CSC/ECE 517 Fall 2014/ch1a 22 as

HP Unified Functional Testing Professional

HP Unified Functional Testing (UFT) software, formerly known as HP Quick Test Professional (QTP),[1] provides functional and regression test automation for software applications and environments.[2] HP Unified Functional Testing can be used for enterprise quality assurance.[3] HP Unified Functional Testing is a test automation tool originally developed by Mercury Interactive and later acquired by Hewlett Packard.[1] HP Unified Functional Testing 11.5 combined HP QuickTest Professional and HP Service Test into a single software package,[7] which is currently available from the HP Software Division. The integrated HP Unified Functional Testing software allows developers to test from a single console all three layers of a program’s operations: the interface, the service layer and the database layer.[8]

Writeup page.

Background

Test automation is the use of software to control the execution of tests, the comparison of actual outcomes to predicted outcomes, the setting up of test preconditions, and other test control and test reporting functions. Test Automation is a development discipline as it uses scripting languages to instruct the tool how to interact with your application. As such careful consideration needs to be paid to

  * Exception handling for bugs that occur during testing cycles(i.e, unexpected error messages during a test run).
  * How the tool synchronizes with your application(e.g. if there are slow response times from your environment)
  * The level of maintenance required to keep the tests up to date with changes in the application GUI(i.e, new buttons, data fields, custom controls etc)

Any test automation framework is a set of assumptions, concepts and tools that provide support for automating the major activities in the testing process. The main advantage of a framework is

  * Increased Productivity
  * Easy and Reduced maintenance effort
  * Consistent automation development across projects
  * Process driven than person driven approach
  * Controlled maintenance of automation artifacts

There is a range of automation testing tools available. Some of them are licensed and few others are open sourced. QTP, Cucumber, Capybara and other tools[]

Description

Although HP UFT is usually used for UI based Test Case Automation, it can also automate some non-UI based test cases like database testing, webservice testing and file based operations. It offers a graphical user interface, keyboard support, multiple testing views, and scripting language. <ref>http://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/qtp-quicktest-professional-tutorial-1/</ref>

Testing

QuickTest allows for both functional and regression testing. It also supports data-driven testing through spreadsheet software, allowing outputs to be recorded and organized.

Functional and Regression Tests

HP Unified Functional Testing supports functional tests and regression tests to be carried out automatically. After an initial investment of effort to record and configure a script, the script can be run again and again to verify the functionality of the test.

Data Driven Testing

HP Unified Functional Testing supports data-driven testing. For example, data can be output to a data table for reuse elsewhere. Data-driven testing is implemented as a Microsoft Excel workbook that can be accessed from HP Unified Functional Testing. HP Unified Functional Testing has two types of data tables: the Global data sheet and Action (local) data sheets. The test steps can read data from these data tables in order to drive variable data into the application under test, and verify the expected result.[12]

Views

QTP has two different views for testing, a keyboard view and an expert view. In keyboard view, users modify tests in a table, one row per step. Users can view output values, set loops, and add breakpoints.

Expert view displays test code using VBScript.

Scripting

QuickTest Pro's VBScript allows for classes, but not other object oriented properties such as inheritance and polymorphism. It also lacks a debugger, however QTP has a debugger provided by HP.<ref>https://h20546.www2.hp.com/main/training/course_details.cfm?Course=00008165&sitepick=US</ref>

Exception handling

Application crashes, Unexpected events and errors during a run session can disrupt the run session and distort results. This is a problem particularly when tests run unattended—the test pauses until one performs the operation needed to recover. To handle such situations, Error and Exception Handling is must while developing script or Automation Framework. Error and Exception handling in HP UFT can be done by the following ways:

• Conditional Statement
• On Error statement
• Recovery Scenarios

Comparison to other tools

Tools such as Cucumber and Capybara run tests from the perspective of the user. Cucumber converts user stories into tests and Capybara simulates a user or web browser. QuickTest Pro is used by programmers to preform specific test cases they code themselves.<ref>Engineering Long Lasting Software p136</ref>

Disadvantages

QuickTest Pro is developed mainly for Windows based systems and it relies on outdated Windows tools like VBXScript. Tests can not be run outside of the QuickTest environment nor are they compatible with all browser types.<ref>http://www8.hp.com/us/en/software-solutions/unified-functional-testing-automated-testing/demos-documents.html#!&pd1=1</ref>

References

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