Gift Cards for Testing Payment Processing
Do you have to test payment processing? Need to see what happens when I card is declined for being over the available credit limit? Try using a pre-paid VISA gift card. You can likely pick one up near you for $25, and it's easy to go over that limit and see what happens when the card is declined. It's also an easy way to use a "real" card without releasing your personal account information into the wild.
Since we're on the topic, if you're not also familiar with the test accounts that have been setup for each vendor, check those out as well. Your particular payment gateway may also have additional test numbers available.
Data generation on-the-fly
Today's tip comes from Trish Khoo.
In her post "Go faster! Linking data generation to hotkeys" she describes a handy and elegant way of linking data generating Ruby scripts to AutoHotKey.
Windows key + w = Generates 2 random words and copies them to my clipboard.
Windows key + e = Generates a randomized email address that will still point to my account and copies it to my clipboard.
Windows key + c = Randomly selects a URL from a list of test email campaigns and copies it to my clipboard.That’s everything I need to fill out most forms in the application I’m testing. So when I just need safe, unique inputs, I can save a few seconds on each screen while filling in forms. More importantly, I don’t have to break my focus in order to find or generate appropriate test data.
This is an automation of a special kind. The kind that assists in sapient testing.
Fake Name Generator
In a recent blog post, Erik Petersen mentioned using Fake Name Generator to create test data. From Erik's post:
"The fascinating feature is the ability to create real looking names from various ethnic groups, resulting in a great variety of Anglo-saxon, Arabic, Asian, Scandanavian, Southern, Eastern and Western European names with personal data that seems real (and with fake real email as well!).
On the Fake Name Generator site, they also link to some other cool test data tools.
Build folders with sample files
I've been working with a web application that uses an assortment of graphic file types. I've built a folder with at least a "one of each" file type the application works with. When I need a graphic file, I don't have to go scrambling to find the file of the type I want.
I keep the folder with my project work (on a backed up secure drive) but I also keep the sample graphic folder on a flash drive so that when I switch what computer I'm testing on (this happens frequently) it takes no effort to have my sample files on hand.
nice blog post on data types
This is also a good place to look up some min/max info on different data types. See: http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=355
sample excel files
Here's a link to some sample excel files I used this week when I was looking for sample excel files that had currency and dates fields.
http://www.chicopee.mec.edu/pages/Excel%20-%20PPoint%20workshop/Excel%20samples/excel_samples.htm
PerlClip
When I need quick test data of a specific pattern or specific number of characters, I use PerlClip. It can be very useful in generating different kinds of stressful inputs. PerlClip places prepared text into the Windows clipboard so you can paste it wherever you need it.
Verifiable.com
Got some data you need to graph? You can always use Excel, but you might also try a tool like verifiable.com. The site currently offers free tools for data visualization. While I don't know how long they will remain free, they are free now. The tool allows you to import data, display it, and re-chart it.
Using tables and graphs
When using tables and graphs of data test, check the following generic formatting points before you submit your results for review:
- Is it clear what data the table is showing? Does it have a clear caption?
- Do all columns contain headers? Is it clear what the data in that column represents?
- Are you showing enough significant digits in the data?
- Do the units of measure line up? Are they consistent across columns/tables as appropriate?
- Would the data be better shown as a graph? If there is a graph, is it clear that the data and graph are related?
- Do the graphs use the same terminology and units as the data? If not, is that made clear somehow?
- Does the graph contain too much data? Should it be broken out into multiple graphs to make it simpler to read or follow?
- How big is the resulting file where you've stored your tables and graphs? Is it too big to share using your standard method of delivery for information of this type?
Using random data generation
Data selection is the first step down the road of data-driven testing. You'll need to select the data that either drives the navigation of your application, represents the data that gets entered into your application, or both. One way to select data for testing is to use randomly generated data.
Many tools include test data generators. Random data generators can be especially helpful in generating large sets of customer data (depending on what you are testing and how much time you want to invest in the generation). For example, if you need to test for rounding errors on financial information, you can:
- Randomly generate a large set of data
- Run the data through your application
- Run it through the Windows calculator (assuming the Windows calculator has no rounding errors) simulating the same calculations
- Compare the results to make sure they match
If you need, for example, to generate a set of 500 different customer names and addresses, you can have a generator (Excel, WhitePages.com, Google Sets, and so on) create a table of names and addresses.
