Two gotchas of the day

Okay, these are really from yesterday, but my head still hurts from banging it against the wall.

Gotcha number 1: Skype interferes with Apache. Or actually interferes with port 80. I was trying to evaluate TestLink 1.8, so I set up XAMPP on my computer and wondered why Apache would not start. Skype blocks port 80. Note to self: turn off Skype! You'll be more productive!

Gotcha number 2: a bad interpreter error on Linux usually means the end of line characters are messed up on the script. And in this case it is IBM that messed up the installation of their pznload.sh script. Nothing a little simple dos2unix can't fix, but I still pondered the meaning of this error for a good 20 minutes. Sigh.

TestLink 1.8 Release Candidate is available

I see from the TestLink website that the 1.8 Release Candidate is available. I'm quite excited about the possibility of using the new TL API. I played with it a little bit when I evaluated 1.8 Beta. I may have to find a little chunk of time to install it and see how it is. The next release is scheduled for 3 weeks from now, so that gives me a little time to think about upgrade strategy here at work.

Importing tests from CSV into TestLink

Maybe because I'm not using Microsoft's Excel, but rather OpenOffice.org's Calc, I was not having so much luck following the TestLink instructions for creating an XML document of testcase from a spreadsheet that could be imported to TestLink. So, what I did was to create a conversion script that would take my tests that were formatted in a CSV file and then output the correct XML for TestLink. It's probably not as robust as it could be, as it doesn't have a bunch of error checking, but so far it is getting the job done. It allows empty steps and empty expectedresults, but will probably barf if you don't have a name or summary.



Once you convert your CSV file to XML, you can import the tests from the Specification view in TestLink. Ideally, since TestLink is open source, I would have liked to have added code to TestLink to allow it to import CSV from TestLink itself (and contribute it to the project), but I don't know PHP. I know there is a CSV lib in TestLink, but I haven't had the time to hack it yet. So, this is my temporary solution until I get chance to mess with the PHP. Which might be never.

Windows Installation and Uninstallation Testing with RegShot

My latest Phurnace blog entry is up. Check it out.

CodeWeaver's CrossOver giveaway canceled going forward

Looks like I downloaded my copy just in time. According to the CodeWeaver blog, going forward, their "Lame Duck" giveaways are being canceled. I haven't received my registration number yet, and I wonder if ever I will due to their technical difficulties last week. We shall see. The next step for me would be to finally buy that Intel MacBook I've been eyeing. I see a Christmas gift to myself....