FAQ

BugHuntress is a test suite designed specially for professional Palm software developers.
This testing tool makes it possible to automate testing process of Palm applications and, thus, save you time and money that are excessively spent on manual testing.

BugHuntress Test Suite (BHTS) is a client-server system. It consists of two parts:

• Palm part. Designed for Scripts & User Action recording and simulation. Its main functionality lies in recording and reproduction of scripts (sequences of user actions, written in programming language) that are usually executed by a tester with a target application. This part can be set both for working in the independent mode or under PC part management.
  
• PC part. Developed for Palm part management. Its main purpose is to facilitate storage, editing, reproduction control and update of scripts, test scenarios, bug reports and history. PC and Palm parts interact through COM-port, by using USB-bus and via TCP/IP protocol. Palm-part can be run on emulator instead of real device.
  

BHTS is a system in constant development, which supposes to have periodic updates and releases of newer versions.

Our company was founded in 1998 as an independent software development company. Wide experience in QA gained by our team and high demand on custom testing made our company to promote our QA services on a separate website.

Palm OS 3.0-4.1

BHTS guarantees the support of the following devices: Palm III, Palm IIIc, Palm IIIe, Palm IIIx, Palm V, Palm Vx, Palm VII, Palm VII (EZ), Palm m100, Palm m125, Palm m505, Palm m515, Palm i705, Sony PEG-T600C series, Sony PEG-T400 series, Sony PEG-N600C/N610C series, Sony PEG-N700C/N750C series, Sony PEG-S300 series, Handspring Visor, Handspring Visor Edge, Handspring Visor Prism, Handspring Visor Platinum, HandEra TRGpro, HandEra 330, AlphaSmart Dana, Palm m105, Palm m130, Palm m500, Sony PEG-S500C series.

Application crashes, blocks, functionality digressions, etc.

MS Script Debugger, real device or emulator, ROMs and BugHuntress Test Suite installed on your computer.

BHTS works with both - real Palm OS devices and emulators.

On the basis of software specification and Test Plan test scripts for BHTS are created. Then BHTS runs test scripts and finds bugs in target application. Bug is identified by BHTS when either actions set by script are not passed or control points discord with reference values specified in scripts. Control points can be represented by check sums, screenshots, logs, etc.

Script is a set of certain Java script and additional Palm-management commands, which describes the sequence of user actions on Palm. Script is created by QA engineer or programmer and is intended to check actual test values with reference ones at control points. Scenario is a set of scripts, other scenarios and pauses, intended to execute a number of test cases.
Session is a recorded sequence of user actions plus the initial state of target application (databases that are changed by tested application during testing process, clipboard, features and time).

JavaScript and special constructions (that are described in help files) are used as a scripting language. It is necessary to have basic knowledge of Palm OS and Java script to create test scripts. If testers do not know Java script, they can simply execute first test manually, and BHTS will automatically record their actions in scripting language. Then this test script can be saved and executed automatically by BHTS next time.

Basic logging (such as logging of the application start, application end and application crash) is performed by BHTS automatically. These logs can be viewed in script and scenario folders. In case you want to log the results of tests at certain control points important for you, you need to script this manually. You can define as many control points as you wish and enable logging of their test results. Beside that you can make a screenshot of the error event either by adding it to a script prior to automated testing or by taking it in real time manually (if there is a tester watching the testing process).

Any user actions, except for hard-commands and BHTS limitations on target applications.

Use of multiple devices simultaneously is not supported by the current version of BHTS.

Distinction in testing of the same application on different devices might differ by control points. It means that execution of some tests can lead to changes in some constant reference values at control points of the test script.

BHTS works with emulators or real devices only because current version of BHTS does not support Palm OS 5.x.

Objects in the target application can be recognized by indicating them in test scripts prior to testing. Tester can do it by either means described below:

• Manual (recommended for testers who have scripting skills). In this case you need to make a script yourself and define objects' IDs in it (they can be selected from the ControlsState list). These objects are going to be considered by BHTS as control points for your test.
  
• Automatic (recommended for beginners). In this case tester executes the test manually and records this session of actions to BHTS. This session is then automatically transferred by BHTS into scripts. After that the session can be added to the current project script. If tester chooses this option, objects' IDs will be defined by BHTS automatically.

BHTS does not support testing of hack-masters, real-time applications and applications that interact with external devices through IRDA, Bluetooth, and through other technologies, that are not supported by the current version of BHTS.

By choosing the specific type of connection for devices (emulators) from BHTS settings.

Emulators are supplied with BHTS. ROMs can be downloaded from http://www.palmos.com/dev/dl/dl_tools/dl_emulator/generic_roms.html

Testing on emulator is more convenient than testing on real device. However, it is not 100% guaranteed that program behavior will be the same, so testing on real device is also important.

Yes, there is plug-ins for BHTS, which extend BHTS functionality. For instance, Save plug-in performs automatic saving of project changes after certain time set by user.

Trial version of BHTS can be obtained upon request. You can use either electronic form on our website or send the e-mail with your request directly to info@bughuntress.com.

There are strict limitations on using BHTS demo version for testing purposes. Read readme_demo.txt to find out more information.