Calendar August 10, 2016 02:43

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Texture Tuesday - Aug 9, 2016

So I was thinking the other day that its been a while since I've actually posted any art on this blog of mine, it most been programming/coding related stuff for the last 8 months or so. So since Allegorithmic recently made their software free for students, I decided to get a free license and start to do some art for this blog.

Since I don't know much about Substance Designer, I looked up a tutorial to get me back into it and I created a metal floor texture following this tutorial:


I really like this guy since he takes his time to explain the tool at the beginning and all. This will be really useful for anyone that is new to the software package. Without further ado, here are a couple renders from the finished product:



It took me a bit over an hour to finish the tutorial and about 15 minutes to get a good render on Marmoset Toolbag, but I am really happy with the result. I forgot how awesome this software package is, and I look forward to working on one of these textures every week if I have time from now on.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

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Calendar June 15, 2016 20:02

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Converting Test to NUnit

So we have been working on converting tests over to NUnit for a couple days now, and we have found a couple different things:

  1. Converting tests to NUnit is not very hard; we had to do some restructuring, but it was no big deal. 
  2. But the tests are not running in parallel like we want them to. We aren't really sure why this is, but we think it has to do with how the code was structured.
  3. We have now decided to scrap everything and start from scratch instead of trying to work with the existing code. 
So now that we have decided to start over and write everything ourselves, its probably going to take at least a month or two. While this means having to redo everything, I'm actually excited about this because it will give me the experience necessary on working on a web-testing framework done from the ground up. 

We are still going to use NUnit to run the tests, and we just have to start working on creating the proof of concept with some small test. Once we can prove that those small tests can run in parallel, we will have the green light to finish the project.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

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Calendar June 10, 2016 23:29

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Parallel Test Execution

So after doing some research on how to run parallel test using Selenium Grid, I found out a few different things that I hope will be helpful to others:

First, running tests in parallel is actually not up to Visual Studio, Selenium Grid, or the language you are using (Ex: C#). That task falls onto the test runner as long as it supports it. The built in test runner on Visual Studio is called MSTest, and it doesn't support this function automatically. I read on some sites that you are able to change some stuff around to force it, but its not worth it in my opinion.

Second, there are a few different test runners that can run multiple test at once. The ones that I found are NUnit and XUnit for C# and TestNG for Java. I'm sure there are more, but those are the ones that I looked into. There are many differences between NUnit and XUnit, but it looks like NUnit is the one that is most like MSTest and therefore would require the least amount of work in converting the test to be compatible in NUnit.

Third, I had been looking for a while on some tutorials, but since I didn't really know what I was looking for I had a hard time. Once we had settled on NUnit as the test runner for the project we are converting, I was able to find a tutorial series on YouTube that explains in great detail how to run multiple tests at once and even how to run the same test using different browsers.

Now that we know what we are doing, we will be working the next few days on getting a few test converted over and see if we can get it to work properly. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

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Calendar June 7, 2016 23:36

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Test Execution Using Selenium Grid

So as I mentioned last time, I have been at work trying to figure out how to get tests to run on Selenium Grid, which wasn't that hard to figure out. The set up just needs a few manual steps, buts its really easy.

First, there is only a few lines of code that we need change in order for it to work. If you remember my last post on Selenium, I will be using the same code I did then and just update it.

The new code looks something like this:

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
using OpenQA.Selenium;
using OpenQA.Selenium.Chrome;

namespace SeleniumTest
{
    class GenerateTokens
    {
        private RemoteWebDriver driver;

        public static void Main()
        {
            Generator();
            Environment.Exit(1);
        }

        private static void Generator()
        {
            var capabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
            capabilities.SetCapability(CapabilityType.BrowserName, "chrome");
            capabilities.SetCapability(CapabilityType.Platform, new Platform(PlatformType.Windows));
            driver = new RemoteWebDriver(new Uri("http://localhost:4444/wd/hub"), capabilities);
            driver.Manage().Window.Maximize();

            driver.Url = "some-site.com";

            for (int counter = 0; counter < 10; counter++)
            {
                // Do something 
            }

            driver.Quit();
        }
    }
}

As you can see, we use a RemoteWebDriver object instead of just a IWebdriver like we did before. This basically is saying that the test will not be running locally (but it can, more on that later) and that we will be using Selenium Grid to run the test on a different machine. We specify that we want to run the test on a machine that has Chrome as the browser and that its also a Windows machine. After that, we don't really care what computer is running those test, all we care is that it meets those two requirements for the test.

But if you were to run this test now, it would fail, because it wouldn't be able to run the test locally. The test runner is looking for an instance of Selenium Grid at the address that you provided "http://localhost:4444/wd/hub" and it can't find it. Now you have to set up the grid with only one hub and at least one node to run the test. Here are the steps for the set up:
  1. First you have to have Java installed in your machine and make sure that it was added to your PATH. 
  2. Next download "Selenium Standalone Server" from the Selenium downloads page. And put it in a folder that you want, I created a folder in my C driver called Selenium for it. 
  3. You will need to open a command window and navigate to the folder and enter: "java -jar selenium-server-standalone-2.53.0.jar -role hub"
  4. You will then need to open a new command window and navigate to the folder again and enter: "java -jar selenium-server-standalone-2.53.0.jar -role node  -hub http://localhost:4444/grid/register"
At this point you have now set up a grid, comprised of just your computer but it it will get the job done for now. If you open a browser window and go to "http://localhost:4444/grid/console", you will see that your grid has one node available to run tests and which browsers are available on the node.

Now if you run the test that we wrote before, it will work. The test runner will send a test to the server and the server will then decide which "node" to send the test to. Then the server will return the test result to the test runner. That's a really simplistic way of explaining the process, but at least that's how I understand it.

We are still running into issues at work where we can't get the tests to run in parallel, but hopefully we will figure it out soon. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

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Calendar June 3, 2016 15:13

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Baptized by Fire

So I have now been at my new job as a Jr QA Engineer for a little over a week now, and I am no longer as nervous/scared as I was before. But I am still trying to make sure that I understand everything quickly.

For the last week I haven't been doing much, other than getting to know what the automated tests look like that we run on our website. But now I have been given my first assignment, luckily I won't be working on it alone. Another guy started at the company a few days before I joined the team last week, and while he has a ton more experience we are both new to QA Engineering in general, so they decided to pair us up.

We are going to be working on a few different things:

  1. Moving the automated test from an old TFS server and getting it all migrated to GitHub. 
  2. Update the test to make sure they run on Selenium Grid.
  3. Update the tests to that we can run multiple tests at once in parallel using Selenium Grid.
  4. Make the tests run/kick-off from GitHub instead of TFS when a new build gets pushed to the QA environment.
That last one I am not really sure how we are going to do at all, but the other ones I have been researching for the last few days... but there is a problem. All the documentation that I've found is either old, outdated, or for Java and not C# (which is the language which all the test are written in).

I think I am getting close to getting the test to run on Selenium Grid, I am still not sure how to get multiple tests to run at once in parallel. I know that we have to use a testing framework that allows for multi threading, but so far I haven't figured it out.

I will keep looking into it, and when I figure it out I promise to make a tutorial on this site and Youtube. I hate how hard this has been and if I can help someone else, I will do my best.

Anyways, that's all for now and thanks for reading!

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Calendar May 25, 2016 02:51

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To Do App - Finished

So the last few days I've been working hard to get a finished To Do web app finished. Its not like I have to finish it by a certain date, but I really wanted to finish it before I started my new position. And I am happy to say that I have succeed on the most part, but there are a few things that I still want to do. Let me explain in the following screenshots:


The screenshot above is of my home page, its really similar to my mockup that I created a few days ago. The biggest difference is that I added tabs to the task list. One tab shows tasks that are outstanding, and the other shows the tasks that have been marked as completed.


The reason I added the separate tabs is that I didn't really know what to do with the tasks that were marked as done. I didn't want to delete them from the database, and I didn't want to leave them in the same list as the outstanding tasks. I decided that having a list of completed tasks would be the best thing to do.


Adding a new task also didn't work out as I wanted it to. In my mockup, I had planned to use a modal that would keep the user in the same page, but I couldn't figure out how to do it that way. The only way I could add a new item was to go to a dedicated page for adding a task, and then take the user back to the homepage with the new task.

On the home page, each task has three buttons that allows the user to perform an action on the task that it belongs to: Edit, Details, & Delete. Delete is self explanatory, it simply deletes the task from the SQL database and by extension from the list.


Edit and details are almost the same, so I will cover them at once. Edit allows you to go into the task and update any information for it. For example: if you need to add notes or change the due date you can do that in the edit page. The you save it and it updates in the database as well as on the list. This is also the page to mark the task as "Done" when you have completed the task. I was trying to figure out how to do it from the home page, but I couldn't.

The details page is exactly like the edit page, but its a "read-only" version and you can't change any of the information, you have to go to the edit page to do so.


And finally here is my database that I set up on MySQL. Its a really simple table with only 6 columns. The book that I got on SQL really helped me out on how I should set up the table. I am not done with the book yet, I think I am only a 1/4 of the way done with the book, but I already know way more than I did a week ago about SQL.

I will try to keep working on the app if I have time to make it better and work from a single page, but for now I am done. I am super nervous at the moment since I start my new job in the morning (its almost 1 AM), and I don't really know what it will be like. But I am ready and I hope that I leave a good impression so I can stay on the team after the 90 day trail ends. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

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Calendar May 22, 2016 12:20

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To Do App - Mockup

Since I don't have any experience with web development, I have been looking into how to build my to do app using Microsoft's MVC framework. For now I have an idea of how I want the final thing to look like, here are a couple of images of the mockup I made:


This is the home page, where it will show the list of outstanding tasks with a few buttons for actions on each task.


To add a new task, I want to create a modal that would allow the user to type in all the important information and then add it to the list.

As I mentioned before, this is just a mockup, so none of it is actually being persisted on a SQL database. I don't really know how I'm going to do all this, but I am still working on it. All that you see up there is just some tweaking that I made to the sample project and some simple UI updates using Bootstrap.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

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Calendar May 20, 2016 19:58

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Prepping for the New Job

So since I got the new good news a couple days ago about my new position next week, I have started to try and learn more in the areas that I didn't do well during the interview.

Over the next few days I plan to learn as much as I can about SQL and websites using the MVC framework.

The first is obvious, like I've said before, my knowledge of SQL is very limited. I know that I won't become a SQL master over the weekend, but I hope to know at least the basics. My job actually bought me a book that I can use called Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes. There are plenty of free resources available online to help me, but my manger thought this would be a better option so they got me the book for free. I really love working there.

I will also try to build a simple website using ASP.NET and the MVC framework because that is usually what new developers do in the company. For the first few weeks, new developers have to build a simple To Do List web app. Basically its an app that should allow a user to keep track of tasks, a user should be able to: Create, Read, Update, and Delete tasks. These tasks should be persisted to a database of some kind. Normally they use a NoSQL data base like RavenDB, but since I am learning SQL I will use MySQL DB for this web app. I don't know a single thing about web development, but I will try my best.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

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Calendar May 18, 2016 17:27

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So I Got the Job...

So a couple of days ago I posted about an interview I had at work for a Jr QA Engineer position, and by what I can only call luck... I got the job! I start next week after my current sprint is over at work.

Basically what happened is that a couple of other people had applied for the position, but on the day of their interview (yesterday), they canceled since they had accepted job offers somewhere else. So I guess by default I got it?

I know that I shouldn't be happy that I got the position by pure luck, but I am truly grateful that they decided to give me an opportunity since they could have easily just kept looking for someone else. Since there was a lot of stuff I didn't know about databases in general, I am actually joining the team as a temp. If I do well in the first 90 days, then I get to stay on the team. I am going to give it my all and try to learn as much as possible in this position. I hope that with this job I will get the required experience needed and one day be a full fledged QA Engineer one day.

Needless to say, I am super happy right now and I can't wait for this next challenge. I am also super nervous, but I will just face it as it comes.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

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Calendar May 16, 2016 23:33

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Jr QA Engineer Interview

So today I had an interview for a Jr QA Engineer at my work place, and since it was my first engineering interview I didn't really know what to expect. And I have to say that I was not ready for some of the stuff that they were going to ask me.

The interview started with some SQL and database questions. I had tried to study some basic SQL stuff over the weekend, but I didn't think that they were going to ask me anything about it, I figured they would focus more on my C# experience. Since my experience with SQL and databases is very limited, I think its safe to say that I failed this part of the interview.

Next they moved on to some OOP (Object Oriented Programming) questions and I'm happy to say that I did much better in this sections. They asked me a few different questions on what inheritance was, when would you implement inheritance, and a few other questions. I struggled a bit on explaining myself, but I got through it.

Next was probably my favorite part, actual coding on a white board. They asked me how I would write a function that would calculate the factorial of a given number. This part I spent probably a couple of minutes since it was really straight forward. This is the code I wrote:

public static int Factorial(int n)
{
    int result = 1;

    for (int i = n; i > 0; i--)
        result = result * i;

    return result;
}

They looked at the code, and told me it was good. Then they asked me to rewrite the function using recursion. I struggled a bit on this part, I had trouble trying to put into code what I had already done in a different way. They gave me a hint saying that 5! = 5 * 4! and that was all I needed. Here is the code I wrote:

public static int FactorialRecursive(int n)
{
    int current = n;

    if (n == 1)
        return n;

    int next = FactorialRecursive(n - 1);

    return current * next;
}

Overall I think I did much better in the second part of the interview than the first. I am not too hopeful on getting the position, but at least now I know what I need to work on and I am ready for the future. That is all for now, thanks for reading!

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Calendar May 11, 2016 23:40

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Learning Selenium WebDriver

So as you can probably tell my my recent blog posts, I have been trying to get more into coding and learning different things that will help me become a developer in the future.

Since I am a QA Specialist, I've heard the buzzwords "selenium" and "automated test" thrown around the office, but I didn't really know what any of those were. So I decided to start looking into it and try to understand how Selenium works and how to make automated test.

After spending sometime looking at some videos on Pluralsight, I got the basic idea that basically you can use a programming language like C# and write a "script" on what you would like to do in a website. I did some basic examples, but I didn't really think about it until yesterday.

In my current project at work, we are currently working on migrating our existing database from RavenDB to MartenDB. There are many documents that we have saved in the Raven database, and we are going to migrate each type of document. But in order to test it correctly, we were trying to find a simple way that would allows us to generate a lot of activity on the site, like customer's trying to reset passwords and see if it would affect the migration.

I had the idea that I could write a Selenium script that would do this for us on the site. Here is what I came up with:

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
using OpenQA.Selenium;
using OpenQA.Selenium.Chrome;

namespace SeleniumTest
{
    class GenerateTokens
    {
        public static void Main()
        {
            Generator();
            Environment.Exit(1);
        }

        private static void Generator()
        {
            IWebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver(@"C:\Libraries\");
            driver.Url = "some-site.com";

            Debug.Assert(driver.PageSource.Contains("A message has been sent with directions on how to reset your password.") == false);

            for (int counter = 0; counter < 100; counter++)
            {
                driver.FindElement(By.Id("forgot-link")).Click();

                IWebElement email = driver.FindElement(By.Name("Email"));
                email.SendKeys("some-email@some-domain.com");

                driver.FindElement(By.ClassName("btn-primary")).Click();

                driver.Manage().Timeouts().ImplicitlyWait(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(2));

                Debug.Assert(driver.PageSource.Contains("A message has been sent with directions on how to reset your password.") == true);
            }

            driver.Quit();
        }
    }
}

This script would essentially go to a site and go through the steps a customer would take to recover their password on their account. The script would repeat it 100 times (but it can be increased if we wanted) and we wouldn't have to worry about doing it ourselves manually. The downside to this script, is that it would perform the same action for the same account/email address provided. I was thinking of maybe modifying this script to read a text file that contained a lot of different email address that it would just input on the site.

I don't think this script will actually get used at work since I am not a QA Engineer, and I think they might have a better approach at doing this with some internal tool, but I thought that it was interesting how easy this was to write.

Anyways, that's all for now. Thanks for reading!

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Calendar May 11, 2016 00:37

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The End of Disney Infinity

As most people know by now, Disney Infinity has come an end... by the sound of things is was kind of a surprise to everyone that Disney decided to end the production of the game.

I haven't worked at Avalanche since September of last year, so I don't really know what went down but all my friends that still worked there are really shocked at the news. I just hope that everyone there is able to find another position at other studios soon.

I was only a game ester in my short time at Avalanche, but I loved my time there and it thanks to them that I am now a software tester.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

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Calendar May 8, 2016 21:14

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Caesar Cipher in C#

So I was talking to a co-worker the other day and the topic of a Caesar Cipher came up in our conversation. We talked about how it wouldn't be too hard to code something quick that would be able to "encrypt" some text.

So I was kind of bored over this weekend, and I decided that it would be a good exercise to write a Caesar Cipher. Here is my code:

class CaesarCipher
{
    private string Sentence;
    private int EncryptShift;
    private int DecryptShift;
    private bool IsEncrypted = false;

    public CaesarCipher(string input, int shifting)
    {
        Sentence = input.ToLower();
        EncryptShift = shifting;
        DecryptShift = -shifting;
    }

    public string Encrypt()
    {
        if (IsEncrypted)
            return Sentence;

        char[] char_array = Sentence.ToCharArray();

        Shuffle(char_array, EncryptShift);

        Recunstruct(char_array);

        return Sentence;
    }

    public string Decrypt()
    {
        if (!IsEncrypted)
            return Sentence;

        char[] char_array = Sentence.ToCharArray();

        Shuffle(char_array, DecryptShift);

        Recunstruct(char_array);

        return Sentence;
    }

    private void Shuffle(char[] char_array, int shift)
    {
        for (int index = 0; index < char_array.Length; index++)
        {
            char letter = char_array[index];

            if (letter >= 'a' && letter <= 'z')
            {
                letter = (char)(letter + shift);

                if (letter > 'z')
                    letter = (char)(letter - 26);

                else if (letter < 'a')
                    letter = (char)(letter + 26);
            }

            char_array[index] = letter;
        }
    }

    private void Recunstruct(char[] char_array)
    {
        Sentence = null;

        foreach (char letter in char_array)
            Sentence += letter;

        IsEncrypted = true;
    }
}

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

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Calendar May 4, 2016 23:11

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Max & Min Heap

So now that class is over and I took my final for my CS2420 class last night, I find that I have come to love programming and I miss not having an assignment to work on. So today I decided that since I had already created a Max Heap class, that I should also create a Min Heap class.

While I was working, I found that 99% of the code was going to be the same, and I didn't want to just create a copy and tweak a few lines. So instead I decided to create a abstract Heap class that I could inherit from.

So I created the base class and moved most of the code to that file. Then I made the Max and Min Heap classes and made the changes required in each class to make it work. While this also wasn't that hard, I think that it was a good exerciser. I did something similar in the Components assignment, but I think this was a much better example of how to use inheritance.

Here is my code:


That's all for now, thanks for reading!

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Calendar April 29, 2016 13:48

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Stack Class in C#

So this week there is no more homework for my C# class since the semester is coming to an end and we have a final exam next week.

Since I was bored at work, I started thinking that we never created a stack for one of the class assignments. So I decided to create my own, which wasn't that hard since its essentially just a wrapper around an array.

I started to work on it yesterday for a couple hours and finished it this morning.

Here is my code:


Thanks for reading!

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