SilkTest Question 67: How to start/stop/pause two word names Windows service with SilkTest?

The answer for How to start/stop/pause Windows service with SilkTest? work great for services with one word names for example "WinRunner" but the solution would not accept the two separate word on services with two or three names, such as "Silk Test license"
In order to control two and more word named services, SQA Engineer will have to utilize the Service name rather than the display name (the display name will only be able to be used on one word display named services).
SQA Engineer can discover the "Service Name" of a Service by right-clicking on the service and then going to "Properties".

SilkTest interview question 66: SilkTest vs Selenium?

Lately one of the interns, who works for our company for training rather than only employment, asked me to make a suggestion to choose between SilkTest and Selenium as carrier path for future Quality Assurance Engineer position.

Let's take a detailed glance and evaluate both test automated tools against each other:

The benefits of Selenium is completely free open source test automation tool, while SilkTest price is around a few thousand dollars per license. It means if you want to include Selenium to your talent set, just download free application, download manual and start testing. SilkTest download is not free, and available only for Borland customers, although everyone may download Silk Test free trial version, but it will help you for 30 days and then you will get bombarded by Borland sales asking to buy test automation tool.

There are no a single SilkTest book or tutorial in print yet except SilkTest Getting Started Tutorial, comparing with several recently published Selenium and QTP books. Quality Assurance society anticipate more Selenium books in the nearest future. For for detailed book review look at Best Books for QTP and Top Books for Selenium posts.

Selenium allows creating automated test cases only against web applications. In the same time Quality Assurance Engineer may use Silk Test for automating client server application. Selenium gracefully supports a broad range of browsers Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera or Konqueror on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. In the same time Silk Test is restricted to Internet Explorer and Firefox on Windows.
SilkTest uses 4Test scripting language to describe the test procedure, and to manipulate the objects and pedals of the application under test. One more benefits of Selenium has lots of language bindings like Java, .Net, Perl, PHP, Python, and Ruby, so anyone can learn not only one tool, but add a few more lines in the resume.
Last thing to check is to visit any employment search sites like dice.com or monster.com and compare how many opening are available for SilkTest or Selenium.

SilkTest Question 65: How to start/stop/pause Windows service with SilkTest?

It is feasible to control the services in a Windows environment with SilkTest applications as long as QA Engineer has the correct security permissions. This can be done by using the 'net' command through 4test code to stop/start/pause the Services. For example: SYS_Execute ("Net Start Price"). In this case SilkTest starts a service with display name Price. The same command will also work with 'Stop' and 'Pause' directives, but of course will only pause Services, which have this option available.

SilkTest Question 64: How to hide username and password information?

I believe every QA Engineer, with proven SilkTest experience, knows, that two completely new functions, Decrypt() and Encrypt(), were introduced in SilkTest 2006 Release 2. The functions allow encrypt passwords, so that they are not displayed in recorded test scripts or when playing back test scripts. It is obvious that passwords are kind of hidden, I mean if someone takes a look into 4test code of the latest test framework the passwords are hidden, but if you copy-paste them to your own script you can easily descramble the password.

One of the many solutions to resolve problem would be to have every tester save their username and password in for example Excel file on their local machine. All files should have the same name, but contents would be different for each tester. During developing data-driven SilkTest script make them look for the file and read username/password from there. This technique would hide password out of common 4test code.

SilkTest Question 63: Does Silk Test have any future?

Many test automating tools for functional testing like Silk Test haven't changed as much as development tools in the recent years. Where is integration with unit testing tools and source control tools? Where is cool keyword coloring and code refactoring to simplify program structure?

Let's take a look in biased opinions of one of the Borland employee posted not long ago:

I believe Borland is more dedicated to meeting QA tool users' (your) needs than any other "big" vendor in the QA automation market.

SilkTest is not going away. It is powerful, adaptable and proven. We will continue to "reward" loyal customers by protecting their investment with expanded functionality. We've released two major (SilkTest 8, SilkTest 2006) and at least 3 minor versions of SilkTest since the acquisition of Segue. Rest assured that another major release is forthcoming (no dates can be shared publicly at this time).

4Test is not going away. It is easy to learn, useful and provides extremely robust, easily maintainable test scripts. Other test tool vendors have introduced "new" products (and charged for them) at the cost of alienating users of their "old" products. I believe this is a terrible way to treat loyal users.

Customers want scripting in common languages --- we hear that loud and clear.

SilkTest is arguably the most technically powerful functional automation tool in the market (I knew this prior to my joining Borland - but, of course, I'm biased)

Borland has consolidated development to 4 main dev labs - 1 dedicated soley to Silk products - to reduce costs and maximize efficiency (using our own ALM principles). Segue had segregated development teams that did not facilitate good integration, innovation or agile development. We now have a large, dedicated and experienced team on SilkTest co-located with all the other Silk development, and we have a full and exciting roadmap!

Borland technical support is a marked improvement over Segue support of the past (from reputation and customer feedback, not personal knowledge).

I'm hoping that I would be able to see all above implemented in the near future. And I hope that it will be true. At least may be Borland would update SilkTest user's guide and perhaps starts to print SilkTest books ...

SilkTest Question 62: When can I download Flex extension for SilkTest?

Unfortunately even the most recent version of SilkTest 2006 RC2 has no support for Adobe Flex. If you would like to automate testing of applications based on Adobe Flex, take a look for Flex plug-in for HP QTP 9.5 (QuickTest Pro).

UPDATE: In April of 2008, Borland introduced built-in support for testing Adobe Flex application with the release of SilkTest 2008.

SilkTest Question 61: How can I execute the same test case multiple times?

The solution is easy as usual for experienced in automation testing SQA Engineer: create a main() function and place a nice loop within it. The working 4test example below calls a straightforward test within a loop within the main function.

[-] testcase Winrunner() appstate none
[ ] Print ("HP WinRunner license and maintenance codes are available only from HP web site")
[-] main()
[ ] int jCount = 100
[ ] int j
[-] for (j=1;j<=jCount;j++)
[ ] Winrunner()

SilkTest Question 60: Where can I find SilkTest 2010 tutorials?

My understanding of Micro Focus policy on SilkTest 2010 tutorials is more or less - take the $2,400 SilkTest training course if you have any questions. Micro Focus does not publish books, Micro Focus does not offer SilkTest best practice advice for free, and they is not extremely well at helping advanced users. If you are new in test automation area, and desperately need QA training, try to study a free "SilkTest 2010 Tutorial" on Borland SilkTest Tutorials page. It contains a nice introduction to SilkTest and related automation concepts, step-by-step procedures that teach how to build and run tests and test plans from the scratch, and how to interpret test results.

A few more Silk Test 2010 tutorials for novice users are available for from the same page:

• SilkTest Recorder Quick Start Tutorial
• Using the Basic Workflow with the Open Agent
• Silk4J Quick Start Tutorial
• Using the Basic Workflow with the SilkTest Classic Agent
• Using Autocomplete
• Creating Data Driven Testcases
• Working with Projects
• Testing Flex Applications
• Testing Java Applications

These Tutorials can also found by going to Start > Programs > MicroTest > SilkTest 2010 > Documentation > SilkTest Tutorials.

SilkTest Question 59: What is hidecalls keyword for ?

As described in 4test manual: The keyword hidecalls hides the method from the call stack listed in the results. Using hidecalls allows you to update the expected value of the verification method from the results. If you don't use hidecalls in a verification method, the results file will point to the frame file, where the method is defined, instead of to the script. Borland recommends that you use hidecalls in all verification methods so you can update the expected values.

SilkTest Question 58: SilkTest training from Borland

Last year, eager to maximize our automated testing abilities, my QA team signed up for a couple of SilkTest training courses at Borland. As local Silk Test guru I, without a doubt, decided to take Advanced Testing with SilkTest course. Two of my less experienced QA team members took Verification Testing with SilkTest class in hope to develop a real working knowledge of automated testing methodology and capitalize on the real benefits of utilizing 4Test scripting language in our automated test.

My SilkTest training course has the following description

A great introduction to the true power of SilkTest designed for those who want to take their verification testing capabilities to a higher level

and one of the prerequisites was attending of previous SilkTest class Verification Testing with Silk Test, but I decided to skip it due to my long experience in automated testing with Segue tool.

The list price, our company got from Borland for SilkTest training, was $2,400 per person, but as far as I know corporation paid a tad less due discount. Segue Certified SilkTest Engineer (SCSTE) Exam level 1 and 2 were included in price tag. All of us decided that I would be healthier to sign up for four days public classroom Silk Test training in MicroTek facilities, instead of using online or onsite SilkTest training. The onsite QA course is not perfect for us, because QA engineer has to go back to work chores after course ends and we have not enough headcount for on site QA class.

To my surprise, more then half of the students showed interest in using SilkTest for testing non web based applications. Somehow I thought that only web based applications remained in this world. Anyway in my opinion it would more useful to separate and organize SilkTest training based on QA Engineers preferences.

- tutorial
- curriculum

SilkTest Question 57: BCSTE certification and job market?

Recently I posted my thought on how any software certification may help with job search. Still, I marveled if probably employers were now beginning to require BCSTE (Borland Certified SilkTest Engineer) certification in their hiring practices, so I made a decision to test it out.

Dice.com is definitely the leading online career network in U.S. So I decided to see how often BCSTE or SCSTE were required in jobs posted on Dice.

I went to Dice.com and looked for "Silktest" today. I got 80 results. When I looked for "BCSTE, I got nothing, because “Your query was automatically corrected: "BCSTE" to "cste" by Dice.com. I know that CSTE on of the most popular QA certifications administered by the Quality Assurance Institute, but I was looking for BCSTE. How can I submit bug report to Dice?

Next I went to Monster.com and again for and searched for "Silktest". I got 62 results. When I searched for "BCSTE", I got 0 results.

Do you still think that Silktest certification would get you hired? May be it would be better instead of preparing to crack SilkTest exam spend it learning some open source tools like Selenium or Canoo

SilkTest Question 56: Will obtaining SCSTE certification improve chances of getting a QA job?

There are many questions and answers among software specialist if any certifications like Segue Certified SilkTest Engineer (SCSTE), QuickTest Professional 9.0 Specialist, Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) or Sun Certified Java Programmer (SCJP) as an aid to gaining employment in software area. I think the certification definitely open some more doors in your career, but only with experience. No one in our QA team owns a certification. Our development and QA managers have never mentioned certification requirement in any job description and never hired anyone based on a certification. Do not forget about time you would spend to crack SilkTest exam. So will having a Segue Certified SilkTest Engineer SCSTE help you get hired? Probably, but it perhaps won't matter. I guess it couldn't hurt, just imagine that the manager has to choose among two candidates with the same skill set, but one has SCSTE in the resume and passes the following courses "Verification Testing with SilkTest" and "Advanced Testing with SilkTest". Which one you would hire?

SilkTest Question 55: How does conditional operator work?

The conditional operator (some testers called it "immediate if" operator) of 4Test language provides alternative to using the if statement for conditional logic structures.

Let take a look on the sample code:
STRING QuickTest = (Winrunner> Qtp) ? License : Tutorial

• If value of variable Winrunner is greater than Qtp, 4test would assign value of License to QuickTest;
• If value of variable Qtp is greater than Winrunner, assign value of Tutorial to QuickTest;

Homework assignment: what happens if the values are equal?

SilkTest Question 54: Links not being recognized

The Quality Assurance Engineer tries to created fancy 4test script for newest version of web based application, but for some weird reason SilkTest 2006 is not recognizing links as HtmlLink objects.

The cause of this behavior is that someone have configured browser not to underline links (by default IE displays all links as underlined links). SilkTest 2006 requires that links be underlined. Reconfigure the browser on test machine to display links underlined.

SilkTest Question 53: How to fix unable to start Internet Explorer error?

The following error "Unable to start Internet Explorer 7" may suddenly appear while QA Engineer trying to record or run a test case. Usually this issue happens with freshly installed instance of Silk Test because the extensions enabled in the Extensions Enabler and Options/Extensions do not match the default browser.

QA Engineer need to carefully examine the settings for default browser on test computers and make them consistent with the settings for the host machine in Options/Extensions and for the target machine in the Extension Enabler.

Borland releases SilkTest 2006 Release 2

On 25th January 2007 Borland announced the release of SilkTest 2006 Release 2, which has a lot of new features:

• Password Encryption
• Calling DLL Functions
• Silk TrueLog Explorer for SilkTest
• .NET DataGridView
• Timer Functions
• Synchronizing Controls for Verification

I updated the following Silktest FAQ interview questions:

• 41: What is the latest version of Silk test?
• 29: How to hide password in the 4test script file?
• 3 : Is SilkTest Extension Kit part of Silk Test?

SilkTest Question 52: How to fix DLL cannot be loaded error?

Imagine that your coworker Senior Test Engineer created sophisticated DLL for SilkTest which would dramatically improve the speed of regression test execution by replacing lame addition operator + with fast Add() function and asked you to use it in your 4test scripts. Eager for fight you created the script below and run it.



Oops! It seems that the bulletproof 4test code return the following error "*** Error: DLL cannot be loaded – Error 126". How to fix this error?

The official Microsoft description of this error code is 126L ERROR_MOD_NOT_FOUND The specified module could not be found. In plain English it means - Silk Test is not able to find the specified DLL. One of the solutions would be to provide the full (and of course correct) path to the DLL. In this case the call may look like dll 'c:\udharan\winrunner.dll' or something similar.

SilkTest Question 51: How to conduct testing with SilkTest via Microsoft Remote Desktop?

To execute testing the SQA Engineer needs to install SilkTest on the remote machine, but during exertion of automated test cases SilkTest would treat via Microsoft Remote Desktop windows as the GUI application under test. It means that in case you minimized or exit desktop window the SilkTest Agent cannot control anymore the mouse and keyboard and test cases would fail. Remote Desktop can only be used for automated testing when it is non-minimized. Of course there is some work around: connect via Remote Desctop session into first test machine and from that machine hook up into machine with SilkTest installed. Then when someone closes Remote Desktop from the first machine, the remote machines session would stay open. It is weird solution, but it work in our QA Lab environment.

Interview with Google

I read yesterday My Interview With Google article and would like to leave a few notes.

I would NOT recommend interviewing with Google without a Computer Science degree. You need to be able to look at a function and know the Big-O for it immediately. Specifically, you need to look at YOUR OWN functions and know the Big-O immediately.

I'm not sure that knowledge of Big-O is requirement for Software Test Engineer.

The worst part of the process was my fourth and final interview of the day. The guy was from Moscow, and he had a very thick accent. All of my life, I’ve had immense trouble with accents, even slight ones. My project manager at work has a thick accent from Italy, and she basically sounds like Chewbacca to me. My interview with the Moscow Guy resembled one of those satellite interviews on the news. He’d say something to me, and there’d be this long pause before I responded. To make matters worse, he told me his first question was going to be “an easy one”, so when I barely understood what he said at all, I imagine I looked like a complete imbecile. “What was that? You want me to WHAT two numbers together? Mo de ploy? Mah dah bu? Oh, multiply! Right, two times two is four. I’m obviously partially retarded.

It is Bay Area and there are no any high-tech company without people with accent.

SilkTest Question 50: What is the difference between frame and include files?

The main difference between frame and include file that both file can contain window declarations, constant, variables and functions, but only frame file can contain DefaultBaseState declaration.