Well, as we dive into the depths of the northern Winter, there’s certainly no ground smoking at the moment, but perhaps you’ve got as far as burning some roast potatoes?
A RECOMMENDATION
Do you have lots of browser tabs open? Ian does. Many do.
There’s a solution in the form of a browser extension called OneTab.
One click and it saves all your open tabs in easily accessible place for later. BINGO!
SMOKE TESTS
So, back on topic. We at DidWeBreakIt consider a smoke test to be something simple.
It should be quick to run, and establish if some of the core functionality is broken after your last deployment.
And sometimes what is simple is not as obvious as we’d all like. We don’t want to say it’s alll easy, and have your cynical gene start firing off. However, it is relatively easy.
Firstly, load up your own website, and log out of it. Do it now, and come back. (Please don’t get distracted with facebook/whatsapp - turn them off).
Secondly, walk yourself through the steps of logging into the site, then clicking on a couple of sections of the site.
It could be that there’s a menu, that takes you to a list of things.
Maybe there’s also a page that lets you create something new? And then you also know how to log out again, as you did that first. (Hopefully :) )
That’s it.
ONE MORE TIME WITH FEELING
(there’s more on what we have been up to after this)
Ok, so now you’ve walked through your first smoke test manually for your site. Lets do it again with the SeleniumIDE.
Firstly, install it onto your browser. If you’re on Chrome, you can follow this link.
If you’re on another browser, then do let me know by replying, and I’ll update this page.
Next, make sure you’re logged out of your website
If it’s installed you’ll have a little ‘Se’ logo icon next to your web address. Click it.
This will bring up the SeleniumIDE. Now choose to Record a test in a new project, and name it after your website.
Then enter the main website address - your project’s base URL
Next, this website will popup. Repeat the steps above:
1) log in
2) select a menu item that lists all of something
3) click a link that allows you to create something new
4) log out.
Now, hit the red circular record button, and stop recording. And then hit the floppy disk drive icon - how we used to save things, and name the project.
It will prompt you to save the test, so save it as something like DidWeBreakItSmokeTest.side
(Side stands for Selenium IDE, and is the default extension.)
Congratulations you wrote your first Selenium Test!
ADD IT TO DID WE BREAK IT
WEHAY. Now it is time to add it tooo DidWeBreakIt.com
- Lets create an account there, with your email and password.
- Then create a new project via the menu bar.
- Select your recently created DidWeBreakItSmokeTest.side file
- Hit ‘Add project’
All being well, you now have the details of displayed to you.
And a clickable HOOK URL. More on that later. But for now, click it, and you’ll see the results of your test 30 seconds later!!
YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL
Thanks for sticking with us. DM us on twitter with any issues, and we’ll help you out. Prefer a video? Let us know.
THIS WEEK we have played around with logos a bit - good work Anna. The first is on the tidied up homepage. The second is on our new LinkedIn page. Which one do you prefer?
Also, myself and Anna were joined by Antonio and Johann in a Whole Team Ensemble / Mob Programming session. It went well, and we will repeat this next week.
Here is a picture of us all smiling at the end of the session.
We’re available as a team for consultancy purposes. Get in touch if you’re interested in that.
That’s it for this week. Next issue on 3rd December.
Cheers,
Ian, Anna, Antonio and Johann.
https://twitter.com/DidWeBreakIt
http://DidWeBreakIt.com