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Jubula UI Tests with multiple developers [message #830138]

Tue, 27 March 2012 08:40

Kollin Krause

Messages: 18
Registered: March 2012

Junior Member

Hello!

I working in an agile team and we want to use Jubola to test the UI.
We use Jenkins for continuous integration and SVN for version control system.
In my team we have the idea to using a multi-user database for Jubola ... multiple developers can work on a single project concurrently. All developers currently working on a project may view and execute all parts of it.

In this case listen to the following scenario:

When developer(A) make changes in the UI and creates new UI-Tests. At this point the developer(B) has failing tests, because the changes in the UI aren´t committed in SVN Repository at that moment and therefore the changes aren´t in the working copy from developer(B).

After due consideration, set the developer(A) the new UI-Tests as ignore test. After a while, the developer(A) commits the changes from the UI into the SVN Repository and next he activates the UI-Tests for all developers.
For version control we want to make a XML-Export from the Jubola UI-Tests and commit this XML-File into the SVN Repository, too.

Any ideas or hints what can be a better way?
What are the best practices in other projects with this environment related to multiple developers?

Thanks!

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Re: Jubula UI Tests with multiple developers [message #830512 is a reply to message #830138]

Tue, 27 March 2012 18:35

Alexandra Schladebeck

Messages: 1613
Registered: July 2009

Senior Member

Hi,

The way we do it is to have 2 databases. One is used as the development database - tests in here are under development. When the tests are ready, then the project is exported via xml and checked into version control. Our nightly tests import the xml file into the second database - the "test" database. This is the version of the project used to execute the tests in our CI process. Using two databases like this lets us have tests or changes that are not 100% ready and yet still have tests running each evening.

Hope this information gives you some help,
Alex

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Re: Jubula UI Tests with multiple developers [message #831198 is a reply to message #830512]

Wed, 28 March 2012 15:46

Robert Barnard

Messages: 10
Registered: March 2012
Location: Sandy Springs, GA, USA

Junior Member

Hi Kollin, Hi Alex,

Thank you Kollen for posting this, your configuration is very similar to ours (e.g. Jenkins/SVN).

I'm currently evaluating Jubula/GUIDancer for our company. One of the items my management brought up is how to share a database between work groups who are separated by large distances.

Alex, I like your practice of using two databases; one for CI and one for development.

I'm wondering if we should use a third-n; other(s) for server co-located with work group(s) running as "hot-servers" to address network performance issues related to latency and/or connection robustness.

Would either of you care to add your thoughts?

Thank you in advance.

Kind Regards,

Robert

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Re: Jubula UI Tests with multiple developers [message #831276 is a reply to message #831198]

Wed, 28 March 2012 17:46

Alexandra Schladebeck

Messages: 1613
Registered: July 2009

Senior Member

Hi Robert,

The one thing you should definitely bear in mind is that you can't merge different versions of projects. So you can use as many databases as you need, but you should only edit the project in one of them. If certain changes we're planning run the way we plan / imagine them to, then aspects like distributed teams and even merging could be easier in later versions. However, even if all goes to plan, then these changes are going to be about a year away, so I would recommend having another strategy until then Wink

Having said all that, I personally don't have any experience with working over a network - perhaps other community members could add with their experiences / thoughts.

Best regards,
Alex

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Re: Jubula UI Tests with multiple developers [message #987704 is a reply to message #831276]

Tue, 27 November 2012 16:44

Bryan Obright

Messages: 2
Registered: July 2009

Junior Member

Our team is experiencing similar issues with distributed test development. Network latency to a common database varies significantly between sites (0.3ms to 400ms). Unfortunately when latency goes beyond 40ms, Jubula usability drops quickly to an unusable state.

As a result, we are looking at ways to workaround this (e.g. VMs hosted near the DB server, clustered database, etc.). These workarounds are not ideal since they require complex setups and additional resources.

It would be fantastic if Jubula supported file-based persistence rather than a database.... something more in-line with the standard IDE resource life-cycle. This would allow teams to use commercial source control for version management and merging. Development teams would already have the source control infrastructure to support this, so it would be a great fit. This type of setup would address performance and version issues (like work-in progress and separate code streams).

Aside from a change in the persistence architecture, some mechanism for merging independently modified instances would certainly help. Perhaps some function to sync content from a local database to a central database (check-in/out to a local or embedded database).

Alex: Can you give an update or additional information on the plans you mention regarding "another strategy"?

Thanks,

Bryan

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Re: Jubula UI Tests with multiple developers [message #988981 is a reply to message #987704]

Tue, 04 December 2012 07:18

Alexandra Schladebeck

Messages: 1613
Registered: July 2009

Senior Member

Hi Brian,

Thanks for the details from your side - the "workspace" idea is something that gets thrown around a lot. Basically though, apart from the rather giant effort it would require to implement, one of the negative points would be that non-developers using Jubula would have to deal with setting up and maintaining workspaces etc. So, the database paradigm seems to be staying around. That being said, it would indeed be great to have some merging capabilities - again though, I can't say much to how this would be realised at the moment. The other strategy that we looked at has been pushed back indefinitely, I'm afraid - our estimations for its implementation also came up with "rather giant effort".

We can carry on the discussion in an enhancement request for e.g. merge strategies, if you want to enter one.

Best regards,
Alex

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