AutomatedQA adds Vista tests
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(InfoWorld) - AutomatedQA on Monday is unveiling its TestComplete 5 application testing environment, which adds support for Windows Vista applications. Built for automated testing, TestComplete 5 makes development of tests easier, according to the company. In addition to Vista, TestComplete 5 supports Firefox and Internet Explorer 7 Web tests as well as testing of Windows Presentation Foundation, .Net and Java applications. The Java system must be running under Windows. "What TestComplete is, is a full IDE for automated testing," featuring functional and load testing, said Drew Wells, vice president of AutomatedQA. Tests can be recorded and played back. Developers can build user-defined forms to be displayed during test execution. Built-in controls assist with developing forms that ask testers to select scenarios or to specify test conditions. TestComplete is able to read the name of an object, such as a form, as designated by the original developer. This provides for better communication for subsequent developers, who can rely on the name of the object instead of using object or screen coordinates. Other features include: ** The capability to test applications under different user accounts. This enables an administrator to grant different levels of access for security purposes. ** Enhanced name mapping to recognize Win32, .Net, VCL (Visual Component Library) and other objects. ** Improved integration with AutomatedQA's AQtime performance profiler and memory debugger. ** XAML (Extensible Application Markup Language) support. TestComplete 5 integrates with Microsoft's Visual Studio environment. While AutomatedQA believes Microsoft over time will add to its own products the type of testing AutomatedQA enables, the company is undaunted. "The object is to stay ahead of them, which we've done for a while and will continue to do," Wells said. Available now, TestComplete 5 costs $999 for the enterprise version, which includes Web testing and log testing.
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Microsoft has modified Vista for release in Europe to meet European Commission requirements.
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The Release Candidate for PHPUnit 3.2 was announced on Sebastian's Blog.  Highlights of this new release include software metrics, project mess detection, copy-and-paste detection, improvements to SeleniumTestCase for better integration with Selenium RC, data providers for test cases, and grouping of tests.  View the ChangeLog for more detailed information on his latest release.
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Get a closer look at some of the new features in Vista Service Pack 1.
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If you're putting Vista on a PC yourself, you need to read this.
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Microsoft Corp. has submitted a test version of its Windows Vista operating system with features that make it easier to use non-Microsoft programs to search PC hard drives, according to a report issued by the Justice Department Friday.
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InfoWorld - Microsoft has finally broken its silence on the timing of the release of the&#160;highly anticipated Windows Vista Service Pack 1, saying the software updates should be in final release in the first quarter of next year with the company shipping off a beta next month to 10,000 to 15,000 testers.
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Microsoft released a refresh of its first service pack for Vista to beta testers on Thursday, indicating the final release might be near.On Thursday, beta users of SP1 received an e-mail from Microsoft alerting them that Vista SP1 refresh 2 is available for download. Microsoft released the latest build, which addressed a small number of bugs that testers encountered in the previous version, to around 15,000 beta users, the company said.Microsoft issued Vista SP1 Release Candidate in December&#160;and a refresh earlier this month. It has said that the&#160;final Vista SP1 will be available to the public during the first quarter of this year, with some reports suggesting that it might come out as soon as Feb. 15.The fact that Microsoft even has a beta of SP1 and has now issued two refreshes to it indicates that the company is trying to be very careful in testing the software and ensuring compatibility, said Andrew Brust, chief of new technology for consulting firm twentysix New York. &quot;They are working hard to under-promise/over-deliver,&quot; he said. &quot;Given the dynamics around the initial release of Vista, that is a prudent course to pursue.&quot;Because it&#39;s quite unusual to issue a beta and multiple refreshes, Microsoft is likely very close to issuing the final public version of SP1, Brust said.That will depend, however, on any problems that testers may find in the newest refresh. If something is broken, Microsoft will have to spend time fixing it, said Chris Swenson, an analyst at NPD Group. &quot;We&#39;re just in wait-and-see mode,&quot; he said.The release of a second refresh doesn&#39;t provide many more clues about when to expect the final version of SP1, agreed Michael Cherry, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft. &quot;The only thing is that we know they are making progress, but we don&#39;t know how close they are,&quot; he saidStill, the initial indication from people who have been testing SP1 is that it&#39;s pretty solid, so it&#39;s reasonable to think the final version might come out in a couple weeks, Swenson said.The final public release of SP1 could boost Vista sales, at least among enterprise users, since&#160;some companies have said they are waiting for the release of SP1&#160;before upgrading from XP to Vista. Consumers, however, don&#39;t appear to have decided to wait. Retail PC sales were up last year and less than 1 percent of all computers including Macs that sold in retail outlets last year had XP, Swenson said. &quot;It&#39;s more of an issue for businesses,&quot; he said.
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Not for general consumption, yet Redmond said yesterday that it has shot out another beta build of Windows Vista SP1, although this one is reserved for hardcore testers only.â¦
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(InfoWorld) - MicrosoftÂ has released the beta of a tool that will test business PCs to see if they are compatible with Windows Vista. Users can download the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment 2.0 Public Beta online now. The application helps business users see how much effort it will take to migrate desktops in a company to Vista by testing the hardware and device-driver capability of PCs against the OS and issuing reports about those results, according to Microsoft's internal Windows Vista blog. In addition to testing hardware for Vista, the software also will check to see if a PC is compatible with the Office 2007 suite, according to Microsoft. To download the beta, users need a Windows Live or Passport log-on so they can first register for the beta program. Since making Windows Vista available to business customers last November, Microsoft has offered a host of tools to help customers with the deployment of the new OS with two more coming earlier this week at its TechEd 2007 conference in Orlando. Released at the show, the Data Encryption Toolkit for Mobile PCs helps IT administrators set encryption policies for laptops in an enterprise using the encrypting file system and new BitLocker features of Windows Vista, while the Virtual Hard Drive Test Drive allows enterprises to run a virtual version of Vista on PCs to see how it will interact with existing applications.
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New virtual-machine technology can be used to test software patches and migrate aging Windows NT applications. By John Foley, Paula Rooney, CRN.
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Microsoft confirmed Thursday that its invite-only group of about 15,000 testers has had the final version of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) for the past two weeks.Other Vista users, however, will have to wait until March to obtain a legal copy of the release-to-manufacturing (RTM) version of Vista SP1, the company reiterated.According to a Microsoft spokeswoman, the build designated Vista SP1 RC Refresh 2, which was seeded to testers on Jan. 24, is identical to&#160;the code that company developers shipped&#160;out the door on Monday as RTM.&quot;In final stages of a product, Microsoft likes to get as much validation as possible before releasing,&quot; the spokeswoman said in an e-mail. &quot;The release candidate ended up being a high enough quality to be approved to release to manufacturing.&quot;The shift in nomenclature, but not bits, is common. Eventually, a vendor must approve a build as &quot;gold code,&quot; at which point that edition becomes the shipping version. Last November, for example, Apple Inc. issued a test build of Mac OS X 10.5.1 to developers one day, then called it good to go and posted it for download the next.However, users who weren&#39;t part of the SP1 testing group must wait until March to get their hands on the update, the spokeswoman repeated today. In five to six weeks -- mid-March according to Microsoft -- the service pack will be offered via Windows Update as a 65MB optional update and posted to Download Center as a 450MB stand-alone installer that supports five languages. A month later, in mid-April, Windows Update will automatically download and install SP1 on Vista-equipped PCs whose users have set Automatic Updates to do hands-off updating.Subscribers to the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) and TechNet will get a slight jump on the general public. &quot;In early March, MSDN and TechNet subscribers will be able to get the &#39;Windows Vista with SP1&#39; full DVD,&quot; the same spokeswoman said in another e-mail. The updated operating system will be offered to MSDN and TechNet subscribers through their respective download centers.Microsoft is holding SP1 so that it can identify device drivers that won&#39;t reinstall -- as they must -- during the service pack update process. On Monday morning, Mike Nash, vice president of Windows product management, said that while SP1 had met the RTM criteria, it would not be available for several weeks because of the&#160;driver problems.That generated a firestorm of criticism from users, who vented by posting over 200 comments to Nash&#39;s announcement, calling the decision &quot;stupid&quot; and &quot;one of the all-time worst moves&quot; by Microsoft.Judging by the tone of nearly 120 comments left on Microsoft&#39;s official TechNet blog, IT professionals and developers are even angrier. The subscribers called the withholding of SP1 &quot;boneheaded&quot; and a &quot;slap in the face,&quot; or dubbed it &quot;the Vista SP1 RTM Debacle.&quot; Others questioned the value of their TechNet subscriptions, admitted that they had had to download a pirated copy using BitTorrent so that they could start testing, and said they would postpone Vista deployments for months because of the delay.Several wondered why reviewers in the press had the finished bits before they did.But a commenter identified only as Joe put it most succinctly: &quot;This is the lamest decision since Microsoft Bob. I get this the same time as my mom?&quot;The backlash may have gotten through to Microsoft. On Monday night, Kathy Dixon, the TechNet Plus team member who normally writes the blog, said that she was looking into the possibility of moving up the availability date of SP1. But as of Thursday night, she had no solution for users. &quot;I have escalated this and am continuing to push internally for a solution ASAP,&quot; Dixon wrote around 8 p.m. EST. &quot;Please hang in there, I should have something more specific soon.&quot;Computerworld is an InfoWorld affiliate.
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(InfoWorld) - Borland Software on Tuesday will refresh the Silk application testing product line it acquired last year. Available now, the R 2006 Release 2 versions of the Silk products include: SilkCentral Test Manager, which is a J2EE framework for managing processes; SilkPerformer for load testing, and SilkTest for test automation. "This release focuses a lot on improving the process of testing," with incremental enhancements, said Brad Johnson, Borland product marketing director for lifecycle quality management. The Silk line "provides a quality framework that looks at software quality in a very holistic view from the beginning of the development cycle to when the applications are delivered," Johnson said. Featured in Test Manager is an Eclipse-based client that allows for manual testing of applications. "It's a small Eclipse application that enables manual testers to be given the direction and steps theyâre supposed to execute, the pass-fail criteria," said Johnson.Â  With manual testing, the user validates each step rather than using automation. The new client in Test Manager allows for testing to be done offline and be reported back to the test management console. Previously, manual testing in Test Manager required a Web interface. Manual testing can account for nearly 85 percent of testing efforts, Borland said. But it often has required an inefficient process utilizing Word documents and e-mail. Borland is looking to streamline this form of testing. Test Manager also features code coverage capabilities that connect code to a specific test so that when code changes, testers know which tests to modify. Test Manager now ships with integrated support for the Borland Gauntlet product, providing visibility and control over the early stages of developer testing. By adding Eclipse support, Borland is taking a step toward moving the product to support industry standards, said Carey Schwaber, senior analyst at Forrester Research. "I think any support for Eclipse is a good thing," Schwaber said. However, the proprietary scripting environment in Test Manager does not yet go away, she said. SilkPerformer offers improved monitoring through use of Java Management Extensions technology. "It lets us deploy the common Java servers from [BEA Systems] WebLogic, [IBM] WebSphere, and so forth," Johnson said. "It gives us deeper visibility." A new Eclipse plugin in SilkPerformer allows performance test development to be done within the Eclipse IDE. SilkTest adds support for Windows Vista so users can test applications developed for Vista at the UI level. "Every single testing vendor really needs to have support for Vista because one of the things that Vista introduces is the need to retest your applications," when migrating from other platforms, Schwaber said. "Our data show that people will be doing these migrations for the next couple of years." Other environments supported by SilkTest include Windows XP 64-bit operating systems, Internet Explorer 7.0, and .Net. SilkCentral Test Manager starts in price at $1,700 per named user, while SilkTest pricing begins at $4,500 per named user. SilkPerformer prices begin at roughly $10,000 per user. Borland acquired the Silk product line when it bought Segue Software in 2006.
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Blog: The first update for Windows Vista could enter testing as early as next week, according to reports.
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Get a sneak peak at many of the key aspects of Vista, as it looks today. Though not vastly changed, there are several new looks in Release Candidate 1.
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Got Vista already? Make it your own with these five easy customization tweaks.
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The Software Testing Automation Framework (STAF) is a framework designed to improve the level of reuse and automation in test cases and test environments. The goal of STAF is to provide a complete end-to-end automation solution for testers.   STAF Version 3.2.3 is now available.  You can find more information and download the binaries from the official STAF web site at:  http://staf.sourceforge.net/.   There are some new features in STAF V3.2.3 as well as bug fixes and documentation updates.  Some of the new features include:  o  Added support for new platforms:  Mac OS X i386 and PPC o  Added ability to unzip multiple directories and multiple files in a single UNZIP request to the ZIP service o  Added support for deleting Named Monitors via the MONITOR service o  Provided a STAF Diagnostics Guide