Silktest Question 11: What is the Borland Testing Methodology?

Borland testing methodology is a six-phase testing process:

Plan: Define the testing strategy and determine specific test requirements.

Capture: Categorize the GUI objects in your application and construct a framework for running your tests.

Create: Create automated, reusable tests. Use recording and/or programming to build test scripts written in Silktest's 4Test language.

Run: Select required tests scripts and execute them against the AUT (Application Under Test).

Report: Examine test results and create defect reports.

Track: Track defects in the AUT and perform regression testing.

Silktest Question 10: How to append to List Of List Of String?

Try the following code in 4Test language:

[ ] LIST OF STRING lsOptions = {}
[ ] LIST OF LIST OF STRING llsOptions = {{}}
[ ] STRING sLine
[ ]
[ ] hFile = FileOpen("{sDataDir}Installation\{sDataFile}",FM_READ)
[-] while FileReadLine(hFile,sLine)
[ ] lsOptions = Split(sLine,",")
[ ] ListAppend(llsOptions, lsOptions)

Borland SilkTest

The letter from Tod Nielsen - President and CEO, Borland Software

I am very excited today to announce that Borland and Segue Software are now officially operating as one company.

This is a great move for both of our organizations as we come together to tackle what we all know to be a key development challenge and the biggest opportunity for our industry — software quality. Borland and Segue have long shared a common belief that the challenge of software quality reaches far beyond testing and QA. Together we will approach this issue holistically, providing value at each stage of the software delivery lifecycle.

Our focus now is on the development of a comprehensive Lifecycle Quality Management solution — bringing together our unparalleled process improvement expertise with proper skills training and a true end-to-end quality technology offering. Our goal is alignment of people, process and technology, proactively driving higher standards of software quality while systematically reducing costs associated with rework and maintenance.

While continuing to enhance Segue’s quality and application performance technologies, we will also focus on delivering even tighter linkage with Borland’s broad portfolio of Application Lifecycle Management technologies. As part of a complete solution, these technologies will address quality across the entire lifecycle, eliminating quality issues at the root cause.

I hope that you share in the excitement of Borland and Segue coming together and more information can be found in our press release. We look forward to speaking with you more as we move our combined company forward, bringing to market solutions that shape the next generation of software development.

Silktest Question 9 : How to capture the contents of Microsoft Word document invoked in Internet Explorer browser.

The following code in 4test language will help to solve your problem with SilkTest and Microsoft Word.

[ ] STRING sSFileName="FileName"
[ ] STRING sTFileName="FileNameTarget"
[ ]
[-] window DialogBox DS
[ ] tag "{sSFileName} - Microsoft Word"
[ ]
[-] window DialogBox D1
[ ] tag "Document1 - Microsoft Word"
[ ]
[-] window DialogBox SaveAs
[ ] tag "Save As"
[ ] parent DS
[ ]
[-] window DialogBox Open
[ ] tag "Open"
[ ] parent D1
[ ]
[-] testcase Copy_Content_Of_Word_To_Notepad()
[ ] SYS_Execute("Start Winword.exe")
[ ] D1.SetActive()
[ ]
[ ] D1.TypeKeys("")
[ ] Open.TypeKeys("D:\{sSFileName}.doc")
[ ] Open.TypeKeys("-Word Document")
[ ] Open.TypeKeys("")
[ ] DS.SetActive()
[ ]
[ ] DS.TypeKeys("-a")
[ ] SaveAs.TypeKeys("-Text Only")
[ ] SaveAs.TypeKeys("D:\")
[ ] SaveAs.TypeKeys("")
[ ]
[ ] DS.DialogBox("Microsoft Word|$MessageBox").TypeKeys("")
[ ] DS.DialogBox("File Conversion - {sSFileName}").TypeKeys("")
[ ] DS.DialogBox("File Conversion - {sSFileName}").TypeKeys("")
[ ] DS.TypeKeys("-x")
[ ]

The 4test code will make an .txt file and you can read the content of this file and verify your data.

Silktest Question 8 : If I get an exception during executing DB_Connect, how do I know exactly what kind of exception it is?

The easiest way to handle exception is to wrap the DB_Connect call in a do..except, for example :

[-] do
[ ] Print ("MSSQL : dsn={sDsn};UID={SQL_User};PWD={SQL_Pwd}")
[ ] hdbc = DB_Connect ("dsn={sDsn};UID={SQL_User};PWD={ SQL _Pwd}")
[-] except
[-] ResOpenList ("Unable to connect to the DSN '{sDsn}' for the reasons below")
[ ] ExceptLog ()
[ ] ResCloseList()

Keep it generic. There could be huge number of reasons why the connection might fail, so checking for particular failure modes isn't appropriate here.

ExceptLog() will return the ODBC error number and text, QA engineer or Test Developer could parse the error message and programmatically respond depending on the error. Be aware though that the errors will be RDBMS specific.

Silktest Question 7 : Matching '?' character in a string

How to use MatchStr function to actually look for the '?' character vs. it's default wildcard meaning?

Use the following code:

[-] main ()
[ ] STRING s = "this is a test?"
[ ] Print (MatchStr ("*{Chr(63)}", s))

Silktest Question 6 : Silktest or Winrunner?

You don't know any of them and try to select one to study. Look at the following search result:

Search result from dice.com on April,13 2005:

• silktest - 68 jobs
• winrunner - 514 jobs

Search result from s.f. bayarea craigslist on April,13 2005:

• silktest - 17 jobs
• winrunner - 28 jobs

I will update this table monthly.

Silktest Question 5 : Why did Borland buy Segue?

Nielsen, Borland's president and chief executive officer said

Segue’s quality optimization products and services will add significantly to our growing portfolio of application lifecycle management solutions. This is a natural extension of our focus to expand beyond development and into software delivery, helping companies increase business value through successful software initiatives.

The decision to expand our emphasis on applicaion lifecycle management, and at the same time enable our IDE business to get the attention it deserves, enables us to do what’s right for our business, what’s right for our customers, and what’s right for the future of software development.

The Segue had suite of industry-leading products include automated tools for:

• Test Management to provide a process-driven approach for planning, documenting and managing the entire testing process
• Functional & Regression Testing to verify your application's ability to accurately address all requirements from build to build
• Load, Stress & Performance Testing to maximize your application's performance, scalability and reliability by simulating real-world conditions before it goes live
• Application Performance Management to to evaluate end-user experience and service-level fulfillment of your live application 24x7x365

Silktest Question 4 : Where can I buy any good basic or advance books on SilkTest?

The SilkTest tutorial and user guide will be shipped to your QA department as soon as your software company pays for SilkTest license to Segue (actually to Borland now). There are no SilkTest user guide or any other book on open market. I wish there was a book out something like "Teach Yourself Silk Test in 24 Hours", but no one has written one yet.

Related posts

1. Top recommended HP QTP books
2. Best Quality Assurance and Software Testing books review

Silktest Question 3 : Is SilkTest Extension Kit part of SilkTest?

Some features and tools are available only when they are purchased
separately and are licensed to you:

• Extension Kit: if you purchased the Extension Kit, you must supply the password in order to install it during the SilkTest installation. Contact SilkTest Customer Service if you do not know your password



• SilkTest Agent only: if you have purchased a license for the SilkTest Agent but not SilkTest, then only the Agent, sample applications, and the SilkTest Bitmap Tool are accessible after you install SilkTest.

UPDATES: Extension Kit is included at no extra cost starting with SilkTest 2006. If your maintenance contract is up to date, ask Borland about upgrade to SilkTest 2006R2. For older versions of tool, the extension kit was an add-on, which needed to be purchased separately. As soon as the Extension Kit is installed QA Engineer can get more information from Start -> Programs > Borland > SilkTest 2006 > Documentation -> Extension Kit Documentation and also from the SilkTest online Help file (Help > Help Topics)

Silktest Question 2 : SilkTest recognises Internet Explorer as a Client/Server Application

After enabling the extension by tools/extensions for browser, SilkTest shows browser as a client-server application and the following message appears

SilkTest detected a Client/Server application.
The required Extension has been enabled.

There is only one solution for this problem with SilkTest testing tool. You have to recreate your windows user profile on the machine: Login as administrator, go to the User Profiles tool from the Advanced tab of the System Properties dialog box. Once you do, select your user profile from the list and click the Delete button. Log on again as you and this will create a new user profile.

P.S. If you want to save information from the profile, save that information individually i.e. if the you want to save your favorites copy the favorites to an other location and after deleting the profile copy the favorites back.

Silktest Question 1 : SilkTest does not set DefaultBaseState for Internet Explorer

The error message from the results file shows:

[ ] *** DefaultBaseState is invoking Browser
[ ] *** Error: Unable to start Internet Explorer 6 DOM
[ ] Occurred in AppError
[ ] Called from Explorer.Invoke at extend\explorer.inc(470)
[ ] Called from Browser.Invoke at browser.inc(361)
[ ] Called from DefaultBaseState at defaults.inc(126)
[ ] Called from main at $ScriptMain(2)

First check to ensure that all of the extensions have been enabled properly within SilkTest. If this is fine, then ensure that there are not two versions of SilkTest installed on the machine.

If there are not two versions of SilkTest on the machine then there is the possibility that the machine was not restarted when uninstalling the older version of SilkTest prior to installing the new version.

In this case perform the following:

Uninstall SilkTest,
Restart the machine,
Reinstall SilkTest,
Restart the machine.