I need a test automation tool for Silverlight. Basically, I need a tool that would simulate users accessing, clicking buttons etc. on a Silverlight UI.
A google search has turned up several promising leads:
WebAii
White
Selenium-Silverlight
NeoLoad
I need to know what the pros and cons of each of them are, and of any other suitable tools for this purpose.
I would prefer a open source tool but am not averse to a proprietary one if necessary.
There's one available in SL4 for unit testing
It's quite handy if you do MVVM to write unit tests against your models
Related
We are planning to migrate our Silverlight application which having both business and UI logic to new technology. Is there any standard procedures or tools available for silverlight migration.
We want to move to standard technology like html and supported by all windows/mac/Linux browsers. Please give us any suggestions
There is no straight-forward migration path from Silverlight to any technology, despite probably to WPF to a degree, but as you mentioned that you want to run in the browser, probably the best way today is to use Blazor, which just got its first official release, and Microsoft is heavily investing in it right now.
On top of that, the French company Userware created the OpenSilver platform, which is a Silverlight replacement based on WebAssembly and Blazor, compatible with all major browsers. They even provide professional migration services based on this approach.
There is also rich ecosystem already evolved, with a lot of third-party UI components vendors (like Telerik, DevExpress, Radzen, etc.).
At Mobilize.Net we have a migration tool that converts the client side XAML and C# to TypeScript using Angular, Kendo UI, HTML, and CSS. It supports C# constructs like generics and interfaces.
You can watch a live stream from Twitch here This is an approach most suitable for very large complex SL web apps that would be too time consuming or expensive to rewrite into a pure native approach.
My manager asked me to do some automated UI tests for our Silverlight application. The problem is that this application uses some custom controls, therefore I cannot programmatically access them right away.
The only way to access them is to use AutomationPeer, but my manager doesn't like this idea, because it goes against testing principle to change the code in order to support UI automation; the code should be tested as-is.
Is there a method or a tool that will enable me to create automated Silverlight UI tests, without the use of AutomationPeer?
Your custom controls should support automated testing, but that same mechanism is how accessibility tools interact with them.
Tell your manager, 'I need to add accessibility support, and automation comes free'.
In short, if you can't automate your control, a blind, deaf, and/or limited mobility person can't use it anyway.
There are several solutions. One is you can write full support via a UITestExtionsPackage Take a look at these
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/gautamg/archive/2010/03/23/writing-extension-for-wpf-custom-control.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mathew_aniyan/archive/2011/05/17/custom-wpf-control-s-custom-properties.aspx
However this solution might be a simpler one
http://blog.benday.com/archive/2011/07/18/Silverlight-Coded-UI-Tests-with-UserControls-amp-AutomationProperties.aspx
There seems to have a buzz around the Lightswitch application framework.
Reading some posts/forums/articles and listening to a video provdided some answers, but raised some others.
Extensibility?
Is there several hooks to override or extend features?
Modularity? Can MEF/Prism be integrated? Is there a concept of dynamic modules that can be loaded at runtime?
Localizable? Any special features about localization in different languages?
Versionnable? Any concept of version so simultaneous version can co-exist?
Abstraction? The connection to data source can be abstracted and replaced?
Testability? Are the different components unit testable in an automated way? Easy or difficult to achieve?
Cross-cutting / NFR ? Any hooks so we can plug NFR code? (logging, caching, audit, secuity )
Is this a solid framework to build some PAAS application over?
Let me give you my 2 cents based on an eval I just did:
Extensibility
You can of course add custom controls and apparently there will be a published extensability API.
Modularity
No. Lightswitch is not a code generator, it abstracts out implementation of the UI.
Localizable
Did not see anything, but I imagine this will occur in stages.
Versionnable?
You could TFS the Lightswitch project, but if you mean versioning from an execution standpoint ... it's as simple as deploying a new version of the app to the server. The client will check for updates on run and install as necessary from what I understand.
Abstraction
Yes, if you abstract it at the WCF RIA Services layer which is very easy to do.
Testability
Business rules can be implemented at the RIA Services layer so testing there should be a snap, but if you rely heavily on rules driven through the UI you will have to use another UI-based testing tool.
Cross-cutting / NFR
If you focus on getting the RIA Services tier of the app to be the central location for business rules and let the UI just focus on user experience you won't run into much overlap. I think Lightswitch is a good client for many solutions, but the core power of it is using it as a client for RIA Services which itself is not dependent on Lightswitch by any stretch.
I hope I at least provided some useful insight.
Extensibility? When the built-in LS controls don't allow you to do what you need, you can use just about any Silverlight control (including 3rd party controls), or create your own custom Silverlight controls. There is a little more work to do than using LS controls, because the LS controls have some extra "smarts" built into them, so you can just drop them on a screen, bind, & use them. There are also extensibility points built into the framework that allows you to create your own "extensions" (shells, controls, themes etc).
Modularity? LS already uses MEF under the covers, so it's quite possible that it may be able to be leveraged further in the future. LS does generate code, but for itself, not for external consumption. There is an excellent article, however, by Microsoft's Eric Erhardt
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/lightswitch/archive/2011/04/08/how-do-i-display-a-chart-built-on-aggregated-data-eric-erhardt.aspx
that shows how to reuse the data model that LS constructs (in Eric's case, he uses it to create a RIA service that aggregates data for presentation in a chart control).
Localizable? I don't believe there are currently any built-in localisation features.
Versionable? For a web-based app, if the data schema didn't change, I don't see why you couldn't publish separate versions, but desktop (OOB) apps are click-once apps & are therefore governed by that technology.
Abstraction? If you were to create a RIA service for your data source, you could abstract away the implementation details.
Testability? Unfortunately, V1 was not written with "testability" in mind. If you extract out your business logic into Silverlight class libraries (for use on the client, or full .NET class libraries for use on the server), you can unit test that logic, but the code that you write in an LS application itself is not really unit-testable at this point in time.
The web based application I am working on currently is a port from a windows application. This application is very data intensive. There are scores of modules and each of these modules have number of forms (data entry screens) and reports whereas the forms have many many fields and likewise the reports.
I have been trying to identify the most suitable architecture for the presentation tier. There are many functions that are not very easily portable, for example printing (this too is very complex). For most of the others, I am planning to us "Ext JS" library which looks like capable of handling about 70% of complexity out of the box while for the remaining I would be custom coding or extending Ext JS.
Having said that (sorry for being so descriptive), I wonder, if this is an Intranet application, why not port the entire application to SilverLight? While I am good at .Net, I'm somewhat alien to SilverLight. Considering I know my target audience and that the software will be used per seat license, would it be better to ride on SilverLight or is it better to stick to conventional web (XHTML, JS, CSS, etc)? Further, I have to support multiple devices in future and considering that SilverLight plug-ins for many devices are yet not out, would it be a risk?
IMO, if you are developing a web application, then yes, develop it as an RIA.
The choice of technology is up to you. I prefer jQuery and have never used ExtJS. But I've taken a look at it, and if your aplication is a port of a windows application and has a lot of conventional UI elements like forms, input boxes, toolbars, menus, button etc, then go for ExtJS.
As for some controls that are not available in ExtJS, you can easily extend ExtJS.
Regarding .NET: ExtJS is completely server-technology agnostic, so you can develop your application in .NET and still use an ExtJS UI. In fact, I would prefer to do such an implementation.
Regarding Silverlight: I am slightly against using silverlight, primarily because it requires a plugin to be installed that is not available on all platforms. But since your application is an intranet application, your user base will be in your control. But you should make sure that any future decision regarding the workstation platform will not affect your application's working.
Cheers
Whether to use Silverlight over HTML/JS etc. in this case would depend on 2 key factors.
What are you familar with already
What type and range of devices you need to reach.
If you are already comfortable with HTML + ExtJS then that has to be huge pro in its favor.
The range of devices that Silverlight is possibly going to be available (Windows Phone 7 for example as well as Moonlight, I've even heard that there may be port for Andriod and Symbian) is growing. However its really early days for that and not all may materialise in a form useful to you.
Having said that it should be acknowledged that a UI designed for use on desktop does not work well on a small device. Hence you would need to develop some task specific UI for other devices regardless of the technology you use. This in turn means that there is no reason for you to try to stick with single technology for all devices.
I think you should look very carefully into WCF, REST and OData first. Good layering of the application into useful models using these would more easily enable the use of a variety of front-end technologies for the client.
If you are into .NET and other Microsoft tech then you should seriously consider using JQuery and ASP.NET MVC as another potential front end technology.
I think that you need to ponder the inconveniences of a solution based solely in Silverlight. Like Flash it needs a plugin to be installed in every station, so it loses some of the premises of web applications (run everywhere with the only requirement of a browser). Besides although Silverlight has taken great advances, it is not yet a widely supported standard, and it is in control of a company who later may decide for you in very important matters regarding the platform you use, and made it outdated or useless (in the worst case).
Ext JS is a great library developed entirely in Javascript, so you can touch anything that suits your needs. If the Windows applications you are basing on is well-layered, then your work may not be that hard.
If you are an asp.net developer you could take a look on asp.net mvc, a great set of tools that implements MVC pattern to web applications using the same old C# or VB. Besides the developers behind asp.net mvc, have taken a lot of work to make it suitable to work with javascript libraries like jQuery
Happy coding!!!
I want to automate the application develoepd in silverlight. Can you let me know whether there are any open source tools are available which can be used for automating SilverLight app. Thanks.
We are doing UI testing on a Silverlight application using the UIAutomation API, and it works very nicely.
Project White is a library that sits on top of UIAutomation, and many people find it helpful. I prefer to use the UIAutomation APIs directly - it's really not as hard as you might think, as my tutorial shows.
If you're looking to perform User Interface Automation (UIA) to simulate mouse clicks, keyboard presses, etc. there is no "easy" way to get this today.
I've seen some third party tools that may work, such as Telerik's. Note that I have not used and do not endorse this, just know it is out there!
I am currently trying out Project White and finding it quite easy to use.
Before using Project White I tried out WiPFlash which was also rather easy to use. It just lacked a few features that I was after (Right Click and Drag options).