How to test an application is working frequently by performing a fundamental action (non interactively)

Question

Hi,

We want to test a connection to an application as a feature of a program we are developing, but to go further with this, we want to actually do a sort of diagnostic test to ensure that the app is working and not just take the service status as gospel (the main windows service running does not mean the app is working fully). However, this app has no api exposed by it, and the forms may be designed in C++ as the app is a mix of many languages (C# is just one of them).

One way to do this is by UI automation and then programatically perform the necessary UI actions to test the app works by performing a fundamental action which uses all the prerequisites like a domain-joined account, etc. However, is there a way to do this non interactively so the forms of the app don't actually show up? If not, is there another way to solve this problem?

Thanks

Answer 1

With no exposed API, you are stuck with automation.

Take a look at autoit. It excels at doing these types of tasks. If it's vbesque script isn't for you it has a DLL interface for use in your favorite language. It is free.

Check it out.

Answer 2

Here are some ideas

Headless UI
You should investigate if this application can be run in a "headless" mode, i.e. without a visible UI. Alot of applications have this option even though it might not always be obivous.

UI Automation
Some tools for UI Automation:
* Microsoft UI Automationbr
* HP QuickTest Proffesional
* AutoIt v3

Analyis Log, If there is one
You could investigate if the application you are connection to writes a log.

* 14:14 Status:OK Activity:Routed 24 messages (or whatever it does) Uptime:2h12m
* 14:15 Status:OK Activity:No Activity Uptime:2h13m
* 14:16 Status:OK Activity:Routed 12 messages, 2 failed see error.log for details Uptime:2h14m

If it does, then you can write a diagnostics script that reads the log, analyses Status, Activity, Uptime and raise flags for any strange behaviour.

Hope this helps!