August 2011 Summaries

The author of the text emphasizes the importance of testing for software developers, particularly those creating SaaS/PaaS offerings that require frequent deployments. He argues that manual testing is impractical due to the complexity and variability of modern web applications, and instead advocates for using Selenium, a widely-used tool for automating UI tests. The author shares his experience with using Selenium to test a rich JavaScript-based UI framework, noting its ease of use, speed, and effectiveness in identifying cross-browser bugs. He also highlights the value of combining Selenium with Sauce Labs' infrastructure to run automated tests on multiple browsers and platforms.

Sauce Labs has released an updated version of its Sauce Connect software, which enables users to securely connect their behind-firewall application under test with the Sauce OnDemand and Scout cloud services. The new version, 3, features a major enhancement to the protocol that improves reliability when using Selenium over the Internet. This is achieved by working around issues such as routing problems on the internet backbone and TCP's handling of congestion and retries. The updated software acknowledges receipt of data, reconnects and resends unacknowledged data, and uses a delay-detection mechanism to rapidly give up on TCP connections experiencing uncommonly large delays. Early beta usage shows promising results, making it suitable for users who experienced mysterious test anomalies. However, existing users of Sauce Connect 2 are advised not to upgrade unless necessary.

Sauce Labs is preparing a private beta for Mac OS X support in their browser testing cloud, which has been the most requested feature by users. The new offering will include video recordings and screenshot capabilities, similar to existing services, but with the added benefit of a clean-slate, freshly booted machine for each test session. Due to limited systems availability, initial access will be prioritized for corporate users, with other users being added as resources permit.

We analyzed millions of browser sessions using Sauce Labs to determine the reliability of various browsers. We found that Safari 5 is significantly less reliable than other browsers, even when running on our newer infrastructure and in proxy mode. However, when we corrected for proxy mode, Firefox performed better than expected, and Chrome was unaffected by it. The study reveals that while modern browsers are generally more reliable, some older versions can still be problematic. Interestingly, the Safari 5 results were initially surprising but turned out to be a result of our specific testing environment rather than any inherent flaw in the browser itself.

Firewalls In The Cloud: How To Make Them Work` is a webinar that will cover the basics of testing an application behind a firewall using `Sauce Connect`. The speaker, Santiago Suarez Ordoñez, a Sauce Ninja, will explain how to test from behind your firewall. This webinar aims to help attendees understand how to make firewalls work for mobile app testing, specifically with `Sauce OnDemand`, a cloud-based testing platform.