Launchers / Automated tests

Manual Testing




There are 5 different manual interfaces delivered with XStudio.

Depending on your needs and/or taste, you can choose the one(s) you prefer.
By experience, 80% of the users prefer using the Tabular step manual interface or the Tree step manual interface but you may prefer a more sequential way to execute your tests.

How to choose a manual launcher?

XQual is delivered with 5 different interfaces for manual testing (and many more for automated testing). Each interface has its pros and cons but 2 main criteria will guide your choice:

  • The type of presentation (sequential, spreadsheet/tabular or hierarchical)
  • At which level you wish to report your results (at test case or step level)

  Test case Step
Hierarchical Tree Step Manual
Spreadsheet/Tabular Tabular Manual Tabular Step Manual
Sequential Simple Manual Manual

Visual guide

visual guide of all the manual launchers


Radar (pros and cons of each)

radar of all the manual launchers


The "Tree Step Manual" interface is available by selecting the tree_step_manual.jar launcher in the category's Details tab.

This is an interface that looks really similar to the GUI you have in XStudio itself when you are working on the test tree. Hence, users tend to like it very much because of its simplicity, low memory footprint and responsiveness.

You just select a test case on the left panel and submit your results and comments on the right-hand side panel.

schema manual testing with the tree step manual launcher


Screenshots

manual testing with the tree step manual launcher

manual testing with the tree step manual launcher


Pros Cons
  • compact interface
  • comfortable and familiar interface
  • very fast/reactive GUI
  • ability to run the test case in a not-specific order
  • when re-running a session, previous results and comments are immediately visible
  • need to click on a node of the tree before submitting a result

The "Tabular Step Manual" interface (tabular_step_manual.jar)

The "Tabular Step Manual" interface is available by selecting the tabular_step_manual.jar launcher in the category's Details tab.

This is an interface that displays all the information (all the tests and all the test cases) in only one big scrollable panel. One column for the tests and one column for the test cases. It will look familiar to users who are used to write their test procedures with Excel. One result (and comment) can be set to each step.

You just need to scroll down to check the test and test case information and submit your results.

schema manual testing with the tabular step manual launcher


Screenshots

manual testing with the tabular step manual launcher


Pros Cons
  • very simple to use
  • ability to run the test case in a not-specific order
  • when re-running a session, previous results and comments are immediately visible
  • with very big campaigns it consumes a lot of RAM as all the data are stored in-memory
  • with very big campaigns it can be slow to scroll that huge spreadsheet

The "Tabular Manual" interface (tabular_manual.jar)

The "Tabular Manual" interface is available by selecting the tabular_manual.jar launcher in the category's Details tab.

This is an interface that displays all the information (all the tests and all the test cases) in only one big scrollable panel. One column for the tests and one column for the test cases. It will look familiar to users who are used to write their test procedure with Excel. One result (and comment) can be set to each test case.

You just need to scroll down to check the test and test case information and submit your results.

schema manual testing with the tabular manual launcher


Screenshots

manual testing with the tabular manual launcher

manual testing with the tabular manual launcher


Pros Cons
  • very simple to use
  • ability to run the test case in a not-specific order
  • when re-running a session, previous results and comments are immediately visible
  • with very big campaigns it consumes a lot of RAM as all the data are stored in-memory
  • with very big campaigns it can be slow to scroll that huge spreadsheet

The "Simple Manual" interface (simple_manual.jar)

The "Simple Manual" interface is available by selecting the simple_manual.jar launcher in the category's Details tab.

This interface displays the information sequentially (test description, then test prerequisites, then test case description, then test case procedure etc.). All the steps of the test case procedure are displayed in one page though. The GUI is compact and it displays only a very few data at a time so it is a very clear interface.

schema manual testing with the simple manual launcher


Screenshots

manual testing with the simple manual launcher

Navigation Bar

This interface is sequential. It means you need to manually navigate through the test/test cases (in the order that has been specified in the campaign). To do so, the GUI includes a navigation bar to control the execution of the tests:

  previous  Go back to previous test case
  rewind   Restart current test case
  pause   Pause current test case
  resume  Resume current test case
  next  Go forward to next test case
  next test Go forward to next test

Pros Cons
  • compact interface
  • adapted for offshore test execution
  • need to constantly use the navigation toolbar to navigate through test cases
  • can't jump directly to a test at the end of the campaign
  • when re-running a session, can't see previous results and comments
  • not practical to re-run a campaign
  • no rich-text for the comments
  • time-consuming

The "Manual" interface (manual.jar)

The "Manual" interface is available by selecting the manual.jar launcher in the category's Details tab.

This interface displays the information sequentially (test description, then test prerequisites, then test case description, then the first step description, then the first step expected result, then the second step description etc.). The GUI is compact and it displays only a very few data at a time so it is a very clear interface.

schema manual testing with the manual launcher

schema manual testing with the manual launcher


Screenshots

manual testing with the manual launcher

manual testing with the manual launcher


Navigation Bar

This interface is sequential. It means you need to manually navigate through the test/test cases (in the order that has been specified in the campaign). To do so, the GUI includes a navigation bar to control the execution of the tests:

  previous test Go back to previous test
  previous  Go back to previous test case
  rewind   Restart current test case
  pause   Pause current test case
  resume  Resume current test case
  next  Go forward to next test case
  next test Go forward to next test

Pros Cons
  • compact interface
  • adapted for offshore test execution
  • very detailed reporting (at step and check level!)
  • need to constantly use the navigation toolbar to navigate through test cases
  • can't jump directly to a test at the end of the campaign
  • when re-running a session, can't see previous results and comments
  • not practical to re-run a campaign
  • no rich-text for the comments
  • very time-consuming