Testing Tools

Anteater is a testing framework designed around Ant, from the Apache Jakarta Project. It is basically a set of Ant tasks for the functional testing of Web sites and Web services (functional testing being: hit a URL and ensure the response meets certain criteria). One can test HTTP parameters, response codes, XPath, regexp, and Relax NG expressions. Anteater also includes HTML reporting (based on junitreport) and a hierarchical grouping system for quickly configuring large test scripts. When a Web request is received, Anteater can check the parameters of the request and send a response accordingly. This makes it useful for testing SOAP and XML applications.

The ability to wait for incoming HTTP messages is something unique to Anteater, which makes it especially useful when building tests for applications that use high level SOAP-based communication, like ebXML or BizTalk. Applications written using these protocols usually receive SOAP messages and send back a meaningless response. It is only later that they inform the client, using an HTTP request on the client, about the results of the processing. These are the so-called asynchronous SOAP messages, and are the heart of many high-level protocols based on SOAP or XML messages.

Written in Java, HttpUnit emulates the relevant portions of browser behavior, including form submission, Javascript, basic HTTP authentication, cookies, and automatic page redirection, and allows Java test code to examine returned pages either as text, an XML DOM, or containers of forms, tables, and links.

Browser testing is one of the most tedious and frustrating parts of web development. What designer or programmer hasn’t screamed bloody murder at broken alignments in Internet ExplorerInternet Explorer reviewsInternet Explorer reviews 6? One of the difficult parts of browser testing is that no developer can have every browser type on a single computer for proper testing.

Enter XenoCode Browser Sandbox, a series of virtual applications that can run all popular browsers simultaneously. It does not even require the installation of software. However, XenoCodeXenocode reviewsXenocode reviews’s Browser Sandbox can be heavy in some browsers and is still lacking in a Mac version.

About the Xenocode Browser Sandbox

The Xenocode Browser Sandbox allows all popular Windows browsers to be run simultaneously, directly from the web. Web designers, system administrators, and other users can now evaluate Internet Explorer 8, 7, and 6, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera, and Google Chrome directly from the web in a risk-free manner. Unlike traditional software applications, Xenocode WebApps do not require any software to be installed and allow multiple application versions to run side-by-side on any version of Windows.

Known Issues

• The IE8 executable triggers a false positive warning when using Avira AV. UPDATE: Avira is patching their product, see http://forum.avira.com/wbb/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=82913.

• Mac clients are not currently supported. (Yes, we're sorry and we hear you!) Building Your Own WebApps

Browsers featured in the Browser Sandbox were built using Xenocode Virtual Application Studio and deployed using Xenocode WebApp. Xenocode products are available via the web and through authorized Xenocode partners.

For more information on Xenocode licensing or to download free product evaluations, please visit the Xenocode home page. Understanding Xenocode Technology

Xenocode is a powerful virtualization technology that separates applications from the underlying operating system. Unlike traditional hardware virtualization solutions that duplicate an entire host operating system, Xenocode's lightweight application virtualization technology emulates only core operating system features required for application execution. Xenocode requires no setup, configuration, clients, or device drivers, insulates applications against conflicts, and runs existing applications seamlessly on Windows Vista and locked-down desktops.

Xenocode virtual applications can be deployed on the web, intranets, portable storage devices, and existing desktop management infrastructure, including Active Directory, Microsoft SMS, LANDesk Management Suite, and BMC Configuration Management. Xenocode technology has been licensed by Novell and is available as part of Novell ZENworks Application Virtualization. The Xenocode Virtual Application Studio authoring environment allows software developers and systems administrators to easily convert existing applications into virtual machine packages. The Xenocode WebApp service allows Xenocode applications to be run directly from the web via a simple control that embeds directly into web sites, blogs, and other online content. About Code Systems

Code Systems develops the next-generation Xenocode virtualization engine and related application delivery products. Xenocode allows system administrators and software developers to deploy applications in lightweight, pre-configured virtual machines that run instantly on any Windows desktop via the web, Active Directory, portable storage devices, or existing desktop management infrastructure.

Code Systems was founded in 2002 and consists of a team of veteran Microsoft engineers and academic researchers. Today, its customers include thousands of industry-leading consulting, financial, government, military, and technology companies, and tens of thousands of independent information technology professionals.

Code Systems is based in Seattle, Washington.

http://www.xenocode.com/browsers/

Solex is a set of Eclipse plugins providing non-regression and stress tests of Web application servers. Test scripts are recorded from Internet browsers, thanks to a built-in Web proxy. For some Web applications, a request depends on a previous server's response. To address such a requirement, Solex introduces the concept of extraction and replacement rules. An extraction rule tied to an HTTP message's content will bind an extracted value with a variable. A replacement rule will replace any part of an HTTP message with variable content.

The tool therefore provides an easy way to extract URL parameters, Header values, or any part of a request or a response, bind their values with variables, and then replace URL parameters, Header values, or any part of a request with the variable content. The user has the ability to add assertions for each response. Once a response has been received, all assertions of this response will be called to ensure that it is valid. If not, the playback process is stopped. Several kinds of rules and assertions are provided. The most complicated ones support regular expressions and XPath.

Jameleon is an automated testing tool that separates applications into features and allows those features to be tied together independently, creating test cases. These test cases can then be data-driven and executed against different environments. Jameleon breaks applications into features and allows testing at any level, simply by passing in different data for the same test. Because Jameleon is based on Java and XML, there is no need to learn a proprietary technology.

It's an acceptance testing tool for testing the functionality provided by applications, and currently supports the testing of Web applications. It differs from regular HttpUnit and jWebUnit in that it separates testing of features from the actual test cases themselves. If I understand it correctly, you write the feature tests separately and then script them together into a reusable test case. Incidentally, you can also make these test cases data-driven, which gives an easy way of running specific tests on specific environments.

The framework has a plugin architecture, allowing different functional testing tools to be used, and there is a plugin for testing Web applications using HttpUnit/jWebUnit. The test case scripting is done with XML and Jelly.

Jameleon combines XDoclet, Ant and Jelly to provide a potentially powerful framework for solid functional testing of your Webapp. It strikes a good balance between scripting and coding, and allows you to set up multiple inputs per test by providing input via CSV files. Along with the flexibility come a complexity and maintenance overhead, but you are getting your Webapp tested for you.

XmlTestSuite provides a powerful way to test Web applications. Writing tests requires only knowledge of HTML and XML. The authors want XmlTestSuite to be adopted by testers, business analysts, and Web developers who don't have a Java background. XmlTestSuite supports "test-driven development". It lets you separate page structure from tests and test data. It can also verify databases. It's like JWebUnit, but has simple XML test definitions and reusable pages. The problems with raw HTTPUnit or JWebUnit are that:

1. It's very hard to get non-programmers to write tests.

2. Tests are so ugly you can't read them. (Trust me; HttpUnit test classes are a nightmare to maintain.)

3. Web tests generally change far more often than unit tests, and so need to be altered, but your refactoring won't change them automatically (i.e., changing a JSP in IDEA will not cascade to the test like changing a class will).