How to develop and TEST an IoT App using cloud dev platforms

As this is IoT Apps trend, I would like to tell you about a small IoT application. i.e. Switching an electrical bulb ON/OFF from a cloud application.

We used Rollbase application development platform. This platform has excellent feature called triggers. Using these triggers we can invoke external REST service. This platform also can be accessed from external system using REST services. I am sure Salesforce also has this kind of feature.

Software & Hardware Requirements:

1) Rollbase (http://www.rollbase.com)
2) Raspberry Pi 2
3) USB WiFi Dongle
4) Relay board
5) Some jumper Wires
6) Bulb and some home electric wires

High-level Steps:

1) Create an application in Rollbase

2) Create two buttons ON & OFF. (Required some Rollbase platform knowledge)

3) Create triggers and attach to ON and OFF buttons
4) Connect Raspberry Pi  to Wifi using WiFI Dongle
5) Connect Raspberry Pi & Relay board using Jumper wires
6) Connect Relay board with the Electrical bulb.
7) Write python scripts to switch ON/OFF the Electrical bulb.
8) Expose these python scripts as RESTful services
9) Invoke these scripts from Rollbase triggers.

We can also develop a Telerik Mobile app using this Rollbase application. We can invoke switching ON/OFF REST Services from Mobile App and through Rollbase application as well.

Now the challenge is how to test this kind of Application. We may figure out software bugs easily but detecting hardware defects is little difficult. We should have always extra wires and hardware. Once we double confirm that there are no software defects then we should try changing the wires and other hardware devices. Jumper Wires looks fine but may not work some times.

Telerik Test Studio Tip: Less-Expensive alternatives for simulate real Type and simulate real click

In test cases, we often encounter situations which do not work as expected such as normal click 

(Pages.MyDashboardDataDirect.LogOutLink.Click();) or setting value to text box 

(Pages.LoginPage.UserNameTextBox.Text = “User123”;).

For example, take a simple login scenario. Assume we have a login page wherein Submit will be enabled only after user enter User Name through keyboard because developers might be validating and enabling Submit button based on the keyup event. In such case, setting the value to User Name Text Box will not enable Submit button. To handle such type of keyboard or mouse actions, Telerik Test Studio provides an option to simulate these actions with real actions ( SimulateRealTyping, SimulateRealClick). 

The main concern here is, such simulated action demands active session to run. It is expensive for an organization to provide physical machines for running test case on a daily basis or in 24 X 7 mode. Best practice is to avoid such actions and search for an alternative. One way of avoiding such actions is, using JavaScript to trigger actions like keyup,  keydown, click etc. Telerik Test Studio provides a method to invoke JavaScript. An example is given below to explain how to use this method.

Problem definition1: 

1.Submit button in login page will be enabled based on validation on User Name Text Box.

2. Validation will be called based on key board event( keyup). 

 Solution1 (Not recommended):

Use SimulateRealTyping feature to enter text in the textbox.

Here, test step demands active session to run.

Solution 2 (Recommended):

SetValue to textbox and trigger keyup event using InvokeScript function.

Pages.LoginPage.UserNameTextBox.Text = “User123”;

String JS ="$('[id=name]').trigger('keyup')";

ActiveBrowser.Actions.InvokeScript(JS);

Here, test step will run without an active session.

Overview on Telerik Test Framework

What is Telerik Test Framework?

Telerik’s Test Studio is a tool with record/replay capability for automation. The Test Studio’s underlying Testing Framework also provides the ability for QA / developers to write UI tests with most of the common unit testing frameworks like NUnit, MSTest etc.

This framework lets you write code-only tests and exercise the full functionality of the testing platform.

Background:

WebAii is a web automation testing framework, originally developed by ArtOfTest, now provided as a free framework by Telerik. This is very similar to other existing browser automation tools such as Selenium (even QTP). However, unlike Selenium, it is not an open source tool – it is developed and supported by Telerik. The tool is completely free to use (with a paid support option) – and a paid for version of this product is the “Test Studio”, which provides rich UI to record and playback test cases.

Features:

• As Telerik Testing Framework is fully integrated within Visual Studio Team System, it leverages functionalities such as test case management and execution, source control, execution, and reporting by using Microsoft TFS.
• Testing Framework exposes numerous properties and methods to easily build non-brittle, maintainable functional tests 
• Set implicit and explicit waits, test drag-n-drop and hovers, dynamic page elements, complex animations, generic and custom UI controls, and more. 
• Expand your browser compatibility testing to all the latest major browsers: IE, Chrome, Firefox and Safari without ever changing your test case code. 
• The Framework is a pure .NET stack that requires only one DLL with no dependencies on any third party tools.

TestStudio Vs TestFramework

Telerik Testing Framework is the foundation. It provides all the base functionality used by Test Studio. Test Studio is GUI.