Squish for Java Success at Ericsson

“Squish has proved to be an excellent and popular replacement for the GUI automation tool which was used in previous automation campaigns.” said Shane McCarron from Ericsson AB.

We had the pleasure to interview Shane McCarron, a Senior Designer of Ericsson AB, who use Squish for their automated GUI testing effort of several Java GUI applications in different divisions. We talked about their test automation and why they chose Squish over the competition.

Froglogic: What’s your name and position?

Shane: Shane McCarron, Senior Designer.

Froglogic: What’s the name of the company you work for?

Shane: LM Ericsson Ltd.

Froglogic: Can you briefly describe the software you are testing with Squish?

Shane: It is a suite of Java GUI applications used to manage a telecommunications network.

Froglogic: How did you learn about Squish?

Shane: I read about it on a WIKI article which was discussing vendors that provide cross platform GUI automation tools. Squish was said to support multiple Java Virtual Machines (JVMs) which was a key requirement of ours.

Froglogic: When did you start to use Squish?

Shane: In July 2007

Froglogic: What are the main reasons you decided to use Squish for your automated GUI tests?

Shane:

• Squish supports testing of multiple JVMs from a single test case
• Tests can be written in JavaScript and this was seen as a benefit as there was already some knowledge of this language in our area and we didn’t have to learn a proprietary language
• We were impressed with the Spy feature which lets you pick an object on a GUI and then set related synchronisation points in your test script
• The step through debugging feature of the IDE was also seen as a very beneficial facility

Froglogic: What are Squish’s main advantages over the competition? Why did you choose Squish over its competitors?

Shane:

• Multiple JVM support
• JavaScript based test scripts
• Ability to integrate existing tests written in other languages e.g. Perl
• Modular based development which means commonly used functions can be placed in scripts which are shared by multiple tests
• Technical support – this was gauged by our experiences when we had questions during the review process
• Competitive cost of the product and its licenses

Froglogic: What’s your favorite feature of Squish?

Shane: The debugger is excellent – when a breakpoint is encountered it is possible to see at that point in time the value of test specific variables and quickly get to the bottom of any problem with the logic of a test.

Froglogic: What is your most wanted feature wish for Squish?

Shane: Formatting and auto-completion of code e.g. in other IDEs when you type a function name and the opening bracket a prompt will appear indicating the parameters that must be passed to the function for that particular call. [Editor’s note: froglogic works on a highly improved IDE for Squish 4.0]

Froglogic: Are you satisfied with froglogic’s technical support service?

Shane: Yes. We have found froglogic to be very approachable and knowledgeable. The turnaround time for resolving issues is quite fast too.

Froglogic: What have been your biggest challenges in creating your automated GUI tests with Squish?

Shane: We were early adopters of Squish for Java so there were some teething problems there but I think our main challenge is that the GUIs we are testing are rather complex.

Froglogic: Where do you see the main benefit of automated testing? Shorter testing cycles, decreased use of human resource, better coverage, test reliability, and/or improved product quality?

Shane: We believe automated regression testing to be the quickest way to ensure that the introduction of new functionality has not broken existing core functionality of our GUIs. Where large tests involving many repetitive actions are concerned the automated test has to be considered more reliable too.

Froglogic: Do you use any other 3rd party or internal tools complementing your testing effort?

Shane: Yes for example we use internal Perl scripts to check a database at various points in our tests to validate the actions taking place on the GUI

Froglogic: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Shane: Squish has proved to be an excellent and popular replacement for the GUI automation tool which was used in previous automation campaigns.

Froglogic: Thank you, Shane, for your time!