Test API library

Sharing a URL to a library that will help you write automated tests (API tests, application tests, and everything in between). I'm currently playing around with it and will share my thoughts on this later.

http://testapi.codeplex.com/

MS WPF Testing-API Testing

The link below is a guide on how to test WPF applications and
controls but has a lot of valuable content on API testing in
general

http://windowsclient.net/wpf/white-papers/wpf-app-quality-guide.aspx

Topics that are covered include the following:

• Information about the WPF programming stack.
• Information about different levels of testing, from API testing to integration to system testing.
• A list of available tools and related references.

Sample code is provided wherever applicable

API Testing

What is an API testing? Testing types and purpose.

http://www.testinggeek.com/index.php/testing-types/testing-purpose/108-api-testing

10 Principles for Agile Testers

I'm reading the book written by Lisa Grispin and Janet Gregory: "Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams", I suggest reading it.

1) Provide Continuous Feedback
2) Deliver Value to the Customer
3) Enable Face-to-Face Communication
4) Have Courage
5) Keep it Simple
6) Continuously improve
7) Respond to change
8) Self-Organize
9) Focus on People
10) ENJOY what you do!



The ten principles that the authors published should sound familiar. Four of these principles directly cover XP's four values of feedback, communication, courage, and simplicity; these and the remainder are also largely echoed in the agile manifesto and its supporting principles. So what's relevant about how these ten principles apply to agile testing?

Provide continuous feedback - The agile tester is central to providing the team with feedback: Acceptance criteria is the most concrete way to measure positive progress on an agile project. Tests also help identify issues and capture decisions on appropriate future direction.
Deliver value to the customer - The insistence on acceptance tests is a "reality check" on scope creep. Acceptance tests help us all understand what it means to realize a customer's needs.
Enable face-to-face communication - Testers can often be the ones on a team responsible for bridging the communication gap between customers (BAs, product owners, etc.) and programmers. A tester can be the one who physically brings these people together, as well as the one who drives derivation of a common language between the two parties.
Have courage - One of the larger challenges of agile is in sustaining a fast-paced iterative environment, where every two weeks we need to ship quality software. This challenge demands significant courage. Yet the irony is that we also need to understand that iterations afford us opportunities to learn how to fail and adapt--something that can require an even heavier dose of courage!
Keep it simple - Agile testers can help push back against an insistence on overly-elaborate features. Testers can also help the customer understand how to incrementally deliver value. They must learn an appropriate balance of iterative testing-- just enough to provide the right confidence in delivering software.
Practice continuous improvement - A key element of using iterations is to allow for learning to take place. Testers should be part of retrospectives (and if you're not consistently adapting based on the results of retrospectives, you're not agile enough.) Testers should also treat their career as a profession by continually learning more about testing practices, tools, and the system itself.
Respond to change - Agile testing is dramatically different in that there are few true "cutoff points"--things keep changing and thus must be continually re-tested. This requires automation! The agile tester learns to cope with the customer changing his or her mind from iteration to iteration, and correspondingly learns how to incrementally flesh out necessary testing specifications.
Self-organize - In a true agile team, everyone has the capability to act as a tester. Agile teams know how to shift focus as needed; from time to time, for example, it may be prudent for programmers to turn their attention toward helping verify a "done" but not "done done" feature.
Focus on people - Testers are often at the bottom of the totem pole in a non-agile software development team. Work is thrown at them, their available slice of time is continually squished, and programmers often look upon them as lessers. In an agile team, every shares the responsibility for ensuring that we are building quality product. Agile testers are key in bringing their testing expertise to the team.
Enjoy - The ability to help drive the process and be a true, equal contributor to a team can be extremely gratifying for an agile tester.

Dates in MySQL

Throughout history many different calendar systems have been developed around the world. Although the way of counting years still varies, most countries and regions have adopted the Roman-Nordic system of months and weekdays - except, ironically enough, a small corner of Scandinavia with a high dolphin population ;-).

mysql> CREATE TABLE datetest (id INT, a_date DATE);Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)mysql> INSERT INTO datetest VALUES(1, '2003-02-31');Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)mysql> SELECT * FROM datetest;
+------+------------+
| id | a_date |
+------+------------+
| 1 | 2003-02-31 |
+------+------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec

So, what's the day before February 31st?

mysql> SELECT DATE_SUB('2003-02-31', INTERVAL 1 DAY);
+----------------------------------------+
| DATE_SUB('2003-02-31', INTERVAL 1 DAY) |
+----------------------------------------+
| 2003-03-02                             |
+----------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

Which is of course two days before the day after February 31st:

mysql> SELECT DATE_ADD('2003-02-31', INTERVAL 1 DAY);
+----------------------------------------+
| DATE_ADD('2003-02-31', INTERVAL 1 DAY) |
+----------------------------------------+
| 2003-03-04 |
+----------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

So what kind of checking does MySQL do on date values? A hint:
If you use really malformed dates, the result is NULL.


Obviously, the 31st of February is not malformed enough. Let's try again:

mysql> SELECT DATE_ADD('2003-02-!!!!!!31!!!!!', INTERVAL 1 DAY);
+---------------------------------------------------+
| DATE_ADD('2003-02-!!!!!!31!!!!!', INTERVAL 1 DAY) |
+---------------------------------------------------+
| 2003-03-04                                        |
+---------------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

Not exaclty.

mysql> SELECT DATE_ADD('2003-02-99', INTERVAL 1 DAY);
+----------------------------------------+
| DATE_ADD('2003-02-99', INTERVAL 1 DAY) |
+----------------------------------------+
| NULL                                   |
+----------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec

The MySQL server only performs basic checking on the validity of a date: days 00-31, months 00-12, years 1000-9999. Any date not within this range will revert to 0000-00-00. Please note that this still allows you to store invalid dates such as 2002-04-31. It allows web applications to store data from a form without further checking. To ensure a date is valid, perform a check in your application.