C# > Serializing and Deserializing XMLs

Testers generally need to generate lots of testdata. Often this testdata comes in the form of files. So one of the first areas where automation can really help out in the testing effort is in file generation. We're going to look into XML file reading and generation on the basis of the .xsd of the .xml.

• First we need to convert the .xsd into C# classes with the Visual Studio program xsd.exe
• Open the 'Developer Command Prompt for VS2015'
• Execute the command:
• xsd.exe xsdfilename.xsd /outputdir:"{path}" /classes
• If you want to place the generated class in a namespace use /namespace:
• xsd.exe xsdfilename.xsd /classes /namespace:namespacename
• If you have multiple related .xsd-s (with identical children) then it's best to convert them all in one single xsd.exe call to prevent having a lot of duplicate declarations in Visual Studio which will have to be removed or commented out manually:
• xsd.exe xsdfile1.xsd xsdfile2.xsd xsdfile3.xsd /outputdir:"{path}" /classes
• Next is to import the class(es) into VS
• Then it's possible to 'deserialize' existing XML strings into the imported classes via the following code:
•             XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(XMLType));
•             MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream();
•             StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(stream);
•             writer.Write(XML_String);
•             writer.Flush();
•             stream.Position = 0;
•             this.AX_Instance = (XMLType)serializer.Deserialize(stream);
• The next step is to serialize an XML object into a string via the following code:
•             serializer.Serialize(stream, AX_Instance);
•             byte[] newXmlArray = stream.ToArray();
•             string newXml = System.Text.Encoding.Default.GetString(newXmlArray);

C# > Why Properties Matter

interesting blog post
http://csharpindepth.com/Articles/Chapter8/PropertiesMatter.aspx

Jira > Confluence API > Getting page content

To find a page in confluence via title name and space key:
host/rest/api/content?title=Title%20Page&spaceKey=MYSPACE
This will typically get you the ID of the page.

With the ID it's much easier to find the page. The API call to get the page and all data of it goes like:
host/rest/api/content/{id}?expand=space,body.view,version,container

C# > Modifying xml files

I have been neglecting my blog for way too long again. The short term and adhoc is once again getting in the way of the long term learning. Often test data comes in the way of XML files, and often that data needs to be modified to suit your needs or stay up to date. Recently I have been given the task of enriching existing test XMLs with an extra node. To do this manually would be possible but error-prone and mind-numbingly boring. Let's investigate how we can enrich the test XMLs with this new node automatically.

Scenario 1: we have an .xsd of the test XML which we have converted into C# classes giving us the ability to deserialize the XMLs into C# objects and modify them accordingly.

And... It was actually so easy and trivial to enrich the document via this method it ended the blog post right there.

C# > October > DUH! Moments

Time for a new month of facepalms!

• GUID stands for...
• Globally Unique Identifier
• In Visual Studio:
• The key combo for 'Quick Actions' is: CTRL + .

C# > September > DUH! Moments

• When working with I/O, Streams, Writers, etc. ALWAYS use 'using{}'
• In regex the '?' makes the preceding item optional:
• Or: '?' in regex means '0 or 1'
• An? (matches both A and An)
• 23(rd)? (matches both 23 and 23rd)
• In SpecFlow: when using regex step definition bindings you can create step definition methods with multiple parameters easily by having multiple (.*)s in the regex.
• C#/.NET syntax for pattern matching:
• string pattern = "[regex pattern]"
• string input = "[input]"
• Match match = Regex.Match(input, pattern);
• AssertTrue(match.Success) etc.
• Useful methods of DateTime objects:
• myDateTime.AddDays(int days)
• myDateTime.AddMonths(int months)
• etc.
• In Visual Studio: when debugging the immediate window is an amazing section where you can type statements which will be immediately executed and the value shown.
• A class containing [Fact]-s for xunit.net should be public
• ?? operator
• if/else operator with nullable argument
• LINQ:
• var query = from element in collection select element.attribute
• var query = collection.Select(element => element.attribute)
• In regex:
• '+' means '1 or more'
• '$' means 'end of string or end of line'
• '\d' means 'digit'
• Working with the JIRA REST API and the JIRA Zephyr API (ZAPI) I've been making my very first steps in web-based APIs. So there are a LOT of "DUH!" moments. The most newbie one so far:
• We have GET requests, and POST requests.
• GET requests:
• Have no body
• Arguments to the request are passed via the URL.
• Example: /api/latest/resource?argumentName=argumentValue
• POST requests:
• (Can) have a body
• Arguments to the requests are typically passed via a body (such as JSON)
• If you don't follow these rules you get fancy error messages such as:
• "Cannot send a content-body with this verb-type".
• The different calls and what they mean:
• GET: read
• POST: create
• PUT: update
• DELETE: delete
• (apparently there is PATCH as well - no idea what it is)

MTM > Microsoft Test Manager > First Steps

I will have to setup a test automation framework at my new job and considering the fact that my new company essentially uses the entire Microsoft stack I'm going to see if Microsoft Test Manager (MTM) will suit our purposes.

Long live the Pluralsight courses:

• Structure:
• Test Plan
• Test Suite
• Test Cases
• Test Plan Configuration
• What are you testing?
• How are you testing it?
• Test Plans are now TFS Work Items
• Inside the Test Plan:
• Plan
• Test
• Track
• Organize
• Plan section:
• Contents
• Results
• Properties
• Test Plan Properties (& Run Settings):
• Settings
• Environments
• Assigned Builds
• Test Configurations
• Run Settings:
• Test settings:
• General
• Roles
• Data and Diagnostics (there is a LOT here)
• Summary
• Test environment
• This leads to the 'lab section' of the MTM which is out of scope for the course. TODO: Lab section MTM.
• Builds:
• Information about against which build the tests are ran.
• Configurations:
• Operating System
• Browser etc.
• If multiple configurations are applied to the Test Plan then a single Test Case will be 'created twice' - one for each of the configurations.
• Customizations
• Test Plans are now considered TFS work items, this has all sorts of handy consequences. Such as:
• Work Item
• Fields & States
• History
• TODO: Lean about Work Items.
• For example: make changes to the Work Items states with the help of Windows Powertools.
• Track section:
• Here we can query for Work Items (and therefore also Test Cases etc.)
• MTM Web Interface: with the correct licenses there is a really handy Web Interface in the case you require MTM on machines that don't have MTM installed.
• Plan: Create Test Suites and Test Cases
• Test Suites
• Types:
• Static
• Requirements-based
• Query-based
• Out-of-the-box states:
• In Planning
• In Progress
• Completed
• 
  
• Aside:
• Test Cases are now available as TFS work items
• You can add Test Suites to the Test Plan
• Be they Static, Requirements-based, Query-based, etc.
• You can then add Requirements to the Test Suite
• Doing so will open a window in which to query for TFS requirements
• Test Cases
• Are TFS Work Items with all the accompanying benefits
• Consist of Steps
• Can be assigned to Testers
• Can have their own sets of configurations
• Test Points
• Test Cases x nr. of configurations
• Test results are tied to a Test Point
• LEARNING MOMENT
• In MTM:
• ADD stands for adding something existing
• NEW stands for creating something... new(!)
• END LEARNING MOMENT
• Creating Test Cases:
• Steps
• Summary
• Tested Backlog Items
• Links
• Attachments
• Associated Automation

Aannnnnnnd... it's gone.

If the goal is to fail hard and fail fast we're not doing too badly, because after investing roughly a day into MTM it has become clear that this is currently not an efficient tool for my new company. So we're dropping the course and this line of MTM investigation. Next step: Zephyr for Jira!

TFS > Connecting to TFSVC on your Visual Studio Team Services account

The future is in the cloud. So as we try to get a grip on TFSVC let's learn how to get a grip on it in the Microsoft cloud dedicated to this: Visual Studio Team Services.

What we want to achieve:

• Set up a Collection (or at least a Team Project) in VSTS
• Create a Team Project in this Collection
• Add an empty Solution to the Team Project
• Add existing code to the Solution
• Perform generic version control operations on the Team Project/Collection

Set up a Collection (or at least a Team Project) in VSTS:

For guides/instructions we use - amongst others - the page:

https://www.visualstudio.com/docs/overview

Firstly create a Visual Studio Team Services account as described in 

https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/docs/setup-admin/team-services/sign-up-for-visual-studio-team-services

Then 

TFS Version Control > First Steps

At my new company TFVC is used for version control on the source code. For me to be able to function in the development team I need to get a grip on TFVC.

The hierarchy of TFVC (from big to small):

1. Collection
2. Team Project
3. Solution
4. Project

A realization:

• The Source Control Explorer 'explores' the Workspace.
• The Workspace is the LOCAL copy of the Team Project - within a Collection - stored in TFS Version Control
• The Workspace is generally identical to the files in the directory which was mapped to the Workspace BUT it is possible for there to be files in the file system which are not added to the workspace.
• Add those 'missing' files via Visual Studio (Source Control Explorer, rightclick->Add to Source Control, etc.)

Facepalm moment:

When creating a new project (File > New > Project) the popup has four fields to fill in:

1. Name
2. Location
3. Solution
4. Solution name

Solution has a dropdown menu with three menu items:

1. Create new solution
2. Add to solution
3. Create in new instance

START LEARNING MOMENT
When creating a new project WITHIN an existing solution then use the menu item 'Add to solution' as described above
END LEARNING MOMENT

New job, new priorities

So we changed jobs. Still Test Automation, but different colleagues (internal developers yay!) and different tooling. Out with the Tosca, in with the .NET technology.

So the new goal is: let's learn how to work with the Microsoft technology stack.

Very useful link:
https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/docs/tfvc/overview

We start with creating a solution and then adding it to TFVC:
https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/docs/tfvc/set-up-team-foundation-version-control-your-dev-machine

But then we run into the situation that apparently it's not possible to connect to MULTIPLE Team Foundation Servers from one Visual Studio client. This is rather annoying since I was planning to do some experimenting on my own in the VisualStudio cloud separate from work, but this is apparently not possible. My manager created a new 'Team Project'

Current technical roadblocks to resolve:
1. Connect to the work TFS via VPN.

Tosca > TDM > Setting up

When working with Tosca sooner or later the need to store testdata in a database will arise. In Tosca this is supported via the 'TDM' functionality.

Before you can start writing testdata to a TDM database you'll need to create a 'class' in the TestCaseDesign section and assign attributes to that class corresponding to your TDM needs

• DO NOT FORGET to tick the 'TDM' column tickbox for every attribute which needs to make it into your TDM database.

Find the relevant modules in the section:
Modules\Tricentis\Tbox\Tbox XEngines\TestDataManagement



First create an object with the 'TDM Create Object' module.
Then set attributes with the 'TDM Set Attribute' module.
Then save the object to the TDM database with the 'TDM Save' module.

To retrieve an entry from TDM use the 'TDM Find Single Object' module. After the call an object with the given name is stored in memory. To access the TDM values of this object use the 'TD' function in Tosca:
{TD[[ObjectName].[AttributeName]]}

Tosca > TDM TQL search within a search

In our repository we have a TDM structure where the different TDM objects are linked with reletions. If you want to find one property via its link with another property this is done via a TQL query:

->RETURN All:[TDMObject1]->[TDMObject2][Property=="[property_value]"]

or: in human readable:

-> RETURN All:Portfolio->Client[Username=="login01"]

Tosca > Report detail level

If the logs in your ExecutionLog don't contain enough details, then set:
Settings -> TBox -> Logging -> Report successful Execution of

to the value

TeststepValues - All

Tosca DUH! moment: May

Test Automation is - in the end - software development. Everyone who has ever dabbled in software development is familiar with being stuck on things that in the end turned out to be very trivial and make you feel like: DUH!. I'll be logging my Tosca DUH! moments in this post. It'll be good as therapy in any case, and seeing all these items listed under each other might provide me with some insights.

• If you have a verification error make sure you read the ENTIRE 'Loginfo' message and not be fooled by the fact that the textbox can be many times smaller than the actual message. /Facepalm
• Was until now unaware of the distinction between single and double quotes in Powershell.
• In short: just use single quotes when possible
• In long: http://windowsitpro.com/blog/single-quotes-vs-double-quotes-powershell-whats-difference

BitBucket > Setting up a Git repository

It is still my goal to have my own AWS-powered LAMP server (or Windows tech equivalent) server up and running where I'll host a Git server, mail server, web server, etc. But what I wish for and what is realistic are generatlly two very different things, so it's time to get a bit more realistic in the short term. And that newfound realism is going to start with setting up a Git repository on BitBucket so that we'll have a lightweight method to share coding projects over multiple locations.

How to:

• Create an account at BitBucket - this should speak for itself
• Create an EMPTY Git repository on your BitBucket account
• Go to the empty repsository at BitBucket and...
• click 'Clone'
• A popup will appear containing text starting with "git clone"
• Copy all text MINUS "git clone" to the clipboard
• Create a new project (optionally with initial code) in Visual Studio
• Add the project to Source Control in Visual Studio (if necessary)
• Commit the project
• You'll get an error message that the project wasn't added to a remote repository and a screen with an option to provide the URL of the remote repo
• Paste the clipboard into the URL field
• Click the obvious button and...
• DONE :-)

Definitely can be done neater, but this works.

Tosca > Steering Parameter > FireEvent > Finding out which one to use

If you are trying to steer a web element with Tosca and the default 'FireEvent = change' is not working you have to find out which 'event' is 'being listened to'. These are two techniques to go about that:

Chrome:

• Rightclick the element and choose 'Inspect'
• In the 'underwater screen' that pops up Leftclick the tag corresponding to the element
• In the right upper section of the underwater screen there is a section with the tabs: Styles, Computed, and Event Listeners
• Click the tab 'Event Listeners'
• A list of events appears.

Firefox:

• Rightclick the element and choose 'Inspect Element'
• In the 'underwater screen' that pops up Rightclick the tag corresponding to the element and choose 'show DOM properties'
• In the second underwater screen that pops there is a section on the right side.
• Scroll down this section to find all 'on-' events.
• Firefox seems less discerning than Chrome. I've had cases where Chrome found the events being listened to and Firefox didn't.

Tosca > Steering Parameter > FireEvent

A very useful item in your Tosca toolkit is the steering parameter 'FireEvent' (the green 'cubes' in the Properties tab of ModuleAttributes). By default FireEvent has the value 'change', but sometimes other 'events' are needed to have the website respond as desired. Recently I ran into a checkbox the checking of which changed an OK-button from disabled to enabled. The default 'change' value checked the checkbox without enabling the OK-button. All it took was to set FireEvent of the checkbox ModuleAttribute to the value 'click' and the OK-button was enabled.

In the case of multiple FireEvents separate them with a semi-colon. For example: 'change;blur'.

The possible values of FireEvent are:

• onchange
• onclick
• ondblclick
• onblur
• onfocus
• onmousedown
• onmouseup
• onmouseover
• onmouseout
• onsubmit
• onreset
• onpropertychange

Pay note: in Tosca the values given to the FireEvent steering parameter should be WITHOUT the 'on'-prefix.

Tosca > Ports required by the Tosca components

Several times during the building of our TA framework I've been temporarily blocked when having to find out which ports/traffic need to be allowed between Tosca components. Turns out there is a great Tosca page for it:

Search for: PORTS REQUIRED BY TOSCA COMPONENTS

https://support.tricentis.com/community/manuals_detail.do?sysparm_document_key=u_webhelp,425d827d379dd640406642f643990eea

Tosca DUH! moment: April

Test Automation is - in the end - software development. Everyone who has ever dabbled in software development is familiar with being stuck on things that in the end turned out to be very trivial and make you feel like: DUH!. I'll be logging my Tosca DUH! moments in this post. It'll be good as therapy in any case, and seeing all these items listed under each other might provide me with some insights.

• Fed 'Buffername' instead of '{B[Buffername]}' to the parameter field of a ReusableTeststepBlock.
• Circumstance: the buffername was used in a query, which - with the wrong data - produced zero results and this resulted in a confusing 'invalid column name' error.
• Mitigation: not easy. There is no easy debug mode in Tosca to quickly see all PL or B values. Will have to be mindful of this.
• If SteeringParameter FireEvent=change doesn't do the job check if other 'events' are being listened to and set the FireEvent parameter to them / add the FireEvent to them.
• If you want to have {Click} position the mouse-pointer somewhere else than in the middle: write a customization where you override the 'ActionPointer' property.;
• TypeReference.IsAssignableFrom(Type c)
• is TRUE if the TypeReference can be assigned to an instance of Type c
• Shorthand notation to define an IEnumerable object:
• IEnumerable<Obj> collection = new[] {Obj1, Obj2, Obj3, etc.}

Tosca > {DATE} or {DATE[][][]} function

For some reason I ALWAYS forget what the correct syntax is with this function. So hereby a post to forever remember:

First: a good search term in the Tosca documentation:
DATE AND TIME EXPRESSIONS

Syntax:
{<EXPRESSION>[<Basedate>][<Offset>][<Format>]}

In normal human readable:
{DATE[basedate][offset][format]}

Key-letters for specifying the format:

d	days
M	months
y	years
h	hours
m	minutes
s	seconds