|
|
 Blogs
Toad World blogs are a mix of insightful how-tos from Quest
experts as well as their commentary on experiences with
new database technologies. Have some views of your own to
share? Post your comments! Note: Comments are restricted to registered Toad World users.
 Do you have a topic that you'd like discussed? We'd love to hear from you. Send us your idea for a blog topic.
May
10
Written by:
QCTO Blog
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Written by Steven Feuerstein
Greetings, Oracle technologists, and welcome to the "Real Automated Code
Testing for Oracle" blog. Following in the grand tradition of
acronym-ing everything, I will (maybe) refer to this blog as the RACTO
blog. J
We have created this blog with the following objectives in mind:
- Provide information about Quest Code Tester for Oracle – and how best to use it - to its user community (this blog does not, however, replace or supplant the Code Tester Community forums).
- More generally, provide a platform for me, my co-blogger, Finn
Ellebaek Nielsen, and others in the PL/SQL community to discuss the
importance of code testing, as well as how automated testing can help
each of us write higher quality applications.
So before I go any further, I would like to introduce Finn. Finn
has worked as an IT architect/developer in Denmark, Italy and England
since 1987. He is proficient in a wide range of technologies, including
Oracle SQL and PL/SQL, Java, XML, and Web programming. Since 2006, he
has been applying Agile methodologies in his projects and has decided to
focus his attention on enhancing both automated testing and Agile
development in the world of Oracle development. I am very pleased to
have made Finn's acquaintance and to be working with him. I expect to be
learning a lot.
Finn and I share the administration and primary authorship
responsibilities for this blog. In fact, I am secretly hoping that Finn
will get so excited about writing for this blog that all I will have to
do is sit back and simply enjoy his insights into testing. Go,
Finn, go!
Between the two of us, I am confident that we can offer lots of
interesting ideas regarding the challenges of testing, and how automated
testing (particularly with Code Tester) can radically transform how you
write your programs and drastically reduce the number of bugs in that
code.
I also know, however, that there are many other PL/SQL developers
in this ever-changing world of ours from whom we can learn. So I invite
you to consider submitting your own ideas for publication in this blog.
You might, for example, tell us about how you have used Code Tester to
great advantage, or what you would like to see changed/improved in this
tool. You can send your submission to me at steven.feuerstein@quest.com, or simply send me a note exploring the possibility of writing for RACTO (there, I used the acronym).
To keep you glued to your seat I encourage you to bookmark this
webpage for easy access, here are the topics we plan to write about in
the coming months:
- Why automated testing of Oracle code is a good idea: heck, why
don't we just keep on doing what we are doing? We haven't been fired
(yet) for having too many bugs in our code!
- Comparison between backend (database) and frontend (GUI)
testing: why bother testing the backend if the QA team is going to test
the frontend (which calls the backend) anyway?
- How to get started testing: we are often so intimidated by the
complexity of our code and the seeming enormity of the testing challenge
ahead of us, that we feel defeated before we even start. We'll offer
simple, practical ideas which will help avoid that overwhelming
feeling.
- The differences between testing new application code and legacy code: is there a difference? We think so.
- Data-driven test cases: a very interesting way to execute many
tests (and improve test coverage) with a minimum of effort is to define
your test cases in a table.
- Execution of Code Tester activities (running tests, generating
reports, etc.) in scripting environments: many users of Code Tester need
to run their tests each night as part of regular QA process. We'll show
you how to do it for commonly used frameworks like Ant.
- Integration with test management software like HP Quality Center
(formerly know as Mercury Test Director): there are many other tools
for managing and executing tests, though few of them address directly
the challenge of testing individual PL/SQL units. We'll take a look at
other testing frameworks and how Code Tester can integrate with
them.
- How Quest Code Tester compares to Oracle Real Application
Testing: Oracle announced last year its Real Application Testing feature
(great acronym!). That sounds good – and do you need Code Tester if you
are using RAT (J)? The quick answer is a resounding "Yes!" but we'll provide more details in the blog.
That's probably enough for now. I will finish by offering a quick update regarding Code Tester:
We will be releasing version 1.8.3 in mid-May. This version offers a
completely rebuilt export/import facility that now relies on XML. It is
more simple, reliable and flexible. We add reports for suites, improve
the performance and correctness of dataset comparisons (thanks, Tom
Kyte, for your insights on how best to compare two tables!), fix over N
bugs, and (my favorite development) have implemented a fully automated
regression test of the backend functionality of Code Tester, using (what
else?) Code Tester to verify itself (I know: there is some sort of
potential paradox in there somewhere, but trust me, we've taken that
into account) plus a new utility called Test Launcher that we will soon
also make available to Code Tester users.
5 comment(s) so far...
Re: Code Tester Blog - introduction
So when covering code testing for RAC or Real Application Cluster
content, will this then be called RACTORAC or simplyRACTO Squared :)
By bscalzo on
Monday, May 11, 2009
|
Re: Code Tester Blog - introduction
I like RACTORAC, myself.
By QCTOblog on
Thursday, May 21, 2009
|
Re: Code Tester Blog - introduction
Regarding step 7.
Is there a plug in that integrates Quest code tester and HP Quality Center?
If so does anyone know where I can find it?
By AQLIVE on
Monday, June 08, 2009
|
Re: Code Tester Blog - introduction
Integration with HP Quality Center (formerly known as Mercury
TestDirector) is the subject of a near future blog post.
I haven't looked much into this yet but I believe that the following
options are available:
1. Write a custom report in Code Tester that exports the test cases and
run results to a CSV in the format that Quality Center expects. Then
import that file.
2. Run a SQL query from within Quality Center against Code Tester's
repository.
3. Use a combination of Quality Center's Open Test Architecture API and a
query against Code Tester's repository.
I'll come back to this in a few weeks.
Hope this helps.
Finn
By QCTOblog on
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
|
Re: Code Tester Blog - introduction
By the way, which integration between Code Tester and Quality Center were you looking for?
1. A description of Code Tester test cases and run results?
2. Code Tester test cases in a way that allows you to execute them from Quality Center?
3. Something else?
Thanks in advance.
Finn
By QCTOblog on
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
|
|
|