XQual XStudio Blog

XStudio 2.3: Stable version delivered

2015-05-05T17:25:00.000+02:00

XStudio 2.3 is by far the biggest release we've made since XQual was created!

Major features are here:
http://www.xqual.com/support/roadmap.html#v2_3
Here is the list of the major candidate features scheduled for XStudio v2.3:

     New clearer, modern, simpler Graphical User Interface (incl. a new sidebar) [XQU]
     Basic report debugger (to test/debug easily your own custom report XSLTs) [XQU]
     New statistics piecharts/stackcharts on ALL the containers/folders in Requirements, Specifications, Tests and Bugs tree:
          - Status, Priority, Severity and Risk breakouts
     User preferences allowing to select/save/restore for each user: [ALL]
          - The last main window position/dimension
          - The last split positions for each tree
          - Which columns to display for each tree
     Custom fields on Tests + Test cases (rather than just test cases) [SUP][MEC]
     Add user's title to repect ISO session report format [PRE]
     Inner links in between requirements/specifications [THO]
     Option to execute a session on ANY agent [SMA]
     Risk Analysis module [AFR][ALL]
     TestNg Launcher: support for methods calls [AGE]
     SUT description [SMA]
     Bug prefilling when creating a bug from a manual test execution [ALL]
     Merge: when all the source sessions are under the same campaign, generate the merged there by default [SMA]
     Copy testcase in a different test [ORS]
     Improved JUnit launcher (to log any custom message generated by the script) [AKK]
     New Sikuli launcher for Sikuli 1.1.0/SikuliX [AKK]
     New FitNesse launcher [AKK]
     New Robot Framework launcher [AFR]
     User's title (customizable in a dedicated table) [PRE]
     Import of assets [THO]
     Ability to search by id also Teams, Schedules, Projects, Sprints, Categories and Companies
     Preset the not-executable test and test cases before the session is started
     Headless XAgent [ACP]
     Ability to run an automated test manually [AKK]
     Import tests: import both attributes, params and test/testcase's custom fields [CSC][THO]
     Customization in the user preferences of
          - The default size of the fonts in the GUI [AFR]
          - The default choice when downloading a files that already exists locally: overwrite, skip or ask user [THO] [ACT]
     The authentication Third-party connectors configuration can be overwriten per user (in the user preferences) [AFR]
     Import Test: support test custom fields, testcase custom fields, test attributes and params [THO]
     QC/ALM bug-tracking connector (still experimental) [AFR]

Refactored module to automatically select some requirements/tests (i.e. while creating a campaign) using 4 different "helpers":

    1) Ability to create or reuse an existing stored filter based on test's properties, attributes etc.
    2) Ability to select 1 or N SUTs (all requirements or tests linked to these SUTs will be automatically selected)
    3) Ability to select 1 or N requirements (all tests linked to these requirements will be automatically selected)
    4) Ability to select 1 or more assets (all tests linked to at least one of these assets will be automatically selected)
    All above filtering can be cumulated/executed several times to refine the selection.
    When cumulating filterings, a widget allows picking the rule to apply: AND or OR [SMA]

Plus many improvments on the assets management [THO]:

     Create Session: when the user selects N assets, give the option to create N sessions (1 session per asset)
          ("Create one session per asset" checkbox in the create wizard + asset name in the session name)
     Display in the tabular_manual.jar, tabular_step_manual.jar and tree_step_manual.jar launchers the information about
          the session itself (incl. the assets, the attachments, the operator and the SUT)
     Display in the tabular_manual.jar, tabular_step_manual.jar and tree_step_manual.jar launchers the test's assets
     Add the assets information in the Test and Session reports (incl. description, screenshots etc.)
     Import some assets from Excel
     Set the non-executable tests at session creation time so BEFORE the session is actually started.
     When modifying the assets in a session and if the session has not yet been executed, update the not-executable tests.

Here are the complete list of changes from 2.2sp4:
http://www.xqual.com/support/changelog.html

2.3
* Connectors to third-party systems: ability to populate automatically the bug's name & description
(editable of course) when creating it from a compatible manual launcher:
- Integrated (was already available)
- JIRA (new)
- Bugzilla (new)
- Mantis (new)
- Trac (new)
* When creating a bug directly from a test results, populate its name (editable).
* QC Connector
* Rename Kalistick to Kalistick/Coverity Test Advisor
* New RobotFramework launcher (robot_framework_v2.jar)
- support for running tests (rather than testsuites)
- optional arguments
- selectable extension (.txt or .robot)
* 2 new parameters in the settings defining the max size of the attachments:
- on standard items (SUT, requirements, tests etc.)
- on test executions (uploaded by the launchers)
* Nicer icon for the "Edit button" on third-party (JIRA, Clearquest, Mantis etc.) bugs
* XContinuousIntegration: ability to provide a static name for the report
* Bug-fix:
- With Clearquest/VersionOne/Bugzilla/JIRA/QC bug-tracking connectors, if you create a bug while executing
manual test and you cancel the project selection a NPE is generated.
- When previewing/generating combinations using the pairwise/regular algorithm with both valid and invalid
values and when some are null/empty an exception may occur
- RobotFramework launcher, XML report deleted after the first testcase hence corrupting the next results.
- Exception while trying to refresh a requirement tree under a coverage section when the requirements are
connected with a third-party requirement management system
- Create team: when the Manual folder is not selected, a suggestion popup is displayed to do so
- When some campaigns/sessions contains only not executable tests and if you selected "ignore not-executable
in progress and quality metrics", some exception may be thrown when caculating quality metrics.
- Test execution's messages not rendered as HTML when they contains [b], [u] etc.
- Exception after saving the conf locally (from a web serveur)

2.3b3
* Add 2 parameter in the server settings to check or not the requirement and bugtracking connector before
the user preferences are applied
* Allows to have some incomplete third-party connector settings and force the user to set the missing
parts in it user preference - i.e. username/password so that each user connects with his own credentials
* Requirement and Test filters:
- support filter on names
- support the "contains" filter (i.e. "name contains 'abc'")
* Report's source XML files include revision and date of the main targetted objects (requirements,
specifications, tests, test cases and defects)
* Bug-fix:
- SUT:
. Results > Requirements/Specifications: depending on "ignore NA in progress and quality metrics",
. Display or hide the NA in the tree (considered then as NE)
. Compute requirements/specifications quality accordingly
. Results > Tests : show the latest results ignoring or not the NA (depending on "ignore NA
in progress and quality metrics")
. Results > Testcases/steps: show the latest results ignoring or not the NA (depending on "ignore NA
in progress and quality metrics")
- Test Tree Category/Folder/Root:
. Results > Tests : show the latest results ignoring or not the NA (depending on "ignore NA
in progress and quality metrics")
. Results > Testcases/steps: show the latest results ignoring or not the NA (depending on "ignore NA
in progress and quality metrics")
- Campaign Tree Folder:
. Results > Tests : show the latest results ignoring or not the NA (depending on "ignore NA
in progress and quality metrics")
. Results > Testcases/steps: show the latest results ignoring or not the NA (depending on "ignore NA
in progress and quality metrics")
- CPanel_Campaign:
. Results > Requirements/Specifications: depending on "ignore NA in progress and quality metrics",
. Display or hide the NA in the tree (considered then as NE)
. Compute requirements/specifications quality accordingly
. Results > Tests : show the latest results ignoring or not the NA (depending on "ignore NA
in progress and quality metrics")
. Results > Testcases/steps: show the latest results ignoring or not the NA (depending on "ignore NA
in progress and quality metrics")
- CPanel_CampaignSession:
. Results > Tests : do not filter NE or NA results
. Results > Testcases/steps: do not filter NE or NA results
- tree_step_manual launcher: first node not automatically selected
- tree_step_manual launcher: when resetting all the results at once, currently selected node is not
updated
- QTP/UFT launcher: couldn't close properly the test with UFT (as UFT does not support / in test path)
- Incorrect sample import file "import_assets.xls"
- With the "any agent" option selected, with tabular_step_manual launcher:
. Results may not be restored when reexecuting
. Reset all results may not work at all
- Typos in french translation
- Couldn't create a session or a schedule with the community edition
- NPE when trying to reference a reusable testcase in a test forgetting to select one
- Don't display anymore the "new version available" screen if currently running a beta
- Silulix launcher:
. Generate all the output on the console (to make debug easier)
. Parse timestamp in the log (i.e. [log (2.4.2015 22:57:59)] xxxx to export this information in the
messages in XStudio
- Missing localization when creating a custom field with no default value

2.3b2sp1
* Bug-fix:
- Critical: XStudio/XAgent does not start in certain cases

2.3b2
* Offline mode to skip the search for update from Internet (with commercial versions)
* Headless XAgent (option "--headless true" in the command line or similra in the .jnlp)
* Last login name remembered on each computer
* Ability to execute a session (or an individual test) forcing using a specific launcher and a specific
configuration (this can be useful for instance to temporarily execute an automated test manually).
Feature available only with XStudio Business+ and with a specific right to do so in the user profile.
* Customizable font size in the user preferences
* User preferences: preferred rule when downloading some files that already exist: overwrite, skip or ask
* Overloading of most of the connector's parameters in user preferences so that each user can provide
his own credentials for instance. Each user can also choose which projects, status to filter etc.
* All configurations are now sorted by default (including user preferences in database)
* Import tests/testcases from Excel: ability to import test's custom field values, test attributes values
and testcase's custom fields values !
* Custom sidebar also in the UserGroup Access Rights panel
* A few icons slightly improved
* New (faster) way to select testcases in a testcase sub-tree
* Bug-fix:
- Quality index in the SUT tree was incorrect (considering only the last executed result even if the last
result was "Not Executed")
- When using agent with alias, a warning is displayed stating that the agent is not reachable.
- Allway dashboard API getChannel() XML format error
- Cast exception with the tree_step_manual launcher in some rare configurations
- Create SUT > edit requirement filter > NPE
- Sikulix launcher couldn't parse the "debug level" parameter
- Sikulix launcher: "Opt. argument" parameter should NOT be marked as mandatory (!)
- Sikulix parser of the sikuli traces

2.3b1
* New design (new flat icons, new colors, new side bar, clearer layout, simpler GUI, better alignments etc.)
* Risk Analysis module (wizard + manual setting, included in Search panel, reports and requirement filters)
* Custom fields on tests and (different) custom fields on test cases
* "ANY agent" option when creating a session (or a schedule) so that ANY agent on the network can execute
the session
* New statistics panel on:
- Requirement folders (status, priority, risk break out)
- Specification folders (status, priority break out)
- Test folders (status, priority, testcase# break out)
- Defect folders (status, priority, severity break out)
* Inner relationships in between requirements
* Inner relationships in between specifications
* Robot Framework launcher (final)
* Import Assets from Excel
* User preferences: ability to overwrite some server settings on a per-user basis + save automatically some
data such as:
- The last main window position/dimension
- The last split pane positions for each tree
- Which columns to display for each tree
* Ability to copy a test case in a different test
* Refactored module to automatically select some requirements/tests (i.e. while creating a campaign) using
4 different "helpers":
- Ability to create or reuse an existing stored (test or requirement) filter based on:
. test's properties, priority, attributes etc.
. requirement's priority, risk etc.
- Ability to select 1-N SUTs (all requirements or tests linked to these SUTs will be ticked)
- Ability to select 1-N requirements (all tests linked to these requirements will be ticked)
- Ability to select 1 or more assets (all tests linked to at least one of these assets will be
automatically selected)
- All above filtering can be cumulated/executed several times to refine the selection.
- When cumulating filterings, a widget allows picking the rule to apply: AND or OR
* New XReportDebugger tool allowing to test easily custom XSLT reports
* Test and requirement filters:
- remove the type column which is useless
- when adding a new expression, expand the parent and reselect the parent so that it's possible to
recreate a new expresion without any additional click
- when editing an expression, reselect it after the modification has been submitted
* Add a title to the user (customizable in a specific table) to meet ISO's report format requirements
* SUT rich-text description field
* Option to create a session per asset (i.e. if you selected several environments you may want to generate
1 session per environment)
* Ability to search by id Teams, Schedules, Projects, Sprints, Categories and Companies
* TestNg launcher: support for class + methods (test=class + testcase=method)
* New FitNesse launcher
* New Sikulix launcher
* Collapsible panel containing all the session information (operator, SUT, attachments and assets) on:
- tabular_manual launcher
- tabular_step_manual launcher
- tree_step_manual launcher
* Display in the tabular_manual.jar, tabular_step_manual.jar and tree_step_manual.jar launchers the test's
assets
* Add the assets information in the Test and Session reports (incl. description, screenshots etc.)
* Set the non-executable tests at session creation time so BEFORE the session is actually started
* When modifying the assets in a session and if the session has not yet been executed, update the
not-executable tests.
* Improved copy process:
- Copy SUT: also links the new SUT with the source SUT's linked requirements
- Copy requirement: also links the new requirement with the source requirement's linked specifications
(or tests)
- Copy specification: also links the new specification with the source specification's linked tests
- Copy test: also links the new test with the source specifications (or requirements)
- The same applies when copying entire folders
* Custom fields, Attributes, Params panels: always pre-select a default item so that the edit button
does something by default
* After editing a test case custom field, refresh the asset tree (in case there is a currently selected
reusable test case)
* After editing a reusable test case, also refresh the test tree (in case there is a currently selected
test case referring this reusable test case)
* Search tests and test cases: ability to use test and test cases custom fields as search criteria
* Add the test and test case's custom fields in the testplan, SUT and Session paper reports
* Add the assets information in the Test and Session reports (incl. description, screenshots etc.)
* Merge: when all the source sessions are under the same campaign, create the merged session under this
campaign (do NOT create a new campaign then)
* JavaFX capabilities
* Anchors in lists use the same mechanism than the "search by id" widget (more robust)
* Possibility to add custom Java option in the JNLP
* MariaDb JDB driver included by default in the REST API Server to make deployment easier
* Attachment: prefix changed to "AT_"
* Default configuration for manual launchers (in new installation)
* Include the import samples in the distribution
* Bug-fix:
- When refining a requirement local coverage, SUT tree should be refreshed
- When refining a specification local coverage, SUT + Requirement trees should be refreshed
- Test dependencies: protection against selecting source test as destination test
- Removed useless "Custom fields" panel on Assets tree
- When there is a %20 (space), %2f/%2F (slash) in a anchor/URL/link in rich-text, the link may not work
- In some specific cases, when clicking on an internal anchor (i.e. in a results grid) pointing to a
test case or an external URL (i.e. in an email notification), the redirection did not work
- NullPointerException when running XReportDebugger with a custom company logo
- Empty folder needs Delete folder rights
- Track the changes when emptying a folder
- JUnit launcher save the trace file in TestRootPath to avoid any potential issue with invalid/not-writable
test canonical path
- Test filter: shouldn't be able to add an expression at root level
- When modifying the option about which agent can execute a schedule, the change may not have been saved

XStudio 2.0: Screen capture function is delivered

2014-01-29T19:30:00.001+01:00

It has never been as easy to create and embed some screen captures in your rich texts.

3 modes are available:

- selectable areas: just move/resize a semi-transparent frame wherever you want on your screen(s) to select exactly what you want to capture and click on the "Camera" button:

Note that you can specify a scale ratio to resize 100% automatically all the screen captures you're doing:

- One of the screen connected on the computer. If you have let's say 2 screens on your computer, just click on the Screen1 or Screen2 button and the image of the full screen is automatically embedded in the text you're editing: yes! 1 click only!

- All the screens. By clicking on this button you automatically insert an image containing ALL your connected screens.

This is available in ALL the rich-text editors in XStudio 2.0.

This will save hours when you edit your test case steps/expected results or when you'll create some bugs!!!

XStudio 2.0: Released with the TimeShifting feature!

2014-01-29T19:15:00.004+01:00

XStudio 2.0 is a major achievement!

Not many test management solutions include a way to get back in the past on their whole traceability matrix and none is doing it as well as XStudio 2.0.

The GUI is just simple:

2 buttons to create or delete TimeTags (that's the name you give to a "synchronization point").
1 drop-down menu to select which TimeTag you want to synchronized to

That's it!

The latest versions of all your SUTs, requirements, tests etc. are obtained by just leaving the drop-down menu set to its default value: LATEST:

Do you know an easier/more powerfull way to go back in time?

XStudio 2.0: What about filtering and sorting?

2013-10-14T00:13:00.004+02:00

Yes, what about filtering?

It's nice to have metrics (and XStudio provides a lot of them) but it's even better to extract some data under specific focus. And nothing's best than filtering and sorting to dig through large list of items.

Hence XStudio 2.0 includes a new simple but very effective/powerful filtering/sorting mechanism.

Here is how it looks like for instance when you select a SUT and get all the latest results obtained on this SUT (test and test case levels):

On tests, you can filter items based on ANY columns.
This includes the optional columns that you may add to the grid:

At test case level, you're able to add columns corresponding to the custom fields you defined.

Of course you can also sort (ascending or descending) the items by just clicking on the header of a column. Of course, the sorting applies on the filtered output.

Note: the filtering on string uses the very powerful Regular Expression syntax. This allows defining some very complex searches but also simple ones using some basic syntax such as:

XStudio 2.0: Comparison of campaign results can make a difference

2013-10-13T23:35:00.003+02:00

Getting the results from many test campaigns is good but what would make a real difference would be the ability to compare those results in regards to the context in which they were obtained. And this to maybe deduce some interesting facts. In particular, what makes some tests failing...

Is it...

1) the agent/computer type on which the tests have been executed? If you execute the same campaign on a computer under Windows XP, another one on Windows 7 and another one on Linux or MacOSX and you see that all the campaigns executed on MacOSX have much more failure it probably means something right?

2) the operator who performed the tests? people may interpret the test script differently and this may affect seriously the results.

3) the configuration/environment in which the tests have been performed?

XStudio 2.0 will provide a very convenient way to compare results obtained based on those criteria through a very simple reporting interface:

XStudio 2.0: Small details count too: flattened progress bars

2013-10-13T23:21:00.003+02:00

One small details one may notice in XStudio 2.0 (to be released soon) is that progress bar are flattened. This is just a small detail... but it makes reporting much cleaner (especially on Windows XP):

For those using Windows 8, you'll probably notice not much as this look'n feel is pretty much the same as Windows 8's style.

XStudio 1.9sp4: All quality metrics at SUT and campaign levels

2013-09-03T00:02:00.001+02:00

Campaigns and campaign sessions are ideal to follow results "per run". Consolidating can be done by using the very useful merge feature.

But starting with 1.9sp4 there is an even simpler way to track the latest results on each SUT (or campaign): just select the SUT or the campaign and open the Results tab.

Everything is there:

XStudio 1.9: Results manual update

2013-07-21T15:57:00.001+02:00

When you run a test campaign (actually a campaign session) in XStudio you get results. Good.

If you want to change a result (for any reason) you have several choices:

create a new session including the test you want to re-run and execute it
have XStudio create for you automatically a campaign inlcuding all the tests (from a selection of several already executed campaign sessions) having a specific results
select the test from the test tree and execute it from here

In all these cases, if you wish, you can merge the results with the ones from other sessions.

If this is about manual testing and you're using the tabual manual launcher, you can simply run again the same session and just change the result from the GUI.

BUT... what about just changing the result directly from XStudio without having to re-execute anything?

It's now possible in 1.9sp3.

Check out this video

... or look at the following screenshots:

XStudio 1.9: new charts and graphics

2013-05-29T02:01:00.004+02:00

XStudio uses A LOT of graphics and charts.

We improved our library so that it now always use the same presentation when it's about displaying charts (line, stacked, percentages, pie etc.). One of the most visible change is the way we present line charts. The new common presentation improves a lot the understanding of the figures behind.

Have a look at the following screenshots:

XStudio 1.8: Enriched report's graphics

2013-02-14T00:52:00.000+01:00

One of the improvement in the next version of XStudio (1.8) will be enriched testplans. When you generate a "paper" testplan, all the graphics you get in XStudio's GUI will be included.

For instance, if you generate a testplan from the root node of the test tree in XStudio you will get something similar to this in the graphics section of the document:

This includes data about the history of the results obtained from those tests, dependencies between tests and functional coverage.

If you generate a testplan from a test category:

This includes data about the history of the results obtained from those tests, the history of how much were automated and functional coverage.

If you generate a testplan from any folder containing tests:

This includes data about the history of the results obtained from those tests and functional coverage.

XStudio 1.8: Grid Editor

2013-01-21T01:35:00.002+01:00

The Procedure Tree is extremely powerful because of its recursive aspect when it's about verifications (you can specify complex boolean expressions including several verifications). When verifying algorithms or APIs it is definitely the best way to optimize execution time as useless verifications will be skipped.

However, we noticed many people were just using the test case description field to script their scenario. This is much simpler and flexible because of the formatting tool but the drawback is it misses the detailed structure of a step/verification model.

We added in XStudio 1.8 a new editor allowing to write test case scenarii in a simple 2 dimensions grid (Excel-like). We called it the Procedure Grid.

Hence, you'll have 3 options:

use only the test case formatted description field (for simplest scenario)
the description field + the procedure tree (for the most complex verifications/decision tables)
the description field + the procedure grid (for the usual cases requiring a detailed but flexible script)

Here is the current version of the Grid Editor:

A toolbar will allow to easily:

move a step (with its expected results) up of down
delete a step
insert a new step before or after the selected row

As you can see, we also added the possibility to format the content of a step or an expected result (with the usual bold, italic, underline, list, tables etc. styling). For now the tags needs to be written manually though (the toolbar will come in a future version).

It's also easy enough to move through the cells using Ctrl-Tab (to go forward) or Ctrl-Maj-Tab (to go backward) (the Tab key can be useful in the text content itself hence the usage of the Ctrl modifier key).

It will be possible to choose the Tree or the Grid editor per test case and just clicking the other radio button will convert "at best" the current scenario - i.e. when switching from Tree to Grid, all the Checks in the boolean expression will be automatically converted in one simple Expected Results cell.

A new option has been added to the Settings to specify the default editor.

The "Use description as testplan" check box has been removed as it became useless (whatever launcher you're using, the description + the procedure are shown to the user).

The manual launchers have also been modified to take advantage of this new presentation. For a test case that has been described using the Grid Editor, at runtime it will look like:

The tree editor has also been improved to accept formatting tags. CR/LF are also now accepted in the steps, parameters and checks (but will not be rendered as a tree node must fit one single line):

The rendering of the tree test cases has also been modified to be consistent with the grid test cases:

Of course the usage of Params (to feed the test case with data from a dataset) is still possible (and advised) in any part of a test case description (description field, step, parameter, check, expected result).

Hope you'll like it!

Release of XStudio 1.7

2012-11-28T01:59:00.002+01:00

XStudio 1.7 has just been released.

Download page: http://www.xqual.com/support/download.html

Roadmap: http://www.xqual.com/support/roadmap.html

Changelog: http://www.xqual.com/support/changelog.html

XStudio 1.7: New formatted text editor

2012-10-05T11:06:00.002+02:00

With XStudio 1.7b2, a new formatted text editor will be delivered. This new editor will embed the viewer and a button to easily switch between the 2 modes (EDIT and VIEW).
By default, the formatted texts will be displayed rendered (VIEW mode) except in the creation wizards.

In addition, copy/paste will be possible even in the VIEW mode.

View mode:

Edit mode:

The edit mode is identified by the switch icon activated (painted in green).

Hope you'll like it. We do.

Release of XStudio 1.7b1

2012-09-23T17:08:00.002+02:00

XStudio 1.7b1 has just been released.

Please find below the changes you can expect from this version.

Changelog

   * Multiple testcase, tests, SUTs, requirements, specifications, defects,sprint, tasks, campaigns, schedule, attachments, documents, agents, users, teams deletion
   * Ability to delete items (teams, users, sut, agents, requirements, specifications, tests, testcases, tasks, sprints, campaigns, sessions,bugs, schedules) in the trees just by pressing the delete key
   * New simpler merge wizard (use multi-selection feat. for source sessions)
   * Better performances while emptying a test, sut, requirement, specification, defect folder
   * Automatic generation of residual test campaigns (i.e. not successful tests)
   * Agents pool capability to let the system load-balance the sessions on the available agents in a pool
   * Custom search/filter can be named, saved and shared (bugs, requirements, specifications, tasks, tests/testcases)
   * Add custom fields filtering in the search/filter windows 
   * All search/filter are now session-persistent (last settings remembered) and cached
   * Capability to generate a report from the bug search/filter window
   * Huge performance issues with bugs search/filter
   * Search/filter windows not modal either always on top but linked with the main window
   * Reduce the tree progress bar's width
   * XContinuousIntegration: change 'BAMBOO' option in 'JUNIT'
   * Improvement of the email notifications:
     - small style change (more compliant with the web site css)
     - includes SUT where the bugs have been found and fixed if relevant
     - includes the author of the bug modification
   * Bug-fixes:
     - Migration embedded images:
       . Progress bar also when patching (not updating) schema
       . All embedded images are now stored in a common repository
     - add missing country for US (United State of America)
     - add missing weekends for SE (Sweden)
     - SOAPUI launcher returns invalid failures
     - Ranorex launcher support new XML format returned in latest versions

Update
Some detailed instructions are available here: 
www.xqual.com/documentation/install/update.html

Bugs
As usual, feel free to submit some bugs and ideas for new features to the
forums: http://xqual.freeforums.org.

If you purchased a commercial license, just contact us directly at
support@xqual.com don't forget to include your identification key (you can
find it in Menu > Help > About > Support and plugins) in your email.



Demo
The demo environment will be updated soon (when there
are only a few people connected).

Contact us
Do not hesitate to follow us on twitter:
http://twitter.com/_xqual_

XStudio 1.7: Agents pool

2012-09-22T16:34:00.001+02:00

When you have thousands of automated tests in a Continuous Integration environment, time to perform test execution can be a problem. XStudio already provided a good tooling to fix that issue as you were able to execute your tests remotely on several remote computers (and even on several independent threads on each agent).

The step further has be reached in XStudio 1.7: you can now specify a pool of agents and the system will pick the first available agent in the pool.

This way you can efficiently "load-balance" your test executions.

Hope you will enjoy it!

XQual discount for EuroSTAR conference

2012-08-23T23:33:00.004+02:00

We'll be at EuroSTAR in Amsterdam from 6-8 November and are please to bring you a 10% discount on your ticket!

See you there!

XStudio 1.7: Public search/filters

2012-08-16T23:37:00.004+02:00

Starting with XStudio 1.7 you have the possibility to share your search/filters on:

- tasks,

- requirements,

- specifications,

- tests/test cases,

- and of course bugs.

Here is how it looks like for the bugs:

A new toolbar allows to create a new search/save/save as/edit/delete the search.

To open a predefined search/filter, just click on the open button and pick one in the list.

Note that the search/filter window is NOT modal so you can keep it aside and use it when you want. Clicking on an entry in the search window will select the item in the main XStudio window: pretty easy and practical as you have a filtered view + the normal tree accessible in parallel.

The item list is as usual updated dynamically while you edit the criteria.

Release of XStudio 1.6sp4

2012-07-20T16:51:00.000+02:00

XStudio maintenance release 1.6sp4 has been delivered.

Here is the change log:

   * Ability to create and link bugs from manual launchers when interfaced with
     JIRA, Mantis, Bugzilla, TRAC, Generic connectors
   * Include the name of the schedule in the session's name
   * Defect report: include 'Found in' and 'Fixed in' (SUTs)
   * Keep as much as possible the former order of the tests in a campaign when:
     - adding/removing some tests from this campaign
     - copying this campaign (and adding/removing tests on the fly)
   * All dialogs are now NOT modal and NOT on top anymore except for MOVE/DELETE
   * Manual launchers's dialog NOT on top anymore
   * Bug-fixes:
     - Schedule's SUT not identifiable
     - Impossible to submit a commment on not executed manual tests
     - Performance issues with Free, Pro and Business licenses
     - Now able to use "All combinations", "Pairwise", and "Import Dataset from
       CSV" feature even with a single parameter
     - Wrong header order in the specification report
     - When creating/linking some bugs from the Tabular_manual launcher they
       do not appear in the list on the test cell
     - Exception when retrieving tests and testcases including special characters
       in their name because of the parametrization (pairwise algo/dataset)
     - Tabular manual launcher: display DISTINCT bugs in the test cell
     - Create generic bug on the fly fails
     - Oracle db: exception while affecting a bug to session's tests
     - Localization typos
     - Couldn't delete a bug of type "generic"
     - Duplicate custom field values (from SUT/test cases) sent to the launcher
     - Generated tests from requirements/specs cannot be executed
     - Third-party requirement or bug-tracking system should not appear while
       editing a team's access rights

XStudio 1.7: Automatic generation of residual tests campaigns

2012-07-08T17:44:00.003+02:00

Let's imagine you have 4 different test campaigns that have been possibly executed by different people.

These 4 campaigns may have tests in common (maybe all of them, maybe none...)

They have been executed possibly several times each.

Now, I'd like to create a new campaign containing only a selection of the failing tests from these 4. This could be tests that failed once in the iterations or only those that have failed in the last iteration etc.

This manual task may be pretty tough and boring.

But it's easy enough with XStudio 1.7's automatic generation of residual tests campaigns.

Step1: Select all the source sessions

Step2: Choose a destination folder and define the rules that will be used to generate the residual campaign

Step3: It's done!

Release of XStudio 1.6sp3

2012-07-03T00:27:00.001+02:00

XStudio maintenance release 1.6sp3 has been delivered.

It fixes a couple of minor issues (mostly only when used with an Oracle database):

   * Additional protection while printing the custom fields (in the launchers)
   * Additional protection on changes information length <= 255 chars
   * Bug-fixes:
     - Localization of certain terms not found in not-English languages
     - Files in the doc tree are never detected as locked (Oracle only)
     - Improved Spanish localization
     - Some large text fields does not support > 4000 characters (Oracle only)
       * defect: defect_description, step_to_reproduce, fix_description
       * test: test_description, test_prerequisites, additional_info
       * test case: testcase_steps, testcase_description, additional_info
       * requirement: requirement_description
       * specification: specification_description
     - Couldn't change the value of the defect custom fields (Oracle only)
     - Do not escape CLOBS when inserting them (Oracle only)
     - Workaround to avoid having a " " canonical path

XQual on Sogeti's alliances web site

2012-06-22T00:25:00.001+02:00

XQual on Sogeti's Spain alliances page:

http://www.es.sogeti.com/Como-trabajamos/Nuestras-Allianzas/

GREAT new partner!!!

http://www.xqual.com/products/partners.html

Release of XStudio 1.6sp2

2012-06-21T19:31:00.000+02:00

In case you missed it, XStudio 1.6sp2 has been released on http://www.xqual.com

Change log:

   * New certificate (valid until 2015)
   * Read-only fields more readable
   * Bug-fixes:
     - Merge rules updated (not executed status never taken in consideration)
     - Couldn't execute XAgent with an Oracle database (Exception while
       retrieving the schedule candidates)
     - XAgent don't execute the tests!
     - Exception possibly thrown if requirements retrieved from JIRA while:
       . generating some specifications from requirements
       . generating some tests from requirements (if specs are disabled)
       . selecting requirements associated with a specification
       . selecting requirements associated with a test (if specs are disabled)
     - Scheduling of sessions not working with Oracle DB
     - xls2xml_reqs_specs_tests.xls does not support UTF-8 characters

Release of XStudio 1.6a6

2012-04-04T13:34:00.000+02:00

This has been released yesterday.

It includes many bug fixes as well as the major new feature that add to your SUT and campaign tree a "Quality" column indicating an index of quality of the SUT.

Details of the 1.6a6 add'ins:

   * Quality metrics on the SUT tree
   * Quality metrics on the campaign tree
   * New unified colors for progress bars
   * New areas selector on the left-hand side
   * Agent not responding timeout set to 30 seconds
   * Bug-fixes:
     - Incorrect UI indicators when a session is queued too long on
       an agent
     - Session not starting when queued more than 15 minutes on a remote
       agent busy with some other sessions
     - Refresh the progress at the end of a session execution
     - Too many stats recorded: XStudio frozen when selecting the integrated
       bug-tracking root node
     - Wrong color returned for the graph in the iPhone/iPad app.
     - Incorrect statistics reported in email notifications when re-executing
       a manual session
     - Exception while selecting some folder in the Campaign's content tab in
       the upper test tree
     - Main tree refresh issues (ordering) if defect tree is not in the user
       profile
     - Exception and inconsistent behaviour when modifying sprints and backlogs
       (due to velocity chart refresh)
     - Incorrect Bamboo report generated in case of test failure with messages
       (typo in the CDATA opening tag)
     - No more timeout on the sessions that have been queued for a long time.
       The 30s timeout for "not responding agents" now applies only starting
       from the point where the session has really been started by (at least)
       one agent.
     - Wrong background in the campaign tree in some cells
     - Force the stop even when a session did not really started (in ARMED
       state)
     - setCampaignSessionAgentStatus() called only the first time
     - Error while trying t get the ascending/descending icons
     - "generate spec" vs "generate test" button depending on if the
       specifications are enabled in the PLC
     - Coverage label different in the form depending on if the specifications
       are enabled in the PLC
     - Generate specifications does not update coverage on the requirement if
       necessary
     - Generate tests does not update coverage on the requirement if necessary
     - Same width on progress bars in the same tree
     - Wrong new SQL query to retrieve latest results (for quality)

Enjoy!

XStudio 1.6: New outstanding quality metrics!

2012-04-01T23:13:00.000+02:00

When it's about test management, you're looking for some simple ways to know the "quality" of the system under test. It's often something impossible to obtain easily.

You can get it without a single click with XStudio Business or XStudio Enterprise 1.6a6.

The new indicators appear first on the SUT tree so that you have for each SUT its quality. The quality is computed from:

- its functional coverage percentage

- the latest results of each meaningful test cases (test cases covering the SUT):

Mixed with the recently added Coverage column, this is just amazingly powerful. You can also get the details of the meaningful test cases results on the next column on the right.

You will also get the same indicators on the campaign tree. In this case for each session, the quality is computed from the test case results obtained (only test cases functionally covering the SUT are retained) vs the total number of test cases covering the SUT (associated with the session):

Simple isn't it?

XStudio 1.6: New progress metrics

2012-03-17T15:06:00.000+01:00

One of the most important question you need to figure out when you're a test manager is "when my test campaigns execution will be completed".

You can get the answer to this question without a single click starting with XStudio 1.6a5.

There are 2 different types of progress metric you can get:

Progress in terms of test cases executed versus test cases left
Progress in terms of timing: how much time has already been spent but more importantly how much time will be necessar to complete the execution. When you create a test in XStudio you will be asked to give an estimated time for execution. But each time this test is executed, XStudio measures the effective time spent and correct the original estimation. The time necessary to execute a test is calculated from the ten last execution and allows estimating the time necessary to complete the session execution.

The metrics are available directly from the general campaign tree.

When you select "Test cases executed" in the selector at the top of the tree you 'll get the progress in terms of test cases executed:

If you select "Estimated time" in the selector at the top of the tree you 'll get the progress in terms of time spent vs time still needed to complte the session:

The even better news is that If you organize your campaigns in folders that represent something (a functional area, a complete release, a package etc.), the system will consolidate the progress and recursively propagate the metric to parent folders.

This way you know how much time is necessary to finish all the sessions included within a folder for instance.

This feature is available in XStudio Professional, XStudio Business and XStudio Enterprise.