and on embedded platforms. Squish supports several GUI technologies including Nokia's Qt, Java Swing/AWT/Eclipse RCP, Web/HTML/Ajax, and many more.

Squish offers a versatile testing framework for GUI applications with a choice of popular test scripting languages (Python, JavaScript, Perl, and Tcl), extended by Squish's own library of testing-specific functionalities. Squish also provides open interfaces, several add-ons, integration with a variety of test management tools, a powerful IDE supporting the creation and debugging of tests, and a complete set of command line tools that can be used to create fully automated test runs.

With XStudio's Squish integration it is possible to plan, schedule, execute, and analyze Squish GUI tests from within XStudio, as part of the complete automated test campaign managed by XStudio.

"XStudio proved itself to be one of the major actors in the Test Management world. XStudio handles not only the test plan, but also the requirements, specifications and defects associated to each test. This allows producing high quality reports and graphics. Thanks to its open-source SDK (LGPL), integrating with any kind of tests, including proprietary tests, is as simple as just writing a Java class. Mixing the strength of Squish and XStudio builds one of the most powerful integration ever!", —Eric Gavaldo, founder of XQual.

"Squish is designed to provide the most reliable and robust functional GUI and regression testing for test automation—and to be as easy as possible to integrate with third-party test management and ALM solutions. This means that our customers have the freedom to create their ideal testing environments using the tools they like best. We congratulate XQual on producing this first release of XStudio, a free test management solution that works well with Squish, and that is a very attractive tool in its own right, in particular thanks to its cross-platform support.", —Reginald Stadlbauer, froglogic's CEO.

If you are interested in evaluating or purchasing Squish or any other Squish edition, please contact squish@froglogic.com or visit www.froglogic.com/squish.

For more information about XStudio, please visit www.xqual.com

About froglogic

froglogic GmbH is a software company based in Hamburg, Germany. Their flagship product is Squish, the market-leading automated testing tool for GUI applications based on Qt, Java AWT/Swing and SWT/RCP, Mac OS X Carbon/Cocoa and for HTML/Ajax-based web applications running in various web browsers. froglogic also offers services in the areas QA/automated testing and C++/Qt programming and consulting. More about froglogic at http://www.froglogic.com.

About XQual

XQual is based in Nice, France and has been founded to promote a free, efficient, and professional-quality test management solution. XQual also offers a variety of consulting services through "XQual Services". Read more about XQual at http://www.xqual.com.

"froglogic" and "Squish" are registered trademarks of froglogic GmbH. All other trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.

Release of XStudio 1.0 and 1.1b1

The final version of XStudio 1.0 has been released and is available at the usual location:
http://www.xqual.com/support/download.html.

Since I had already started the development of 1.1 in parallel, I can deliver 1.1b1 simulataneously.

Version 1.1 introduces mainly 3 major new features:

1) The Document Management System allowing to handle your documents (actually any kind of files) collaboratively. Documents are versionned and must be locked by one user to be modified and committed to the repository. While a document is locked, no modification are authorized from the other users. After the installation of 1.1b1, all your previously attached documents/files (in any of your trees) will be automatically converted and handled through this new fresh module. A new Document tree is also appearing (to store all the documents that don't make sense to be put in any of the other trees).

2) In addition, a serie of new launchers are introduced that will please a LOT of people: SELENIUM ! 3 launchers have been added to execute Selenium Scripts written in HTML, Java or C#. Is someone interested in the Ruby, Perl, Groovy, etc. implementation?

3) The Bugzilla integration has also been productized and is now officially supported (not "experimental" anymore).

XStudio 1.1: Working on the new Document Management System

While the version 1.0 is almost there, I'm working in parallel to the version 1.1.

XStudio 1.1 will be a "mini-release" including only one (but great) new feature: the Document Management System. This basically allows to several people to work collaboratively on some documents (such as Requirements, Specifications, Architecture or Design documents). The documents can be in any format (Word, Excel, Pdf, Images etc.) and are versionned so that you can checkout older versions any time.

All the attachments formerly added in XStudio 1.0 (or less) will be automatically converted to the new system.

As a preview, here is how the new interface will look like:

Release of XStudio 1.0b3

Only some minor bugs fixed in that version. Check the details out on
This version can be downloaded at this URL: http://www.xqual.com/support/download.html
There is also a http://www.xqual.com/support/changelog.html.

Next week: final version 1.0 !

Release of XStudio 1.0b1

The version 1.0b1 of XStudio has been released and is available for download at the usual location: http://www.xqual.com/support/download.html.

Main changes from 1.0a4 are:

* Several minor bug-fixes
* History buttons previous/next (browser-like)
* Attachments on requirements and specifications
* Attachments inheritance on req, spec and tests
* Charset for country_id in table_absence
* Updated User's Guide

XStudio 1.0: Browser-like Previous/Next buttons

With the introduction of some anchors in different parts of XStudio, the user is often redirected to one specific node of one specific tree. It was then becoming to be able to go back and forth through the history and navigate like within a browser.

Hence, I implemented this feature. This will be available in XStudio 1.0b1.

XStudio 1.0: Inheritance of the attachments

Starting from XStudio 1.0b1, attachments are inherited through their whole hierarchy. For instance, if you attach a file (i.e. a mockup design) to a requirement, you will be able to see in this requirement's "attachments" tab not only this attachment but ALL the attachments associated to his ancestors (parent folders and category).

Of course, you can directly open or download the attachment from any of the ancestor nodes but you can also move directly to one of these parent by clicking on the anchors:

Website updated

The website (http://www.xqual.com) has been updated to support all the popular browser:

• Firefox 3+
  
• IE7+
• Safari
• Opera

I also included a "share toolbar" including:

• RSS
• Blog
• Twitter
• StumbleUpon
• Facebook
• MySpace
• Digg
• Delicious
• Reddit
• Google Bookmarks
• Reddit
  

Release of XStudio 1.0a4

The version 1.0a4 of XStudio has been released and is available for download at the usual location: http://www.xqual.com/support/download.html.

Main changes from 1.0a3 are:

* Coverage metrix on campaigns (full and partial)
* Coverage metrix on campaign sessions (full and partial)
* Coverage metrix on category (req + spec + test)
* Coverage metrix on folders (req + spec + test)
* Automatically create testcases if the launcher is requesting it
* Progression/Regression metrix on campaign
* Bug-fix:
- Percentage rounding in coverages
- Dependency graph modality problems
- VisualStudio launcher results parsing finally implemented

I also worked on:
* New website (http://www.xqual.com) supporting perfectly IE7+, Firefox3+, Chrome and Safari
* New open-source section (GPL3) on the website containing all the launchers
* Initiation of teh development of automated functional tests on:
- the XStudio NSIS installer (using the AutoIt launcher)
- the XStudio Java unit testing (using the JUnit4 launcher)

In addition, I developed a bunch of new launchers for XStudio:
* Froglogic Squish for Qt
* Froglogic Squish for the web application
* Microsoft Visual Studio Team System
* Jalian Marathon
* Beanshell
* JUnit v3
* JUnit v4
* PyUnit
* NUnit (.NET)
* TestNG

XStudio 1.0: Automatically create the default testcase

In some specific cases, the notion of testcase is useless. For instance a JUnit test will match one test class. This test class can run several methods which could be identified to testcases. The problem is that it is impossible to run only one single method within a JUnit class (using the console runner JUnitCore).

However, without testcase, XStudio will not execute anything. So, the user would need to create one fake testcase for each test. Hence, the launcher would ignore the testcase index, would execute the test including all its methods, retrieve the results, traces etc. and store all this in the fake testcase. But creating a default testcase manually for each test is a bit painful and unnecessary from a user point of view.

In these cases, the launcher can now call (i.e. in the initialize() method) the method setDefaultTestcaseMustBeCreated(true). This will automatically create a default testcase at runtime if no testcase exist.

XStudio 1.0: New famous launchers are ready

Since I'm almost ready with the features of XStudio v1.0, I started working on some famous launchers people will like:
- Beanshell
- Froglogic Squish for Qt
- Froglogic Squish for Web
- JUnit v4
- JUnit v3

All are implemented and just need a little bit more of testing.

An example of integration with JUnit v4:

All the results/messages are detailed enough and include the major information from the JUnit console messages.

In addition, the complete output from JUnit is stored as an attachment to the testcase, so that the user can get the complete log if necessary:

I'll also work on a launcher for SQL and possibly CUnit this week.

XStudio 1.0: New progressions/regressions statistics

A new "Statistics" tab will be present on any campaign on XStudio 1.0a4.

The information are taken from all the sessions executed belonging to the campaign. All the results are put in a graph so that the evolution (progression or regression) in time is clearly visible. The last session's results are also displayed.The new tab is split in 2 tabbed panes: one that shows the evolution of tests results and another one going deeper at the testcase level.


This feature will be available in XStudio 1.0a4 at the usual location http://www.xqual.com/support/download.html (probably in just a few days).

XStudio 1.0: New coverage metrics

XStudio 1.0a4 (that was not planned but hey I'm a bit ahead of time so...) will include a new great feature that I've just finished to develop: in addition to all the already existing coverage metrics provided, some new ones will appear in the next version. Coverage from ANY folder in the requirement or specification trees (this allows to refine metrics on one particular node in the tree) and detailed coverage on campaigns and campaign sessions.

Specification tree:
How many specifications under the selected folder are covered by some tests.
Of course, you can get the details of which specifications are covered and which are not.

Requirement tree:
How many requirements under the selected folder are covered by some specifications.
How many requirements under the selected folder are covered by some tests (through specifications).
Of course, you can get the details of which requirements are covered by some specifications and which are not but also which requirements are covered by some tests.

Coverage of a campaign:
Since a test campaign is by definition a group of test, we can now also get the following metrics:
- Specifications fully covered by the campaign
- Specifications partially covered by the campaign
- Specifications not covered by the campaign
- Requirements fully covered by the campaign
- Requirements partially covered by the campaign
- Requirements not covered by the campaign


Coverage of a campaign session:
On the campaigns, all the data data were global (based the complete set of requirements and specifications). We can get some even more interesting data on campaign sessions since the session is associated to a SUT (and an SUT is associated to a list of requirements).

Hence, we can again refine the information and get the following metrics:
- Specifications associated to the SUT fully covered by the campaign
- Specifications associated to the SUT partially covered by the campaign
- Specifications associated to the SUT not covered by the campaign
- Requirements associated to the SUT fully covered by the campaign
- Requirements associated to the SUT partially covered by the campaign
- Requirements associated to the SUT not covered by the campaign

This allows to know precisely if some tests are missing in the campaign, or if some associations between requirements, specifications and tests are missing.

I think those new features are great tools to help analyzing what you're testing and more importantly what you're missing. They will be available in XStudio 1.0a4 at the usual location: http://www.xqual.com/support/download.html.

Release of XStudio 1.0a3

The version 1.0a3 of XStudio has been released and is available for download at the usual location: http://www.xqual.com/support/download.html.

Main changes from 1.0a2 are:

* Countries management
* Absences management (per user)
* Holidays management (per country)
* Week-ends management (per country)
* Better presentation of the calendars (new colors, legend,
borders etc.)
* Remember scale + expended nodes when moving in time in the calendars
* Full implementation of calendars with absences, holidays,
personalized week-ends (depending on the country)
* Add several new user profiles:
- HR Manager
- Developer
- Test Operator
* Add windows7 and snow leopard in OS list
* Print stack traces each time a "SQL lost error" is thrown
* For sprint velocity, use the most used week-end settings among
all users
* WeekDaySelect formitems using now Standard identification for days
of the week (former schedules to review!)
* Add SUT-Requirement association including:
- Inheritance of requirements (from SUT)
- Inheritance of tests (from SUT)
* Factorization of a LOT of SQL functions (LIST and FIRSTRESULT)
* Add parameter feature.not_implemented_testcase_notification.enabled
* Added a couple of launchers:
- AutomatedQA TestComplete 7
- TCL
* Improved security of CRunner class
* Open-source section on the website including SDK and all sources
* Bug-fix:
- Tree retrieval when one single element belongs to the root node
- Forbid points outside the sprint dates in the velocity charts
- Localization fixing
- Update global hashtables when updating user's country
- Remove useless logs

XStudio 1.0: New configuration parameter

When you run a campaign session and that the campaign included some testcases marked as not-implemented, they are skipped and a message is popup at the end of the complete execution to remind the user so. It may be annoying in some cases (it blocks further automatic campaign executions until the user presses OK), so I added a new configuration parameter in xstudio.conf and xagent.conf:

feature.not_implemented_testcase_notification.enabled

If you set this parameter to 0, this warning message will never show up.
By default, this parameter is set to 1.

XStudio 1.0: SUT to requirements association

One of the features lots of people asked me for a while was the ability to associate a SUT with a set of requirements so that the complete flow looks like:

SUT <--> Requirements <--> Specifications <--> Tests <--> Campaign <--> Session

To do so, when creating a SUT, a new Requirements tab allows to select a list of requirements in the requirement tree.


However, creating a new SUT is a task that happens quite often, so re-selecting all the appropriate requirements at each new version would be fastidious. To fix this problem, I implemented a simple way to "import" all requirements associated with another SUT (i.e. the previous version).

Hence, imagine you formerly created a SUT "myProduct v1.0" and associated it with a hundred of requirements. You've run a number of test campaigns successfully on this SUT but now a "myProduct v1.1" is released with a few new features (so new requirements).

The process is quite simple: on the Requirements tab: press the "Preset import settings" button, you will be prompted to select a source SUT, then press the "Preset import" button: all importable requirements from the SUT you selected will be highlighted with a specific flags on the right column and automatically checked by default. However, you can still manually remove or add manual new requirements (i.e. the new requirements of "myProduct v1.1"):


That's it! Of course, all these features are also available while editing a SUT.
This will allow me to add new interesting information in the campaign for a better coverage analysis (I will do this a little bit later).

This new feature will be available in XStudio 1.0a3.

XStudio 1.0: Absences and Holidays management implemented

I've just finished implementing the absences and holidays management system. Each user is now associated to one location/country (I'm using ISO convention).


Each country can be easily configured: public holidays can be added, edited and deleted. In addition, each country is associated to some week-ends settings. Hence, most of the countries in the world are using Saturday and Sunday for the week-ends but some others (such as Israel, Qatar, Algeria etc.) are using Friday and Saturday and again some others (such as Saudi Arabia) Thursday and Friday.

The default settings are supposed to be correct but it's good to let the administrator of the system customizes it if necessary. These settings are accessible through the Settings menu entry.


Hence, all the calendars are affected by this change as each user may have different week-ends.

Absences are also included in the calendars so you have a complete picture of the projects or the staff workload. Status are then easier to figure out.

Half-yearly scale

Monthly scale

Note that the calendar tree is still expandable as usual. This greatly facilitates the reading i.e. when you want to know the details about why a user is overloaded in a certain time frame.

A legend (including some gradient colors for the workload) has been added to help the reading .
These features will be availabe in XStudio 1.0a3 at the usual location: http://www.xqual.com/support/download.html.

Release of XStudio 1.0a2

The version 1.0a2 of XStudio has been released and is available for download at the usual location: http://www.xqual.com/support/download.html.

Main changes from 1.0a1 are:

* Report with test ordered like during the execution

* Complete control over manual tests execution through a control bar:

- Previous Test

- Previous Testcase

- Rewind Testcase

- Pause execution

- Resume execution

- Next Testcase

- Next Test

* Timeout setting per test while executing manually (using attributes)

* Bug-fix:

- Sometimes some elements were hidden in the trees when they were the only child of their container

XStudio 1.0: Timing constraints set per test for manual testing

As you already know, while executing manual testing, the launcher provides instructions to the operator to execute actions (and do verifications). The launcher is also configurable so that some timing restrictions can be added. For instance, it is possible to give 10 minutes maximum for the operator to execute the actions/verifications (i.e. you need to test that a message appears on the screen of the SUT in less than 10 minutes; if the operator doesn't validate that he saw that message within the 10 minutes then the test is automatically set as failed).

The issue is that this configuration was at the launcher level - which means that all the tests had necessarily the same timing constraints. This was a huge drawback and I've just corrected it.

There is no more timing configuration to set for the whole campaign session when creating it. However, there is now a much more flexible way to handle timeout for manual tests: by default all the tests belonging to a category associated to manual or simple_manual launchers have no timeout. If you want to set some specific timeouts to a test you just need to associate to this test one or several of the following attributes (with a value for the timeout):

• timeout test description (ms): maximum delay to validate the test description
• timeout test prerequisites (ms): maximum delay to validate the test prerequisites
• timeout testcases execution (ms): maximum delay to execute any actions or verifications implied by the testcases in this test

When manually executed, each test will be applied with their specific timeout values.

Without timeout

With timeout

Note also, that all these attributes are dynamic. This means that when creating the campaign session, you can overwrite any of these default values (on each test if necessary) to customize one campaign session execution:

This new feature will be available in XStudio 1.0a2 that will be delivered around the 13th of September at this location: http://www.xqual.com/support/download.html.

XStudio 1.0: Capability to Pause/Resume manual test campaigns

The control bar in the manual and simple_manual launchers has been improved again with a Pause/Resume feature. Hence, at any time when executing manual tests you can now pause and resume the session:

This can be particularly useful when you configured some tests/testcases to be executed with some timeout limits. Indeed, in this case it's now possible to stop the timer (and the progress bar) until you're ready to resume the campaign (after a good night sleep for example).

This feature will be available as part of XStudio 1.0a2 that will be delivered around the 13th of September at this location: http://www.xqual.com/support/download.html.

XStudio 1.0: Complete control on manual tests execution

I'm now working on a control bar in the manual launchers (standard and simplified) provided along with XStudio:

Practically, this is an additional control bar in the manual launcher's dialog box. The control bar includes so far 5 buttons:

• Previous Test
• Previous Testcase
• Rewind Testcase
• Next Testcase
• Next Test

At any time during manual test execution, you can use these buttons to "move" into the campaign session. This will be available in XStudio 1.0a2 that will be delivered around the 13th of September at this location: http://www.xqual.com/support/download.html.

XStudio 1.0: Reports matching execution order

I just finished the development of additional XSLT transforms allowing to generate HTML reports:
- campaign session reports matching the test execution order
- testplan of the tests included in a campaign matching the execution order
- traceability matrix reports for specifications

In addition, the campaign session reports now display only relevant (not empty) categories.

This feature will be included in XStudio v1.0a2.

Release of XStudio 1.0a1

The version 1.0a1 of XStudio & Xagent is available for download at the usual location: http://www.xqual.com/support/download.html

Main changes from the stable 0.7 release are:
  * Huge performances improvements
  * Custom XSLT
  * Traceability Matrix
  * Closed items filtering
  * User's profiles
  * User's Guide update
  * Executable launcher
  * Bug-fix:
    - Cannot export to a shared folder including dollar sign in its path
    - Could not create a project
    - Could not create a task
    - Could not create SUT
    - Problem with SUT tree
    - NullPointerException when executing a manual test locally in
      web mode
    - Extra spaces in exported XML files
    - Use temporary folder to store export resources in JNLP
     (to be able to filter only the necessary ones)

Encouraging

Back from vacation I was happily surprised to finally get a first donation for XStudio!
Thanks Tharma for this. It's really encouraging...

Getting back to work now, there's a release at the end of this week-end and I still have to finish implementing user profiles.

XStudio 1.0: Support of custom HTML reports

The feature allowing the users to develop their own reports is complete.

The idea is pretty simple: default reports are generated using XLST transforms applied to a raw XML document. The user can now simply develop his own XSLT and copy it into the export/xsl folder (either locally if using only standalone installs or on the Apache/Tomcat server to share this report with everybody connecting to this server).

The only constraint is to use a specific naming convention: <type>HTML_<name>.xslt
where:

• <type> can be:
  
• "requirement"
• "specification"
• "task"
• "testplan"
• "report"
• "defect"


• <name> can be any name including alphanumeric characters.

When generating a report, the user will be prompted with all XLST names that have been found for the corresponding type (i.e. if you're generating a testplan, the system will look at all the testplanHTML_*.xslt files and will populate the combo box will all the names found).

XQual Forum: 100th user subscribed!

The XQual Forum has seen his 100th participant Today. And the winner is... "ZOmbie".

Tools list updated

Again, I updated the test tools list with some new ones. I also added 2 specific sections for Bug-tracking systems.

Tools list updated

I've updated the test tools list on XQual website.

This is available here: http://www.xqual.com/qa/tools.html and includes software related to:

• Test management
• Test automation
• Unit and functional testing
• GUI testing
• Load/Stress testing
• Performance testing
• Manual Testing

XStudio 1.0: Traceability Matrix

I just finished implementing the Traceability Matrix feature. Of course, XStudio was already implementing some detailed status on coverage allowing to get:

• How much one specific requirement is covered by some specifications and some tests
• How much one specific specification is covered by some tests

However, what was missing was a global view on all the requirements and specifications in terms of coverage. This is now feasible by just selecting the root node of the requirements (or specifications) tree and selecting the Traceability Matrix tab.
Here are some screenshots of how it looks like...

in the reports:


in XStudio:


This feature is included in XStudio v1.0a0 that has been released tonight.

XStudio 1.0: A new search tab for tests and testcases

XStudio 1.0 will include a new search feature for tests and testcases. This completes the set of search features already available on tasks, specifications, requirements and defects.

So to clarify a little bit the different search functions available on XStudio:

1) Search by name (textfield/combobox available on the top of each tree): if you know the name of the item you're looking for but you don't don't where it is located or you don't want to manually expand all parents node, that's the right way to go. Just type the beginning of the name of the item, the rest will be auto-completed, you can scroll within the list of suggestions and select the right item. Very fast and effective - if you know what you're looking for.

2) Search by Id (global texfield on the main frame): when you have the unique identifier of the item you're looking for (included in the HTML tesplan, reports etc.) that's the right way to go: just type the ID in the textfield and you'll be redirected directly to the right tab, tree and node.

3) Plain text search: select the parent node from which to search and go to the search tab.

Here are the parent node to select depending on what kind of item you're looking for:

• Requirement: Category node
• Specifications: Category node
• Tasks: Root node
• Tests: Root node
• Integrated defects: Category node

Different options will be available to precise the search. The options anyway always include a textfield to enter a text to look for. Generally, this text is searched in properties like name, description, prerequisites, steps to reproduce, testplan (any textual field - formatted or not) and display results along with anchors so that you can just click on one item to open it.

XStudio 1.0: Generic executable launcher

I've just implemented a small launcher that will allow to run executable files (tests).

It takes 3 parameters as a configuration:

• the test root path. This must indicate where are located all the executable files.
  This is a root path. Each test in XStudio has a "canonical path" that will be appended to
  this path. This path MUST not include a ending slash.
  
• if the executable must be launched synchronously (if the tests returns when they are terminated) or asynchronously (when the test returns immediately but keep on running in background). If the synchronous option is checked, then the launcher will run the executable synchronously (waiting infinitely for the executable to return). If the Synchronous option is not checked, then the launcher will run the executable in background and will regularly check the presence of a file "test_completed.txt". A configurable timeout is granted to the executable to complete. If the executable did not create the "test_completed.txt" file within this timeout, then the launcher considers the test has crashed and skip it.
  
• the timeout value in case the tests are asynchronous. This is the maximum time the system will wait for the test to complete.
  

As usual, the launchers (exe.jar) comes with its configuration file (exe.xml) file. It allows to pre-configure the launcher with some default values. Of course, the user can always overwrite them at run time of the campaign session in XStudio through the GUI..

Requirements:

• Each test in XStudio must have his dedicated .exe file. The name of the executable MUST be equal to the name of the test.
• The .exe file MAY be able to parse some arguments passed during interpretation. In particular testcaseIndex (optional). This allows to execute different routines depending on the testcase index.
  

The test is executed by the launcher using this syntax:
<testRootPath>/<testPath>/<testName>.exe /debug /testcaseIndex=<testcaseIndex>

As usual, the source code, the SDK and the script to build this launcher will be provided. This feature will be made public end of June in the version 1.0 pre-alpha here: http://www.xqual.com/support/download.html