Selenium is now on GitHub

Back on March of this year, Google's Open Source Blog posted the following notice:

"Beginning today, we have disabled new project creation on Google Code. We will be shutting down the service about 10 months from now on January 25th, 2016. Below, we provide links to migration tools designed to help you move your projects off of Google Code. We will also make ourselves available over the next three months to those projects that need help migrating from Google Code to other hosts. 

test.AllTheThings!

I've loved Sauce Labs every since I first heard about it. Instead of testing the same exact web application five or ten times in various browsers and platforms, I can write a test once? And I don't have to manually configure the browsers and platforms by hand? Sign me up! 

We use it at work. Sure, it's a pain setting up Internet Explorer 8, but you kinda expect IE8 to be a pain when using a modern web app with it. 

The-Internet: Common Utilities: methods, exceptions and logging

This post is second in a series of six. Need to go back to the beginning?

Rewriting the automated test code we use at work to test against Dave Haeffner's mock site, The-Internet: Login Page.


Please note: I have been an automated tester only since March 2015. This is only my best guess on how to translate what we use at work. I am writing this blog to deepen my own understanding of automated testing. If there are any glaring errors about Java, OO, WebDriver, or anything else please let me know in the Comments section!

NYSE gets FIT!

Wall Street just got FIT. pic.twitter.com/HU0BzCLdRl

— Fitbit (@fitbit) June 18, 2015

Back in January, when I started this blog? I thought it was going to be the end of my software testing career if I didn't do something drastic and buckle down to re-learn Java programming and Selenium WebDriver.

Live Blog: Free Ice Cream from Fitbit Boston

Fitbit Boston has rented an ice cream truck and will be giving away free ice cream in Kendall Square! I will be live blogging the event from 12:00 noon to 1:00 pm. Watch this space or check in on #FitbitBoston on Twitter for details. 

The-Internet: Simple Manipulation of a Login Page

Beginning coders in Selenium WebDriver need simple websites to test against. For that purpose, Dave Haeffner ( @TourDeDave ), author of ElementalSelenium.com and the SeleniumGuidebook.com, wrote the-internet.

... No, not "The Internet". The-Internet: https://the-internet.herokuapp.com/. It assembles a collection of Web Elements such as dropdowns, checkboxes, and a login page that automated testers can test against.

For today's blog post, I will speed automated testers through some basic Selenium / Java sample code I quickly hacked together: how a tester can interact with the various page elements of a login screen. The code tests what needs to be tested, it successfully runs... but it ain't pretty.

Live Blog: Fitbit Boston @ BostonTechJam

Boston TechJam
City Hall Plaza, Boston, MA
Thursday, June 11, 2015 4:00 pm - 9:00 pm

I've always liked getting involved, so when I heard that Fitbit-Boston managed to get a booth last minute at @BostonTechJam I signed up immediately!

I volunteered to help pack up the truck, go down to the site here at Boston's City Hall Plaza here in Government Center, set up, and staff the booth.

I will be live blogging the event! Stop by this page throughout the day, and I will be posting pictures and updates about my experience here. Feel free to come by, take pictures, and tag me in them. On Twitter I am @tjmaher1.

Fitbit-Boston will be @BostonTechJam on Thursday

Fitbit-Boston will have a table at Boston TechJam, held this Thursday. I'll be manning the table from 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm along with my fellow co-workers. Stop by and say Hello!

Boston TechJam - Details

Event Name: Boston TechJam
Registration Link: http://www.bostontechjam.com/
Location: City Hall Plaza, Gov't Center, Boston
Date: Thursday, June 11, 2015
Time: 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Cost: $10.00 USD. Pre-registration needed.

Spotlight On: Dave Haeffner

Dave Haeffner has been a big part of the Selenium community ever since Selenium WebDriver came out. He is a blogger, an author, a teacher, a consultant, and a lecturer. And most of the information and help he can give you to learn how to write automated tests in Selenium WebDriver is free.

Twitter connects us all!

Sometimes I am amazed at how easy it is to send a note to people via Twitter. I am more amazed how often people respond!

Starting in December of 2014, I decided that if I ever was going to do it, now was the time for one last big push to attempt to finally find a company who would take a chance on me, bring me on board, and start getting me up to speed with automated testing with Selenium / Java. For most of my fifteen year QA career as a manual tester, coding was never part of the job. I had last programmed in Java in grad school ... ten years ago. Switching from a manual testing job to an automation one was going to be a hard sell.

#AmIADeveloperYet?

So, I just added my second small Selenium / Java test to Fitbit - Boston's automated test suite of its eCommerce application. Up until now, my main focus was helping out with manual testing. Doing automation was mainly a side project as I was ramping up since our QA department was short-staffed.

... #AmIADeveloperYet?

Meetup: How to Study Design Patterns

Boston Software Craftmanship

Brightcove, 290 Congress Street, Boston, MA

http://www.meetup.com/Boston-Software-Craftsmanship/events/222541015/
Monday, June 1st, 2015 @ 6:30 pm

"Design Patterns have been a divisive topic in the programming community. Some consider them indispensable, while others find them harmful when intentionally applied.  

"In the game of Go, there exists a similar divide around the concept of Joseki. They've had more time to wrestle with this conflict, though, and Toshiro Kageyama has made an attempt at reconciling these factions. In his seminal book 'Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go', there is a chapter titled "How to Study Joseki". We will be applying this approach to studying Design Patterns.  

"If you own Design Patterns, please bring it; only one is necessary, but additional copies will help it go more smoothly". - From the Meetup site