SOC Automated Windows Testing Project

[Chetan S]

> I think both proposed approaches have problems with testing GUI
> apps. I suggested to Brad that he concentrate initially on getting
> non-GUI testing working, then only look at methods for GUI testing if
> he has time.

It should be possible to trigger simple mouse based and keyboard
events using windows scripting.  Essentially a set of carefully
crafted activities.

> If he does get time, then it looks like there are quite a few windows
> GUI scripting systems freely available (just from a quick google
> search). I'm not sure how we'd trigger these from the Unix side of
> 'make test'. I guess we could connect with rdesktop and setup a logon
> script that starts a series of GUI scripts. It might be tricky to work
> out whether the app has behaved correctly though.
>
> Cheers, Tridge
>

Windows has something called "reskit"  which does provide something like that -


WSHADMIN.HLP  - This is a guide for creating , customizing and running
scripts using the Windows Scripting Host. (Scripting is complex: If
you'd like to learn more than this Help file can tell you, visit the
Windows Scripting Host Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/management
 or check out the "Automate Windows" feature, September).

TIMETHIS.EXE - You can time how long it takes to perform a given
command with this applet. It's intended for logging script activity,
but also can be run manually or from batch files for diagnosing
problems or creating simple benchmarks.

WAITFOR.EXE - When WaitFor receives a specific command over a network
connection, it can remotely trigger an activity on a networked machine
or even synchronize the actions of multiple machines.

WINSET.EXE - This tool sets or clears Windows environment variables
the same way the old DOS SET command set or cleared variables in DOS.
It also uses the same syntax.

If the idea of depending on microsoft tools does not appeal I guess it
might be worthwhile to have a look at  "twisted"  (
http://twistedmatrix.com/trac/ ) a python based event driven
framework. This can trigger the scripts on the remote host.


regards,
Chetan S