Online Course updates September 2016

In September and Early October 2016 I updated the "Technical Web Testing 101" online course and the "Selenium WebDriver with Java" online course.

Technical Web Testing 101

• Added a lot of information (over an hour of video content) about using the JavaScript console
• and writing small JavaScript functions for interacting with the web application under test

This is a very underused piece of functionality in modern browsers but adds a lot of power to your testing.

Selenium WebDriver With Java

• Updated the Windows install videos Updated the Mac install videos Install now covers GeckoDriver and ChromeDriver Uses two new open source projects for checking the install

Selenium 3 changes the basics of getting started with WebDriver and with these new videos, we’ll have much less to update when Selenium 3 comes in. In fact they should ‘just work’ when you update your version of Selenium to 3.0.0

Upcoming talks scheduled for 2017

I’m trying to cut down on the number of talks that I do. And in the spirit of that resolution, I have only arranged 3 talks for the first 5 months of 2017.

I’ll be talking at:

• Test Automation Guild online in January 2017
• TestBash Netherlands 2017
• Let’s Test 2017 in Stockholm on May 15th - 16th 2017

I’m really looking foward to all of these.

Test Automation Guild is online, and I think we are going to see more conferences like this. I’m hoping that the format gives me the chance to do things and show things that I’d never be able to cover in a physical presentation.

Let’s Test wants to go ‘hands on’ and I’ve created the most fun and most hands on tutorial/talk that I’ve ever done. I’m really having a blast writing games and hacking other people’s games for this one, it should be super fun.

TestBash is one of the few conferences where we can present with attitude and humour, I’m looking forward to deliver something that might be controversial on first hearing, but I think provides a new view of tools and aspects of ‘automation’.

I’m looking forward to all of these.

The official sites are listed above. And the conference pages on this site, which will contain other notes and materials are listed below:

• Test Automation Guild 2017
• TestBash Netherlands 2017
• Let’s Test 2017

Updated the install instructions for Java and Firefox and Chrome in my online training course

I have updated the install instructions for Java and Firefox and Chrome in my Selenium WebDriver With Java Online training course.

For a number of reasons:

• the mac instructions were never fully documented since they were the same as Windows
  • But now I’ve simplified the Mac install by using Homebrew
  • and now Mac and Windows instructions are detailed
• we used FirefoxDriver to make starting easier
  • but Firefox 48 means that FirefoxDriver doesn’t work out of the box
  • so now the instructions cover Firefox Marionette GeckoDriver and Chrome ChromeDriver
• Selenium 3 is coming along and will change the install
  • now the install is ready for Selenium 3

I know I will have to update the start of the course again when Selenium 3 does get a full release, but the start of the course has much fewer ‘patches’ and is pretty simple to follow.

On the course, the install instructions are split over 5 videos for each platform to make them easier to watch.

I have also released the install instructions on YouTube, where you will be treated to adverts if you watch them, but they are basically the same and use the two new Github projects I created to make installing Java and WebDriver easier.

• https://github.com/eviltester/startUsingJavaJUnit
• https://github.com/eviltester/startUsingSeleniumWebDriver

startUsingJavaJunit supports the install for "Java For Testers" book.

startUsingSeleniumWebDriver supports the install for Selenium WebDriver With Java Online training course

July 28th 2016 updates to online Selenium WebDriver with Java course

July 28th 2016 updates to the Selenium WebDriver API with Java Course

• Continuous Integration section now uses Git and all new videos
• Continuous Integration section uses a dedicated github project to make it easy https://github.com/eviltester/wdci
• New videos showing Microsoft Edge WebDriver
• Updated Suites

Continuous Integration section now uses Git and all new videos

I completely changed the Continuous Integration section.
The old section was based on SVN, and used the main source code base. To access it you had to create an account on xp-dev and we had a whole manual hassle and forms to give you access. Plus the main code wasn’t designed for CI and it meant I kept adding fixes.
Now. The code that is designed for CI is in Git. Much more modern. And much more in demand in the ‘real world’.
Also no need any more to request access to the repo. Because the CI repo is public.

Continuous Integration section uses a dedicated github project

• https://github.com/eviltester/wdci

Has a very small subset of examples from the course. And have been amended to run on HtmlUnit 2.21 as well.
This allows the test code to run in travis-ci and act as an additional CI example as well as the Jenkins approach used primarily on the course.

• https://travis-ci.org/eviltester/wdci

New videos showing Microsoft Edge WebDriver

I finally managed to make time to get Edge working, and have added two new videos explaining how to use the MS Edge WebDriver.

Updated Suites

The pom.xml has been simplified to reduce the number of profiles and instead use more JUnit suites.

• FirefoxDriver, and ChromeDriver run all the tests cleanly, and since these are the main browsers used, I have a single suite that covers this.
• IE 32 bit WebDriver fails on only 1 test. I was quite impressed with this, so I pretty much just use the same suite for IE.
• Marionette and Edge are both works in progress so these have Suites to themselves for passing and failing tests.
• HtmlUnit also has a suite to itself for passing and failing tests.

This seemed easier than having complicated profiles.

Recent updates to our online training courses

July has been a busy month for updates to our online training courses.

Updates to:

• Selenium WebDriver API with Java
• Technical Web Testing 101

Selenium WebDriver API with Java has been updated:

•  to reflect the changes made to Firefox Driver and Marionette
• And also has a new section on Appium on Android

The Appium section shows how to setup Virtual Machines, use Appium on real devices and configuring Remote Web Driver to use an Appium Server. This replaces the AndroidDriver section which is now been deprecated.

You can find out more information about the course here

Or view the full syllabus and free preview videos here.

Technical Web Testing 101 has been updated:

Rather than create a series of new courses I have added online training information I've been working on, into the "Technical Web Testing 101" course.

At only $10 this course has always been massively under-priced, but now seems even better value for money since it includes:

• an additional two hour long challenges (perfect for lunch time study)
• RestMud
• Introduction to Interactive REST API testing

The additional two challenges (each designed to take about an hour each) where you look at browser functionality in more detail to see how, even the simplest function can be used for technical testing, and how learning more tool functionality can change your test approach.

And by simplest function, I really do mean simplest function: view page source, and incognito mode. When I was researching these two sections, I learned more than I expected.

The RestMud section describes how to use the free adventure game that we released, to improve your technical testing.

Introduction to Interactive REST API Testing

I was going to make this a course on its own, and decided that introductory material on REST API interaction deserved to be covered in the Technical Web Testing 101 course, so added this 40 minutes + of material into this course.

We cover:

• using the browser to interact with a REST API
• using Postman to interact with a REST API
• overview of REST APIs
• HTTP Verbs and authentication
• using Postman and REST APIs through a proxy
• some sample apps to test
• Interacting with Restmud through the REST API

A lot of videos showing the interaction and you should be ready to get hands on with a REST API.

You can find out more information about the course here

Or view the full syllabus and free preview videos here.

Dear Evil Tester is a #1 Amazon Best Seller

Thanks to the #30DaysOfTesting challenge running on Twitter by Ministry of Test.

"Dear Evil Tester" pushed its way on to the #1 slot of an Amazon.co.uk Best Seller list.

Yes. We will now refer to it as a "Number One Best Selling Title on Amazon".

Next milestone "Over 1,000,000 copies in print" - that might take a while though.

Webinar Replay Available: Risk & Exploratory & Technical Testing

The webinar that was live streamed on 28th July 2016 is now available for replay. You can find full details of the replay with links to slides and other bonus downloads on the webinar page.

I was also fortunate to have a few people live tweet the event - fortunate because all the tweets were favourable.

You Can Watch the Webinar Now

Thanks to @eviltester for an expert webinar! Great to hear so many questions, an important first step in identifying risk. #RiskTesting

— Neil Studd (@neilstudd) June 28, 2016

great talk @eviltester. Well done!

— Nick Norbeck (@NickNorbeck) June 28, 2016

@Bill_Matthews @eviltester same here! #Bravo

— Lucian Adrian (@lucianadrian) June 29, 2016

Register for free Webinar on 28th June 2016

On 28th June 2016 I will present a webinar on "Risk Mitigation Using Exploratory and Technical Testing".

You can register to watch live, or the replay, over on the QASymphony website

When we test our systems, we very often use business risk to prioritize and guide our testing. But there are so many more ways of modeling risk. If business risk is our only risk model then we ignore technology risks, and the risks that our processes themselves are adding to our project. Ignoring technical risk means that we don't improve our technical skills to allow us to model, observe and manipulate our systems at deeper levels and we miss finding important non-obvious problems. Too often people mistakenly equate 'technical testing' with automating because they don't model technical risk. In this webinar we'll explain how to model risk and us that to push our testing further. We'll also explain how to avoid some of the pitfalls people fall into while improving their technical testing. 

• Understand what technical testing means - it doesn't mean programming and automating 
• Understand the benefits you gain from increasing your exploratory and technical testing 
• What risks you are exposed to if you don't use Technical and Exploratory Testing. 
• How to model and target risk from a technical perspective 
• How to make your testing more technical without impacting your project 
• How can non-technical managers can help their testers develop technical skills and improve their technical testing

Register to watch the free webinar

Released Text Adventure Game to Improve Technical Web Testing

Text adventure games are a great way to learn basic fundamental testing skills:

• exploration
• modelling
• mapping
• experimentation
• tracking/logging

And they are fun to play.

So we've created a Test Adventure game designed to help you boost these basic skills and cross over and augment the basic technical skills and knowledge that you need to master for web testing: HTTP, JSON, Browser Dev Tools, URL Manipulation.

You can download a free single player map on the RestMud page.

Slides and Write Up Available for National Software Testing Conference 2016

I have uploaded the slides I used for my talk "The Art of Questioning to improve Software Testing, Agile and Automating" on the 17th May at the National Software Testing Conference, held in London at the British Museum.

I've also written up some notes on

• the key points of the talk 
• construction of the talk and 
• the pitching process that the talk went through.

The slides have been written as readable for offline study.

I refer to work I created a few years ago on the application of the NLP meta model to Software Testing so if you want to learn more, you can read the papers there.

Article published in Testing Circus Magazine April 2016

I have an article published in Testing Circus Magazine April 2016 edition.

The title has a click-bait-esque ring to it 'Join the Anti-"Test Automation" Brigade'.

The title, however, misleads. The article really does describe one of the most powerful strategies I know for improving the incorporation of automated execution into your Test Strategy.

You can find out more on the article page, or jump direct to the Testing Circus Magazine April 2016 edition online.

Tabara de Testare Feb 2016 live stream slides now available

On 3rd February I presented a live stream "Lessons Learned When Automating" to Tabara de Testare.

I have now uploaded the slides on the conference talk page for Tabara de Testare 2016

The slides are readable for offline study.

The blurb is pasted below to whet your appetite for more:

I've been asked some very challenging questions about lessons learned, and how decisions are made during the process of automating and performing technical testing. In this webinar I'm going to answer them based on my experience. We'll discus how we know 'what to automate' which means we have to split our analysis into 'detection' and 'testing'. We'll cover lessons learned from solving problems, and making mistakes, and steps we can take during the problem solving process e.g. for intermittent failures, and possible tool bugs. We'll discuss abstraction levels and the different levels of the technology stack to automate: how to do it, and how we make the decisions. We'll discuss coding primarily the differences, and the overlap, between the needs for coding for testing and coding for production deployment. We'll also cover some WebDriver specific answers to some of these questions. I'm also going to describe books and techniques that have helped me over the years when trying to deal with these questions on production projects. Also we'll take additional and follow up questions.

Visit the conference talk page for Tabara de Testare 2016 for full details, images and slides.

Slides released for March 2016 Sigist Keynote

I have released the slides for the March 2016 Sigist Keynote.

You can find a link to the slides and the social media updates over on the March 2016 Sigist page.

During the talk we gave away prizes of two copies of Java For Testers and one unique, proof copy of "Dear Evil Tester"

New Online Training Course: Case Study: Technical Testing of a Desktop Java Application

I have uploaded a new free online training course. "Case Study: Java Desktop Application Technical Testing"

This course shows an approach to testing a Desktop Java Application using the type of technical knowledge gained from working through our "Java For Testers" book and applying the Technical Testing thought process that I explain in the "Technical Web Testing 101" course.

Upcoming Talks for March and May 2016

I will be presenting at two conferences, both in London, in May and in March 2016:

• March 2016 in London, at the SIGIST March 2016 Conference, I will perform the closing keynote with a talk entitled"Push your technical testing further - into technology and security"
• May 2016 in London, at the National Software Testing Conference 2016, I will present a talk entitled "The Art of Questioning to improve Testing, Agile, and Automating"