Automation testing tool for Regression testing of desktop application

Question

Hi

I am working on a desktop application which uses Infragistic grids. We need to automate the regression tests for same.

QTP alone does not support this, we need to buy new plug in for same which my company is not very much interested in.

Do we have any open source tool for automating regression testing of desktop application? Application is in Dot net but i do not think it makes much of a difference. Please suggests, i have zeroed in for test complete but again it is licensed one. I need some open source.

Answer 1

You may want to try AutoIt. It is a great freeware allows you to accomplish more than just test automation.

In our product we also use TestComplete which is a commerical tool.

Answer 2

There is a list of OS Testing tools here - http://www.opensourcetesting.org/functional.php

Answer 3

Creating good automated GUI tests is a significant time investment. While some automated testing tools allow you to create tests from screen recording, the best tests are performed using scripting so that you can generalize behavior. ie.. wait until dialog box X, appears, enter Y, on success do Z. TestComplete allows you to create robust tests using multiple scripting languages including javascript, with many many hooks to value added components, ie.. the ability to pull test input from the DB (data driven testing), comparison of gold master images against target, OCR to interpret dialog box text when in graphics form. Compared to other commercial offers its reasonably priced.

I love open sources as much as the next guy. But we chose TestComplete as well as we couldn't find a reasonable open-source alternative. If you are serious about automated testing then you will end up creating thousands of lines of reusable and robust test code that should add enough value to justify the cost.

Also TestComplete was recommended by the guys that made the site you are now using Joel on Software blog and is the winner of multiple Jolt awards TestComplete jolt awards

Also as a QTP user you may find this discussion on TestComplete vs QuickTestPro interesting. I don't want to come off sounding like an advocate for this product. But I have used this for years in several different operations all successfully, and recommend this to every software house I know. Unless you can find an open-source application that is equal or better I would recommend you go with this product and spend the money, as it will save you money.

Note that this recommendation is focused on Windows desktop applications. For Java based applications you may have some reasonable open-source alternatives: Open Source Automated Test Tools Written in Java

Answer 4

If you already own QTP (I'm inferring that from your comment about having to buy the Infragisitcs plugin), then you can make it work with Infragistics. The Infragistics plugin will make record/playback easier, but you should be able to get by without it.

You want to use the .Object property on your QTP objects. This will give you access to the native methods and properties of the actual object, as opposed to the QTP proxy for that object. If you know that your grid control has a FocusCell method, then you could perform that like:

SwfWindow().SwfObject().Object.FocusCell 0,0

3rd party grids are always problematic, regardless of vendor. Some more common workarounds are using keystrokes for navigation and keystrokes (Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C) + the clipboard API to retrieve data from the grid.

Answer 5

I agree with David's answer! My company uses TestComplete7 for our windows application and we are able to handle almost everything with it. They recently added support for TMS components, so that has been a huge help. I definitely recommend TestComplete if you wish to create an automated testing suite. You could give the trial a shot, and see how it fares against your application. There is also documentation on how to interact that particular component.