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Recently
we have been building a Pocket PC application for a client
that involves entering quite a few forms of data. To enter
a candidate for this application takes about 10 minutes
or so. As you can imagine testing this application requires
entering a few candidates and then synchng the data. With
pretty agressive build iterations regression testing is
critical, and very time consuming. Not only do you have
to test new features but in cutting new builds you need
to test all functionality in case you have
introduced some unwanted features in other sections of the
app. We have been testing this app manually for the last
3 months so I was pretty happy to find that there is a solution
to this tedium in the form of Spb's Pocket PC Test Suite.
Pocket PC TestSuite is the only existing application for
automatic program testing on Pocket PC. You can create test
suites that simulate screen taps and keyboard events and
start other applications or applets from the Control Panel.
It also contains functionality for testing programs in extreme
conditions, such as low memory or overloaded CPU.
What really makes Pocket PC Test Suite
a real boon to developers is the quick recording feature;
which enables you to quickly create a script base; and the
powerful scripting language based on Tcl. Tcl scripts allow
cycles, conditions and other custom macros.
Also when purchasing Pocket PC TestSuite,
you get unlimited support and all subsequent versions for
free. Apparently the Pocket PC Testing Center uses Pocket
PC TestSuite for testing Pocket PC applications.
Pocket PC TestSuite Discount
I contacted Spb and we have negotiated
a 5% discount on all their products. This is how you get
the discount on PocketGear:
- During credit card selection you
need to answer "yes" to the question:
"Do you have any coupons/gift certificates that you
would like to use?"
- On the next page enter this code:
357F8W25
- Pocket
PC TestSuite on Pocket Gear
Simply done.
Quality assurance
Quality assurance is the most time consuming
phase of the product cycles. In fact, effective regression
testing and stress testing cannot be done without some form
of automated testing.
Regression testing is the selective
retesting of a software system that has been modified to
ensure that all bugs have been fixed and that no other previously-working
functions now fail as a result of new 'fixes'. In addition
new features need to be tested to ensure that they have
not created problems with existing software funcionality.
Regression test sessions are executed daily so testing should
be automated.
Another important aspect of quality
assurance is stress testing. There are several testing
scenarios that can be used only in conjunction with automatic
testing, for example, performing a large number of iterations
of similar actions or tracking memory leaks between certain
testing cycles.
You can download
a demo movie of TestSuite here (250 Kb).
Pocket PC TestSuite in action
Using Pocket PC TestSuite is simple.
Let's say we want to test copy/paste in the Calculator when
it is repeated 100 times. We do the following:
- Start Pocket PC TestSuite
- Create a new test script
- Choose "Record Taps" menu
item
- Start the Calculator application,
do what we want to test
- Return to the TestSuite
- Press OK to insert recorded commands
to the script
- Add a loop command around the recorded
commands to repeat this action 100 times:
for {set i 0} {$i<100} {incr i 1} {
#recorded commands here
}
Your script should look like this:
#TCL Script
source "My Documents\\testsuite.tcl"
for {set i 0} {$i<100} {incr i 1} {
ts_run "\\Windows\\calc.exe"
ts_wait 1913
ts_click 123 132
ts_wait 1462
ts_click 21 308
ts_wait 1121
ts_click 45 271
ts_wait 1632
ts_click 30 270
ts_wait 1035
ts_click 18 306
ts_wait 977
ts_click 48 286
}
Now we can run this script and see how
Pocket PC TestSuite simulates copy/paste in the Calculator
100 times. If we need to test the functionality 10 000 times
we can change 100 to 10 000 in the test suite script, start
it, and continue with another job or go and make some coffee.
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