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Test Automation with Test Engine the simple low cost solution to Windows NT through Windows Server 2003
A cost effective way to implement test automation when you need to run scripts on many Windows PC's against a Device Under Test. Runs as a native Windows service allowing you to submit Perl, TCL, or other scripts as "jobs" to one or many PC's.
ShareWare Download:
Version 1.0 beta 4 9/27/03.
Most commercial solutions cost $1,000 or more per PC. With Test Engine you can run 20, 50, 100 or more Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Server 2003 PC's against a DUT for just $75.00 per workstation/server. Run test automation against content delivery switches and appliances, WEB servers, next generation storage devices, etc.
How does it work?
At install or any other time you configure the workstation/server to check for a specific file on the network. This could be f:\test\testsystem1\checklist.txt. Within this ASCI file you specify the directory that you want the results to be saved to, add comments and specify what scripts you want to submit to Test Engine for running.
Here is an example of how the asci file could be configured:
F:\results\1.0.03
#test DUT
perl f:\scripts\perl\tcp-ip\myscript.pl
#Do more testing of DUT
tcl f:\scripts\tcl\tcp-ip\mytclscript.tcl
What type of results do I get with Test Engine?
All stdout (perl print etc) is redirected to a run.out file. This is saved to the directory specified in the checklist above along with pass.txt if the exit code was 0 or fail.txt if the exit code was 1 or higher. In addition below this directory are a pass and fail directory. These contain all of the run.out files starting at run0.out and incrementing by 1.
Limitations:
Because Test Engine is a native service running in the background you cannot run any scripts that have a GUI interface, or require user input after they are started. This doesn't mean that you can't run Visual Basic etc. It just means you need to pass your parameters at the command line or read them from a configuration file.
Test Engine is not a Perl or other run-time compiler. To run Perl on a windows PC try Active Perl available, along with lots of Perl modules on http://www.cpan.org Other compilers and interpreters are available elsewhere. Test engine is just one of the tools you will need to implement test automation.
You cannot run Test Engine on a Windows 9.x machine since it is a service. I am considering a non-service version that would run on 9.x PC's and also allow GUI stuff.
ShareWare Download:
Version 1.0 beta 4 9/27/03.