Regression Testing a Web Site
It sounds like a simple problem. I have
an ASP.Net web site that uses a DB to serve up content using a variety of skins.When
a code update is deployed or a new feature is added, I want to regression test the
site. Simple, right?
What I Want to Do
-
Use a tool that crawls the web site, stores
the pages and some data about those pages, maybe in a database - Roll out your change
- Run the tool again
- Compare the results of the 2 test runs
this task with 3 tools. Empirix e-Tester, WatchFire Linkbot, and Red-Gate ANTS Load.
Here is what I have so far:
Within 5 minutes of trying, I realized that this tool
is for load testing, straight and simple. It does not do what I am after.
This tool is extremely expensive and we have a couple of licenses for it that we use
to function and load test some web products. This tool is extremely detailed and offers
a host of functionality. If I wanted to click every link on the website in order to
record the test script, it would be perfect.
Good news! A component of e-Tester is called e-Spider. Sounds like a crawler,
right? So I open that utility up try to crawl the site. No go. It won’t walk past
the root node. I read the help, search the web, look in the vendor’s knowledge base,
nothing. So, unsettling to my developer brain that it is, I call the tech support
number.
I only wait a minute on hold, not bad. Some guy picks up the phone and I tell him
my problem. He says, “No problem. I had this problem a few days ago, let me
pull the case record. Hold for a sec.“
5 minutes go by. This guy comes back on the phone and says the conversation goes something
like this:
“Hey, I’m back. I was dealing with a different problem.““Uh… OK.““So you want e-Spider to work for you, right?““Right.““Well, can I be honest? It isn’t going to.““What do you mean?““Well, that product just doesn’t really work. Our products are incapable
of crawling a website. You need to record the scripts.“And then, well, he basically said, “Bubye“.
So I guess the good news about this product is that the heavy media and documentation
box will hold open a door.
Seems to be just the ticket. Allows you
to crawl a site (done), store the results (done), and re-run the test (done). Now,
let’s view that report! No dice.
After an hour of monkeying with it, it
was time to come home and write this blog entry. I have yet to see a report from this
product, although my Internet Operations guys swear by this product. I will try again
tomorrow.
is a reliable, simple, affordable way to accomplish this task. Any suggestions?
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