February 2017 Summaries

New Relic Synthetics Monitoring is a tool that allows developers to simulate user behavior on websites using Selenium and monitor web application performance in real-time. It provides detailed insights into how web applications perform from various locations around the world, by collecting data points such as load times, failures, and HTTP status codes every minute or at specified intervals. The goal of Synthetics Monitoring is to catch problems before customers do. It offers a range of monitoring dashboard sections, including an overview page that shows trends for load time, availability, slowest results, and failures, as well as detailed statistics for each page resource. Developers can configure and develop Selenium scripts to build complex monitoring workflows, and use the tool to troubleshoot issues and improve website performance. New Relic Synthetics Monitoring helps ensure web services are in place and working correctly by running automated tests on a set schedule.

The Microsoft Fakes framework is a testing tool that allows developers to test their code's interaction with dependencies, external applications, and system resources in a controlled environment. It provides a way to supply realistic emulations of the required interactions by means of mocks, stubs, and shims. Unlike traditional mock frameworks, Microsoft Fakes generates stubs and shims, but not full mocks, which can result in additional programming overhead. The framework is fully integrated into Microsoft Visual Studio, allowing for easy generation of stub classes and integration with debugging. However, its use of shims has raised concerns about encouraging bad programming habits, as it bypasses interfaces to simplify testing. Ultimately, the choice between Microsoft Fakes and a third-party mock framework depends on the type of testing required and the level of complexity involved.

The Polymer Project is a library for creating web components that align with W3C standards, making it easier to create custom HTML elements. The testing framework for the Polymer project is called Web Component Tester (WCT), which wraps around Mocha, Chai, Sinon, Selenium, and more, running test suites through browsers using Selenium and integrating with Sauce Labs for remote execution. Custom web components enable new types of DOM elements and Shadow DOM combines multiple DOM trees into one hierarchy, enabling better composition of the DOM. The Polymer project uses polyfills to support a range of browser versions and has a command-line interface (CLI) tool that includes a test runner WCT, providing a comprehensive solution for running unit tests inside real browsers. A solid testing strategy for Polymer projects requires a foundation of unit tests for web components, integration testing with remote data, automated responsive/adaptive integration testing, functional end-to-end testing, and visual checkpoints using Applitools.

The cloud offers numerous advantages for dev/test efforts, including cheap and easy test bed creation, reconfiguration, and tear-down, as well as 24-hour access to resources. Cloud-based tools also promote collaboration among development, QA, and other teams, while providing consistent setup for existing and new staff. The cloud supports multi-environment and multi-platform testing, enabling DevOps benefits such as rapid deployment, automation, and remote monitoring. It also allows for simulating users or devices, performing rigorous performance testing, and mobile device simulation/emulation. Additionally, the cloud serves as a proof of concept, providing an excellent learning tool for organizations hesitant to move their applications to the cloud, and enables more thorough testing of often overlooked items such as disaster recovery and transient connectivity.