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Beta 7 Preview
December 19, 2005
Normally I wouldn't bother posting about feature enhancements until after they have been released, but I have been working on some improvements this weekend that I wanted to share with Test Run's Beta testers. First, thanks to all those who are submitting feedback and feature requests. With each release I get more and more users, and as a result more and more feedback. So each release seems to be getting better and better.
Native Excel Spreadsheet Support
Beta 7 is no execption. I have implemented a lot of little feature requests people submitted, and squashed a lot of bugs. But most notably I began implementing native Excel Spreadsheet support. With Beta 7 there will be no need to save your test plans as a CSV file. Now, just use Excel as you normally would. When it comes time to import your test cases, just upload the spreadsheet directly into Test Run and you are done. And the same is true for exporting your test cases and test plans as well. Just click the "Export" button and you will immediately begin downloading an Excel spreadsheet containing all of your test cases.
Improved Internationalization
One thing I have been surprised by is the interest I have received from the international community. To be honest, I never anticipated this problem, so I never solved it from the get-go. But with Beta 7 Test Run will fully support all international character sets in an effort to expand Test Run's utility around the world.
More control over test cases
One particular company is using Test Run to the extent that they needed more fine grained control over test case meta data. Specifically they needed the ability to delete bugs and notes associated with test cases. So I added that.
Soft deletes of test cases
In laymans terms a "soft delete" means that the item being deleted doesn't get physically or permanently deleted, it simply gets labeled as "deleted." This is roughly analogous to your operating system's trash can. In Beta 7 when you delete a test case, it gets moved to an invisible trash can. This removes it from view, but keeps the test case in the database in order to enable richer historical views, and to even enable an undelete feature [in the future].
That is the basic summary of the big things coming in Beta 7.Of course you can always keep up with Test Run's development progress in real time on the "What's Coming" page. I hope with each release I can demonstrate that I am listening to your needs and delivering solutions to your problems.
About Byrne Reese
Byrne Reese is a product manager by day and an engineer by night.
He conceived of Test Run to help project managers like him stay up to date and informed of what his team was working on.