Running out of email addresses when you test?

(Taken from: http://www.eviltester.com/)

I generally test web apps. And Web apps generally use an email address as the unique identifier. So by test number 2, some of you may have run out of email addresses to test with.

If this happens to you, don’t panic! Because here are the Evil Tester hints and tips for getting more email addresses than you probably ever wanted, but as a tester, have always needed.

Tip #1 – Go Disposable

This used to be my default approach. Pick a mad mailinator address that no-one would ever use and then I’m off and testing.

This works really well when you don’t really care about the privacy of the emails.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_e-mail_address

For a list of disposable providers you can check here – http://www.email-unlimited.com/stuff/temp-email-address.htm

Tip #2 – Hack your email address

Gmail has some well known hacks for getting more value out of your email address.

* + addressing, where you add +somethingunique to your gmail address

http://lifehacker.com/software/top/instant-disposable-gmail-addresses-144397.php

* become mr.l.o.t.s.of.d.o.t.s gmail ignores the . in your email name before the @ so you can stick them in and get unique email addresses.

Other email hosts allow these strategies too, but I’ve only tried this on Gmail. Where have you tried it?

Tip #3 – use 33mail.com

I’ve started using the free services from 33mail.com.

You sign up, get a username then start sending mail to someone@username.33mail.com, someoneelse@username.33mail.com etc.

The emails get redirected to an email address of your choosing.

Tip #4 – Buy Your Own Domain you Cheapskate

When you register a domain name, many hosting companies give you a ‘single’ email address with the domain. What they actually mean is a single mailbox. Where anything @yourdomain gets routed to that mailbox. This effectively gives you unlimited email addresses.

If you want to do automated testing with the email, this may well turn out to be the best route to go down.

Python testing tools

Im looking for some added python testing tools or platforms. Soon I want to see if I can use:
Python Nose – http://code.google.com/p/python-nose/
Python RobotFramework – http://code.google.com/p/robotframework/
Py.test – http://pytest.org/latest/

10 Excellent Selenium Testing Resources For You

* Testing Versus Checking – Adam’s opinion article on the difference between testing a Web application and checking that a Web application works
* Abstracting Locators in Selenese (Se-IDE) – How to write really concise and easily changeable Selenium element locators
* Selenium IDE (Se-IDE) plugin tutorial – How to write your extensions to the Selenium IDE record/playback tool
* CSS Locators Reference – a one-page quick reference
* Page Objects – an object oriented approach to writing Selenium tests. Read an introductory article and an article on understanding Elements and Actions
* Using a Continuous Integration (CI) server as a Se-Grid replacement. Read the TestMaker CI Guide.
* Read Adam’s Blog
* A 30-minute tutorial on Repurposing Selenium Tests as Load and Performance Tests
* Adam’s Big Continuous Delivery Summary commentary on DevOps
* Selenium 2 RefCard from DZone
* Selenium RefCard (covers Selenium 1 and TestMaker)

Testing with PGAdmin3

Support for pgAdmin can be requested through:
pgadmin-support@postgresql.org mailing list.

Selenium Documentation

As we build a test framework in Selenium we build a data resource library:

Links:
Main Resource: http://seleniumhq.org/

A Nice Users Manual:

A strategy in integrate automation into a development department

1.List all software products, tools and areas for possible testing
2.List Operating Systems included.
3.Breakdown functionality of each product
4.Document all possible areas under test for each functionality of each product.
5.Research available tools and processes
6.Meet with tech leads
Analyze current automation being done
Differentiate between unit tests and functional tests
Outline HW platform strategy for automated programing and documentation
7.Begin to meet with all teams
8.Review process with QA
9.Decide on types of testing to be done (functionality,acceptance,etc)
10.Detail out individual automation modules
11.Prioritize automation modules
12.Determine procedures for documenting and storing automation test cases and tools

Python script to display pdfs in viewer

Python script to read reports from folders created by automated report created, and display in pdf viewer.
=======================================

mport glob, os, subprocess

#Notes
# Pulls list of folders, then pdf files within each folder, then display that group
# Two paths for files are
#for name in glob.glob(‘C:\\Program Files (x86)\\ComponentSoftware\\CSDiff\\Base Folder\\output-Oracle\\Lube\\*\\*pdf’):
#for name in glob.glob(‘C:\\QA\\test-smoke\\output\\Lube\\*\\*pdf’):
# Assumes test-smnoke is installed on local machine at: C:\QA\. Otherwise edit path where applicable.

files = ” # Reset the variable to a blank tp start concantenation
counter = 0 # Limit number of pdfs displayed on one screen, due to max allowed to show

#Show pdfs for the Lube folder
print
print ‘ Displaying the .PDF reports in a Viewer’
print ‘-’ * 42
for folder in os.listdir(‘C:\\QA\\test-smoke\\output\Lube’):
folderstring = ‘C:\\QA\\test-smoke\\output\\Lube\\’ + folder + ‘\\’
folderstring = folderstring + ‘\\*pdf’
for name in glob.glob(folderstring):
files = files + ‘”‘ + name + ‘” ‘
counter = counter + 1
if counter == 9:
CommandString = ‘”‘ + ‘..\\Foxit Software\\Foxit Reader\\Foxit Reader.exe’ + ‘” ‘ + files
counter = 0
print folder + ‘ Reports:’
subprocess.call(CommandString) # Call the viewer, with the filename(s)
files = ” # Re Set the variable to a blank to start next concantenation
CommandString = ‘”‘ + ‘..\\Foxit Software\\Foxit Reader\\Foxit Reader.exe’ + ‘” ‘ + files
counter = 0
print folder + ‘ Reports:’
subprocess.call(CommandString) # Call the viewer, with the filename(s)
files = ” # Re Set the variable to a blank to start next concantenation

#Show Invoice Replica pdf
CommandString = ‘”‘ + ‘..\\Foxit Software\\Foxit Reader\\Foxit Reader.exe’ + ‘” ‘ + ‘C:\\QA\\test-smoke\\output\\Lube\\invoiceReplica.pdf’
print ‘invoiceReplica Reports:’
subprocess.call(CommandString) # Call the viewer, with the filename(s)
files = ” # Reset the variable to a blank tp start concantenation

#Show pdfs for the Demo folder
for folder in os.listdir(‘C:\\QA\\test-smoke\\output\ISI\Working’):
folderstring = ‘C:\\QA\\test-smoke\\output\\ISI\\Working\\’ + folder + ‘\\’
folderstring = folderstring + ‘\\*pdf’
for name in glob.glob(folderstring):
files = files + ‘”‘ + name + ‘” ‘
CommandString = ‘”‘ + ‘..\\Foxit Software\\Foxit Reader\\Foxit Reader.exe’ + ‘” ‘ + files
print folder + ‘ Reports:’
subprocess.call(CommandString) # Call the viewer, with the filename(s)
files = ” # Reset the variable to a blank tp start concantenation

Tools to consider

CSdif from Component Software
Foxit software
Grinder
Puretest
Push to test
StoryTestIQ
Watij
webloganalyier
winmerge
windmill

To find broken links

Xenu is a free tool that I have downloaded and tried out on my Window system. Seems to work pretty good.

Xenu’s Link Sleuth (TM) checks Web sites for broken links. Link verification is done on “normal” links, images, frames, plug-ins, backgrounds, local image maps, style sheets, scripts and java applets. It displays a continously updated list of URLs which you can sort by different criteria. A report can be produced at any time.

Using Hudson to Control Selenium to Test Web Page

We are using Hudson in our build processes, and have been using some web browser, record/playback test programs off and on throughout our development cycle, but it has not been consistent. It is time to look in to using Hudson’s continuous build server to manage and automate a web browser test, like Selenium ( or maybe BadBoy) Here is one article on the subject.

Developing web applications is getting more complex – it’s easy to accidentally break functionality as changes are made. In this article, Ben describes the setup his team uses to test their apps as changes are committed; automatically notifying the developers of any problems.

Rest of Article Here.