World’s first dedicated test automation for Lotus Notes, Domino apps unveiled

TestDrive-Gold scores a first for out-of-the-box automated testing

Over the past twenty years Lotus Notes has grown one of the world’s largest user bases, supporting mission-critical applications for companies across the globe. But there has never been a dedicated resource for automated testing of these applications – until now. Original Software, Inc creators of some of the world’s most widely-used and innovative software testing solutions, has unveiled an enhanced version of TestDrive-Gold, a powerful automated testing solution that analyses Lotus Notes and Domino GUI screens at the object level and flags defects so developers can fix them before they confound end users.

'Double-digit revenue growth'

Since it acquired Lotus Development Corporation in July of 1995, IBM put Notes on the map by turning 2 million users worldwide into 200 million. The Lotus Notes and Domino family of products now includes IBM Lotus Workflow, Domino Document Manager, Domino, Notes, Domino Web Access, Access for Microsoft Outlook, Designer, Enterprise Integrator and Domino Express. Since 2003, the number of business partners, developers of third-party applications, systems integrators, and consultants that focus on Lotus products has also increased dramatically.

"IBM Lotus Notes and Domino had a strong 2004 where we acquired many new customers and grew the business," says Penny Scharfman, IBM Program Director for Lotus Domino Products. "We are not showing any signs of slowing down. We've just closed the books on the first quarter of 2005, in which Notes and Domino achieved double-digit revenue growth."

Lotus Notes-developed collaborative business applications improve mission-critical workflow processes. Says Colin Armitage, CEO of Original Software: “Loyalty to Notes applications runs high since they are often deeply rooted in daily business practices. Notes applications form the nucleus of many organizations. Yet prior to the release of TestGUI 4.0, no tool existed that was capable of genuinely testing these mission-critical applications ‘out-of-the-box.’”

New use for Accessibility controls

Microsoft's Accessibility controls were originally developed to help people with disabilities interact with computers through the use of things such as screen readers, Colin Armitage, Original Software's CEO, realised they had other uses, too.

"We discovered that it could be used to talk to the content of applications," Armitage says of the Accessibility controls. "With .NET, there is now a standard for every form of visual control, whether it's a text box or drop-down list box. Accessibility protects you from all that."

Armitage realised that Microsoft's Accessibility controls could be used to bring testing to a platform that was previously off-limits to automated testing tools. "Lotus Notes has supported Accessibility for some time," Armitage says, but "nobody has taken advantage of this."

Lotus Notes and Domino development shops can use TestDrive-Gold to streamline the QA process, testing new or modified applications developed in a .NET language or 4GL environment. The software connects with the screen components in three different ways, including Microsoft's Component Object Model (COM) and ActiveX technology, and traditional Windows classes - as well as Accessibility controls.

TestDrive-Goldprovides object and screen component interrogation, capture of object properties, screen input and events, and offers automatic verification of content against expected results. This information is displayed in a fully interactive and editable format that includes a clear, visual representation of the screen under test.

Additionally, TestDrive-Gold integrates with a range of databases including IBM DB2, Oracle, and Microsoft SQL Server.

Move welcomed by IBM

According to Doug Fulmer, Worldwide Sales Executive for the IBM iSeries e-Business Infrastructure, “One of the key areas for improvement in development shops as reflected in the IBM Developer Road Map is improving developer productivity. Clearly automated testing tools like TestDrive-Gold for Domino applications are on exactly the right path. It frees up valuable developer resource to do their main job - solving the company's business problems using I/T.”

In its strongest configuration, TestDrive-Gold integrates fully with Original Software’s TestBench for iSeries, the world’s leading automated testing solution for IBM’s widely-used midrange applications. TestBench can be used in conjunction with TestDrive-Gold to facilitate complete end to end testing of GUI applications, covering everything from the PC level to the back end interactive and batch processes that support GUI-based. This includes server process tracking, data extraction and maintenance, environment protection, central script and results storage, tracking and analysis of all related server activity, and much more.

System requirements for TestDrive-Gold include processor and memory normally needed for Notes or Domino applications, Microsoft Windows 95, 97, NT, or 2000/XP and Lotus Notes R4.x, R5 or R6.

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