Tinkering with Twitter: Getting credentials, consumerKey, accessToken

This is Part Two of a multi-part blog series on putting together a basic API test framework for the Twitter Search API. Care to go back to the beginning? 

In order to be able to programmatically interact with Twitter through their APIs, you need an:

•  OAUTH Consumer Key
• Consumer Secret
• Access Token
• Access Token Secret 

Then, you need to place them in a Twitter4J Properties file.

The file will look something like this:

Browser Stats for Adventures in Automation: Whither MS Edge?

To me, the most important metric to me is the browser - platform matrix. Since I consider the QA Engineer's primary goal is to operate a web application exactly as the customer base to see everything as they see it, I want to know what browsers and platforms are being used.

Google Analytics showed me that from Saturday, October 21st to Friday, October 27th there were 1,176 user sessions. A "session", according to Google, is "the period of time a user is actively engaged in your website, app, etc".

With these user sessions, the top ten browsers used were:

Browser Stats: Top 10 Browsers

This astonished me.

I keep on thinking that maybe this week MS Edge usage will grow over time. But, no. It always seems to be Chrome & Firefox which are the top two. They seem to make up 87% of all readers of this blog.

As a software tester, I usually test in:

• Chrome, though I probably won't find many bugs using that browser since that seems to be most developer's favorite browser at the companies I have worked for.
• Firefox, a few bugs may creep in, since fewer developers use that.
• Internet Explorer 11, 10, and 9, depending on what the Product Owner wants. Working with healthcare companies or financial firms, you will see some old, old browsers
• Safari on the Mac

... I never get a chance to test on MS Edge, usually running out of time. I then get worried, checking the browser stats for the application I am testing on... and I find that it is always around two percent of the population.

What ever happened to Microsoft's edge?


Happy Testing!

-T.J. Maher
Twitter | LinkedIn | GitHub

// Sr. QA Engineer, Software Engineer in Test, Software Tester since 1996.
// Contributing Writer for TechBeacon.
// "Looking to move away from manual QA? Follow Adventures in Automation on Facebook!"

See you in two weeks at TestBash Philly 2017!

Wow. I'll be attending my very first software testing conference in just two weeks! I can't wait!

• I'll be at the 11/8/2017: Pre-TestBash Philadelphia Meetup
• I am attending TestBash Philly 2017 at FringeArts 11/9/2017 & 11/10/2017
• I'll be wrapping up at the 11/10/2017: Post-TestBash Philadelphia Meetup

If you see me around, wave me down and introduce yourself! Ignore the confused look on my face when you say hello, as I try to remember if I should know you already, went to college with you, or worked with you. And I apologize... it's going to take me a few times to have your name sink in.

I'll be there with my little Chromebook, blogging away!

See you there! I hear they still have 16 or so tickets available.

Happy Testing!

-T.J. Maher
Twitter | LinkedIn | GitHub

// Sr. QA Engineer, Software Engineer in Test, Software Tester since 1996.
// Contributing Writer for TechBeacon.
// "Looking to move away from manual QA? Follow Adventures in Automation on Facebook!"

What testing framework should be used testing a ReactJS web app? Webdriver.io? SerenityJS? Should it be a JavaScript based framework?

Let's say I need to write an automation framework for a ReactJS site. What should I use? Webdriver.io? SerenityJS? Selenium HQ's JavaScript implementation? Or does the framework not need to be in JavaScript just because the main web app under test is?

Please take the following Twitter poll:

#ReactJS site: Which #Javascript #automation framework?

— T.J. Maher (@tjmaher1) October 23, 2017

Thank you very much, and Happy Testing!

-T.J. Maher
Twitter | LinkedIn | GitHub

// Sr. QA Engineer, Software Engineer in Test, Software Tester since 1996.
// Contributing Writer for TechBeacon.
// "Looking to move away from manual QA? Follow Adventures in Automation on Facebook!"

Job searching is depressing!

Normally, I am an upbeat person. When I am a good mood, you can tell. I have a grin that goes from ear-to-ear. I laugh easily and heartily. If I had a tail, I'd always be wagging it! And -- my poor, poor wife -- I love making bad puns.

But there is nothing that taxes me more than job searching! It is unnerving, stressful, stammer producing. And the longer the job search continues, the harder it gets.

Basically, all the excess energy I had to finish the "Testing the Twitter API" disappeared. I'll be able to finish it once I find a position, but now, I am spending most of my free time looking at Indeed.com, Dice.com, and LinkedIn Jobs.

Looking to see how I started my career? Take a look at the early articles posted on my Table of Contents!

Happy Testing!

-T.J. Maher
Twitter | LinkedIn | GitHub

// Sr. QA Engineer, Software Engineer in Test, Software Tester since 1996.
// Contributing Writer for TechBeacon.
// "Looking to move away from manual QA? Follow Adventures in Automation on Facebook!"

Tinkering with Twitter: Twitter and the Search API

Let's say you are an automation developer and your boss gives you a new assignment: Test the search functionality for Twitter, how would you do it?

You could cobble together a Selenium WebDriver framework, one that spun up a browser, identified where the search bar was on Twitter.com, typed in a search keywords, and scraped the screen when the results appeared...

... The problem with this approach? You aren't actually testing the search functionality. You are testing how the web application handles the search functionality. Why not the search functionality itself?

Like the MBTA website we explored back in February, Are You Sure the Bus Line is Listed? Gathering data using REST APIs and REST Assured, much of the data is extracted from an API, an application programming interface.

With this series of blog articles we will be walking through:

1) Setting up a development environment:

• IntelliJ as the integrated development environment (IDE)
• We will be using a programming library called Twitter4J to interact with Twitter's API.
• Since the Test4J programming library is in Java, we will be using that as a programming language.
• Maven handling the third-party dependencies.

2) Coming up with test data and posting it to Twitter.

3) Searching for that test post we created.

Let's begin!

And the next speaker for the Automation Guild 2018 is ... me!

Anybody know how to shoot decent video on an iPhone 6S, how to get good lighting and sound?

I just heard back from my favorite software testing podcaster, Joe Colantonio of TestTalks.com. I've been selected to submit a video to his Automation Guild 2018!

Joe Colantonio, founder, the Automation Guild
https://vimeo.com/234367425

This three day conference is all online, and will be held January 8th to 10th, 2018.

I was going to convert last year's talk I gave to the Ministry of Testing - Boston, How to Pass a Coding Interview as an Automation Developer, which I based on my previous TechBeacon article...

... As you can see in the talk I gave last year, I have a bit of work to do.

Wish me luck!

Happy Testing!

-T.J. Maher
Twitter | LinkedIn | GitHub

// Sr. QA Engineer, Software Engineer in Test, Software Tester since 1996.
// Contributing Writer for TechBeacon.
// "Looking to move away from manual QA? Follow Adventures in Automation on Facebook!"