Off to OSCON

After a tumultuous time getting Testopia 1.3 out the door, I am ready for a break. So, I am heading off to OSCON to hob nob with loads of like minded open source lovers/makers, and the like. Before I go though, I have released Testopia 1.3 BETA 2 which fixes some install bugs. You can get it from the download page at ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/webtools/testopia/

Anyone else going to OSCON? I will be hanging out at the Mozilla booth on Thursday from about 3:00 - 5:30 pm. Hope to see you there.

Drumroll please...

Testopia 1.3 is here. This is the first version to work with Bugzilla 3.0 and mod_perl.
Unfortunately, it does not work with Bugzilla 2.22.x. For that you need...

Testopia 1.2.2 - This release fixes most of the major bugs in 1.2.1 and also should now (fully?) support PostgreSQL databases.

I appreciate the feedback I have been getting so far. This project has been my first real foray into the world of software engineering. Being fresh out of college when I started this, it has been a great learning experience. Some people have been complaining about how poor the quality is. As I have mentioned in the past, Testopia is developed against a customized version of Bugzilla run by my company. My duties are split between developing Testopia and maintaining our Bugzilla installation.

Part of the reason there are so many bugs in Testopia is that I don't have the time or resources to fully test it against the "Vanilla" Bugzilla before releasing it. My first obligation in developing Testopia is to make sure it works for my employers. Anything beyond this for the open source community is done primarily on my own time.

I am committed to making Testopia the best open source test case management system available. However, I am just one developer with limited time and resources. The point of open source is to have community support. Until the community steps up with some contributions, Testopia will have to be developed on my time line. My time line is determined by my Employer and my personal obligations.

Who comes up with this junk?

OK, so a lot of you have pointed out that 1.2.1 is a load of excretory waste. I have come to agree with you. It was admittedly a rush job that I scrambled to put out before branching for the work on 3.0.

I have made a branch that includes some fixes to the Bugzilla 2.22 base. The tag name in CVS is TESTOPIA_1_2_BUGZILLA-222 and you can update your installations with this by using the cvs_update.sh script found in the scripts directory. You will have to modify the checkout command first. Change the line that looks like:

cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs-mirror.mozilla.org:/cvsroot co mozilla/webtools/testopia

to

cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs-mirror.mozilla.org:/cvsroot co -r TESTOPIA_1_2_BUGZILLA-222 mozilla/webtools/testopia

I plan to have a new tarball put together sometime next week with these fixes. That is, once I get them all done. I appreciate the dedicated work by Vivian and Dream_Turtle in helping me track these down.

If you find any additional problems, please continue to log them at bugzilla.mozilla.org.

Testopia 1.2.1

So, many of you are wondering "Now that Bugzilla 3.0 is out, when can I use Testopia with it"? Well, the answer is "Soon." That is to say, as soon as I can get bugzilla.novell.com working right with 3.0. Since Testopia is developed against this installation, much is on hold while I make this transition.

In the meantime however, LpSolit, the Bugzilla QA Guru, has put together a bunch of patches to make Testopia work with PostgreSQL databases (on Bugzilla 2.22.x). These, along with a couple small bug fixes (not being able to create new users for example *cough*) comprise Testopia 1.2.1 which is now available from the Mozilla FTP server.

Those of you who have been logging bugs, thank you for your input. I am reading them and working on them as time allows, even if I don't respond right away. Keep the feedback coming.

Testopia 1.2 and Other News

I released Testopia 1.2 a few weeks ago now. So far there have been a few bugs with it. I have been hard at work starting the port to Bugzilla 3.0. This has left me with little time for work on these bugs unfortunately. I hope to have the upgrade to Bugzilla 3.0 complete in the next couple of weeks and then go back to address these issues.

Though Testopia has been my full time job for over a year now, I have been working on it during free time as well. Last month my wife herniated two discs in her back, which has meant that I have had little free time to devote to this project. Anyone willing to take a bug or two is more than welcome. There are several very easy one line type fixes that are open right now that I haven't had time to look at. Takers?

Deepest Sympathies to the Family of Garrett Braden

One of our Testopia contributors was tragically killed in an auto accident on the night of Friday Feb 23, 2007. Garrett was responsible for parts of the environment system in Testopia and created the XML import/export of environments.
Garrett was a recent graduate of Neumont University in Salt Lake City. His profile mentions his work on Testopia. He leaves behind his wife of only a few weeks.

Garrett, you will be missed.

Testopia 1.1.3

Finally feeling better after two colds, and ear infection, and a flu. The good news is Testopia 1.1.3 is now ready. I fixed a lot of bugs and added some nifty features such as a quciksearch. Now you don't have to remember your plan number, you can enter the all or part of the name (prepended with "plan") and it will come up with your test plan. Same goes for cases, runs, and environments.

You can now also save searches.

Version 1.2 will be all about access control. The current thinking is to have access control lists on test plans that will apply to associated test cases and runs. This will allow plan owners to manage who can get to the objects on their plan. We are thinking of dropping the three groups which are currently used and replace them with a single "testers" group that will have default read and write rights. Beyond that, individuals can be added to plans or you can use a regular expression, similar to current bugzilla groups. I am open to suggestions though.

Happy *cough cough* Holidays

Getting sick really sucks, but getting sick on Christmas sucks even worse.
I spent much of my holiday break in bed with a nasty cold. Worst of all though was that the kids caught it too. Course that did not discourage them from waking up extra early Chrsitmas morning.

I am mostly over it now, but still have the residual tiredness.

Anyway Happy Holidays and for your present? Testopia 1.1.2 :-)

Testopia 1.1.1 Released

I just finished releasing Testopia 1.1.1.
Details at http://mozilla.org/projects/testopia

You can get the tarball from http://landfill.mozilla.org/testopia/testopia-1.1.1.tar.gz
Enjoy.

Time for a relaxing weekend. :-)

Release Numbers

I survived my trip to Germany. :)
It was an awsome experience and I got to meet all the wonderful people that make SuSE Linux happen. It was also a nice cultural experience. It will take me a few months to lose the pounds from all that Franconian food.

We finally finished work on the delete functionality that people have been clamoring for. The question now is how to release it. Doesn't seem right to call it Testopia 1.2 yet. I think I will stick with 1.1.1 since there are no changes to the database. I haven't settled on a good versioning scheme. I don't like differentiating between stable and unstable branches. Right now it is all rather "unstable" but that is because it is still rather new.

We now plan to move on to group controls. We also need to redesign the tags and categories and builds.

Greetings from Germany

Well we made it. After 32 hours of flying and waiting for flights and all without sleep, we got to our Hotel in Nuernberg and got settled. We took a quick jaunt around the area to get familiar with the lay of the land and find the office. We found a nice Italian place for dinner where I got to practice ordering in German. I have a long way to go. At least the menu was in Italian and German which meant it easier to figure out what the Entree's were. I think I should invest in a German dictionary. It is really not a good idea to eat over your laptop.