What is HtmlUnitDriver in Selenium

What is HtmlUnitDriver in Selenium ?

When I wanted to run my automation scripts on CI/CD pipeline back in 2017, I was experimenting the headless browsers using HtmlUnitDriver
Now Chrome headless picked up popularity over HtmlUnitDriver as switching from GUI browser selenium code to Chrome headless is very easy unlike HtmlUnitDriver.
Selenium automation utilized HtmlUnitDriver when it needs a non GUI mode executions on jenkins server when there is no browser installed on it or no support from docker containers.

What is PhantomJs used for

What is PhantomJs used for ?

When I wanted to run my automation scripts on CI/CD pipeline back in 2017, I was experimenting the headless browsers starting with PhantomJs.
Now Phantomjs is a discontinuoed headless browsers due to poor maintenance and support. 
Selenium automation utilized PhantomJs when it needs a non GUI mode executions on jenkins server when there is no browser installed on it or no support from docker containers.

How to deploy machine learning models

How to deploy machine learning models ?

Machine learning models can be developed using TensorFlow, and orchastrated using Kubernetes and build it in Docker container. These can be combined with AWS services like CloudWatch, EKS and S3. This can basically give an API for developers to deploy their machine learning models.

What is Tensorflow?

Tensorflow is an opensource library used for machine learning specifically artificial neural networks. It provides API for various machine learning tasks.
It is important to learn following terminology prior learning Tensorflow.
Artificial neural networks are inspired from Animal brains that learn from experiences. Similarly neural networks learns from examples to perform its tasks than running predefined programs.


What is Keras

High level neural networks API written in python which Tensorflow utilized for building its programs.


What is Dense

Dense is the neural network layer in the tensorflow 

how to build a team in the workplace

How to build a team in the workplace ?

It is good idea to build a team having members with good strategy for executing project. This member can be identified as leader

Then team needs a good analyst who needs to have skills to manage roadmap, backlog of work. This person can be called as Analyst.

And finally needs the developers (1 pr more depending on the work load and customer needs) who can deploy the code or bots.

What is the difference between Robotic Desktop Automation (RDA) vs Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

What is Robotic Desktop Automation (RDA) vs Robotic Process Automation (RPA) ?

For me RDA is automation of single desktop/user and RPA is automation of many desktops/uses.

Desktop automation is a robotic process automation which was a scaled down version of actual RPA for a single user. Robotic desktop automation is used for data scraping, Excel automation, file transfers, report generation, etc. An example, checking an apllication for a status on regular basis and to download reports or emailing a report to a distributed list of people.

However RPA installs on a server (not for single desktop eventhough that can also be done), cloud , or virtual machines. RPA processes can spread acrross departments or work flows.

For example, invoice generation needs to flow through multiples of tasks is a great candidate for RPA. It might start with retrieving an attachment from an email, then RPA needs to categorize it, uploading to an ERP systems, then find the right receiving person and send out email to that right approval person is a perfect candidate for RPA.

How rapid app development is done?

How rapid application development is done ?

Before cloud comes into IT world, the development was time consuming in terms of deploying,  integrating backend or API to make an end to end functioning application.

But now when you consider AWS, Firebase, Amplify, or Hasura that provides backend service right away with minimal coding or integration efforts. Plus easy deployment from your own. No much coordinated efforts by involving IT Admin team.

So right tool selection is extremely important for the success in delivery and customer service.

What is OpenCV

What is opencv library ?

Open Source Computer Vision Library (OpenCV) is a open source computer vision and machine learning software library. 

OpenCV is a BSD-licensed product, since it is BSD licenses it can be utilized or modified for anyOpenCV businesses use. Sikuli has leveraged OpenCV for image recognition.

OpenCV was built to provide a common infrastructure for computer vision applications 

OpenCV helps to accelerate the use of machine perception in the commercial products. 

How does Karate framework work

What is Karate Framework and API test automation is done using Karate ?

Overview

Karate framework is the only framework that combines API, Web Automation, mock and performance testing using Gatling. It supports some level of RPA/RDA testing by integrating Sikuli with it’s scritps.

Stackoverflow links related with Karate framework

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/59768331/like-selenium-grid-hub-node-is-there-any-option-to-run-karatedriver-on-grid

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/58854004/karate-driver-synchronization-challeges

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/58783547/karate-driver-connection-refused-error-while-using-driver-type-chrome-and-exec

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/58634921/calling-karate-feature-files-based-on-soap-response-status-code-200-or-500

Karate framework can be build using gradle or maven. If you already know Cucumber framework it is easy to learn Karate framework. Karate uses feature files and Karate specific DSL supports both API and Web automation. Karate’s Java runner file can call the feature file having Karate DSL to perform API transactions like GET, POST, PUT and DELETE.

Karate version 0.9.5 released in 2020 has the following features,

  1. Debug from Visual Source code IDE
  2. Hot reload, step over / into / out / back

In 2019, Karate started web automation. Karate 0.9.5 feature will make Karate as complete test automation framework supporting both API and Web automation. Also another point to be noted is Karate’s integration with Sikulix for Desktop automation, integration with Gatling for performance testing and Mocking support for API testing.

What is Coronavirus

What is Coronavirus ?

Coronavirus is a set of virus that affect mammals with moderate to life threatening conditions. In human’s it causes respiratory issues and can cause dealth to vulnerable individuals. In Cows it may cause diarrhea where as chicken can have respiratory infections.

Performance testing tutorial

Performance testing tutorial – Advanced.

Jmeter Performance test scenario – Creating a Jmeter Performance test scenario

Thread Group: Thread group is the number of virtual users performing the transaction on application under test.

How to add Thread group?

  1. Right click on the TestPlan
  2. Select Add>Thread Group from the popup.

Performance testing best practices and activities.

Performance testing best practices and activities.

  1. As first step, Performance Engineer needs to learn the requirements, performance expectations & system architecture.

Note: To learn the performance requirements & expectations, SME (Subject matter expert ) or production user can help. This information will help to define performance goals and SLAs

  1. Then develop best matching performance test scenarios, approach, define goals (SLAs) & sign off test plan.

Note 1: To identify the right performance test scenarios, SME can give some feedback on about the current performance issues in production / live application that he/she is facing.

Note 2:  You can refer another blog of mine on different types of performance scenarios – click link load testing vs performance testing vs stress testing

  1. Now Performance Engineer can developer V– USER scripts and execute the scripts in Controller to generate performance analysis results

Note 1: Apart from delivering performance analysis results, Performance Engineer  can coordinate with other team to monitor real time performance on Database server, Application server and also make sure load balancing is working fine while stress testing.

Some of the e.g. when performance testing is needed

  1. for Database upgrade,
  2. Application upgrade,
  3. Or if user complains that application performance is bad – like page response is not meeting his/her expectations.

Performance testing vs Load testing vs Stress testing vs Endurance testing

1. Performance testing – The main purpose of Performance testing is to arrive the benchmark & baseline of the system behavior (e.g response time) under normal/moderate load. This test will help performance engineer  to analyse how does the application behave under normal conditions.

2. Load testing  – here load will be constantly and steadily increased over a given period of time. i.e the constant load applied for a constant period of time. For example a load of 100 users are applied for 15 min.

3. Stress test – it is meant to push the system beyond the normal load limits or extreme conditions. This test is to make sure the servers don’t crash or what point it crashes. Stress test will  verify the breaking point of the system or how much load, system can withstand.

For example a load of 100 users are applied for 15 min and then 150 users load is applied for next 15 min. then 200 users load is applied for next 15 min. Verify at what point system stopped to respond.

4. Endurance testing – for easy understanding, I would say it is a “Load testing on extended period” to make sure web servers are performing longer period of time. For example a load of 100 users are applied for 48 hours

Note: Once the performance testing is completed successfully, tester can assume the performance requirements are met and he can start load testing. After that Stress testing if required.

Load testing tools in the market are

1) HPE LoadRunner is from Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

2) JMeter – Apache JMeter. It is a Java based performance testing tool works on web communication layer (HTTP)

Summary about Jmeter and performance testing

Jmeter recording

How to create Jmeter scripts?

Recording Jmeter scripts using Jmeter’s HTTP(S) Test Script recorder. There are two ways

1)      Manually adding scripts ( Test plan >> Tread Group >> Add>> Sampler >> HTTP Request )

2)      Recording using Jmeter’s HTTP(S) Test Script recorder

How to record Jmeter scripts using HTTP(S) Test Script recorder

Prior doing that we need to configure browser and learn about the Proxy setup

Jmeter to Application server communication need to be routed through a browser Proxy for this recording purpose. For that you may need to select the Browser (here we can use Firefox browser”

1)      Navigate to Firefox >> Tools >> options >> Advanced >> Network >> Settings

2)      Select Manual Proxy configuration >> HTTP Proxy = localhost & Port = 8080

How to run Jmeter in Jenkins

steps:

Jenkins setup and performance plugin setup:
1) copy performance plugin into Jenkin’s home directry before you start the test.
2) to do that – you can download the performance plugin “performance.hpi” from the site https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Performance+Plugin
3) how to find the home directry of jenkins – to do that you can navigate to jenkins home page (localhost:8080) and then
4) click on “Manage Jenkins” and then click on “Configure system” the you will notice “Home directy” path in there.

Configure Jmeter and create a basic script in Jmeter:
5) download Jmeter Binary zip file from Jmeter site http://jmeter.apache.org/download_jmeter.cgi
6) unzip it and go to the “bin” directory of the Jmeter folder, wherre you will notice “user.properties” file.
7) open the file in notepad or notepad++ or any other text editor
8) add a line “jmeter.save.saveservice.output_format=xml” to that. Save and close the “user.properties” file
9) create a Jmeter script and make sure you can run it in non GUI mode i.e either in DOS mode or using shell scripts in MAC (note down the commands used in respective OS and it could be used in Jenkins job setup)
Note: for windows command line run, you can use the following commands

C:\[JMETER BIN directory]\jmeter.bat -Jjmeter.save.saveservice.output_format=xml -n -t C:\[JMETER script “.jmx” file] -l Jmeter_test_results.jtl

Note 1: For detailed topics on Jmeter scripts creation , please visit Jmeter , Jmeter recording 

setup Jenkin’s job to run Jmeter scripts
9) go to Jenkins home page (localhost:8080) and then click on “New Item” on “Freestyle project”
10) in the “New item” page, give some name in the item name field and go to below to section “Build” and add build step
11) add build step can be either a) “execute windows batch command” for windows or b) “Execute shell” for MAC
12) provide your command in there and save.
13) Click on “Build now” which would call the Jmeter (jmx) file and run the program
14) after the run, you can verify the Jenkins console to review the results.

What is Rendezvous point with reference to performance testing

Rendezvous point is Synchronization or Wait point. Rendezvous points makes Vusers to wait during test execution and multiple Vusers will simultaneously perform a task.

Rendezvous is mainly used to emulate heavy load on a particular scenario/ transaction to test the application behavior.

How to test the latency issues in Microsoft windows version upgrades

Latency issues generally occurs as a side effects of patch updates in windows. It may occur as audio/video streaming performance issues.
Latency issues can be tested using LatencyMon or Thesycon
Note : Thesycon is more effective on lower versions on windows like 7 or lower.

Web server vs Application server vs Database server

Web server serves a web content (HTML and static content) over the HTTP protocol.

Application server is a container on which one can build and expose business logic and processes to client applications through various protocols like HTTP. Some cases it will have internal web server. Application server is heavy in terms of resource usage.

Database server refers to the back-end system of a database application using client/server architecture. The database server performs tasks such as data analysis, storage, data manipulation, archiving, and other non-user specific tasks

What is Web server?

A Web server can process HTTP requests and respond with HTML pages, provided the requests are handled by server side programs

It uses HTTP protocol to transmit the request/responses. Here Web server handled both request/response and business logic. This is more rigid design.

A web transaction using web server will be like this as below,

Browser (click operation to display some results on a grid> ==> Request goes to web server (Apache HTTP server) ==> Database

Apache Jmeter key topics for basic level users.

Performance testing – Jmeter recording steps

Performance testing – load balancing

Performance testing – Load runner