Perl has been used for years in QA for various tasks such as preparing configuration files before the tests run and parsing log files after the test. In the past few years a lot of extensions have been added to Perl. Now, in addition to the above tasks Perl can already be used in all parts of the automatic test environment. It can be used to test web based application, Networking appliances, Command line tools, Databases and Desktop (GUI) applications.

Compare with our other QA related course

Audience
Especially for QA engineers with some background in Perl already.

Objectives

• Overview how Perl can be used in automating Quality Assurance
• Apply Perl in various fields of Testing (such as GUI, Web, Networking)
• Use the Testing frameworks that come with Perl

Course format

• 32 academic hours (usually full 4 days).
• About 50% hands-on exercise.
• There is an extended version of the course which is 4 days long offered overseas.

Prerequisite

• At least 6 month experience as a Perl programmer or taking one of the introductory Perl Courses at PTI.

First we will learn about the basic tools of testing and the test frameworks available in Perl by looking at unit-tests of Perl modules.

Then, we will expand our set of tools in order to test other kind of applications.

We will look at testing of Windows GUI, Web applications and Network Appliances.

We assume a minimum of 6 month experience in Perl. If you do not have that experience but you are interested in using Perl for QA automation, please contact Gabor Szabo to discuss the possibilities.

Syllabus

• Introduction to testing, why, when, who and how ?
• Understanding the basic tasks of the QA engineer
• Introduction to TAP - the Test Anything Protocol
• Testing tools in Perl for testing Perl Modules (Test::Simple, Test::More)
• Common reporting framework (Test::Harness, Smolder)
• Extending the testing framework (Test::Builder)
• Extra (Setting up continuous integration (smoke testing))
• Command Line Interface applications
• Testing network devices with CLI interface
• Testing Web application
• Web 2.0 application testing
• Database testing
• Testing file-systems
• Microsoft Windows GUI applications
• X-Windows testing
• A few words about XP - Extreme Programming
• Building random regression testing tool
• Integrating with PHP, Python and Ruby unit tests
• Integrating with JavaScript testing