Selenium is awesome as a browser-user simulator and it's free!

[Benton, Kevin]

For those that are not aware of Selenium, you can get it for free at http://www.openqa.org/.  It's a fantastic Open Source tool for those of us who are system administrators and/or developers of web-based applications.  Bugzilla fits perfectly into this category.  Selenium-IDE is a browser plug-in that can (when the user tells it to) record clicks and keystrokes on web pages.  When that set of user actions has been recorded, the user can play it back to reproduce certain activities.  Bugzilla developers benefit from this by using a tool that will test application functionality with a single click to start it.  Bugzilla administrators will benefit by being able to verify certain types of functionality after a parameter change in Bugzilla.

Selenium can run in a server environment or on top of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Mozilla, Safari, OmniWeb, or Camino.  It may run under Netscape Navigator, Opera, Konqueror, or Galeon.

Feel free to stop on by http://www.openqa.org/ for more information.  A demo is included there.  To get the full effect, click on Selenium, then Demos (left hand side), then Passing Demo (opens new window).  In the top right hand corner, click on All.  Watch as Selenium runs three tests.  After that, close the new window, and go to Failing Demo, select Walk, then All.  Watch Selenium work as it walks a little more slowly through the tests, demonstrating how green means good and that funky red means bad things.  The IDE works in pretty much the same way except that it really runs on your browser / system.

A number of properly configured Selenium scripts can serve as entrance criteria for any updates you may write for Bugzilla.

---
Kevin Benton
Perl/Bugzilla Developer/Administrator, Perforce SCM Administrator
Personal Computing Systems Group
Advanced Micro Devices
 
The opinions stated in this communication do not necessarily reflect the view of Advanced Micro Devices and have not been reviewed by management.  This communication may contain sensitive and/or confidential and/or proprietary information.  Distribution of such information is strictly prohibited without prior consent of Advanced Micro Devices.  This communication is for the intended recipient(s) only.  If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender, then destroy any remaining copies of this communication.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: developers-owner at bugzilla.org [mailto:developers-owner at bugzilla.org]
> On Behalf Of Benton, Kevin
> Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2006 11:06 AM
> To: developers at bugzilla.org
> Subject: Re: prioritizing custom fields development
> 
> > Frédéric Buclin wrote:
> >
> > >>     * administer custom fields via a web interface;
> > >
> > >
> > > This one is definitely what I would like to see asap. I hope
> > > 'administer' also means creating and removing fields.
> >
> >
> > I am curious about this one, because it really seems to me like one of
> > the lowest priorities.  Administration is a rarely done task, typically
> > done at configuration time.  And since it doesn't support per-project
> > custom fields, you don't even do the administration on a per project
> > basis.
> >
> > Perhaps I am wrong here, but it seems like the priority should be about
> > functionality for the operation and use of custom fields. Heck, I don't
> > mind making changes in a configuration file or simple perl code changes
> > to administer custom fields.
> >
> > Is the issue that you are targeting a system where the bugzilla
> > administrator does not have command line access?
> 
> In my mind, it's a usability issue.  While it's true that we're technical
> enough to do this kind of thing as developers, I don't think it's fair to
> expect Bugzilla administrators to 1) have to manually edit configurations,
> and 2) know enough to be able to figure out how to fix it when they
> screwed up their installation due to syntax errors.  A web-based UI helps
> prevent that kind of mistake, and greatly improves usability.  Not to
> mention, doing that also makes it a lot easier for administrators of large
> / multiple installations to manage customizations (if done properly).
> 
> Having a web-based UI also makes it a lot easier to train other users how
> to maintain their own custom fields.  It's true that here, some of the
> users don't have access to the command prompt and are not able to modify
> configuration files.  Frankly, I don't want to give someone the
> opportunity to cause critical problems with an installation they don't
> have ultimate operational responsibility for.
> 
> So, having said all that, in my mind, doing this kind of update from a
> web-based UI isn't optional, it's a requirement.
> 
> ---
> Kevin Benton
> Perl/Bugzilla Developer/Administrator, Perforce SCM Administrator
> Personal Computing Systems Group
> Advanced Micro Devices
> 
> The opinions stated in this communication do not necessarily reflect the
> view of Advanced Micro Devices and have not been reviewed by management.
> This communication may contain sensitive and/or confidential and/or
> proprietary information.  Distribution of such information is strictly
> prohibited without prior consent of Advanced Micro Devices.  This
> communication is for the intended recipient(s) only.  If you have received
> this communication in error, please notify the sender, then destroy any
> remaining copies of this communication.
> 
> 
> -
> To view or change your list settings, click here:
> <http://bugzilla.org/cgi-bin/mj_wwwusr?user=kevin.benton@amd.com>