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Automatic Functional Testing for Mac and Linux?

Posted by Cliff on from the true-software-testing-suites dept.

testYourGUIS asks: "I work with a company that tests consumer and business software for various venues. One of the programs we rely on heavily is called Rational Visual Test, which is a VB-like compiled programming language that works directly with Windows API to simulate mouse clicks, text entry, menu pulldowns, and so on. We use them to stress-test various applications, collect the results, and then send the vendors a spreadsheet showing what we found. Recently, pressure has started to produce the same results on Mac OS X and possibly Linux applications. I was wondering if anyone knew of such software that works on Mac OS X, and how to go about doing this for Linux?"

"For example, a vendor has a database interface, and wants to know how many times we can access a series of records, what the results show (are the right, blank, time out?), and how long it took for the search to take place during various times of the day, and so on. So we emulate one of their data entry people by logging onto the system, putting in some search parameter from a script, and then record what the text (or error message) was when it came back. Yes, we could connect directly to the SQL database without their front end, but it's the combination of their front end and the database we usually test. We have found many examples where were can connect raw, for instance, but the front end displays a timeout. We also test things like 'What happens if the user enters a colon or asterisk?' or 'What if the text entered in the box is over 256k?' Then we tell the vendor the results, and they hopefully fix them based on the data we gave them."

4 of 200 comments (clear)

  1. Hire a monkey by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Just issue random click and random key stroke ....

  2. DOS4GW by qurob · · Score: 0, Offtopic


    Remember when Rational made that?

    Opened up a whole world beyond 16 bit DOS apps.

    Behold the power of Watcom C!

  3. Automatic Mouse Movement by Nukenbar2 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Don't off topic me too quickly. It is slightly relevant. Remember back in 1999 and 2000 when companies would pay you to surf the web with on of their ad windows at the bottom? Well a friend of mine and I wrote a little Visual Basic program that would randomly move the mouse to some point on the screen and click. It had a random time movement from anywhere from 20-80 seconds and we restricted where it would move so that it would not hit the start menu and accidentally log you out! I worked great and each of us made a few hundred bucks over a few months using it on a few different computers with different accounts. My friend finally got caught on one of them so we decided to quit, but it sure was an easy way to make some cash.

  4. Re:XRunner by windex · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    If you post as AC, no one will beleive you. :)