AJAX for simpletest?

Discussion of testing theory and practice, including methodologies (such as TDD, BDD, DDD, Agile, XP) and software - anything to do with testing goes here. (Formerly "The Testing Side of Development")

Moderator: General Moderators

Post Reply
User avatar
nielsene
DevNet Resident
Posts: 1834
Joined: Fri Aug 16, 2002 8:57 am
Location: Watertown, MA

AJAX for simpletest?

Post by nielsene »

Now I know absolutely nothing about AJAX, but it seems there might be some benefit in making a TestRunner, or test front end using it. For instance with the test GUI (in one of te lost threads) it would allow for updating percent complete. It could also be useful for running the test cases in seperate script environments and avoiding timeout issues?

Just a random thought....
McGruff
DevNet Master
Posts: 2893
Joined: Thu Jan 30, 2003 8:26 pm
Location: Glasgow, Scotland

Post by McGruff »

I think there might have been some discussion related to this on the SimpleTest mailing list. Personally I'm a luddite when it comes to js. Some people (myself included) have it turned off by default making it rather useless. I haven't a clue how you would test a page which uses js.

Firefox has a nice feature (maybe it's an add-on, forget now) where js is blocked by default but can be allowed per session and/or per site.
User avatar
nielsene
DevNet Resident
Posts: 1834
Joined: Fri Aug 16, 2002 8:57 am
Location: Watertown, MA

Post by nielsene »

I agree about having JS turned off, I have it off on almost every site I visit, but I was asking about its applicibility in helping create a more useful client for use in Unit-Testing. Not using simpletest to test JS code.
stryderjzw
Forum Newbie
Posts: 21
Joined: Sat Aug 06, 2005 5:45 pm

Post by stryderjzw »

User avatar
nielsene
DevNet Resident
Posts: 1834
Joined: Fri Aug 16, 2002 8:57 am
Location: Watertown, MA

Post by nielsene »

Is that FF only? I use Safari at home and it didn't seem to do anything, but then again, I'm clueless about XUL.
timvw
DevNet Master
Posts: 4897
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2004 11:11 pm
Location: Leuven, Belgium

Post by timvw »

There is: http://www.edwardh.com/jsunit/.. Meaby it will get to work together with simpletest one day..
http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showpos ... stcount=42
User avatar
nielsene
DevNet Resident
Posts: 1834
Joined: Fri Aug 16, 2002 8:57 am
Location: Watertown, MA

Post by nielsene »

Again, I'm not asking about tools to test JS. I was asking if JS or AJAX or whatever looking promising as something to help improving the User Interface to running test cases built with SimpleTest via the standard HtmlReporter.
stryderjzw
Forum Newbie
Posts: 21
Joined: Sat Aug 06, 2005 5:45 pm

Post by stryderjzw »

I'm not sure if it's Firefox only. I use Firefox and it works, and have not tried it on any other browser.

I think the developer sometimes checks in on the Sitepoint forums... maybe a search there will help.
User avatar
feyd
Neighborhood Spidermoddy
Posts: 31559
Joined: Mon Mar 29, 2004 3:24 pm
Location: Bothell, Washington, USA

Post by feyd »

last I remember, XUL is Mozilla stuff only...
timvw
DevNet Master
Posts: 4897
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2004 11:11 pm
Location: Leuven, Belgium

Post by timvw »

I don't think it will allow one to avoid time-out issues, as the tests still need to be run by php, so i'm not seeing advantages right now.

I think it's going to be easier if one uses the xmlreporter instead of htmlreporter. It should make the request/recieve/display with javascript (and xmlhttp) a little more straightforward.
User avatar
nielsene
DevNet Resident
Posts: 1834
Joined: Fri Aug 16, 2002 8:57 am
Location: Watertown, MA

Post by nielsene »

Well currently none of my tests are too long, but the combination of all of them will hit the timeout. Was thinking that an AJAX version could somehow aggregate the results and show a nice tracking green bar as progress is made, while handing new page requests behind the scenes to keep the timeouts reasonable.
Post Reply