OnRoad Weblog

TFS Bug Item Synchronizer, new coming features

2010-01-12T06:01:16Z

We have again listened to Your valuable input on what new features there should be on TFS Bug Item Synchronizer. So keep these coming in towards us through our support.

We are now almost done with the next TFS Bug Item Synchronizer version.

Here’ some of the highlights on what will be in it:

Support for multiple TFS servers, mainly due to getting ready for TFS2010 version but current TFS2008 and TFS2005 will also benefit from this
Support for QC10 with version control enabled for requirements
Added possibility to combine fields from QC into TFS field. This is implemented so that QC field is left as undefined and default value for field contains QC fields in following format (this is from requirement): #RQ_REQ_ID# #RQ_REQ_NAME# RequirementType #RQ_TYPE_ID#. So this can include fields which are replaced when updating and also fixed values
New UI for setting properties:

Makes now possible to define Related workitems in Quality Center requirement and defect. This works by adding new field in QC – Related Items – in which related workitems are listed like ‘1919,1918,1817’. During next synchronization these are then linked to found workitems on TFS side
Valuemapping added also for Destination Workitem Type, which is used to select workitem type that is created from Quality Center item
Added possibility to copy value from another QC field based on valuemap
Include attachments –option is now project specific feature

Timetable for getting this out is by end of January 2010.

TFS2010 and TFS Bug Item Synchronizer

2009-11-01T20:49:46Z

After gettin few questions that when will we support TFS2010 on our TFS Bug Item Synchronizer we did some trial on it using TFS2010 Beta 2.

And the answer is that yes, we can support this already today using TFS2008 SP1 client.

We will add support also for native TFS2010 Explorer and support for TFS2005 and TFS2008 will still be there as well.

OffRoad 2.1 for Quality Center

2009-09-25T04:50:00Z

OffRoad 2.1 BETA was just refreshed, target is that within next two weeks this new version is ready to be released.

This new version has lots of enhancements, especially in its capabilities to be enhanced using custom dll’s, OffRoad wizard has new features and also main OffRoad GUI has got some new looks. Some of the ideas from OffRoad wizard has now been brought into here as well.

And of course some bug fixes that were found from previous releases.

This BETA version can be downloaded from here.

OffRoad is a tool to enable testing in offline mode, not being connected to Quality Center. It is also widely used to save on Quality Center license costs as it does not consume any Quality Center licenses while tester is working with it.

TFS Bug Item Synchronizer ver. 2.1

2009-08-18T10:58:34Z

New version is almost ready, latest one is now downloadable in http://onroad.juvander.fi/Community/files/folders/beta/default.aspx.

Needs still updates into documentation, but other than that everything is now in there.

This is the list of changes in this version:

Allow QC-2-TFS field map to be defined for each TFS/QC project separately. This is used mainly when creating and updating workitems into one TFS project from multiple QC projects which customizations are different from each other.
Added possibility to combine two source fields into one target field. Can be used for example when mapping TFS State & Reason to QC Status field.
Added possibility to combine one source field into two target fields. Can be used for example when mapping QC Status to TFS State & Reason fields.
Possibility to send TFS workitem history into QC memo field by specifying #HISTORY# as a default value and leaving TFS field as Not Defined
Added possibility to add QC Requirement path into TFS workitem field. This is done by using default value 'RQ_REQ_USER_PATH' and QC field as Not Defined
Enabled possibility to specify username, domain and password for TFS project connection. Used when connecting over domain boundaries.
Change selection of TFS server and project from own control to use TFS client components.
Added possibility to specify filter for LDAP query.
If no updates done for TFS workitem, will not try to save it.
Quality Center transition rules can copy values from another field. Used like this to copy value from BG_USER_27 into BG_RESPONSIBLE: <TransitionField name="BG_RESPONSIBLE" forceUpdate="false" value="BG_USER_27"> </TransitionField>
Added possibility to update QC Server name, domain and project into TFS workitem field. This is done by using constant values #QCSERVER#, #QCDOMAIN# and # QCPROJECT# and leaving QC field as Not Defined.
Added advanced Query operator to select TFS workitems from project. For example: QUERY:([System.CreatedBy]='Ilpo Juvander' AND [ID]>500)
Added link to QC requirement into TFS workitem when using requirement synchronization
Changed attachment description handling so that it takes out html tags

Sending workitems to multiple Quality Center projects from TFS

2009-06-17T07:39:56Z

Using our tool TFS Bug Item Synchronizer one scenario that our customers have been requesting is capability to send workitems to different Quality Center projects based on field value in TFS AreaPath –field.

And here’s how you can do it.

There is actually two ways for it, one is to let users decide this manually or then make this decision for them.

Key is to use QC Project Field –setting for your TFS projects which allows to specify into which Quality Center project TFS workitem is being sent to.

This field accepts values in format of QCDOMAIN.QCPROJECT.

Easiest option is to add all configured Quality Center projects into list, attach this list into selected TFS workitem field and let users manually select values for this field.

This – of course – makes it possible also user to make errors on the selection and workitem is sent to wrong Quality Center project.

To make this decision for the user based on field value in TFS AreaPath –field (or any other TFS field) workitem template needs to be modified to include couple of rules:

Have default value as empty for QC Project Field
If user selects known AreaPath with mapped Quality Center project, change QC Project Field value in TFS to match this selection so that TFS workitem is sent to QC
If user select unknown or unmapped AreaPath, clear QC Project Field so that TFS workitem is not sent to QC

Thing to remember in here is that you cannot use AreaPath directly in a rule, instead you need to use AreaId field. And how do you know these AreaId values? Look at the workitem history:

In above the New Value is the AreaId for matching Area Path value that was selected.

So now that we know where to get all the values, it is time to start modifying the workitem template for our TFS project.

For this purpose I’m using TFS Power Tools.

First create a new field for your workitem, name it the way you like, values for this form below are not important for the synchronization process:

To specify QC destination project automatically for two AreaPaths (TestTfsforCMMI\Area 0, AreaId=151 and TestTfsforCMMI\Area 1, AreaId=152), following rules need to be added:

So two WHEN rules and one WHENNOT rule.

WHEN rules have following content:

and for each WHEN rule we need to define two additional rules:

COPY rule when AreaPath is changed to our’s:

and DEFAULT rule in case we already had the correct AreaPath when we created the workitem:

Our second WHEN rules is the same as the first one, except that AreaId is different:

and COPY and DEFAULT rules have different Quality Center project:

And last thing is the WHENNOT rule:

For value just pick any of the mapped AreaId values and define a COPY rule:

So in case none of the actual ones for AreaPath is selected, QC Project Field we defined is cleared.

To test this, QC Project Field is brought into form (in our case we called it ErrorDB) and when neither ‘TestTfsforCMMI\Area 0’ or ‘TestTfsforCMMI\Area 1’ is selected, ErrorDB remains empty:

When we select ‘Area 0’ we get ErrorDB populated correctly:

and with ‘Area 1’:

And when selecting value that we did not map ErrorDB is cleared:

One thing to configure is that when you add this field into workitem form, you might want to mark it as readonly:

This way users are not able to type in any values for this field and it gets changed only when AreaPath –field is changed.

OffRoad and QTP Automation Integration

2009-04-17T04:00:00Z

We are exploring the possibility to enable OffRoad to drive remote execution of QTP (Quick Test Professional) automated scripts.

Integration would be so that OffRoad would take automated QTP test cases out from QC (Quality Center), store them locally for execution and once user has executed these test cases enable uploading of results back to QC project.

This would enable even further possibilities for outsourced testing resources to be used together with internal testing in cost saving manner.

OffRoad licensing model is simple: Seat or Floating, no restrictions on site or country where it can be used.

If you are interested in this kind of possibility, contact us for further information on how to take part on this evaluation.

Juvander Consulting Tools and Support for Quality Center 10

2009-02-17T20:11:04Z

We have now done first round of testing with Quality Center 10 and right now the situation looks that OffRoad and TFS Bug Item Synchronizer are ready and can be used together with Quality Center 10 without any issues.

Other tools still need more investigations and we already know that there are some issues that need to be taken care of. Import Export Utility is the next one to be taken under work.

BETA: TFS Bug Item Synchronizer version 2.0 for Quality Center

2009-02-04T14:04:45Z

Next version of TFS Bug Item Synchronizer version 2.0 for Quality Center is get closer.

Today we have put first version out where are two major changes compared to version 1.6:

Possibility to define master for each field. Both Quality Center and TFS or None can be marked as master for fields. If None is selected, it equals current behavior.
Requirement synchronization between Quality Center and TFS. We have enabled an simple version on these two systems work together.

About requirement synchronization, this is not perfect yet as TFS has some limitation on it.

The way it works right now is that you must define one root requirement in Quality Center and all mapped requirements are then created under this node. After requirement has been created from TFS in Quality Center, it is possible to move this requirement into different place and also requirements originating from Quality Center can be in any place.

Reason why it works now like this is the fact that TFS does not have any hierarchy between requirements in current releases. It is only possible to define related work items without any parent - child -relation.

There are some custom work item controls that enable this, but not out of the box TFS project can do it.

Also, on this scenario where requirements are synchronized into one folder, there exists some limitation on Quality Center side: Requirement name must be unique within requirements children. For this we added automatic renaming of requirements, duplicate requirement names are added text '_Copy_X' at the end, where X is the number of duplicate requirement names.

But let's see how the feedback on the current version is going to be and after that decide which way to go with this.

This version can be found on our BETA downloads (requires registration to the site).

Testing with business people involved

2008-11-01T08:58:39Z

During my meetings and discussions with our customers, I have been noticing an issue with current Quality Center, that many people find it hard to use.

Especially business users who see it for the very first time they are totally lost with it and it's concept how it is used.

On bigger project's things that these users have issues are

Where are test sets with test cases that I should test?
How do I execute tests?
Where are my previously executed test results? Why don't I see my comments I added last time to run steps?
How can I create a defect?

Having thoughts on how to make things better it happened that one of our customer approached me with an requirement towards OffRoad to have an simplified wizard like user interface for test execution.

After reading through the first requirement specification on this, it really started to look like exactly the same type of issues that I had been facing lately.

So, after few days of development work we ended up putting an special OffRoad version together which starts with very simple user interface:

It has four tasks involved:

Download tests. This launches the traditional OffRoad download tests functionality with additional features to help these non-technical people to find their test cases. These features include the possibility show only test sets with Status 'Open' and download only those test cases from these test sets where current user is marked as Responsible Tester. This - of course - means that person guiding the testing will need to update these fields for this to work, but still this small effort is smaller than the actual guidance needed for testers to find their test cases in other cases.
Create a virtual test set. This is already a special feature made for OffRoad to create new test sets from already existing test sets and can include custom selection criteria's using custom built DLL linked into OffRoad.
Execute tests. This will simply guide through the test cases from selected test set. It creates only one run for each test case, if run already exists, it will simply open it instead of creating new one.
Upload results. Since OffRoad is working totally independent from Quality Center server, results need to be uploaded to server once testing has finished.

We have made this version available as an early version for our customers. If you are interested on seeing how this works on your case, just contact us.

To download tests from Quality Center server follow these steps.

Type in server URL, username and password:

Then select the test sets that are assigned to you:

Include defects, if you like:

Include Requirements if you need to look at them:

And then just click Finish to download the data you have selected:

After these steps the selected test sets are available for execution and actually you do not need to have an network connection at all to the Quality Center server while doing the tests. You have be on totally separate network, do the testing and once you are back after the testing just upload the results!

To create new virtual test set

Starting point is to copy existing test set, but custom DLL can be also used to add some more criteria's into this process.

Select the test set you want to use from the list

And click Finish to confirm your selection and to create the new virtual test set

So now we have a second instance from the same test set as one of our alternatives for execution:

To execute tests follow these steps

This will start the execution wizard with the first selection screen (this will be probably skipped if custom execution screens are not available):

Then select from the list of local test sets the one you want:

Run through all the steps and cases and Pass/Fail steps and record Actual Results for steps

And once done with the testing, select Finish to end your testing and return to the main screen

To upload results back to Quality Center project follow these steps

Select test set that you want to upload to Quality Center server by selecting it from the list

Type in server URL, username and password to connect to Quality Center

Note: it is also possible to send the results to different server than they originated from, in that case select Next to change the domain and project.

Once everything is uploaded, focus is moved back to main selection.

OffRoad's main user interface

OffRoad has also still available the original user interface which has all features for more advanced people:

Lock picture in above means that the run has already been uploaded to Quality Center server.

All the runs created in the wizard mode are visible in here as well and they can be edited, deleted and uploaded to Quality Center server as before.

We are still continuing to develop both the OffRoad's main user interface and this wizard interface even further. Some new features that we have added to the coming OffRoad version is things like

Creating and Adding missing test sets and test cases if they are removed from the Quality Center server project before the uploading of results
Support for SnagIt screen capturing, if you already own the SnagIt, OffRoad will be able to use it to add these captures as an attachments:

OffRoad Roadmap for 2008

2008-02-04T12:28:54Z

Year 2008 will bring following major milestones for OffRoad:

OffRoad 1.5, early February 2008
OffRoad 2.0, Q2 / 2008
OffRoad 2.5, Q4 / 2008

OffRoad 1.5

This version will concentrate mainly on getting Microsoft Certified for Windows Vista -requirements and our aim is to get this certification for OffRoad.

There will be also couple new features and lot of internal enhancements towards OffRoad 2.0, major new features are following:

Defect Synchronization. Defects will be now always editable, they will not be marked as read-only when uploaded to the server. Also defects downloaded from server will be editable. This makes possible to send defects out to be verified from Quality Center server and receive changes back.
OffRoad database is encrypted for security.
Run's Execution Date and Time are now updated when run is uploaded to the server.
OffRoad supports Tree List type fields.

OffRoad 2.0

OffRoad 2.0 version will add capability of creating new test cases while being offline and also enhance OffRoad's synchronization capabilities for defects and runs so that it can handle conflicts as well and let's users to select what to in these situations. Existing runs can be downloaded from the server, runs can be modified while being offline and synchronized back to the server.

OffRoad 2.5

OffRoad 2.5 version will have newly built user interface to support complex work flows and -events. It will also add capabilities to create new test sets and assign test cases to these, allows taking of requirements to OffRoad for viewing thus making OffRoad an full offline solution towards Quality Center.

All existing OffRoad customers with valid support and maintenance plan can upgrade into these versions when they are being released without any extra cost.

Ways of Working with TFS Bug Item Synchronizer for Quality Center, Part I

2007-10-01T16:54:04Z

Today there exists quite a many alternative scenarios that can be applied for TFS Bug Item Synchronizer for Quality Center.

These scenarios can be selected fully per TFS and Quality Center project and allows great flexibility for using it.

Firstly, you can enable the synchronization and once enabled define it to be one or two way synchronization where items are created on both systems or only updated in the other system.

All of the examples below require already working installation of TFS Bug Item Synchronizer and also at least TFS Bug Item Synchronizer version 1.2.

Enabling One Way Synchronization from Quality Center to the One Specified TFS Project for All Defects

Benefit for implementing this scenario is that tester does not need to know in which TFS project the developer is working.

This scenario also requires that there is one-to-one relationship between TFS project and Quality Center project.

To enable the one way synchronization from Quality Center to TFS which creates adds all new and changed defects into specified TFS Project, you will need to first create field mapping from Quality Center to TFS fields or reuse an existing field map.

All mandatory fields from TFS project need to be mapped with a Quality Center defect field.

When setting up Quality Center project you define Destination Project (= TFS Project where all new defects are to be created) and leave Error DB Field empty (important!), but select values for other mandatory fields.

Then when setting up TFS Project definition you simply select your TFS Project and QC to TFS Fields Name and leave Destination Project and QC to TFS Fields Names empty.

With these settings the synchronization tool is then using default destination TFS project for every defect created in Quality Center, forwarding all new defects into this one and only project.

Enabling One Way Synchronization from Quality Center to Multiple TFS Projects

This scenario is a bit more complex than the one above. It requires that tester knows into which TFS project to send the defect. On the other hand, it also gives great flexibility for testers to work within one Quality Center project and server multiple development groups which are working on different TFS projects.

Only real difference to the one above is that you define Error DB Field value for Quality Center project. This field is used to select the destination TFS project.

You have also choice of either have the default Destination Project or not. If default Destination Project is not selected for Quality Center project, only defects which have a valid TFS project name selected in Error DB Field are being sent out and those which have empty (or invalid value) are just skipped.

Either of these scenarios are enabling the creation of new defects from TFS work items. These will be described in next coming article.

But still, both of them are allowing you to define which fields to synchronize back from TFS project work item into Quality Center defect.

OnRoad Site Users

2007-07-26T07:37:36Z

It has now been little over a year since we launched our OnRoad Community site and since we have seen quite many users finding it. As of today there is 859 registered users.

Here is a trend of user registrations per month:

Many of these users have just downloaded some of the tools and quickly tried them out, but there is growing number of users who have actually purchased our tools and utilities and started using them in their daily work.

Tip: How to save license costs on Quality Center?

2007-05-15T05:52:00Z

During the existence of OffRoad we have many times heard the sentence that our customers are also using OffRoad while still connected to their own network. At first this did not really make sense to us, but after thinking it a bit it did!

Cost of full Quality Center license needed by testers to execute test cases can be 4-5 times higher than seat license cost needed by OffRoad!

And while we also offer OffRoad now as a term based licenses this makes it even more appealing: Just check the term license cost in here http://www.juvander.fi/Orderterm.aspx and make your own decisions.

These term based licenses can be shared among your testing team, each of them just reserve the license for 48 hours at a time, after that next person can reuse the same license.

This way you save your full Quality Center licenses for test planning and bigger peak tester group can use OffRoad to execute test cases and create defects. One benefit on using OffRoad for this is that OffRoad can be distributed for testers without administrator permissions: simply copy the needed files to any local folder and that's it! After this you are ready to start testing.

To learn more on this opportunity, just contact us.

Featured Item: How to Export Test Cases with Design Steps from Mercury Quality Center into Excel, part II

2007-03-27T19:23:00Z

Coming back to this ever so interesting area discussed in here: How to Export Test Cases with Design Steps?

For this we offer a tool called General Reporting Utility, which is part of Utility Tools for Mercury Quality Center.

With this utility you can do other types of reporting as well this special report where you can have all test case details with design steps in Excel format for reviews etc.

The idea behind this utility is that you first select the data you want to appear in your reports and export it from Quality Center. Selection can include various criterias, like requirement, test case, test set, test case in test set, run or defect fields or any combination of these.

Then you will select which fields you want to include in your reports. Depending on your needs, you can select from Quality Center entities any number of fields or all of them. Including memo fields with or without html tags in them.

This selection will also narrow down your exported data: if you have set your criteria to certain defect field value and you select test case fields, you will get only those test cases that have linked defects that match your criteria. You can also set your criteria to selected test sets, select all test case fields and as a result, you will get all test case fields which are in your selected test sets.

And all of these selections can be saved as a favorites to be reused when next time exporting data out from Quality Center and/or creating your report.

Just do some trials with it and use your imagination!

After you have got your data out from Quality Center, you will still need to select your report. If you just want test cases with design steps, select Test Case Report -> Detailed Test Case Report and select all test case and design step fields you want in your report. You can also sort the fields into the order you want.

TIP: First time you do this, don't forget to check menu option Tools -> Options -> Include memo fields - and Strip HTML tags -settings. By default memo fields are not exported from Quality Center, but this settings is saved for future use, so you will need to select this only once.

After this you will get an report that looks like this: Detailed Test Case Report Sample which you can then distribute to the persons who need to look at the test cases with design steps.

Here is also more detailed steps with pictures on how to do this: Export Test Cases with Design Steps into Excel.

Question: Does Juvander Consulting Provide Support for Tools and Utilities during Evaluation Period?

2007-03-08T19:56:00Z

Answer: Yes.

While you are evaluating any of our tools and utilities, you are entitled to the same level of support that we offer to our licensed customers. Details for the level that we offer you can find over here: Customer Support.

We do understand that our instructions might not be perfect, but if you just get in touch with us, we will guide you through your issues, look at your configurations and log files and tell exactly what you need to do next in order to get things running.

If you need trial license or extension to an existing one, use the license request form.

So, just contact us if you have a specific question you can not solve in timely manner on your own!