Test Run Blog

Making use of "Products" in Test Run: Hierarchies anyone?

2009-02-18T18:15:40Z

Customers frequently ask if Test Run could one day in the future support hierarchical test cases. It is a feature that is definitely on the roadmap, but its implementation would be pretty hairy, so I have honestly been putting it off. But it occurred to me that the feature may already exist in a latent form. If you have used Test Run than you are familiar with a "Product" property associated with test cases. It is a property I added, but I never developed any *features* around because it was clear that some form of test case segmentation was needed, but it was unclear how it might be used. So this feature exists, but does not provide any benefit to users. It occurs to me however, that this feature could easily be used to segment test cases into *test suites*. Then a slight UI change could easily be introduced to group and display test cases by test suite as opposed to in a strict reverse chronological order. I would love to hear from users what they think of this idea and whether they currently use the Product field for anything. Let me know!

Follow Test Run on Twitter!

2009-02-12T22:49:56Z

Test Run now has a Twitter account. If you want to stay up with the latest development news, follow us there!

A New Manage Test Plans Design

2009-01-07T17:27:13Z

I have been receiving a lot of feedback in the New Year from new customers, perhaps because people out there are looking for ways to cut costs and keep things simple. Their feedback as usual has been invaluable, and most recently led me to revisit the design of the Manage Test Plans screen. The impetus for the change was to create a framework that allowed for me to surface more management functionality on the screen and to offer a more compressed layout that allows admins to take more information in more quickly and efficiently. I am not finished yet, so feedback is still welcome. Here is a before and after of the Manage Test Plans screen: **Before** **After** What do you think?

Redesigning Test Run Forms...

2008-12-13T21:56:16Z

I have been looking and admiring a lot of other web applications recently and have paid special attention to form design. Test Run's forms have gone through multiple iterations, but none of them are as simple as I would like them to be. I feel they require too much scrolling and they don't put the right emphasis on the right things. So I am in the process of redesigning Test Run's forms and would love to hear from customers what they think. ## Before ## After Here is what I have done: * I have place summary and description up front because those are arguably the most important fields on the page. * I have devoted less space to the text format radio buttons and kept them closer to the textarea box that they control. * I have widened the summary and description fields so you can see more of what you are typing.

Performance Tuning and Enhancements

2008-09-30T17:31:29Z

With the slow and steady increase of customer usage of Test Run Online, the product has begun to feel a little sluggish and a number of you, my customers, had expressed their concern. On the up side, I guess that is bound to happen when you have over a hundred thousand test cases, and five thousand test plans - surely a sign of success by some measure. But the success of Test Run should never come at the expense of paying customers, so I have turned my attention towards performance and database optimization. Having just completed a thorough analysis of Test Run's database architecture I will, over the course of the next several days, be rolling out a number of recommended improvements to the system. Several have already been deployed and the results are enjoyable - and difference is remarkable. Of course, I am also working on other improvements to make Test Run more usable, and flexible. A number of users have been having difficulty with text formatting, and in working with them I realized that text formatting doesn't always make sense as a global setting. So, I just finished making text formatting, like the use of markdown and a rich text editor, a test case level setting. Now each and every test case can set its own preference for how it should be formatted. Other improvements are also coming, so stay tuned.

Test Run 1.1 Beta Finally Begins

2008-04-28T06:58:57Z

Welcome the new version of Test Run: 1.1. Behind the scenes the product has undergone a great deal of change in the last twelve months and I am finally pleased enough with what has accumulated to release the first public beta. ## More Information about this release: * Detailed change log ## Finding Help and Reporting Bugs * Report a bug * Find help from the community in our forums ## Frequently Asked Questions **I am not sure what I found is a bug, should I still report it?** We want to hear any thoughts you may have about the application. Perhaps what you have found is not a bug, but if it doesn't work the way you want it to then something could be improved. So please, be sure to inform us if: * an error occurs * if the application appears slow * you receive a javascript error * you have a feature request **Do you have special support for Jira and other bug tracking systems?** Support for Bugzilla is almost complete. However before it is released, we wanted to finalize the developer interfaces between Test Run and the bug system driver with more thorough and public testing. Next on the list to support is Jira because of the overwhelming number of requests we have received for it. **How long will the beta last?** Our hope is to wrap up the beta as soon as possible. **Can I subscribe to Test Run during the beta?** Absolutely!

Preparing for the Test Run 1.1 Beta

2008-04-17T05:22:16Z

Test Run 1.1 has been in development for a very, very long time. I admit. But the pay off will be worth it as there is a lot in this release to look forward to, and virtually all of it is the result of direct feedback from you - my users. So, some time next week or two I hope to launch a beta of the next version of Test Run. I would like to first extend the opportunity to users of the downloadable version of Test Run to try it out and after an initial round of feedback and testing, roll it out to everyone using the online version. If you would like to get a preview of this upcoming version of Test Run, [drop me a line](http://www.runtestrun.com/help/ttx.cgi?style=corp2), and I will happily provide you with a copy. For a complete list of enhancements that have been made in Test Run 1.1 to date, keep reading. #### Test Run 1.1 Enhancements and Bug Fixes * An import feature for Test Link which will allow people to easily migrate to Test Run from the Test Link case tracking tool. * Test Plan printing - many users asked for the ability to print a test plan to make it easy to review plans offline. * Rich Text Editing - several users have asked for me to integrate a WYSIWYG editor into Test Run * Upgraded to latest version of YUI * Updated almost all buttons and dialogs to be more consistently styled * Redesigned the test plan header to be more condensed and generally useful * Refactored primary navigation through out the application to use pull down menus to make easier to move from one place in the app to another. * Added a Manage Products area * Added tag search to "Add Test Cases" dialog * Converted "Add Product" to javascript dialog * Eliminated some PHP errors about undefined indexes * Made product selection sticky * Added ability to track when a test plan was archived - now records the date and displays the archive date in the table listing * Fixed alignment of "Forgot password?" text * Anonymous users now see proper text formatting on a test case * Updated feedback link in footer to point to a generic end point that redirects to the proper location allowing us to more easily point installed customer base to a new location easily. * Status of test cases in detail view now get updated when test is run * Fixed bug where the summary field was not in focus when create/edit test case form is displayed * Fixed bug whereby the scroll bar on the add cases dialog would not disappear reliably when dialog was closed * Finish implementing Test Link import routine * Made it more intuitive on how to archive a test plan * Create test case buttons use old style * Adding a bug that already exists does nothing * Adding a bug that is already resolves, sets bug to proper state * Test Run will now resolve all bugs within an account of the same Bug ID when that bug id is marked as resolved. * Remove "Your Profile" - should just take user to edit profile screen * Edit profile form is kinda borked - fixed * Edit permissions form could use better alignment * Bug ID is linked when it shouldn't be (when a bug url pattern is absent) in report * Create/Edit Test Plan button in old style * Backend logic for resolving all logged bugs with the same ID implemented There are of course many other smaller tweaks, a number of other fixes behind the scenes to trim down the application, improve its overall design, and so forth. But I imagine most people don't really care about that stuff. Remember, if you are interesting in testing out Test Run 1.1 Beta 1, [please let me know](http://www.runtestrun.com/help/ttx.cgi?style=corp2)!

Sneak Peak of Test Run 1.1

2007-11-16T19:40:28Z

I wanted to give a quick development update as we near a release of Test Run 1.1 Beta. I have nearly completed Bugzilla integration with FogBugz, but there are still a lot of kinks to work out in regards to allowing users of our hosted product to access their private instance of Bugzilla. I have also been working on a number of UI tweaks to make Test Run easier to navigate and use. Without going into too much detail yet, here are a few screenshots to whet your appetite:

Test Run 1.1 Development Begins

2007-09-28T18:35:57Z

Summer is over, the traditional slow time of the year in the software industry, and I have been getting a lot of renewed interest in Test Run. Customers have been submitting bug reports and a lot of feature requests, and many of them have in all honesty gone relatively unanswered in the last several months. Well, that is about to change. I feel there is a critical mass of feature requests to begin working on Test Run 1.1. So last night work officially began. I have started to assess a lot of different things about the product in an effort to improve customer support and the experience around finding help. I upgraded the Test Run Blog and Knowledge Base to use Movable Type 4.0, and I have migrated Test Run's forums off of my personal web server onto the production Test Run machines. This has the added benefit of dedicating Test Run's forums exclusively to Test Run. Users will no longer find content related to my other software projects. This is a good thing. As for what features I am planning for this release: * At the top of the list is the need to integrate with popular bug tracking systems. This feature will allow users to submit bug reports directly into Bugzilla and FogBugz from within Test Run. * An import feature for Test Link which will allow people to easily migrate to Test Run from that case tracking tool. * Test Plan printing - many users asked for the ability to print a test plan to make it easy to review plans offline. * Rich Text Editing - several users have asked for me to integrate a WYSIWYG editor into Test Run, and I will see what I can do to accommodate. * Naturally there will be lots of bug fixes as well. I encourage users to submit feature requests to me (as a comment to this post if you wish) and let me know what you would like to see out of the next version of Test Run.

New features: Tag Management and Time Estimates

2007-05-24T06:18:15Z

"I have worked at a lot of companies and have been responsible for reviewing and recommending countless test management tools. Test Run is far and away the best and simplest tool I have ever encountered." God, I can't tell you how wonderful it is to get feedback like that. When it sometimes becomes really hard to create awesome software while continuing to work full time at another job you also love, feedback like that picks you up and keeps you going. And what better way to reward a growing and increasingly involved and engaged user base then with a new release of Test Run? Tonight I am happy to announce the latest version of Test Run which contains features implemented exclusively from customer feedback. Most notably, Test Run 1.09 has the the following new features.]]> * *Time Estimates* - The test case property known as "Difficulty" has been removed and replaced with a far more useful field for collecting a time estimate from the test case creator. Time estimates will allow for a number of cool new project management features down the road, but in the short term the Resource Balancing Report has become much more useful because now an administrator can quickly see more specifically how much work is assigned to each member on their team. * *Better Tag Management* - A number of users mentioned that they have tags that continue to lie about their installation that they have a lot of difficulty purging and cleaning up. Now Test Run allows administrators to delete and manage tags within their account from the convenience of a single console. * *New User Tour* - Now new users of Test Run are greeted by a redesigned welcome page and dashboard designed to help them get up and running using Test Run quickly and more easily. In addition to the above features, numerous bug fixes have been made, and a few small features have been added here and there. Thank you again to all the users who continue to send feedback, without you Test Run would not be nearly as useful.

And now with full text search

2007-04-22T04:31:27Z

So I have been working on a number of features requested by potential customers - oh the lengths I will go to to try and get someone to actually pay for the services! (It really is worth paying for honest!) One customer I have been corresponding with really admired the use of tags within Test Run and how they facilitated their filtering cases. However, they still found tags inadequate for searching test cases and asked if there was a way to offer a full-text search allowing users to find test cases by text found in the summary, detailed description, the notes and more. A quick search on Google revealed that thanks to Lucene the feature is relatively easy to implement. So, a quick download of the PHP Zend Framework and presto: full text search is done. I would have released the feature a while ago, but thanks to some issues with executing PHP from the command line it took a little longer than I anticipated to index all of the thousands and thousands of cases stored in Test Run. But I was finally able to get 100% of the test cases indexed and so search is now available online. It may take a while for me to document the process to enable full text search, so users of the downloadable version will need to be patient while I wrap a few things up. In the meantime, users of the hosted version of Test Run can begin using full text search right away.

Announcing Reorderable Test Cases

2007-04-02T03:11:37Z

We have been hard at work this week making a number of small improvements to Test Run, and one big one. A number of customers have been expressing the desire to have more control over the order in which they execute their test cases. Until now Test Run always ordered test cases in reverse chronological order. What made this challenging for many users was the fact that some testing requires test cases to be executing in a very specific sequence. So to address their concern we implemented the feature to allow test planners the ability to order test cases however they see fit.

When we designed and developed this feature we wanted to make the process as intuitive and as simple as possible, allowing test planners to drag and drop test cases in what ever order they choose. We could tell you more about this feature, but I think it much better to see it in action.

In development: Test case re-ordering

2007-03-29T06:35:12Z

Last night I released Test Run 1.04, a version that contained a minor feature enhancement enabling greater interoperability with popular bug tracking systems. Tonight I started work on Test Run 1.05 which contains a single feature: the ability to re-order test cases within a test plan. This feature request comes after a number of customers expressed concern that their process required tests to be run in a specific sequence. However Test Run's default sort order (the created on date) was insufficient. They wanted more control then that. So in the next version of Test Run, customers will be allowed to specify the order of their test cases within a test plan using a simple drag-and-drop interface. Stay tuned...

New feature: Non-numeric bug ids

2007-03-28T22:34:08Z

Jira, a bug tracking tool created by Atlassian. Jira is unique among other bug tracking systems in that the bug IDs it produces are not exclusively numeric. This made it difficult, if not impossible for those using Jira to integrate with Test Run's bug tracking capabilities. So last night we released a few changes to enabled Test Run users to enter bugs into the system that can be any arbitrary string. So Jira users: rejoice. Test Run now works even better for you.]]> A complete change log for Test Run version 1.04 follows: * Added ability to log non-numerical bug types specifically so that I could support Jira per a customer's request. * modified upgrade_map for schema changes * created new sql upgrade files to support addition of necessary columns * added SCHEMA_VERSION global var, which is now different than the public display version of Test Run * new column added to logged_bugs: bug_id_str * bug_id column in logged_bugs now obsolete * Actual/discrete version of Test Run now properly displayed in the footer * Fixed minor bug associated with building the "edit" link for a test case. * Fixed a number of bugs having to do with failing test cases and the display of the fail case dialog * fail case dialog did not always appear as a Yahoo UI dialog, sometimes was an alert * the log bug form did not always disappear properly when failure of case was canceled. * fixed egregious bug left over from testing where when you failed a test case it always logged a bug with the id of "100" no matter what you entered in the input box

"The only viable on demand solution"

2007-03-25T18:55:35Z

Tagged.com is one of Test Run's earliest adopters. Their team has been using the hosted version of Test Run for over a year now. They provide us with invaluable feedback to make the application better and we sincerely appreciate their business.

"Test Run was the only viable On Demand Test Case Management solution that provides a usable, flexible, comprehensive and reliable framework to manage tests. If you want everyone in your team to get up and running quickly, Test Run is the ideal solution."

]]> ## About Tagged, Inc. Tagged.com was launched in 2004, and is an explosively growing social-networking portal developed specifically for teens aged 13 through 19. Emerging as the premier brand in the lucrative teen demographic, Tagged is rapidly becoming the number one teen site on the web.