[Incubator] autobuild/autotest for OSGeo projects

[Chris Holmes]

Hey, I just learned about a great tool to do tests of webapps.

http://www.openqa.org/selenium/

You may investigate it's use in mapbuilder, as it can do a lot of things 
that are hard to test.  It allows you to do tests from a browser, since 
it runs in a browser.

There is also:

http://www.openqa.org/selenium-ide/

Which allows you to easily make tests by just clicking through the 
actions that should happen, and then filling in a few fields.

Chris

Cameron Shorter wrote:
> Mapbuilder has an automated build (using ant) but we don't have 
> automated testing yet.
> 
> We have started looking into automated testing, but we are still many 
> months away from having a comprehensive test suite.  (JS tools are a 
> long way behind java and C tools).
> 
> Markus Neteler wrote:
> 
>> Frank, all,
>>
>> it would be nice to have an automated build and smoke test within
>> the OSGeo structure.
>>
>> Report from GRASS: we are doing automated builds from CVS every
>> Saturday, but currently only on x86/Linux inhouse and MacOSX externally.
>> Once our server grass.itc.it is updated, we can also add mingW builds
>> (most of GRASS has been ported to MS-Windows native recently).
>>
>> The software documentation on the web is rendered in the same
>> moment when the binary is built.
>>
>> A couple of tests have been implemented along with a new
>> GRASS Test Suite (still external project) which operates similar to
>> hobu's bot (but yet without IRC):
>> http://www-pool.math.tu-berlin.de/~soeren/grass/GRASS_TestSuite/html/GRASSTestSummary.html 
>>
>>
>> So, things are more or less ready from our side.
>>
>> Markus
>>
>> On 3/27/06, Frank Warmerdam <warmerdam at pobox.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Folks,
>>>
>>> I would like to suggest that an automated build and smoke test be part
>>> of the list of "highly desired features" of an OSGeo project.
>>>
>>> By automated build and smoke tests, I mean that project source code
>>> should be automatically built from CVS/SVN at least nightly and then
>>> some sort of minimal automatic test be run against that version to
>>> verify that the current version is at least minimally operational.  
>>> Ideally
>>> such build and smoke tests could be done more often, even on demand.  
>>> And
>>> ideally the automatic testing should be fairly extensive.  Furthermore,
>>> ideally automatic notifications to developers, the developer mailing 
>>> list
>>> or somewhere similar should be done when the build or tests fail.
>>>
>>> Howard Butler has done a bunch of work with "Build Bot" to make this
>>> happen for GDAL and is now working on MapServer.  You can see an 
>>> example at:
>>>
>>>   http://gdal.builds.hobu.net/
>>>
>>> I am sure that some of the projects already do this.  I think that 
>>> GeoTools
>>> has something like this that is somewhat Java oriented.  Is that right
>>> Jody/Chris?  I also suspect that MapGuide already has this, though I 
>>> don't
>>> know if it is aimed at the OS (open source) version of MG.  Projects 
>>> like
>>> Mapbender, and MapBuilder that are client browser oriented might not 
>>> make
>>> sense to approach in the same way.  Arnulf, Cameron, can you comment on
>>> whether there would be a meaningful way in which build and smoke test 
>>> could
>>> be applied automatically?
>>>
>>> My intention isn't to mandate a particular approach to a build and 
>>> smoke test,
>>> but rather to push this as a highly desirable aspect of an OSGeo 
>>> project.  I
>>> do think that OSGeo ought to provide support to help setup this up for
>>> projects that don't have their own way they would like to do this.  
>>> To this
>>> end Howard has indicated a willingness to setup BuildBot support on 
>>> an OSGeo
>>> server at telescience for this purpose.
>>>
>>> I would add, that I see this as an action in support of the OSGeo 
>>> goal "To
>>> ensure a high degree of quality in foundation projects in order to 
>>> build and
>>> preserve the foundation brand."
>>>
>>> I have added this as an agenda item for the meeting tomorrow.  If we are
>>> agreeable on this, my hope is that we can start setting up an OSGeo 
>>> build
>>> and smoke test server soon at telescience.  I have cc:ed Howard and also
>>> Norman (who is responsible for OSGeo use of telescience systems) to this
>>> end.
>>>
>>> Best regards,
>>> -- 
>>> ---------------------------------------+-------------------------------------- 
>>>
>>> I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, 
>>> warmerdam at pobox.com
>>> light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
>>> and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGF, 
>>> http://osgeo.org
>>
>>
>>
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>>
> 
> 

-- 
Chris Holmes
The Open Planning Project
thoughts at: http://cholmes.wordpress.com
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